Higher Fibre Intake Improves Health

Last month Reynolds et al. published an article in The Lancet that looked into the relationship between carbohydrate quality and health. They carried out a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that evaluated around 135 million person-years of data from 185 prospective studies as well as 58 clinical trials with 4635 adults. They found that those with higher intakes of fibre had lower body weight, lower systolic blood pressure and lower total cholesterol. Those with higher fibre intakes also had a decreased incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer, which may explain the 15-30% decrease in all-cause mortality between the groups with high and low fibre intake. Daily intake of fibre between 25g-30g seemed to confer the greatest risk reduction, although they note that “higher intakes of dietary fibre could confer even greater benefit“.

Fibre Helps Treat Osteoarthritis By Decreasing Inflammation

It’s well-known that obesity can cause or exacerbate osteoarthritis (OA) through excessive mechanical loading. But another mechanism through which obesity can affect joint health is via inflammation and we now know that our gut microbes play a crucial role.

Recent research by Schott et al. has looked into the link between obesity, gut microbes and OA. They found a difference between the types of gut bacteria in obese mice compared to lean mice. The obese mice had more pro-inflammatory and fewer anti-inflammatory species than lean mice. The imbalance led to accelerated knee OA due to systemic inflammation and macrophage migration to the synovium. Interestingly, they found that oligofructose, a non-digestible prebiotic fibre, can help restore a normal lean gut microbiota in obese mice. The restoration of lean gut microbes was “associated with reduced inflammation in the colon, circulation and knee and protection from OA”.

Obviously one could wonder whether these findings apply to humans. About a year ago Dai et al. published the results of long-term studies on around 6000 people. Their findings consistently showed that higher total fibre intake was related to a lower risk of getting symptoms of knee OA!

Dietary Fibre Reduces Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis

This month a fascinating report was published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. It was a collaborative study between Tufts University (Boston) and the University of Manchester. Dai et al looked into the link between dietary fibre and knee osteoarthritis (OA). They used data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (4796 participants) and the Framingham Offspring Osteoarthritis Study (1268 participants). The first group was followed for 4 years and the second group was reassessed after 9 years. The findings consistently showed that higher total fibre intake was related to a lower risk of symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (pain, stiffness, and swelling). It was unclear whether fibre had an effect on the result of knee x-rays.

The authors note that “there is increasing evidence suggesting that OA shares similar metabolic characteristics including obesity, dyslipidaemia and inflammation with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes”. Clinical trials have already shown the beneficial effect of dietary fibre on reducing body weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and in reducing circulating C reactive protein (a marker of inflammation). Increasing our intake of fibre can help improve musculoskeletal problems in addition to bettering our overall health. Fibre can be found in cereal grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.