What nutrition or dietary changes have you made to manage AxSpA?
Share with the community nutritional or dietary changes you've made since your axial spondyloarthritis diagnosis. Have you found recipes that have helped you feel better while managing AxSpA? Consider sharing below, or in our ongoing recipe exchange!
I got tested and now I avoid about 30 food items, the most important being eggs, cow milk products, rye, barley, soja, tuna fish,... it has helped me a lot reduce the inflammation and the evening nausea has gone. It has been almost 5 years.
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Wow, that's incredible. I'm glad you are noticing a difference.
Was it a difficult transition to eliminate these 30 food items?
~Doreen (Team Member)it was a bit difficult as I lived in a country where I did not fully speak the language so it was not easy to read the ingredients. But way faster than elimination diet!
Not aware diet could help!
Dieting can definitely play a supportive role in managing AxSpa. I'd like to think a healthy diet is critical in our health journey no matter what. There isn't necessarily a particular diet that helps with AxSpa, some people do report fewer flares and less inflammation by making certain dietary changes. Here's an article that talks about how diet changes help to improve one of our contributors symptoms- https://axialspondyloarthritis.net/living/diet-changes. Hopeful it will be insightful and informative to you and give you something to think about! If you have any questions after reading, please feel free to reach out! All the best, Latoya (Team Member) ,
Many in this community have benefitted from dietary adjustments.
Whether it be removing gluten, eliminating processed foods, or following an anti-inflammatory diet, there are numerous options to help reduce inflammation (and hopefully feel better).
You may want to discuss with your healthcare provider what may be best for you.
In the meantime, I'm including an additional article you may find interesting: https://axialspondyloarthritis.net/living/diet-changes-help
~Doreen (Team Member)
I started the AIP diet in 2015 because of MS. I have been on it since. When I was dx with AS, my rheumatologist recommended I go completly go off nightshades and it really helped my pain. Any time I test to see if I still react to nightshades, I wind up with increased pain! I Used the book "The Healing Kitchen" because it had recipes, meal plans and shopping lists. I have altered many recipes to fit AIP, and once you figure out what foods to avoid, it's easy to stick to the diet. Also the internet has many AIP recipes.
I have eliminated gluten and it took about 3 months to feel that not eating gluten gave me more energy and less pain.
It seems like you've made significant changes to your diet and lifestyle, and they've had a positive impact on your well-being. Thank you for sharing your journey toward adopting the AIP diet; it's valuable insight into the steps you've taken to improve your health.Over the years (since diagnosis) I have been trying to shift my diet over to AIP but have failed miserably. Thanks for the name of the book you used. I found it on Amazon, and it is low cost. I think I failed so miserably because I didn't have recipes and/or meal plans. I too am off of nightshades - no peppers and eggplant. But my downfall is tomatoes. I rarely eat potatoes and haven't really noticed the increased pain following consumption. I hope you continue to have positive outcomes with the AIP diet. Any favorite recipes you care to share? Hoping your day, week and month is happy and healthy. Rebecca (community moderator)
Ha...diet, yes vast and interesting question! And I haven't found a simple answer yet.
My PhD was on nutrition and neurosciences, and I loved my studies! But let's be honest, it's hard to study that as nutrition is a field in constant evolution and regression. I say regression as things supposed to be bad for you when I was kid (like eggs?!) are now good for you, or the other way around. I find it confusing, and although I am definitively interesting in looking at diet and make some changes to feel better, I don't know what source of information to trust. Talking to people with AxSpa, it seems we all find things that work for us somehow, and that's good.
I did see a dietitian as some point because I had IBS symptoms. I did the FODMAP diet and I felt a lot more energy and better digestion on it. But this diet is too restrictive so you can't keep it up long-term. It was more to identify food that might trigger some symptoms, and the answer is not crystal clear. So I stay in my confusion about what can make a difference. What I do is I cut gluten where I can, because too much is not good for me, not much alcohol, and I don't eat much sweet things in general.
Now I am more intrigued about the studies on microbiome coming up. I am tempted to do a gut health reset diet. Maybe I believe more in that approach, a way to cleanse my guts and see what long-term effect it can have? I haven't' tried yet but I have found people who swear by it!
If anyone has tried one of these gut health diet, let me know! Thanks 😀
