Anti inflammatory diet

If u have food alergies is good to find out yeh or ney? Then u have a starting place. Keep a food journal.. That's very helpful. 

In most of the research I've read & all my doc advise that autoimmune diseases have very little to do with food...Arthritis, lupus, pmr...I have 2 hip joint replacements if food or diet could have stopped it I would have eaten anti inflam foods by the groves.

But that's just it antiinflam foods helps with the inflammation in the body!? 

In my experience it never really stopped my joints from swelling. Usually I depend more on meds they r more dependable and I can control the dose feel better. 

When eating anti inflam foods how much should we eat on a daily basis has always been a quandary..the results I'm not sure I ever see a difference. I eat them stay away from packaged foods pre made foods and eat whole foods, & stay away from the many foods we know now r bad for us..take all the supplements... I don't give up my chocolate though a lot of sugar is not good, too much of anything is not healthy..I try to use common sense and stay within a Healthy rage of foods that work for me. 

Like right now a bowl of Chocolate icecream is coming to mind! I'm not the best influence..that's for sure..

I was eating gluten-free at the time I developed PMR as I have an allergy to something in wheat and it causes a rash that gets to the open and weeping stage if I eat wheat every day. I have no doubt that it has something to do with the underlying autoimmune disorder - but I think it is effect not cause. Amongst the people on the forums I imagine we have tried every dietary thing you can think of. A few people have claimed they feel better on a diet omitting this or that or that this supplement helps - but no one seems to have had any greatly different journey with their PMR. A couple have tried extreme diet instead of pred - but don't appear to have achieved freedom from pain to an extent they could work. If you want to wait for a couple of years the autoimmine disorder may go into remission on its own - it may happen sooner, it may happen later - but you will be in pain and immobile in the meantime. I had mild PMR for 5 years with no medication, just aqua aerobics every morning and Pilates and yoga (very adapted) which enabled me to get moving. It wasn't out of choice, no one recognised what I had, and I never had a day without pain, ordinary pain killers did nothing for me. When I sat for more than a few minutes I could hardly move when I stood up for several minutes. Then it hit like a ton of bricks - I was housebound because I was stopped from driving whilst another suspected medical condition was investigated (and disproven, she hadn't listened in the first place so was chasing a red herring) and in constant pain. By the time I had got out of bed and got dressed I had to rest for an hour before even thinking about getting anything done. I couldn't get things out of even the bottom shelf of the cupboard. The first dose of 15mg pred was a miracle.

What works better than anything else in PMR is a steady but very slow reduction in the pred dose to find the lowest dose that manages the symptoms. That is what the doctors are meant to do - but too many tell patients to reduce in big steps, steps that are too big for most patients and they suffer from steroid withdrawal pain or miss the lowest dose that works and then they trigger a flare. A lot of us now think that most so-called flares aren't flares - they are just the result of reducing to fast. You won't necessarily reduce straight to zero - as long as the underlying autoimmune disorder is active you will need some pred to control the symptoms. And that is all the pred is doing - it has no effect on the real illness. As someone said the other day: when you have a cold you can inhale, take tablets and hot lemon drinks to soothe the symptoms. None of that stops you feeling a bit rubbish because of the underlying infection until it goes away. 

Eating a good diet will help there, not eating just because the pred makes you hungry and also cutting the amount of processed carbs you eat will help with that, and help you avoid both excessive weight gain and the risk of diabetes - both risks with pred but not everyone suffers and some weight gain is fluid retention from the pred. You can avoid the fat and you CAN lose weight while on pred - but it requires discipline.

I can't say that 

I included oily fish several times a week such as sardines (with bones - good for our bones), mackerel, salmon, and trout.  I also added lots of beetroot, avocado, garlic and turmeric.  I included lots of known diuretic type foods such as asparagus, garlic, fennel and melon.  

I reduced or gave up refined carbs where possible, including white bread, white potatoes (substituted with sweet potatoes) and parsnips.  These foods turn to sugar in our bodies which can increase steroid-induced weight gain and could add to the risk of steroid-induced diabets.  I avoided all processed meats, coffee sugar and alcohol.

To answer your question, I can't state categorically that "it will help with PMR in conjunction with the pred ie. helping the prednisolone to work quicker and preventing flare ups at a later date."  What I can say is that following this type of diet eased my pain along the way, for instance if I missed out on my oily fish for any length of time I would notice returning pain.

A dietitian  gave a talk at one of our PMR support group meetings and she mentioned that although diet control is not as good as steroids for reducing inflammation, it can protect against heart disease and help reduce certain types of inflammation, and a Mediterranean-type diet was recommended.

My ears picked up when she said that phytonutrients in plants, predominantly flavonoids, are also anti-inflammatory substances and among the foods these are found in is 70% dark chocolate!

I'm sure that if there was "a link to food sensitivities/allergies and these inflammatory diseases", we would have heard about it by now.  $800!  Save your money.......I'd rather spend it on chocolate!