Scientists from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found a low-fat vegan diet, without calorie restrictions, improves joint pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
The participants also experienced weight loss and improved cholesterol levels.
The research is published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine and was conducted by Neal Barnard et al.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a common autoimmune disease that typically causes joint pain, swelling, and eventually permanent joint damage.
In the study, participants were tested for their rheumatoid arthritis severity. They were assigned to one of two groups for 16 weeks.
The first group followed a vegan diet for four weeks, with the elimination of additional foods for three weeks, then reintroduction of the eliminated foods individually over nine weeks.
No meals were provided, and participants handled their own food preparation and purchases, with guidance from the research team.
The second group followed an unrestricted diet but were asked to take a daily placebo capsule, which had no effect in the study. Then the groups switched diets for 16 weeks.
The team found during the study, that rheumatoid arthritis severity decreased 2 points on average, indicating a greater reduction in joint pain, compared to a decrease of 0.3 points in the placebo phase.
The average number of swollen joints decreased from 7.0 to 3.3 in the vegan phase, while that number actually increased from 4.7 to 5 in the placebo phase.
For those who completed the study, arthritis pain ratings also improved significantly in the vegan phase, compared with the placebo phase.
In addition to reductions in pain and swelling, body weight decreased by about 14 pounds on average on the vegan diet, compared with a gain of about 2 pounds on the placebo diet.
There were also greater reductions in total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol during the vegan phase.
The team says a plant-based diet could be the prescription to alleviate joint pain for millions of people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. And all of the side effects, including weight loss and lower cholesterol, are only beneficial.
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