I'm so curious to see what people post here.

I am currently on a gluten-free fast for 4 weeks to see if it is a good option for me.

No luck yet, but they say it takes about 3 weeks to see a difference.

I'll post again when I get my results.

Exactly. My doctor dismissed me when I mentioned it, but I've heard of the gf diet working wonders for others.

My first rheumatologist says that it's not proven, but that some people have relief from some symptoms from eating gluten-free. He didn't say it was a cure, or even that it would work for me. He said if you're interested, you might try it and see if it works for you at all.

I was diagnosed with RA in 2005. Full meds, the whole nine yards. it was horrible. in 2010 I stumbled across a book about curing fibromyalgia which I also have been told I have. In it was an elimination diet. So for two weeks I did the elimination diet. After 4 days, I felt like I did before I was diagnosed with RA. No pain. No aches. nothing. It was crazy. I slowly started adding stuff back in and found that when I eat gluten I start to loose muscle function. I've been gluten free for nearly two years now, and I'll never ever look back. Ive regained all that I lost in the 6 years between diagnosis and giving up gluten.

All I can say is give an elimination diet two weeks to find out if it affects you. It is SOOOOO worth every second of the difficulty of being gluten free. I will NEVER go back to eating gluten. period.

I also wonder how many people who achieve total remission via a GF diet are seronegative for RA, or which markers they have that are positive. My anti-CCPs are very high (>250) and suggest that I will never achieve remission, but what about someone who has joint swelling, pain, stiffness, elevated ESR and CRP, maybe a slightly high ANA at 1:80, but no other markers? Maybe their abnormal labs are due to something other than RA.

Let me first say that I think going GF will not hurt you so it's worth a try. I did try it and I saw no difference other than feeling a little less bloated. I found the diet to be hard to follow and expensive. I also noticed that since celiac's disease has gained more public attention and thus their diet, it seems like everyone swears they are gluten sensitive. It's become a fad, in my opinion. However, as stated above, it doesn't hurt to try! I've been tested for wheat and gluten sensitivities and came back negative. I've been told by Celiac sufferers that the only way to truly find out if you can't process gluten, is to have a small biopsy done on your intestine.

I've also not seen any medical research about diet eliminating symptoms of RA but I still think there are certain foods that every RA patient knows will make them feel awful. Too much salt, alcohol, and red meat made me feel yucky, for lack of a better term. A lot of people say that dairy causes inflammation. I think if you want to do an elimination diet, starting with dairy would be more practical and easier, as gluten is in so much stuff! Even vitamins can have gluten in it.

Thank you for the explanation and for sharing your experience. That definitely makes sense.

Hi all. I've had RA for 2 years and have, until recently, been successfully treated with Methotrexate. Lately, though, the side effects of Methotrexate are catching up to me, so at my latest Rheumy appt, she had me lower my dosage and schedule another appt in 4 weeks to talk about adding an additional DMARD. Up until that point I had been trying the "Mediterranean Diet' (whole grains, veggies, fish, little to no red meat, and no refined sugar) but, while I did lose some weight, there weren't any obvious improvements in my RA symptoms. After my appt, I decided to try one of the more "extreme" diets, at least for the interim between appointments -- I figured 4 weeks would be enough to see some kind of difference, plus I had blood work done at the last appt and will have it done again at the next, so I'd have more definitive proof to see if diet was affecting my overall inflammation levels. So I've been gluten-free vegan for the last two weeks, and will continue for the next two weeks til my next appointment. Gluten free hasn't been terribly hard nor expensive for me, but I don't buy any "processed" gluten-free food (gluten free bread or anything made to imitate something that has gluten). Basically it's brown rice and quinoa for me. So far, so good. I don't know, though, if it's because of the gluten-free, the lack of red meat, or the lack of dairy, but I do feel like my symptoms are better. I'll know more in a couple weeks when I get my blood work done.

More than anything, I think the gluten free vegan diet just requires a lot of planning -- I really have to think about my meals for the day to make sure I get all the vitamins and minerals, etc. that I need. But if it helps me lose weight (which I think will naturally help with RA symptoms, as well as a host of other things) and especially if it helps reduce my inflammation, I am all for it. I'll let you know what I find out.