hello, I have RA ( started 3 years ago). was first treated with high dose of methotrexate ,but stopped as I was loosing my hair. Now been on high dose of sulfasalazine and leflunomide for 1 year; i get some side effects like itching, bruising easily, sensitivity to the sun, being tired all the time......
I have decided 1 month ago to reduce tablets and try natural remedies : I started raw food diet as I read lots about its benefits for RA patients. It is not easy every day but I got used to it . The first 2 weeks I reduced half of my tablets, then I stopped all of them. my doctor is against it of course and only beleive in drugs.
I am now on week 4 of this diet and no tablets at all, very little pain with RA ( less than before), not feeling tired anymore, lost a few pounds, looks better, and best of all: no drugs.
their is a lot online about RA and rawfoodist and it is working.
with this diet you can eat all fruits and veg ( raw), the best things is all the greens. I make green juice, and salad. you can eat seeds and nuts ( sunflower, pumpkin seeds are great, almond nuts are great ), dried fruits ( prunes, figs, raisins...), avocado is one of the favourite thing as well. for it to work you need to eat 70% raw and you see the results after 2 weeks or even before. No wheat, dairy, saturated fats, refined sugar.
I eat as well smoked mackerel, salmon, fish . you can have sweet potatoes ,brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat as part as your no raw food. there are lots of raw recipes online and advice.
has anybody else tried it?
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virginied
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I'm very pleased that this has worked for you, and hope it carries on like that. But perhaps taking the drugs for several years has made our RA go into remission, so you no longer need to take drugs anyway? We're your blood tests good before you stopped taking the drugs, and was your rheumy supportive?
my blood test were not good before I stopped and I still had lots of pain daily. Now , no tablets and less pain so I don't think it is just RA going into remission but the diet helping a lot. It is early days but I can see some positive results already. finger crossed...
I find that diet really helps, and I eat carefully (lots fruit & veg, fish and not much fats, sugar etc). But although it helps, I do still need the drugs at the moment, but hopefully not for ever. I think we each need to find what works for us, and for some diet and lifestyle are enough but not for others. I guess I worry that people who do need the drugs will try going without and get bad joint damage. And I guess you worry that people will take the drugs when they don't need to and get horrid side effects and damage from the drugs! I think the important thing is to keep an open mind and try out different things. Polly
This sounds really good - I'm not sure I could bear to eat all foods raw as I live in a cold place and need warm foods to keep going though but I eat a lot of raw stuff as I'm not that big a fan of cooked veg apart from potatoes and root veg. Personally I believe its about balance of things from regular exercise and fresh air to good, non refined fresh foods and being busy and occupied mentally for me. And the drugs help too for me although i cant take them in high doses. But I hope your RA stays away and glad you are feeling better. Four weeks isn't very long really but wishing you luck. Tilda
I absolutely agree with treating RA through diet. Like yourself I was diagnosed three years ago although I suspect I've had it a lot longer. I'd read and seen so much on this site about the awful side effects of most of meds, I decided it was safer to treat my RA through alternative methods.
I do yoga for flexibility and have cut out wheat, alcohol and sugar. Dairy does not appear to be a problem for me - there were no negative effects when I reintroduced it.
I wish more people were willing to change their lifestyle than be ready to take any drug handed to them believing it can cure them.
It is very possible to change your lifestyle AND take the drugs Knobbly. If diet and exercise were enough then RA would surely not have existed in humans for so very long and caused so many deformities in the days prior to DMARDs and Biologics? Unlike cancer the numbers of those with RA across the world are not increasing as far as I'm aware and, while I agree that taking these drugs is a scary proposal for most of us - I don't think that many people just get "handed them" without asking a few questions first. You make it sound as though anyone taking these drugs must be a fool and that is most definitely not the case!
I don't think anyone believes a pill can actually cure RA because it can't be cured, it can only be slowed down by the drugs. I do however agree that in SOME people lifestyle & diet changes help enormously.
And, as Tilda rightly said, 4 weeks in the life of RA is not long enough to know whether that would be permanent. I have been of my drugs for 6 weeks before and have felt no worse BUT on the 7th all hell let loose.
well, that's a bit depressing then. I was all happy and positive about my new "diet and pain free life" but as you say it might just be luck for now. I have my "big " hospital appointment next week and they will probably tell me as well it's all rubish and will not work. .............snif.............
I was taken off methotrexate and was fine for about 4 to 5 weeks but it came creeping back. I was surprised by how long I was more or less pain free. But on the food side, i did
see a programme called the food doctor on channel 4 a while ago and they did a diet plan for a young RA sufferer which did bring down her inflammatory markers over a few months. Lots of oily fish, turmeric, cayenne etc so it does seem diet can help. She stayed on her meds tho but did say she found the diet plan helped a lot.
Hey Virginied .... Please do not give up! I too am following a strict diet, no dairy, raw veg, fruit (no citric) including apple cider vinegar & honey drinks and NO meds for me either. I must say I chose not to post here about alternatives and trying to fight this (RA) with natural remedies due to the fact I knew I would feel so despondent and negative after reading responses, PLEASE DO NOT give up! There are many of us who have chose the same path as you and are succeeding! Blessings & Hugs x
Hey Virginied don't give up you have to find what works for you. Good lord I have had battles with my consultant over him wanting to put me on biologics (which I feel I am not ready for yet) and I haven't let him bully me in to yet.
BUT 4 weeks isn't long in the life of RA. I certainly am not being negative towards diet/homoeopathic remedies etc but am merely pointing out that it doesn't work for everyone.
I wish I wasn't taking the crap I do, I have tried a LOT of alternatives but they haven't worked for ME, It doesn't mean that it wont for YOU.
I really admire you for doing this. I managed to stick 100% to Patrick Holford's anti-arthritis diet for 4 weeks. After some detoxing side effects for about 5 days it did make me feel better and I particularly noticed that I was calmer and had less pain which helped me cope with everything better, including my RA but then went on holiday and then back to work and it all fell apart. I've tried to get back onto it since but by teatime I've usually eaten something not on the plan. So now I'm trying to do a combination of the eating plan + other healthy eating plus stretching and yoga to make it easier for myself and manageable. There is a lot of evidence that our western diet causes inflammation which shows up as different diseases, one of which is RA. I think people tend to be negative about lifestyle changes because they are really hard to stick to and our culture doesn't support them. I would encourage you to keep going, believe in what you're doing and not to take to heart other people's views if they discourage you. Take care of yourself x
Unfortunately raw foods is the last thing my guts want - they are sensitive enough anyway and any amount of raw food will just cause immense pain and have me on the loo for days. I do try to keep to a low starch diet though (low starch or no starch does have some benefit for a lot of folks with spondyloarthritis), and to limit heavily processed foods.
Several years ago I went on a very strict and very limited diet to control my Psoriasis, as I saw a practitioner who advocated this particular diet, I withstood it for two years before stopping it. My skin gradually improved within the first year, during the second it came back with a vengeance. Before I started this diet I had IBS-C form, now I have IBS-D form, I know which one I would prefer. Be warned, from my experience it could have counter effects on other parts of your life.
I am trying raw food diet for my Rheumatoid Arthritis too. I cannot eat citrus, nightshades or too much dried fruit. I seem to be very sensitive to many foods. I really cannot eat dairy, grains, beef and starchy foods, or I swell up with so much pain. I am on month 5 of raw food diet and I use Cronometer, so I know if I am getting enough vitamins and mineral, protein. I think it is an app, but I use it for free on the website. You can put in everything you eat for the day and it shows if you are at 100% of daily vitamins etc.
I have treid many Ra meds, some have made me feel ten times worse and did not even help, such as methotrexate.
The half life of some meds are really long, so the leflumonide might still be in your body helping you. However, there have been people that heave reversed some forms of cancers with raw food diet. I watched a video of a young girl that had been to several oncologists for her brain tumor, they had different opinions for treatment.(she had gone through two surgeries already) So as she and her mother debated on what route to take she began the raw food diet, 18 months later her tumor had shrunk. The thing with the raw food diet is it takes months to work, its slow, but I felt better the first month. I have to stay away from oils as well, which make it hard.
This raw food diet did help me a lot and I felt much better and also had more energy. Unfortunately I stopped after a few months as I missed cake, bread and
" proper food". I am now on biologic injection and it has helped a lot .
I do believe that food plays a big factor in auto immune disease . Although I do not do the raw food diet at present I make sure I eat lots of fruits and veg
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