RA is a major risk factor for these cardiovascular diseases, but a gluten-free vegan diet was shown to lower cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and oxidizedLDL (OxLDL), as well as raising the levels of natural antibodies against the damaging compounds in the body that cause symptoms of the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis, such as phosphorylcholine. These findings are reported today in the open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

The idea that we can influence our health by changing our eating habits has become a fashionable idea among lifestyle and consumer magazines. There is evidence that dietary changes can bring about health benefits but specific results are not widespread.

Now, Johan Frostegard of the Rheumatology Unit at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and colleagues divided sixty-six RA patients randomly into two groups. They randomly assigned 38 of the volunteers to eat a gluten-free vegan diet, and the other 28 a well-balanced but non-vegan diet for one year. They analysed the levels of fatty, lipid molecules in blood samples using routine analytical methods at regular periods. They also measured oxLDL and anti-phosphorylcholine (antiPC) factor at the beginning of the experiment, at 3 months and again at 12 months.

The researchers found that the gluten-free vegan diet not only reduced LDL and oxLDL levels and raised antiPC antibodies but lowered the body-mass index (BMI) of the volunteers in that group. Levels of other fatty molecules, including triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) stayed the same. In contrast, none of the indicators differed significantly for the control groups on the conventional healthy diet.

AntiPC antibodies are studied within CVDIMMUNE, an European consortium led by Dr Frostegard with the hypothesis that such antibodies can protect against cardiovascular disease and can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic factors.

Frostegard and colleagues have now shown that diet could be used to improve the long-term health of people with rheumatoid arthritis. They concede that a bigger study group will be needed to discern which particular aspects of the diet help the most.

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Rotimi, who also has been appointed senior investigator in the Inherited Disease Research Branch in NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research, has been extensively involved in a number of genetic epidemiology projects that are being conducted in several African countries, China and in the United States. These projects have included the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus study; the Howard University Family Study; the Genetics of Obesity in Blacks Study; the Black Women Health Study; Consent in Genetic Research: An International Trial; the Engagement of African Communities for the International HapMap Project; and the Genetic Basis of Podoconiosis, a foot-disfiguring disease impacting some who work barefoot in volcanic soils. These efforts have provided him the necessary expertise for assuming the directorship of NICGHD.

An additional focus of NICGHD will be to provide training opportunities for students and established scientists from developing countries and from minority groups in the United States.

Rotimi, who was born in Nigeria, received a B.S. from the University of Benin, Nigeria and an M.S. from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. He went on to earn an M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the founding and current president of the African Society of Human Genetics, whose membership is interested in using genomic tools to impact health for African people and the global community.

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