Ovo-vegan Diet Cured my Tietze’s Syndrome

I went on a vegetarian diet not because of ethics, but because of a disease completely unrelated to Tietze’s Syndrome, called Reactive Hypoglycemia. The diet (with a little tweaking) definitely helped me combat my hypoglycemia. However, the diet also had an unexpected side effect–after sixteen years of suffering from Tietze’s Syndrome, my (sometimes excrutiating) symptoms have disappeared.

The Cookbook that Cured Tietze’s Syndrome?

I started cooking with the recipes from this cookbook. Nine months later, I haven’t had so much as a twinge in my chest. I am convinced it’s because of the vegetarian diet. Sure, you’re probably thinking. Another “miracle cure” on the web. I can’t enter sworn testimony here, but I can share the abundance of scientific evidence I have since come across that explains the “miracle” (which in all honesty wasn’t so much a miracle as a stroke of luck in eating the right foods).

Vegan Diet and Tietze’s Syndrome

A lot of research backs up my finding that a vegan diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and soy–NO sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup or other artificial additives) can help with the arthritic-like pain of Tietze’s Syndrome (sometimes called Tietze Syndrome). Arthritis literally means “inflammation of the joints“; Tietze’s Syndrome usually involves the inflammation of one joint (for more information on the specific area affected by Tietze’s Syndrome, see this article).

A quick search on Google for food-related arthritic conditions will inform you that there are tens of thousands of suspected food triggers, including dairy products (which have been shown to cause many health problems), and some fruits and vegetables, like eggplant. The evidence from most of these sites is anecdotal. A woman from Colorado who suffered from out claimed that she recovered when she switched to a meat-free diet. A man from Hawaii with rheumatoid arthritis claimed that once he stopped eating fish, his arthritis disappeared.

However, there is actual science to back up these anecdotal claims. Dava Sobel’s groundbreaking 1989 book, Arthritis: What Works, surveyed a thousand arthritis patients (Tietze’s syndrome is an arthritic-like disease) to find out what was causing their condition to worsen, and what was causing it to get better. Common triggers included: red meat, dairy products, fat, and sugar–items commonly missing from a vegan diet.

A significant article in the Rheumatology Journal found that after following a vegetarian diet, 59% of patients reported a decrease in joint pain after they stopped eating meat, and 45% reported a decrease in symptoms after they stopped ingesting sugar and coffee. This article that appeared in the Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology found that one of the culprits was dairy protein, not fat (found in all types of milk and milk products).

Tietze’s Syndrome Research

If you go to the National Institutes of Health and perform a search for Arthritis/Rheumatism/joint pain and diet, you’ll find a glut of research (including this one) showing that changing to a vegan diet, rich in Omega-3s, helps with arthritic conditions. You can find the full text of one research article at this website on how rheumatoid arthritis symptoms diminished after only four weeks on a vegan diet. It stands to reason that if rheumatism can be helped by diet, so can Tietze’s Syndrome.

Some other studies that you can find on Pubmed:

• A gluten-free vegan diet improves the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
• A raw vegan diet  rich in antioxidants and fiber decreases joint stiffness and pain.
• for the brave at heart, this study showed that fasting followed by a vegetarian diet can improve symptoms.

Why do researchers think that a vegetarian or vegan diet might work with reduction in joint pain found in Tietze’s syndrome? Part of the reason is that antioxidants–found in vegetables–neutralize the free radicals which contribute to joint pain. The nutrients found in abundance in vegetables (vitamins C and E), also assist in this process. Meat on the other hand, supplies very little vitamin E, and no vitamin C.

The diet I went on last year to combat my reactive hypoglycemia was an almost raw-vegan diet. It was almost impossible to stick to–I spent hours in the kitchen cooking (although I did feel better). Over the course of months, I added eggs and meat substitutes (like Morningstar Farms products and Quorn). I even found a substitute for fried chicken–one of my pre-diet favorites.

The result was this book, The Reactive Hypoglycemic Cookbook, which is the only change in my lifestyle I made. Although the book is for reactive hypoglycemia, by complete coincidence the diet for that disorder is the same as for the one recommended by researchers for joint pain: meat free, high in antioxidants and Omega-3s, low in fat and no dairy or sugar. After sixteen years of Tietze’s syndrome agony, I’m now symptom free. Although I didn’t start out liking the idea of going almost-vegan, being pain free has made me a fan…I’d recommend a vegan diet to anyone trying to combat this  painful disorder.

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