[QUOTE=vixen;6556705]
Obviously, diet influencing pain is not scientific (as far as I am aware, my research has only been in mental and adolescent health!), but I was commenting on what works for me. I do agree with you about being overweight, but I find that outside of that (I am not currently overweight), my diet affects how I feel day-to-day. This may not be the case for everyone, but it’s easy enough to change, you’ll see the results relatively quickly, and I think it’s worth a try. I am not one of those crazed, fundamentalist advocates for gluten-free, Paleo, anti-sugar, etc. diets, just have foudn in my personal experience that what I eat affects how my body feels. I do have some autoimmune issues, so perhaps this too should be taken with a grain of salt. 
I think working with a nutritionist can be helpful for anyone though, not just those of us with arthritis. I tend not to be the most creative cook, and working with an RD gave me so many new ideas for healthy meals, particularly breakfast and lunch, which I often eat on the run.[/QUOTE]
I have an autoimmune form of arthritis (psoriatic) and I’ve definitely found that diet has a part in how cranky my joints are. I don’t do anything particularly strict, I just pay attention to how I feel and weed out stuff that seems to make me feel worse. (And then I might try adding it again later to see if that was the culprit or not.) For example, high fructose corn syrup seems to make my joints extra special cranky. I’ve talked to various people about it and no one seems quite sure why that might be in terms of the chemicals and digestion, but it’s pretty consistent (even when I don’t know something has HFCS in it) so everyone agrees that whatever is going on, if it makes it worse and is something I can avoid, avoid it. So I do.
I’m highly skeptical of trying to go super-strict with a ‘miracle’ diet, though. I just don’t think it’s realistic or reasonable for most people, and there isn’t a lot of decent science behind many of the miracle diets people run around praising, so I don’t really see the point. Just pay attention to how you feel and see how things go. I keep a food journal occasionally and note down what I’ve eaten and also how my joints are feeling, and use that to reality check myself if it seems like something is making me feel worse. (I don’t do it all the time, or worry about measuring amounts.)
As far as NSAIDS - I am not anti-medication at all, but I have had the experience that some rheumatologists hand NSAIDs out as if they’re candy, and that freaks me out a bit. There are worse drugs, yes, but they aren’t actually candy - I know several people who’ve really messed up their stomachs by taking too much in the way of NSAIDs and now they’re in a real pickle because they can’t tolerate any NSAIDs anymore, which wipes out a very useful class of drugs. So as a patient I think it’s a good idea to educate yourself and ask questions and don’t let the doctor brush you off if you feel like the medication you’ve been prescribed isn’t doing the job at an appropriate dose - there are other things that can be tried or added to NSAIDs to help control the pain beyond just taking more NSAIDs, you know?
But that’s true of any drugs, really. Just some we think of as ‘safe’ because you can buy them OTC (like ibuprofen) and I think sometimes that means we get a bit careless about using them properly.
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