A healthy lifestyle, like medication, can reduce symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis patients in the long term, according to a team of researchers.
- A new study shows that a healthy lifestyle can reduce the symptoms of the disease and improve patients’ daily lives.
- A whole-food plant-based diet, a physical activity program and stress management sessions: these types of interventions over several months allowed “significant reductions in the disease activity score”, much more than usual treatments.
- “Long-term results showed that improvement was maintained for two years after the intervention ended, while on average medication was reduced slightly.”
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that initially manifests itself most often by painful stiffness and swelling of the joints, usually in the wrists, hands and fingers. Some 300,000 people are affected in France. Current treatments, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, do not provide a cure, only remission or relief of symptoms.
But it’s not just drugs: a new studypresented at the annual congress of the European Alliance of Rheumatology Societies (Eular) in Vienna, Austria, highlights that lifestyle changes can also reduce symptoms of the disease and improve patients’ daily lives.
Four months of plant-based diet, exercise and stress management
In a 16-week randomized controlled trial, researchers examined the effects of a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention in 77 patients with RA compared with conventional care. The experimental program included a whole-food plant-based diet, a physical activity program, and stress management sessions.
To estimate the benefit, the scientists used the DAS28, a disease activity score that takes into account the number of tender and swollen joints, a numerical assessment of the pain felt by the patient, as well as the sedimentation rate as a marker of inflammation. As expected, the scientists found that the four months of a plant-based diet, exercise and stress management helped “significantly reduce the disease activity score”more than usual treatments alone, according to a communicated.
Long-term reduction in rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
The team of researchers wanted to go further by evaluating, over the long term, the effects of lifestyle on RA symptoms. The majority of participants (62%) were therefore followed for two years, during which they were invited to follow a protocol and to try to reduce their rheumatism medications.
“Long-term results showed that the improvement in DAS28 was maintained for two years after the end of the intervention, while on average, treatments were slightly reduced.” In detail, 44% of patients who were followed up until the end of the trial were able to reduce or even stop their anti-rheumatic drugs, while 26% took the same as before and 31% had increased the doses. “A radical change in lifestyle can be effective in the long term to relieve people with rheumatoid arthritis”conclude the authors of the study.