Anti-arthritic Effect of Fig and Avocado Combined with Olive Oil on Disease Activity and Immune Status of Osteoarthritic Patients

 An intervention case-control study aimed to investigate the impact of dietary intervention with figs, avocado and olive oil on the arthritic mediators and immune status of RA patients. As olive oil, figs and avocado are rich sources of a variety of dietary bioactive compounds, especially the polyphenolic flavonoids that have been associated with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-arthritic effects. Disease activity evaluated by disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28). The arthritic patients divided into control Group (CG), and treated groups divided into avocado olive group (AOG) administered one serve of avocado pulp 2 Tbsp plus olive oil 1 tsp /day, fig/olive group (FOG) received one serve of fig (2 medium) plus olive oil 1 tsp per day, combined group (FAOG) administered of fig, avocado and olive oil. The results found that the majority of patients had a DAS of less than 3.2 to 2.6 with median pain. BMI was defined as overweight in CG, FOG, AFOG, and obese in AOG, and WHR was elevated. RF was decreased at higher significant values (P-value ≤ 0.001) after dietary intervention. AFOG had the greatest impact of RA and CRP after dietary intervention, and had the greatest improvement in ameliorating immunoglobulins, both AOG and FOG were considerably improved (P-value 0.001). TG and TC were decreased significantly at (P-value≤0.001) in all treated groups. HDLc and LDLc were significantly refined particularly in combined group. The study concluded that the dietary intervention with at least one serve of fig and avocado in combination with olive oil may ameliorate the inflammatory mediators of arthritics and promote the immune status of RA patients.