I just finished a wonderful one-month rotation through the University of Arizona Tucson Center for Integrative Medicine. For our final project we were all “consultants” on a unique patient case — our patient had a new diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and had recently been prescribed methotrexate, yet was still struggling with joint pains as well as a possible secondary Sjogren’s diagnosis (dry mouth, dry eyes, dysphagia). We were asked to provide integrative medicine recommendations to help this patient in addition to his conventional treatment plan. I am proud to present our RA instructional handout below!
My topic was specifically sleep and nutritional recommendations — there is a lot of strong evidence for the mediterranean diet for RA patients due to its anti-inflammatory components. I designed a meal plan for my patient that you can see below: