Reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms by eating more fish

People with rheumatoid arthritis may be able to experience some relief of physical symptoms of the disease by eating more fish, says a new study in Arthritis Care & Research.

A research team asked 176 people with rheumatoid arthritis to complete a questionnaire assessing their usual diet over the past year, in order to work out how much fish they were eating.

Results suggested that people who ate fish two or more times a week experienced lower disease activity levels than those who never ate fish, or did so less than once a month.

And the association seems to be graded, so the more servings of fish, the lower the levels of disease activity.

“If our finding holds up in other studies, it suggests that fish consumption may lower inflammation related to rheumatoid arthritis disease activity,” explains lead author Dr Sara Tedeschi. “Fish consumption has been noted to have many beneficial health effects, and our findings may give patients with rheumatoid arthritis a strong reason to increase fish consumption.”

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