There is a lot of controversy surrounding tire elimination diet - mainly around how successful it is. Dr Gail Darlington, a rheumatologist, at Epsom General Hospital in Surrey, believes that a sub group of people who try dietary therapy for rheumatoid arthritis show improvement. She has been using elimination diets for more than 15 years, beginning in 1986 with a rigorous scientific study. For about 36 per cent of people in the study, the improvement was very good and many were able to give up drugs for prolonged periods. The study also found that the diet produced less pain, fewer inflamed joints, greater grip strength and a shorter period of morning stiffness.
Dietary elimination involves removing food which causes symptoms from the diet.
Elimination Remove from the diet virtually all foods, which may cause symptoms, to see if the symptoms improve. If symptoms disappear during the first phases, you can then reintroduce foods, one at a time, to find out which ones produce symptoms. If you are at all overweight the simplest way to use diet to improve your condition is to lose a few pounds. Obesity increases the risk of osteoarthritis of the knee in women and also of the hands, and possibly of the hips. A healthy diet, combined with regular exercise, is recommended to burn unwanted calories and promote general good health and well being.