# Vegan Diet Alleviates Fibromyalgia Symptoms



## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Scand J Rheumatol 2000;29(5):308-13Vegan diet alleviates fibromyalgia symptoms.Kaartinen K, Lammi K, Hypen M, Nenonen M, Hanninen O, Rauma AL.Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland. hietanen.kaartinen###pp.inet.fiThe effect of a strict, low-salt, uncooked vegan diet rich in lactobacteria on symptoms in 18 fibromyalgia patients during and after a 3-month intervention period in an open, non-randomized controlled study was evaluated. As control 15 patients continued their omnivorous diet. The groups did not differ significantly from each other in the beginning of the study in any other parameters except in pain and urine sodium. The results revealed significant improvements in Visual analogue scale of pain (VAS) (p=0.005), joint stiffness (p=0.001), quality of sleep (p=0.0001), Health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) (p=0.031), General health questionnaire (GHQ) (p=0.021), and a rheumatologist's own questionnaire (p=0.038). The majority of patients were overweight to some extent at the beginning of the study and shifting to a vegan food caused a significant reduction in body mass index (BMI) (p=0.0001). Total serum cholesterol showed a statistically significant lowering (p=0.003). Urine sodium dropped to 1/3 of the beginning values (p=0.0001) indicating good diet compliance. It can be concluded that vegan diet had beneficial effects on fibromyalgia symptoms at least in the short run.Publication Types: Clinical trial Controlled clinical trial PMID: 11093597 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ------------------MNL_________________ www.leapallergy.com


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## KateyKat (Jan 4, 2001)

'Nuther nice one Mike.Wonder if the key factor here is the 'raw' food not the vegan bit. And of course there's the Q of whether the fruit/veggies were organic or chemically grown ...But we have after all developed as omnivores not vegetarian and have apparently learned to digest cooked food tho its hard to call modern junk food that can sustain life.Its possible the questions raised in your earlier post might also play a part in the health/sickness equation. BTW Katey's Kats are carnivores - raw ones at that, tho sadly not fully organic .. yet. Only tidbits of cooked KatFood in this house and they thrive on it.KKat


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## atp (Jan 18, 2001)

I can't help but wonder what about a vegan diet helped. No animal products whatsoever, the absence of meat, the fact that a vegan is more likely to eat healthfully than your average person, the extra fruits and veggies, the lack of milk, which so many people have some degree of intolerance of, etc.I'm always happy to see support for vegetarian diets of any kind, but I'd like to see them identify what about the vegan diet helped. And have they attempted to see if a diet that is simply meat-free helps? How about dairy-free? etc.


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Yeah this is one of those good-news-bad-news reports, just like some of Knikers recent work in autism and dietary manipulation. No tool was used to identifiy what each particular subject was reactive too (was it the food itself or a chemical in the food or a pesticide on the food or a hormone in the cow etc).What it does show, however, is what Brostoff and Pasula and Kniker and Fell and Ballanti the others like them have been spouting off about for 30 years until they are near the ends of their practical careers: "The food supply has been polluted in so many whys in to such a degree by various cheical modifications of all kinds (enough that Americans now ingest 30 TIMES the amount of chemicals we did 40 years ago) that the immune system of much of the population is unable to fully adapt that quickly to this increasing toxin load.This is producing a toxin-induced -disruption of the normal oral tolerance and adptive functions in more and more of the population and the symptom sets by which this manifests itself (chronic bowel problems of indeterminate etiology, fatigue, migraine, arthralgic syndromes, environmental sensitivities) are becoming more prevalent in the population."We do not respond in our blind ignorance as the very things we would have to respond to are woven into the fabric of our desires-of-the-palate and our economies!Thats it in a nutshell.....So if we used the most current immunologic testing and other assessments of fluid compartments (intralumenal, plasma) on these patients before hand, and got a profile of what it was each was reacting to, then you could be specific.I assure you it is a mixed bag, and the vegan diet is successful on the basis of pure statistical probabilities. Remove nough stuff and you are boudn to avoid enough provocaton in most of the subjects that measurable clinical response can be assessed.Eat well. Think well. Be well. Throw the processed foods DOWN the well.MNL_____________ www.leapallergy.com


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## me3 (Jul 21, 2000)

The "uncooked" is a puzzle. Why would that be a solution?atp, to what extent "meat-free" is a complex question. My daughter eats no animal derived products including chemicals, additives, etc. For example, even the so-called vegan/vegetarian cheeses contain Casein which is a milk derived product. Check out http://animal-ingredients.hypermart.net/index.htm But eliminating this stuff from your diet means you are eating a lot healthier. I know when I follow her eating habits, it usually keeps my IBS in check better.[This message has been edited by me3 (edited 07-01-2001).]


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

ME3:That requires further investigation (the uncooked part)to determine relevance or artifcat. And how cooked and to what extent. All organic substances are altered by heat, esp. enough to cook them...thats why cooked food is different than uncooked food. In some cases the differnece, in food reactive people, is the difference made by "coking" something. The cellular response, as explained to me by an immunologist, may be different to substances altered by cooking depending upon the specific alteration...such as when the proteins are changed.We see this most obviously in dairy products, where processing from the whole milk source to one of the end products can alter structure, and then the introduction of heat can alter the milk fraction structure so a person neutral to milk becomes reactive to a by product.MNL______________ www.leapallergy.com


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## me3 (Jul 21, 2000)

Thanks Mike for the clarification. I did see something on the news locally (Vancouver, B.C.) a while ago about a group of fibromyalgia patients that were fed a "juice cocktail" over a period of time and it was found to reduce symptoms. I can't find the reference though. Sorry.


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Juice cocktail? Send me an email asking me to find this so i remember and I promose to check it out as soon as I get the time. That is curious...MNL


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