MET A WOMAN OVER THE SUMMER WHO SAID SHE COULD 'CURE' MY RA BY CHANGING MY DIET!!!!

[Jeanabelle60]

During the summer I met a woman, American, who saw me coming down stairs. She asked my what was wrong with me that I couldn't just walk down stairs properly. I told her that I had rheumatoid disease and that there was permanent damage done to my limbs. She asked me about the medication I was on and she nearly passed out when I told her about the biological Abatacept.

She sat me down and started to tell me that she could cure my disease.....she told me that if I stopped eating wheat, stopped eating butter or spreads and stopped drinking cows milk I wouldn't need to take any medication at all especially the 'poison' that was being dripped into my body once a month. I forgot she also told me to go a herbalist in the town and get oregano tabs.

Now don't get me wrong, she was very nice and very sympathetic about it all but was just bogsmacked at the medication I was on. This girl was stick thin and the colour of an old mahogany sideboard. She was young but looked weather beaten from all the tanning.

Anyhow, all that said, I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever come across anything like that? Having said all that, I don't drink milk, I'm vegetarian and I take multivitamins. I tried eating wheat free bread and buns but they were like eating compressed toilet roll bust .....

I asked my rheumy nurse about the multivitimans when I was thinking about starting them.....she sort of shrugged her shoulders and said to "take them if I wanted......they won't do you any harm"......take what you like out of that!

I take a multivitamin because I'm vegetarian and I want to make sure I get enough protein into my system. Because I live on my own and don't always eat healthily I find I have to supplement my protein intake.

[Philip]

I think that if there was a cure, I should imagine the NHS would be using it to save them spending millions of pounds on pills and injections for all sufferers .

Nice thought though make a great change lol running up and down stairs and back to work lol

[Jeanabelle60]

That was my initial thinking too Philip....Nothing is that easy.....it was her absolute belief that these changes in eating habits could produce miracular results. Maybe if you have been living that sort of eating from a young age it might help reduce your chances of getting severe immune diseases......I'm 63....... The days of me getting a miraculous cure are well past me, unfortunately....hope your keeping well.x

[jetttsd in reply to Jeanabelle60]

I have a friend that has been vegan since she was a teen. She now has RA at 55. Hasn’t helped her.

[artyone]

Hi I only know a friend with ms, who stopped eating all diary and only chicken. She was paralysed down r arm and leg. That was 15 years ago lol she seems fitter than me now.

But she did have medication too. Who knows I think it's about what feels right for you.

My specialist wants me on mtx but I won't. For me I would rather be stiff and sore but able to eat and my kidneys ok. Think we just have to try what feels right see how it goes then maybe try something else. It's a guessing game. X

[Kathyfitz12 in reply to artyone]

Hi artyone..I resisted MTX for years until I just couldn't put up with the RA pain anymore. It turned out to be the best thing I have ever done..........I have had no nasty reactions and now have NO PAIN.

Not everbody has all the rotten symtoms we read about here.

I can eat everything I want and still have a glass of wine.

I know it's the MTX that is holding the RA at bay as when I have had to stop taking it due to some other health problem all my RA symptoms return within 6 weeks!!

So when you can't stand the pain any more don't be scared - Mtx can be a reliable non threatening solution....... Good Luck.......Kathy

[Hidden]

Hi Jeanabelle60, hope you're well at the moment. I think we all deal with RA differently and all have different experiences, views and opinions on what helps us. For me I try to eat a balanced diet and do try to incorporate foods that are supposed to help reduce inflammation, fatigue etc. I don't know if they make a difference to my Arthritis but they help to make me feel better in myself. However I couldn't eat a restrictive diet like that, life gets challenging enough as it is. I'm normally quite placid but that woman would've angered me as to say a diet can 'cure' arthritis. From your description, she hardly comes across as a vision of optimum health!! I'm not vegetarian but do prefer veggie foods, I don't eat much meat and get protein from fish and eggs and other non meat sources.

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to Hidden]

Hello Charlotte, thanks for your response. I agree with all that you have to say. I have always been a bit on the curvy side, not fat but defiantly curvy....large boods and bum but always no bigger than a size 14, 16 at the very most. Howeverod used to put on weigh very easly but I went done o a size 10 when I was first diagnosed. I have since went back up to 12/14. The thing is, my life has been quite difficult since I first started down he road of an auto immune disease.

My personal life is unrecognisable and I have had to fend for myself, difficult as many of us know. Anyhow, I'll get to the point yet!!!! I have decided to be good to myself. I treat myself more often now......our lives can be difficult enough. I have no intentions of making it more difficult than it already is. I am thinking about going back to eating 'real' butter! I buy myself a bar of chocolate at least once a week! I love rice pudding and so I've bout in a few tins. I'm going to stock up for the winter. It's beautiful warm with fruit through it. In other words I'm going to be good to myself.....no one else is going to do it for me.

If I was 20 again with the knowledge I have now of course I would do it differently some of the things I have done.......I would never ever have smoked. I certain ally would eat a lot healthier......hi sight, yes it is wonderful from here isn't it.

I walk in the park everyday and do bits and pieces about the house and garden. I eat a healthy diet and I take supplements to cover what I miss out on in my diet.......All I can do now is do my best but I'm not going to make life unpleasant.

[Hidden]

I'm open to ideas about the links between healthy diet and disease prevention [see my previous post 'Alkaline Diet anyone?] but I'm afraid that I would have had to throttle that woman! How rude and arrogant to foist herself and her views on you in that way. At the very least she was grossly insensitive - the 'blame the sick person' approach of 'if you eat this / didn't do that / whatever' approach to other people's diseases is something I find deeply offensive.

As Phillip says if there was a dietary 'cure' the nhs wouldn't be spending all this money on biologics, anti tnf etc and ARC wouldn't be funding millions of pounds of research!

Cece x

[Jeanabelle60]

Thanks everyone for your replies. While I was a bit taken aback by her approach I think it was meant in a good way.....she was sort of a bit to forth rite might be the right word, a bit overwhelming. Anyhow my Abatacept is working fairly well, my movement and engrgy levels have improved and so I'm not complaining. Yes things could always be better but compared to the way I was so I'm not going to think too much about what might or might not work....to each their own I suppose.......thanks again.

[helixhelix]

What does annoy me about these well meaning people is that they don't think we haven't thought long and hard about taking these drugs, and seem to assume that anything called natural/organic/bio must be good and anything out of a laboratory must be bad. Some natural things are just as bad for you!

I believe in doing everything I can to help my body along, so am very careful about what I eat and make an effort to exercise and so on. But that's along side the drugs, not instead of them. But I would never dream of haranguing someone else who had chosen not to try the drugs - like CeCe says that's just blaming people for being sick. Polly

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to helixhelix]

I do know what you mean....our lives can be difficult enough....it was the 'I can cure you' that made me physically take a step back from her.....I'm sure she meant well but no amount of coconut oil is going to put my trusted limds back I to place and I'm not going to tourtue myself with 'what if's'......like you I eat as healthy as I can, I walk my two dogs everyday ans keep active about the house.....it works for me! Thanks for the reply. X

[earthwitch]

Did you ask her how it felt to be a millionaire - after all, if she knows the cure for RA she must be a millionaire by now. (said with tongue firmly in cheek!)

Not that I think there is anything wrong with doing some dietary modifications as a bit of self help to go along with other treatment, though.

[Jeanabelle60]

Yes I agree as I thnk most of us would. Like other have stated.....if it was that easy.....as if! Thanks for your reply. X

[francherry]

Hello Jeanabelle,

I'm very wary of people like the woman you describe - I learnt the hard way unfortunately. Someone told me that diet on its own could 'cure' my RA. After two bad experiences with DMARDs, I decided to try and tackle RA through diet alone, and eliminated lots of foods. Although my ESR and CRP went down to normal levels when I changed my diet, I also developed erosions in my joints during the 7 months I was off medication, and the swellling & stiffness in my wrists got worse. Agree with you about the wheat free buns & bread - they really do taste disgusting! Genius bread was the best one I came across (only just!). I'm persisting with a healthy diet but as only one part of my strategy for tackling this disease & I've finally faced up to the fact I really have to take the drugs to get better. I think your diet sounds fine (and taking a multivitamin, I take them too).

[Kathyfitz12]

Americans in particular seem on a mission to help out us poor souls who don't think living on horrible diets is the way to go!! When asked about diet my RA Consultant says there is no proof that diet affects RA - he said maybe rationing red meat might help(but as a veggies that doesn't apply to you does it?) I'd put her claims down to experience and continue to try to eat a proper veggie diet - nobody is perfect and I don't think worrying about diet will do anything to help your RA.......Kathy

[Kittykatxxxxx]

I think a healthy diet helps and helps us deal with the side effects of medications too. Who knows a super strict diet may put it into remission. You won't know until you try. I feel balance is the key though and take meds aswell. I want to start a super healthy diet I definitely feel better when I do.

There's a programmed called fat sick and nearly dead which is interesting the guy had some chronic health ailments(autoimmune) and went to a major health kick(juicing) whilst taking meds and weaned off them under medical supervision. He was on steroids and other stuff.

[kkminton]

I am gluten free, have been

I eat like a caveman

My grandmother was a VEGAN and also avoided gluten

She had RA and spent the last 20 or more years of her life in a wheelchair. She did not have access to medication and was very crippled from the disease

I still have RA and my medication helps slow down the progression of the disease

I believe my diet helps me be healthier and may keep some flares at bay. Someday it may help me have a very long REMISSION

But it does not CURE RA

Please understand that .

[jetttsd]

I live in the US and I regularly have well meaning people coming to me with studies about dairy, gluten, leaky gut etc. It is very frustrating as they act like if you just eat this, take this supplement etc. etc. you would be cured. Sorry, doesn’t work. Sure some people feel better etc. but when I was younger, I went in to remission for years, after menopause it came back 200%. It is becoming hard for me to be nice to people that assume that because someone went into remission after changing there diet, it is a cure and the rest of us are just being unhealthy with our diet. Some people just don’t have as aggressive of a case as others. I went into remission during pregnancy, does that mean that pregnancy is a cure? I have a friend that has been a vegan most of her life and used to preach that vegans were healthy and didn’t get cancer and auto immune desease because they didn’t drink milk etc. Now unfortunately for her she has hashimotoes and RA. She doesn’t preach to others about their diet any more. I think a lot is hormone related and genetics. My grandmother, aunt and others in my family have it too.

[Ann2020]

I think there’s a lot of truth to what she’s saying. Grains, dairy and legumes, sugar, are inflammatory foods. Also, taking in foods high in omega 3 such as salmon and sardines are very helpful. I am as you would say, seropositive for ra, but have never been prescribed any of the biologics, and am happy about that. After first being diagnosed by my family doctor, and before my first rheumatologist appt, I decided to read as much as I could on ra and ways to combat the disease naturally; I’m talking about the aip diet, which is basically the paleo diet. (Btw, for ten years prior to this time, I was vegan.) I also made an appt with a holistic doctor and I also decided not to take the prednisone that was prescribed as bridge therapy, by my family doctor for the interim. By the time I went to the holistic doctor I did a huge battery of bloodwork. My anticcp test number had dropped by 10 points. I do take some supplements that are helpful for inflammation and that promote joint health. I take quite a few each day, but there aren’t any side effects like there are with the biologics, which impair your immune system and can harm your organs. Once in awhile I take an Advil, but that’s it. I’d rather give up certain foods and improve my health that way. Who knows the future, with this disease? I think it’s quite different with people and it effects them in different ways. There’s much to be studied and learned regarding autoimmune diseases and their triggers. Good luck at any rate!