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I need to find a diet that is low in inflamation

Posted , 11 users are following.

sandra28555
sandra28555

Dose anyone have any information on diets that are low in bringing inflammation to our body's. Could I use that type of diet to avoid having to take higher doses of prednisone? I hope you understand what I mean.

0 likes, 19 replies

19 Replies

  • FlipDover_Aust
    FlipDover_Aust sandra28555

    Posted

    I'd love to tell you that an AIP 'diet' will bring down your inflammation, but I can't.

     It MAY help your body stop fighthing what you are eating as well as fighing the PMR/GCA inflammation. In that regard it will 'help', less stress on your body. That said, some people claim that they can 'cure' autoimmune diseases through diet - including MS and the like.

    I follow the AIP 'diet' because it helps my brain fog, and I feel better. But that may have more to do with the fact I'm only eating fresh fruit, meat and veggies - nothing else.

    The only thing that will help you lower your dose of pred is another serious drug called Methotrexate - and you are way too early on in your 'journey' to be considering it. 

    • diana21296
      diana21296 FlipDover_Aust

      Posted

      I thought that red meat was inflammatory but chicken and oily fish was better?   My cousin has rheumatoid arthritits and never eats red meat as it makes his syptoms worse.
  • Daniel1143
    Daniel1143 sandra28555

    Posted

    I,too, have changed my diet dramatically. Gluten free, no salt or sugar. Lots if anti inflammatory foods like avocado and tart cherry juice. Ain't done a thing for PMR but I feel better

    By the way, be wary of methotrexate

    • julian.
      julian. Daniel1143

      Posted

      luv it,

      I stopped eating chocolate biscuits, which hasn't done much for the pmr and I don't feel better ...... bah humbug,

      but on a serious note, the healthy heart stuff has a lot in common with non-inflammatory.

      Somewhere on this forum is mention of an inflammation index for foods. Full info is behind a paywall.

    • EileenH
      EileenH julian.

      Posted

      Which healthy heart stuff? The low fat version that has been accompanied by an increase in obesity and is now being shown to be very flawed?
  • EileenH
    EileenH sandra28555

    Posted

    Everyone is different and some people find omitting or including various foods makes them feel better. I have tried not eating nightshade vegetables - made no difference except it reduced my choice of food. I was already eating gluten-free when PMR struck (I'm allergic to something in highly commercialised hard wheat) and now eat gluten in other grains -  makes no difference. I've left out alcohol, dairy - no difference.

    The only thing that has made a difference is removing sugar and processed carbs almost entirely - and I have lost weight. Others have found they didn't put on weight by doing that.

    One lady eats oily fish 3 times a week and includes turmeric and garlic when cooking - if she misses it she can feel the difference. It is worth experimenting with food - but there is no diet that will cure PMR nor that is guaranteed to reduce the dose of pred you need.

    Flip mentions methotrexate - it has worked for her but there is also no evidence, either scientific or from what I have seen on the forums over the last 7 years, that it will always achieve a lower dose of pred in PMR. It may in some people but not in others. Some people may not have PMR but an inflammatory arthritis that appears the same as PMR but it is impossiblet to tell the difference just on symptoms - then methotrexate may work. If it worked reliably in PMR then it would be used for everyone instead of pred - it isn't.

  • mphooey
    mphooey sandra28555

    Posted

    I went to alternative medicine doctors and they prescribed some very severe restricted diets. No red meat, no dairy, no nightshade veggies, No soda, no wheat products of any kind. I went on this diet maybe 90%. I didn't give up fat free milk in my coffee.

    There was no change in my condition (PMR) but I did lose weight. I felt good about that, but I didn't feel good psychologically because this diet was dictated as "you can't have this". Also it forced me to food shop and cook every day, something I truly hate doing.

    I'm off the diet but I still make some of the foods I had before. It's much better to choose what not to eat rather than feel restricted.

    I still have whatever I had before but it's settled in my knees. I'm on mTX and take a humira injection.

  • Anhaga
    Anhaga sandra28555

    Posted

    A few years ago I decided that we would try to "eat a rainbow" on our plate.  It didn't stop me from getting pmr, mind you, but since pmr I've got rid of nearly all the "beige food" and increased the variety of beautiful bright colours.  I feel pretty good when I line up at the checkout and my cart is full of organically grown vegetables and fruit, milk, kefir, nuts, seeds.  I don't eat meat and not enough fish (that is a political or environmental choice, I'd like to eat more fish) and since pred I eat quinoa, whole rice, very little bread or corn (maize) products.  We'll all do better if all we do is eliminate prepackaged goods with incomprehensible ingredients,  cut back on sugars and simple grain based carbs, and replace as much as we can with a wide range of unadulterated whole foods.  Unless other health problems require it, following too strict or unusual a diet simply won't work in the long run.  

    Some people think buying organic foods is too expensive.  For us, eliminating meat (hubby still eats meat but only a couple of times a week) has also eliminated an expensive food so that balances out the premium we still pay for "organic" produce.  And a cup of dried beans is practically free, considering how far it goes.  So it's not an expensive way to eat.

  • reggie92967
    reggie92967 sandra28555

    Posted

    I heard that low carb. diets always the best, that's what my docs. promote, but I crave high carb. foods. My appetite has gone through the roof since prednisonem I'm heavier, higher weight than ever in my life, terrible high blood pressure now too, it was always perfect. My SED rate is low, 11 as of labs yesterday, but still much pain, throbbing, stiffness, fatigue, lack of energy. Heard others having good SED, CRP #'s but still bad PMR symptoms ????
    • EileenH
      EileenH reggie92967

      Posted

      Two points: when on pred some people's blood markers are unreliable, the symptoms are ALWAYS king.

      Is it PMR causing it? If so, you need a higher dose of pred. If that doesn't help - then further investigation is required. PMR is the outward expression of an underlying problem. It maybe the one we discuss here - or it could be something else that mimics PMR, there are several.

      Have you had your vit D level checked? If it is low then it can result in symptoms just like PMR. Fibromyalgia overlaps a lot. And myofascial pain syndrome does as well.

      If you cut your carbs - drastically - it should improve your craving for high carb foods. Craving specific foods is said by many alternative practitioners to be a sign that they are bad for your body. Certainly, many people find that sugar and other refined carbs make their PMR symptoms worse. It takes discipline I know - but when you feel better it is easier to stick to it. Especially after some weeks when you eat "forbidden fruit" and suffer for it - a salutory reminder.

    • reggie92967
      reggie92967 EileenH

      Posted

      Thanks Eileen, I was put up to 40mg. from 14mg. Weds. not much change yet. I do have a primary disease, Waldenstrom's Macroglobulianemia, (WM), a very rare, blood cancer, 3-per million people diag. a year in U.S. are current stats. I've been on an oral daily drug FDA approved just 3-yrs. ago, Ibrutinib. It's been phenomenal in treating my WM, 1rst released after trials were so successful for certain leukemias, CLL. A year ago FDA officially approved it for treating WM. My Onc. was ahead of the game & started me on the drug 2-yrs. ago. My #'s that are affected by the WM are back to almost normal. So, my wonderful Onc. /Hemotologist referred me to a great, quite famous Rheumatologist at Rush Univ. Hosp./Chic. where I also see her. She felt something else was going on along with the WM causing the severe fatigue, weakness, soreness, pain, stiffness etc. because my WM was so controlled with the new oral chemo. drug, & #'s so improved. Thus, I got the PMR diag. last July. But, long term side-effects of the oral chemo. drug are not known of course, being so new. I feel the PMR symptons are enhanced by having the WM & also maybe side-effects of the Ibrutinib drug. All I know is when I 1rst started prednisone 10mg. last July 2nd, within days I felt like superman, doing everything I used to do years before. I felt like my body had been reborn & I was a 20's, 30's-something again instead of 60, since playing with dosage, increases, decreases, crashes, flares, I've never had that great relief since. Thanks, Reggie
  • sandra28555
    sandra28555

    Posted

    I am still researching the food that would reduce the flares. One day I can feel reasonably good but the next day I feel like I am on fire. Just don't understand this stuff. It is still vital that I am on a strict low sodium diet to stop the water from building up in my legs from this CHF. 
    • iellen32
      iellen32 sandra28555

      Posted

      As you I am tired of flare ups - everytime I follow the templates given by my Rheumy as he does the tapering too fast for my system. I follow an anti-inflammatory diet. avoid red meat, relaplacing for salmon - frozen when out of season as now, chicken. I cook without salt, replacing for herbs instead, etc etc

      My markers are low however some days I feel my symptom - the feeling of pressure over the left eye and the orbital area - never had a headache though, neither scalp sensitivity.

      Decided now to take the tapering into my hands- slowly, slowly ....

      Keep safe

      🌺

    • EileenH
      EileenH sandra28555

      Posted

      It is all too easy to feel good one day and do too much - then you feel rubbish the next. You have to do your part in managing your symptoms - your body remains intolerant of acute exercise - you have to know your limits and stick to them.And rest appropriately in between.
    • FlipDover_Aust
      FlipDover_Aust sandra28555

      Posted

      Sandra, what we eat can effect us for days, if not weeks - so do not think that what you've eaten the day before is necessarily responsible for how you feel - if at all! (remember, you have an unpredictable illness that has not read the text book)

      If you have an intollerance for a particular food it will take weeks/months to clear your body of reactions to it. 

      Emis Moderator comment: I have removed product/company names as we do not allow repeated posting of these in the forums. If users wish to exchange these details please use the Private Message service.

      http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398331-private-messages

    • iellen32
      iellen32 EileenH

      Posted

      Oh, Eileen , you are so right !!!

      The unbelievable is when we already learned the tapering lesson and once again we follow  our rheumy suggestion and 'jump' from Pred 24mg to 20mg knowing from experience it does'n't agree with my system!

      i am feeling so stupid about myself today for having done so!

      Sometimes just venting the frustration brings some kind of help...

      Thank you so much,  Eileen, for the many times  I read and learn through your posts.

      🌺

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