Hi Everyone,
Notification of this free upcoming Summit arrived in my Email inbox. I though it might be of interest to others.
There are several free early talks already available to watch. For those who are new to the term Functional Medicine, it is about trying to get to the route of the problem, rather than using medication merely to suppress the symptoms. In the UK this is sometimes called Ecological Medicine.
Hope some of you find this helpful.
AARA
Great. Love this, thanks. I’m working with a functional doctor at the moment. I’ve been tested for micronutrient deficiencies of which Iodine, zinc, selenium and vitamin D were low but no longer are.
I’ve also gone down the route of having my microbiome tested and found that it’s not very diverse so we’re working to try to introduce happy bacteria back and whether or not this amounts to anything isn’t important; what is important is I’m trying everything I can to be healthy but still live my life the way that makes me happy so I am far from perfect.
I’m incredibly active. Exercise is a way of life for me. It always has been and hopefully always will be. I’m now able to race my bike again. This includes over 100 mile races with more than 8,000 feet of climbing in one day. In the beginning of my uncontrolled disease I was scooting on my bum to the toilet every morning.
I’ve done the Paddison program for month on end with no real sign of it making a difference but will continue to lay off gluten, dairy and meat as I just feel better not eating it but that may change down the road. (I believe males tend to fair better on this diet and anti CCP negative peeps but that’s just my opinion.)
I’ve had my hormone levels checked and although I’m not using traditional HRT we are using a few supplements to balance off a few things.
What I will never do is say that DMARDS whether traditional or biological are merely suppressing the symptoms of our disease. I feel it’s quite unfair to say this as they do not ‘just’ suppress symptoms. They are disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs. Their purpose is to delay or stop the progression of this dreaded disease and for many people they do in fact do just that.
Do I one day want to go off my medication or drop to a maintenance dose? You bet I do. In the mean time I have zero side effects while taking MTX plus a Biologic. My last scan showed that some of my erosions are actually healing which can happen with the use of Biologics and being in remission. Am I lucky? Maybe, but I think it’s a combination of many things like genes and looking after myself the best I can which most likely helps me process the drugs.
So while I’m with you on never giving up on trying to find a cause and will continue to push on in that direction I really wish people who eschew modern medication for whatever reason stopped saying it only suppresses symptoms as that just isn’t true.
With great respect,
Lucy.
It's fascinating that some of your erosions are healing.
I've read some writers who argue that it's possible to amend erosions with a good combination of medications/nutrients, appropriate rest and exercise - because exercise is thought to provide some useful variations of pressure/passive pumping that acts in a helpful way in areas that are traditionally considered to be inert and not able to heal because they're not particularly well vascularised. (I phrased all that so clumsily.)
I also think that excersize plays a big part since it helps with cell respiration and metabolism, helps your body function the best it can.Since in RA it has been shown that there is mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress present. The important thing being that you adjust your excersize after your symptoms. If you are very stiff and in pain the excersize should be gentle and so on. Too strenious excersize may backfire since it only increases the present physical and psychological stress already present. So very important to listen to your body but never forget movement😊
Hi Lucy11
Delighted to hear that you are doing so well. Clearly your combination of drugs, diet, nutrients, exercise and general all round approach is having a totally fantastic outcome. Long may it continue.
Those of us who have had their health and lives destroyed by prescription drugs and seen loved ones brought to deaths door by a combination of prescription medications, have sadly had their faith in conventional modern medicine challenged. Iatrogenic disease is now considered, by some, to be the 3rd most common cause of death in USA.
We are all different and some tolerate medication without significant negative side effects, which is great if you happen to fall into that group.
I had no idea just how ill my meds. were making me until I weaned myself off them. We each need to find our own way forward.
Sadly for RA sufferers who are living alone and end up unable to hold down a job and thus become reliant exclusively on State Benefits, the options to try anything but the conventional NHS approach are very limited.
Finding our own right way forward is a very personal path for each one of us.
AARA
AARA
Our ideas are not in disagreement.
Was merely wondering why those with bad experiences with traditional meds and even those who have never tried them feel it’s necessary to say that traditional and biological DMARDS are only suppressing the symptoms of the disease? Who does it help by saying that?
We both want everyone to be given choices of which treatment plan they wish to embark on but it’s truly only right to present them all fairly.
Lucy.
I beg everyone to RUN away from this scam. As Lucy11 as pointed out, they will do a hundred blood tests (and hair tests and urine tests and stool tests) which allow them to claim that you suffer from nutritional deficiencies and a bad microbiome, and then they will sell you a small fortune worth of supplements. SAVE YOUR MONEY.
I've just registered for a microbiome test that's part of a reputable research endeavour. They aren't all scams. I'm just curious to know.
Yes, there is a lot of legit research on the microbiome. But Functional medicine pretends to know everything already and treats everybody to "fix" their microbiome.
I would respectfully disagree with your assessment that 'Functional medicine pretends to know everything.' I credit Functional medical providers for doing tests that regular providers would not do. Thanks to those tests, I'm now close to remission, without biologics.
I'm pleased for you, but most people are going to be wasting their money. They certainly do LOTS of tests that no regular provider would do.
I am very much in agreement with you and believe that Don122 does not really have enough information on what functional integrative medicine is about. The difference between the exclusive med approach and FIM is that the med approach excludes all new research on understanding health and sickness holisticly, is mostly interested in symptom relief, not getting to the root of the problem whereas integrative medicin sees the use of meds as part of a bigger picture and healing process, they do no exclude meds.
Sadly, I am VERY familiar with their scams. All of their testing is based on bad or non-existent science. Undoubtedly, they give you lots of attention and take your symptoms seriously which makes us feel better. The solution is to find an empathetic doctor, not to waste your money on nonsense.
The solution is to find a knowledgeable expert. There are quacks and those who know what they are talking about and this goes for every profession. Emphaty is a good quality but not enough if not combined with real expertiese.
Couldn't agree more. Functional docs work with seriously flawed "knowledge", which is why I say to avoid them.
Fuctional integrative doctors have seen how very often meds nowadays make people more sick than cure them so they have started looking for better alternatives and more imaginative ways of combining meds with a more holistic comprehension of health and healing. These are often very prominant medical doctors who infact most often have more knowledge than a medical doctor in rheumatology.
Well I respectfully disagree. I have sat through some of their seminars. They are great self-promotors but not good scientists or truly knowledgeable about rheumatology.
Hi Don,
I feel you may have misunderstood my posts. I am seeing a functional doctor as well as my Rheumatologist. The functional doctor ran some tests for micronutrients and some came back low. I then asked my rheumy to test those again with the normal blood tests he runs and they came back deficient with him as well and although he isn’t a nutrition specialist he agreed that it could very well benefit me to try to get those back up to par. It didn’t benefit him in any way by suggesting that.
Will it help? I don’t know but I feel if I look at what’s going on with other functions of my body that aren’t looked at by my Rheumatologist may actually benefit me as well.
My only concern was as stated above twice by me.
Thank you AARA, Sounds interesting. 😊
Already registered 😊Very interesting free interviews you can listen to on the website.
Information about Functional Integrative Medicin should in my view be included in NRAS files. This would help to give a more holistic picture of treatment of RA. There are many prominant medical doctors representing this expertise and the information about this line of treatment should be presented by them, not by rheumatologist who do not have the knowledge. This would give the patient more freedom to make educated choices concerning treatment. These were my thoughts after listening to the three experts from the upcoming summit.😊
Sulfasalazine shortage
Important Statement from NRAS about access to medicines
Beacon of Light in a dark tunnel!
Aspirin/cough med while taking methotrexate 
Oxford Vaccine approved!🥳
