Fasting followed by a plant-based diet and a standard diet both positively affected rheumatoid arthritis disease activity and cardiovascular risk factors, without discernible differences.
In this research, 53 rheumatoid arthritis patients were divided into two equal groups. One group underwent a 7-day fast and thereafter followed an 11-week plant-based diet. The second group adhered to a 12-week standard diet based on the dietary recommendations of the German society for nutrition. The main metric of comparison between the two groups was the change from baseline to 12 weeks on the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index.
The research showed that the fasting group noted an early improvement by day 7 and remained stable over 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the standard diet group showed slower but positive enhancements at 6 and 12 weeks. Furthermore, both dietary methods contributed to an improvement in disease activity scores of all the patients by week 12. Also, an advancement in cardiovascular risk factors, notably weight loss, was more prominent in the fasting group than the standard diet group.
