Let Food Be Thy Medicine: The Case of The Mediterranean Diet in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Paraskevi Vranou; Athanasios Gkoutzourelas; Dorothea Athanatou; Efterpi Zafiriou; Maria G Grammatikopoulou; Dimitrios P Bogdanos

doi:10.31138/mjr.31.3.325

Let Food Be Thy Medicine: The Case of The Mediterranean Diet in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Mediterr J Rheumatol. 2020 Sep 30;31(3):325-329. doi: 10.31138/mjr.31.3.325. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Paraskevi Vranou¹, Athanasios Gkoutzourelas¹, Dorothea Athanatou¹, Efterpi Zafiriou², Maria G Grammatikopoulou^{1

3}, Dimitrios P Bogdanos¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece.
² Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece.
³ Department of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, International Hellenic University, Alexander Campus, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

The role of diet in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been the topic of extensive research. The present review aimed to present and appraise the studies assessing adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the primary/secondary prevention of rheumatoid arthritis. Based on the available studies, the evidence appears low and adherence to the MD does not appear to affect RA indices.

Keywords: DAS28; DHA; EPA; NSAID; anti-inflammatory nutrition; dietary supplements; docosahexaenoic acid; eicosatetraenoic acid; fish oil; marine oil; omega-3; rheumatoid disease.

Publication types

Review