# Effect of Integrated Naturopathy Interventions on Systemic Inflammatory Markers and Quality of Life in Patients With Active Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

## TL;DR

This study shows that adding naturopathy to standard treatment can reduce inflammation and improve quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

## Contribution

The study provides new evidence that integrated naturopathy interventions can reduce systemic inflammation and disease activity in RA patients.

## Key findings

- Naturopathy reduced ESR and IL-6 levels significantly after 12 weeks.
- RA disease activity score (DAS-28) improved significantly in the naturopathy group.
- Most SF-36 quality of life components improved, except vitality.

## Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, polyarticular autoimmune inflammatory disease that destroys the capsule and synovial lining of joints. Antirheumatic treatment reduces disease activity and inflammation, but not all patients respond to treatment. Naturopathy, a research-based complementary and alternative medicine, may be useful in these patients, but there is little data on the effect of Naturopathy interventions on inflammation and disease activity in RA.

Objective: To explore the effect of 12 weeks of integrated naturopathy interventions on disease-specific inflammatory markers and quality of life in RA patients.

Methods: A total of 100 RA patients were randomized into two groups: the naturopathy group (integrated naturopathy interventions with routine medical therapy) and the control group (only with routine medical therapy). Blood samples were collected pre- and post-intervention for primary outcome measurements of systemic inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP, and IL-6). Disease activity score (DAS-28) and quality of life were used to assess disease activity and functional status using SF-36, respectively, at pre- and post-intervention time points.

Results: The results of the present study show a notable decrease in disease activity after 12 weeks of naturopathy intervention. As such, a significant decrease was found in levels of systemic inflammatory markers such as ESR (p = 0.003) and IL-6 (p < 0.001), RA disease activity score (DAS-28) (p = 0.02), and most of the components of health-related quality of life (SF 36 scores) (p < 0.05) except in vitality (p = 0.06).

Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that integrated naturopathy treatments may have the ability to control persistent inflammation, maintain immune homeostasis, and lower disease activity.