There seems to be no single dietary factor that elicits remarkable amelioration in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) outcomes, as deciphered from a systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The goal of researchers was to carry out a literature study on the influence of nutrition on the advancement of RMDs.

Studies on food and disease outcomes in 7 RMDs— gout, systemic sclerosis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and osteoarthritis (OA) were searched. Existing pertinent systematic reviews and meta-analyses were identified in the first phase.

The review was widened in the second stage to incorporate published original research on diet in RMDs. If systematic reviews or original research evaluated food exposure in one of the aforementioned RMDs and provided data on illness development (eg, pain, function, joint damage), they were considered.

A total of 150 original articles and 24 systematic reviews were incorporated. Numerous dietary exposures have been investigated (n=83), however, the bulk of these research focused on OA and RA patients. Only a few studies evaluated most of the dietary exposures. Exposures (e.g., OA: glucosamine, chondroitin, vitamin D, glucosamine; RA: omega-3) that have been evaluated by several, well-conducted studies were categorized as having moderate evidence of minor impact on disease advancement.

The data on impact of diet on RMD outcomes, both within and across rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, is highly heterogeneous. There is just moderate evidence that some dietary components are beneficial. There is a lack of strong evidence on the extent of the effects of certain dietary exposures on RMD outcomes.