Effects of intermittent fasting diet in overweight and obese postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Background and objective

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in the category of rheumatic diseases, is an autoimmune illness that affects joints and other parts of suffered patients. Intermittent fasting (IF) is a dietary pattern that has had beneficial impacts on several populations. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) hypothesized that IF can improve quality of life, clinical symptoms, inflammation, and oxidative stress in overweight and obese postmenopausal women with RA.

Method

This study was a controlled, parallel-group superiority design in which 44 overweight and obese postmenopausal women with RA were randomly allocated to receive either IF (n = 22) or the usual diet (n = 22) for 8 weeks. The intervention group received 16/8 IF, and the control group received the typical diet for 8 weeks. The primary outcome was the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (HAQ-DI) questionnaire score. The secondary outcomes included body mass index (BMI) and morning joint stiffness (MS) and biochemical indicators, including serum concentrations of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), high sensitive c-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and total oxidant and antioxidant capacity (TOC and TAC), and oxidative stress index (OSI), and interleukin 6 (IL-6) were assessed at the baseline and end of the study. Disease severity was assessed using the Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28) and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI).

Results

The IF diet significantly improved BMI, DAS-28, CDAI, and HAQ (p-value<0.05 for all). However, there were no significant effects on the other study outcomes.

Conclusion

IF has beneficial effects on some outcomes related to RA patients, while it has no significant impact on inflammation and oxidative stress markers. More studies are needed to determine IF's effects on RA patients.