Effects of vegetarian nutrition on fibromyalgia patients

Fibromyalgia, also called fibromyalgia syndrome, is a long-lasting disease characterized by pain in the musculoskeletal system, causing fatigue, cognitive impairment and sleep problems. While research on fibromyalgia continues, it has been thought that diet may affect this disease recently. The purpose of our study; Investigation of the vegetarian diet effects on health in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome. This fibromyalgia study was carried out on 28 individuals with a mean age of 39.10 ± 7.55 years, who were diagnosed with fibromyalgia at the private health clinic in Istanbul between 15.02.2021 and 15.05.2021. Individuals who accept to study; general information, information on fibromyalgia and other diseases, nutritional habits, exercise status, anthropometric measurements (height, weight, BMI, fat, muscle, and waist-hip ratio) and a pre-diet and after diet to determine the vegetarian diet effect on health Post-Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) was collected by the researcher. The data obtained in the study were evaluated with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 21.0. Descriptive statistics for continuous variables in this study, as mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values; It is expressed as number and percentage for categorical variables. Paired Sample t- test was used to compare dependent groups. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between variables. Fisher's Exact test was used to determine the relationship between categorical variables. Statistical significance level was taken as p <0.05 in the calculations. 67.9% of individuals are female and 32.1% are male. The average height of the participants is 169.42 ± 10.73 cm. Before the vegetarian diet, the average body weight was 80.33 ± 18.85 kg, the BMI averages 27.92 ± 5.68 kg/m2 , the fat ratio was 30.18% ± 7.99, the muscle ratio was 66.36% ± 7.59 and the waist / hip ratio was 0,86 ±0,07. After the vegetarian diet, the average body weight was 76.51 ± 17.17 kg, the average X BMI was 26.57 ± 4.82 kg/m2 , the fat ratio was 26.57% ± 8.15, the muscle ratio was 67.72% ± 7.72 and the waist / hip ratio was 0,83±0.07. There was a significant relationship between vegetarian dieting practice (p> 0,000), body mass index (p> 0,000), fat ratio (p> 0,000), muscle ratio (p> 0,000) and waist / hip ratio (p> 0,000) has been seen. It was concluded that in the treatment of fibromyalgia, patients should receive nutrition training by a dietician and regularly monitor their anthropometric measurements in order to reduce the symptoms of the disease and improving the quality of life. Keywords: Fibromyalgia, Vegetarian diet, Anthropometric measurements