A high fibre diet of bread and beans can successfully tackle gout, an inflammatory arthritis, disease with sudden onset of acute pain, redness and swelling in peripheral joints, most commonly in the big toe. This latest development is the result of findings by a group of experts who revealed this week, that a diet high in fibre, such as beans, wholemeal bread, rice and jacket potatoes, can also cut arthritis pain.
The team of researchers from the University of Minas Gerais in Brazil found that diets high in fibre trigger microorganisms in the gut to produce fatty acids, which cut inflammation linked to gout and arthritis.found that high fibre diets reduce inflammation caused by gout, severely reducing pain. Gout is a common cause of inflammatory joint disease in pensioners and men over 40 years old. It is an inflammatory arthritis triggered by a crystallised uric acid within the joints that causes severe pain and swelling.
The condition is often mistakenly believed to be caused by drinking too much red wine, with older, over-weight men most at risk. While treatments are available, gout patients are often hit by recurring gout attacks, prompting patients and doctors to investigate other preventive options.
The findings, published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, shows that a common high-fibre diet like bread and beans, likely inhibits gout-related inflammation caused by monosodium urate crystals, and have important implications for the treatment of gout, and possibly for the treatment of arthritis. According to Dr Mauro Teixeira, a researcher from the Immunopharmacology Group in the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil: By understanding the way foods interact with living organisms, we may be able to create diets that help people with the disease, as well as their health overall.” ‘By understanding the way foods interact with living organisms, we may be able to create diets that help people with the disease, as well as their health overall.
To make their discovery, scientists used a high-fibre diet and treatment with fatty acids to prevent inflammation associated with the injection of crystals in the knees of mice. Laboratory experiments showed that this not only reduced inflammation but also boosted the production of anti-inflammation compounds in the knee joint, preventing further knee damage and dysfunction. “We are seeing an explosion in our understanding of how microbial communities in our intestines and elsewhere influence multiple aspects of immune and metabolic health,” said Dr John Wherry, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. ‘This work is a good example of how tuning of inflammatory circuits by linking diet to microbial products can have a profound effect on an inflammatory disease in the joints.
Future work may allow such findings to be translated into practical treatments for gout and other diseases.
Source: WWWN, HWN AFRICA.
: 2017-01-21 15:09:12 | : 1949