Diet and Folk Medicines for Rheumatic Diseases

Geun-Tae Kim

doi:10.4078/jrd.2015.22.1.10

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Kim: Diet and Folk Medicines for Rheumatic Diseases

Review Article

J Rheum Dis 2015;22(1):10-17.

Published online: 31 October 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4078/jrd.2015.22.1.10

Diet and Folk Medicines for Rheumatic Diseases

Geun-Tae Kim

Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea

Corresponding to: Geun-Tae Kim, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, 262 Gamcheon-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 602-702, Korea. E-mail: gtah@hanmail.net

Received 27 January 2015 Revised 3 February 2015 Accepted 3 February 2015

This is a Free Access article, which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Notwithstanding recent advances in the field of treatment of rheumatic diseases, patients still have a significant interest in complementary and alternative medicine for various reasons. The purpose of this review is to investigate the effect of certain dietary components or folk medicines on the pathogenesis or outcome of rheumatic diseases. The data used in the study were mainly selected from the references searched by MEDLINE. Among the variety of dietary components and folk medicines investigated, omega-3 fatty acid, alcohol, and vitamin D showed negative correlation with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Specifically, ome-ga-3 fatty acids appeared to be somewhat helpful for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Although some of the items showed a positive effect through this study, it failed to establish definitive evidence for the overall effect of diet and folk medicines in rheumatic diseases. In the future, further understanding of mechanisms and clinical utility should be acquired through numerous systematic and scientific research studies.

Keywords: Diet, Traditional medicine, Rheumatic diseases

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Figure 1.

Anti-inflammatory effect of omega-3 fatty acid. APC: antigen-presenting cell, DHA: docosahexaenoic acid, EPA: eicosapentaenoic acid, MHC: major histocompatibility complex.

Figure 2.

Anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D. DC: dendritic cell, diff.: differentiation, Ig: immunoglobulin, IL: interleukin, MHC: major histocompatibility complex, TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-α.

Figure 3.

Anti-inflammatory effect of probiotics. DC: dendritic cell, NF-κ B: nuclear factor-κ B, T_reg: regulatory T cells.

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