Diet, Research, & AiArthritis - an ACR Special Presentation

Special Series: Reporting from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Scientific Meeting 2020

AiArthritis Voices 360 Full Episode 58

Air Date: March 7, 2021

This week join your patient co-host Deb Constien as she reports from the 2020 American College of Rheumatology Conference on Dietary Modifications and the Microbiome as potential future therapeutic options for the treatment of AiArthritis diseases. Deb is a medically retired registered dietitian who has been living with Rheumatoid Arthritis for 39 years. She attended two fascinating sessions on these topics at the 2020 ACR Conference and gives a State of the Research presentation for all of us who weren’t able to attend the sessions ourselves.


AiArthritis believes that the future of Rheumatology lies in precision medicine and shared-decision-making where a patient’s genetics, lifestyle, environment, and medical history all play a role in determining the best course of treatment to be decided upon by the patient and their Rheumatologist working together. This vision for the future of healthcare would no longer rely on one-size-fits-all approaches to treating disease where patients are subjected to a series of failed medications (ie step therapy) until they stumble on one that happens to work well for their situation.


Researchers believe they are very close to identifying specific biomarkers that can determine a patient’s unique dietary needs that would help - in concert with pharmaceutical therapies - to reduce inflammation levels in the body. Deb walks us through the new research into dietary modifications and the microbiome and their respective roles in managing inflammation levels in patients suffering with AiArthritis diseases, as well as how these might be utilized in the future of precision medicine.


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Show Notes:

Episode 58: Diet, Research, & AiArthritis - an ACR Special Presentation

00:52 - Deb welcomes listeners.

01:09 - Deb is a patient living with RA and a recurring Voices 360 co-host, as well as a retired Registered Dietitian

01:30 - This episode is based on two 2020 American College of Rheumatology Conference session titled: Modulation of RA Activity through Dietary Restoration of the Microbiome and Trials of Diet on Rheumatoid Arthritis

02:10 - The microbiome is a new frontier in precision medicine for the treatment of AiArthritis Diseases.

03:59 - Dietary interventions have not yet been established as a complementary treatment for RA like it has been for inflammatory bowel disease, but researchers believe they are close to finding a connection.

04:24 - The microbiome is a promising new way to monitor health and use it as a high dimensional biomarker to improve patient outcomes.

05:35 - Bacteria in your gut can impact inflammation.

06:23 - The Inflammatory Arthritis Microbiome Consortium (IAMC) collected diagnostics from stool and blood to examine bacteria and how inflammation may be connected to each different strain of bacteria found in the intestines.

07:31 - The IAMC is also studying how genetics may impact inflammatory arthritis.

08:04 - One study looked at the impact of a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods on RA patients.e

09:31 - The anti-inflammatory diet excluded soy, gluten, and refined sugar, but included some dairy to make it more palatable to the patients.

11:19 - Some patients did not improve at all with the highly restrictive diet, but some had improvements in pain and fatigue.

12:51 - Deb has done a 30 day Elimination Diet to try and identify inflammatory triggers, but none of the common triggers impacted her pain at all.

13:16 - Deb believes that a newly diagnosed patient might have better results than someone like her who has had RA for decades.

15:11 - Pain, fatigue, and general sense of wellness improved for the patients that had measurable results from the diet changes.

15:58 - There was discussion in the session of possibly pre-treating patients with antibiotics or cleanses to prepare patients for starting an anti-inflammatory diet as a potential next step in the research.

19:13 - To discuss this topic in more depth, visit us @IFAiArthritis on all social media platforms, email us at podcast@aiarthritis.org, or sign up to join us inside our new project community AiArthritis Voices @ aiarthritis.org/aiarthritisvoices

20:26 - Follow us anywhere you listen to podcasts and give us a 5-Star Rating

20:38 - To support the show, consider making a donation on our website at aiarthritis.org

Your Co-Hosts & Guests: Who is at the table this episode?

Tiffany Westrich-Robertson

Tiffany is the CEO at International Foundation for AiArthritis and uses her professional expertise in mind-mapping and problem solving to help others, like her, who live with AiArthritis diseases work in unison to identify and solve unresolved community issues. For the last several years, she has continued her education in research, including becoming a professional focus group moderator, and translated this experience at our organization to develop award-winning, innovative projects that are taking patient engagement to next levels. 


Tiffany has served on several advisory boards, including those to advance patient voices in policy, clinical trials, and precision medicine. In addition to reviewing grants at PCORI and for the Department of Defense, she was the sole patient grant reviewer for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin diseases from 2015-2018. She currently participates as a Patient Research Partner for OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology), co-leads our organizations' international effort to advance patient voices in rheumatology research (the ACTion Council) and has dedicated her professional career to developing other patients to utilize their voices to impact the future of millions.


Deb Constien
Deb has been living with Rheumatoid Arthritis for three decades and while she has experienced disability from it, she never lets her disease dominate how powerful her voice can be. 

She has been a key Representative (high level volunteer) for our organization for several years and often takes a leadership role in many programs and mission initiatives, including attending meetings as the voice of the organization. She is also a Platinum Ambassador at the Arthritis Foundation, as well as various other nonprofits, and has formerly and currently used her voice as a Patient Research Partner (Wisconsin Research and Education Network (WREN), OMERACT, Arthritis Power through CreakyJoints and more). She has represented her state of Wisconsin on Capitol Hill and at a local multiples times, and most recently was a key player in helping to pass step therapy legislation in her state.

Patrice Johnson

Originally diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis 9 years ago, Patrice now has an undifferentiated diagnosis. She has also been told she has had Osteoarthritis for 35 years. Along the way she developed some comorbidities which include severe hearing loss, a Baker's cyst, osteopenia, and a vein ablation. Patrice lives in Northern California and have 2 grown children and 5 grandchildren. She loves to travel, read, and cook.  

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