The role of meat in the expression of rheumatoid arthritis.

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Br J Nutr 2000 Nov;84(5):589-95

The role of meat in the expression of rheumatoid arthritis.

Grant WB.

wbgrant@...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by inflammation of the

synovial tissues in the joints. A number of papers related to

dietary components that are associated with this inflammation are

reviewed. In addition, the ecological approach is used to study the

links between diet and RA. Multi-country data for prevalence of RA

for females from eight and fifteen countries were compared

statistically with components of national dietary supply. Fat from

meat and offal for the period 2 years before the prevalence data was

found to have the highest statistical association with the

prevalence of RA (r(2) 0.877, P<0.001 for eight countries). The

statistical correlations for meat and offal were almost as high as

those for their fat. Similar correlations were found for temporal

changes in indices of effects of RA in several European countries

between 1968 and 1978 as more meat was added to the national diets,

although the correlations were higher for meat than for fat. It is

hypothesized that meat and offal may be a major factor contributing

to the inflammation in RA. In the present short review, the author

examines some of the data that associate meat consumption with RA

and the possible factors, e.g. fat, Fe and nitrite, which may

contribute to the inflammation.

Publication Types:

* Review

* Review Literature

PMID: 11177171 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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