Vegan Diets Reduce Arthritis Pain

Vegan diets improve joint pain and other symptoms from rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study published by Physicians Committee researchers in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. Forty-four participants diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis followed a vegan diet or took a placebo with no diet change for 16 weeks, then switched places after a four-week washout phase. The diet group also eliminated common pain-trigger foods and reintroduced those foods one-by-one over the next nine weeks to assess participants’ reactions. Joint pain, the number of painful joints, and pain severity improved more in the diet group than in the placebo group. These results support similar findings between plant-based diets and improved arthritis symptoms.