Abstract
Objective
To determine if cranberry juice consumption would ameliorate laboratory and clinical measurements of disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving fish oil supplementation.
Research Methods & Procedures
A prospective study with 62 RA patients was performed. 28-CRP modification of DAS28 (DAS28-CRP) and inflammatory markers were analyzed. The first group was assigned to eat their typical diet; a second group was asked to consume 3 g of fish oil n-3 fatty acids daily and a third group received both 3 g of fish oil n-3 fatty acids and 500 mL of reduced-energy cranberry juice daily.
Results
The group receiving both fish oil and cranberry juice showed reduction in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR, p=0.033), C-reactive protein (p=0.002), DAS28-CRP (p=0.001), adiponectin (p=0.021), and IL-6 levels (p=0.045), whereas the fish oil group showed decreased DAS28-CRP DAS28 (p=0.0261) and adiponectin levels (p=0.0239), compared to baseline values. Differences across treatments showed that the group receiving both fish oil and cranberry showed reduction (p < 0.05) in ESR and CRP compared to the controls and the group treated with fish oil, whereas reduction in DAS28-CRP was verified when fish oil and cranberry group was compared to the control group.
Conclusion
The ingestion of cranberry juice adds beneficial effects to fish oil supplementation, decreasing disease activity and inflammatory biomarkers in RA patients.
