A study indicates that people suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis can benefit greatly by consuming fish at least twice in a week. It was proven that eating fish reduces the pain and swelling suffered by people with rheumatoid arthritis. The results also point toward the fact that fish have anti-inflammatory qualities.
Fish consumption and rheumatoid arthritis
The study was undertaken by lead researcher Sara Tedeschi and her team of scientists from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical school. The study took into consideration the data collected from 176 patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis as part of a previous study.
During the previous research, these people were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their food frequency.
Based on the answers provided in the questionnaires, scientists were able to understand and analyze the Fish Consumption rate of each of the members. They divided the participants into four groups based on the amount of fish that they incorporated in their diet. These groups were never to less than once in a month, once per month to less than once every week, once per week, and twice or more per week. The researchers then used a co-linear model to plot the graph of the severity of rheumatoid arthritis in each compared to the amount of fish consumed.
The results of the study
In general, the graph revealed an average score of 3.5 in a scale ranging from 2.9 to 4.3.
However, those who consumed fish had 0.49 lower score when compared to the others who did not have fish or else seldom consumed it. This is a significant amount of reduction in the symptom levels. Those people who consumed fish more than twice per week showed an additional 0.18 drop in their scores.
These results prove, said scientists, that fish consumption led to the reduction of the symptomatic pain arising from rheumatoid arthritis.
However, further studies need to be performed to determine if consumption of fish reduced the pain due to anti-inflammatory properties or because of some other reason.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease which is caused when a person’s immune system starts attacking their own joints. These attacks cause painful inflammation and swelling in the joints throughout the body.
However, the disease is known to mainly affect the wrist area of arms. After prolonged periods of suffering, the cartilage in the joints is broken down, leading to issues while moving and also physical deformities.
Currently, there is no known cure for rheumatoid arthritis, however maintaining a proper diet and following medication routines can keep the disease in check for a certain amount of time. There are over 1.5 million people in the U.S. alone who are suffering from this painful disease.
