I used to post here a lot but haven't been back for a while. I probably won't hang around for long because everytime I post here I get run out by the angry mob, but I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on my wife.
My Wife was diagnosed with Sero-Positive [tested positive for Anti CCP] Rheumatoid Arthritis around 2.5 years ago. It was really bad she couldn't walk for a few months in the beginning and was hospitalized and put on Morphine with acute pain on a couple of occassions. It was bad and very scary at the time.
We immediately began a strict diet and paid close attention to managing her stress levels and she went into remission while taking Methotrexate after about 6 months. Every once in a while she would get a flare up if she ate something she wasn't supposed to or had a particularly stressful day at work, but these flares would always pass after a couple of days if we kept the diet super clean and the stress to a minimum.
She continued to take Methotrexate for a few months but then stopped because she was feeling great and the Rheumatoid Arthritis never came back. She has been in total remission and off all medications for over a year now. I can't remember the last time she took a pain killer.
It's kind of hilarious now because we can bring back mild symptoms of RA whenever we want. For example if she loosens up a bit and eats certain things or has a particularly stressful event she'll get a bit of pain, but this always goes away within 1 day. It actually behaves very similarly to an allergy.
We went to TGI Friday's for food a few weeks back and she used to love the Sesame Chicken strips they have there. She hadn't eaten anything like that in 2 years since we went on the super clean diet. So she ordered a portion and after eating just one she got a stomach ache and then her shoulder started to hurt almost immediately.
Anyways. I know I am going to get torn apart for this message, but I wanted to stop by to let people know that there are real life examples of people out there who did their own research and beat Rheumatoid Arthritis themselves.
When she first got diagnosed by the Rheumatologist I remember him saying to my wife that diet and lifestyle had no impact on RA. The truth is that man is a Dinosaur who doesn't know what he's talking about. Over time he's probably ruined thousands of lives giving out advice like this when people have chosen to accept what he said. Thankfully now the paradigm is starting to shift and people are able to use the internet to research their own solutions to these horrible diseases.
I don't really have time to go into the specifics of what we did because it took a ton of time and a ton of experimentation and also because everybody is different, but if you check my past messages on this site I previously went into a lot of detail on what we did.
Some of the best books I can recommend to help you learn how to put RA into Remission would be these ones:
Good luck. You can do it. It's very difficult at first but it can be achieved. At first if my wife made one mistake with her diet she'd be in pain for 2-3 days. But now, over 2 years later she can eat stuff that she wouldn't have been able to eat before. Her body is heavily.
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Allsopp
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Thanks for the update - lovely to hear a success story.
My husband has had RA for over 10 years and since starting to take CBD 2 years ago has been able to come off prescribed meds. He ran a half-marathon last month, but in the early stages of RA could never see himself exercising again, the pain was so bad. Recent xrays show that his bones are also looking good. His consultant has agreed that it seems to be working.
Just goes to show that sometimes alternative treatments suit some individuals.
I’m so pleased for your wife. She must be thrilled! So congratulations to you both.
I do believe that paying attention to your lifestyle can make a huge difference, and it’s great for you that it has been so huge.
But in the same way that you get frustrated by people who think it impossible for diet to have such a great effect, I also get frustrated by people who think that it will work for me. I’ve made serious efforts and although I am hugely healthier, my RA is unaffected.
So please recognise that I don't want you hounded by the angry brigade, because your story is a motivating one that could help a few people. It is particularly good that you make the point that you did this in parallel with drug treatment, and tapered off.
But you do need to see that your message could be interpreted as you saying “this is all your fault, if only you would do as I/my wife did then all would be well”. so if I can acknowledge that it worked for you then please acknowledge that it didn’t work for my RA, and doesn’t work for everyone no matter how much we might wish it to. (Although it’s never a bad thing to eat a better diet!)
Yeah for sure. Everybody is so different I am sure there are a lot of people who this would not work for.
What I would also say is that in the early days of doing this her RA is was unforgiving and for many months we had negligible results, we weren't really sure if it was working.
In the early days when her body was super sensitive to everything, if she had a tiny amount of something that she wasn't supposed to it would trigger a bad flare and last for a long time. Then it took a long time of super clean eating to make it go away.
This is why it's important for people not to give up. Maybe there is something in the diet people are missing that is causing them a problem and one day you figure out what it is and solve the problem. Maybe they find the magic bullet and start to feel a lot better.
I do strongly believe from my research that everyone's RA is different, but everyone's RA is triggered by something. Find the trigger and it will go away.
The Keystone Approach book and the Body Says No Book are the two best books I found to help people find their trigger. They were gold. I'd actually say those two books gave us the biggest breakthroughs.
I know exactly what triggered my RA and there’s not a lot I can do about it! I can’t reverse childbirth.
I’ve tried various things over the years and nothing makes any difference. Similarly people say things like I bet this warm weather is better for you. Or why don’t you move somewhere sunnier, but again weather makes no difference either.
We are not angry just very patronised that someone with two years (of someone else’s) experience is telling us we’re wrong and not trying hard enough.
On a cautionary tale some people’s RA does ‘burn out’ quite quickly but then can return aggressively months or years later. If symptoms return in the future please seek medical help. Don’t let your wife get unnecessary joint damage.
When I gave my history to my consultant he said they don't know for sure but they think some viruses can be a trigger. That's when my RA symptoms started. I also think it may be connected to my mum, she doesn't have RA but has had psoriasis all her life, the consultant said that could be a factor too in my genetic make up. I'm seropositive.
JFlay - thank you. I am Sero- negative. I started with Raynauds in August 2014 and then had carpel tunnel operations on both hands. Didn’t stop the nerve pains in my arms and legs. Then treated for B12 deficiency before a locus in my GP surgery referred me to Rheumatology and where I was eventually diagnosed with RA in Feb 2016. Would love to know what triggered it - no history in family.
Pleased to hear your wife continues to do well. I must take issue with your comments though given your last post received nothing but good wishes. If there were an "angry mob" on previous posts do you not think that they simply had differing views towards treating their disease, after all we have choices & if they don't gel with yours then that's fine surely? We have to accept that this disease isn't the same experience for everyone & equally not everyone will have success with the regime you researched & chose for your wife to follow. For example you say the PP is nonsense yet many have reported here it's worked for them, could that be because their disease is different to your only experience... your wife's? I'm not a fan I have to say but I accept that those for who it has worked aren't all telling porkies. Legumes can be inflammatory for some, they aren't for me so they're not bad news for everyone either. I don't need to avoid gluten, it does nothing to me so, please, it's not devastating for everyone. Statements like these are what gets people's hackles rising.
There's no doubt diet (& exercise) has it's benefits, please acknowledge that we're each capable of deciding what is good & what isn't for our particular disease.
Again, I'm pleased for your wife, she's obviously worked hard to be where she is today so please pass on my good wishes for continued success & I hope she becomes less sensitive in time to foods she obviously enjoys.
I am very pleased to hear your wife is in remission .....no matter how it was achieved. However I do hope she is still under some sort of medical supervision ...it would be very sad for her after sticking to such a stringent dietary regime if suddenly in the future her joints were found to be damaged by RA.
Damage can occur without any outward signs if checks aren’t kept up.
Can I ask why you posting your wife's behalf, rather than her giving us her positive message herself ? I'm just curious as to why someone speaks on someone else's behalf, that's all.
I am so pleased that your wife has found something that works for her, she is very fortunate to have done so, long may it continue and I wished her well.
But diet has no effect on my RD apart from refined sugar, which ulcerates my mouth. I avoid it now and have no such problems. I've never had a sweet tooth, preferring savoury foods all my life so it's not a big problem for me.
I've tried going gluten free on 2 occasions, with no benefit at all and I find most gluten free products very unpleasant to eat. Brown locally baked artisan wholemeal bread is very good for me. I love it and so does my gut, outstripping gluten free by a long way.
I eat healthy, a loosely based Mediterranean diet and find it works very well for me, giving me a sense of wellbeing as well as being highly nutritious.
But the main treatment for me is by traditional medications, trying to control my RD by diet alone, is catastrophic. Trying to convince others of their 'mistakes' with RD is rather patronising.
Like others have said, what works for one doesn't work for all, most likely because we are all different and many of us will have different forms of RD. Diet and alternative therapies working better for those with disease that has been treated early and the disease processes not so far advanced. For others diet makes no difference at all, other than eating healthy, which we should all do, not just people with RD.
Same here - 8 of those years I was vegan... Still developed Sjogren's and RA, and hypothyroidism, etc. etc. etc.... Diet is not always the answer, but I'm so happy it was for your wife Allsopp
Actually it makes perfect sense for that to work. I live in the US and I saw on the news about two months ago about how the CDC was talking about autoimmune diseases is now an epidemic and they do not know why or not telling us. It would make sense it is something has changed in our environment and it would make sense that would be in our diets. I also do not believe in the FDA to regulate that accordingly. I am glad she is doing better! Thank you for sharing!
But it could be a number of 'things' other than diet that is causing a rise in autoimmune disease. There is no reason why it should be diet, over the massive increase in chemicals used in farming (there has been an increase in the number of autoimune diseases in farmers using chemical fertilisers), the overuse of animal antibiotics which can find their way into our bodies, or chemical use in industry, or air pollution, the use of perfumes/hair products for example on our bodies of which I am very sensitive too. Not to mention the increase in stress in modern environments and rise in daily hassles we all experience. Or, the level of cleanliness in modern societies preventing our children's immune systems developing as in previous generations. Or maybe a mixture of all the above or 2 or 3 ...or whatever.
Diet is no more or less likely to be involved in autoimmune disease than any of the above and more.
Absolutely! I agree! I was merely saying that his wife's clean eating and her lack of flares is something to think about. I think some foods for me cause almost an immediate flare. Do I think it is the cause? No. There could be so many factors that go into deciding who and why someone gets the diseases of this kind and I am no expert. I am merely saying it would make sense to me that some foods can cause a flare up and sense it does for me as well. Probably for some reasons not known yet some foods may cause flare ups in people that do not in others. All I know at the end of the day is that I am miserable even with medication and it is almost like I was normal one day and then woke up the next with a different body and different reality. Even when I get better (because I believe it will get better) I will never be the same as I was before.
Yeah - I hear that (this day, next day).. My sister is a year younger than I am and we were talking yesterday about how fast our lives have gone. It's crazy. Then you add in the AI disease and *sigh*
Yes. I dont want to live a joyless life without a social life. Miserable. No thank you. And 'We paid close attention to her stress levels. And she's not the person posting either? Hmmmm
I believe it took him years of eating just nuts & berries and who really knows how bad his RA really was during the 3 years he WAS taking Methotrexate!
He may have been one of the lucky ones like your wife, whose body corrected itself without medications many of us need to be able to function.
Now the Paddison guy is profiting off his "lucky immune system" and selling his shtick to so many who are so desperate to get relief from the endless pain of RA.
But they are on the rise. The CDC said it is now an epedimic. They do not know what causes it. I think it would make sense that our foods is a 'possible' cause with all of the processed foods we eat so much of now. I was saying it might be a possible cause and if it were later found to be 'a cause' it would not surprise me. It is nice they recognize these diseases now but they are really not completely sure how to handle it. I myself have had more problems treating it and getting diagnosed then I thought possible. I think these life altering diseases need to be taken more seriously. It could be anything environmental but I do think some foods effect the flare ups maybe not actually causing it. I tend to notice some foods cause an immediate flare with me.
I have to say that I am not at all with you on this one. Firstly it would be great to hear from your wife . I would not want my husband advising me as to what I can or can't eat. My RD started with a viral virus 30 years ago.
During this time I have tried many diets (not because of myt weight) but to see if they have any affect on the RD. They didn't, not at all. Reading your extract it almost seems as if you are blaming us for our RD. By no means correct, it can be genetic, my wonderful Mother and her Grandfather had RD also; self-sufficient people who worked on farms eating only what was grown in their garden.
I have asked two amazing RD Consultants over the 30 years and both have said. 'It is has nothing to do with diet and don't waste trying to find what may cause a flare because you won't'.
Like many others I have sobbed with the pain, flare-ups that have lasted not weeks, but months and at my worst for a year; I have been helped by Consultants who are Professionals in their field , which I shall be eternally grateful too and the medicines of today.
Wonderful news about your wife Allsopp. You are absolutely correct that diet plays a major role in health issues. Diet influences the gut microbiome. A major player in the immune system. Also, any serious allergies or sugar/carb overload can create inflammation in the body and adversely affect the immune system.
I see nothing wrong in what you have said, however allergies do vary. Hence, why different diets work for different people. However, your right that gluten has a particularly bad reputation. I will never take this again. My dr and many other funtional Drs believe gluten is bad for everyone and can eventually over time cause leaky gut. The gluten test doesn't appear to be a particularly sensitive one so i won't put my faith in it. I never take dairy either as my doctor told me that even if you aren't allergic to dairy, it still contains growth promotors which my doctor said is undesirable if you wish to avoid cancer...
I take no offence about diets working for people, as science and common sense supports this. My reponse is not biased as diet alone has not resolved my own health issues. Your post is informative and not blaming anyone. It gives hope and possibilities for people to explore. Diet is one aspect that could facilitate healing. Of course, there are other autoimmune disease triggers. In science autoimmune diseases are constantly tied to infections and toxins.
The reason i am still ill is that i have chronic infections. This is the root cause of my illnesses. Immunology determined this by my low immunologlubins. No other specialist. The infectious disease unit told me that they don't test for many infections and some of the tests like mycoplasma are not very accurate. I have concerns surrounding the NHS ebv test too.
I went to armin labs for infection testing and they picked up active ebv and mycoplasma. Toxins (metals, moulds etc) are also linked to illness and of course there is no tests or treatments on the nhs for this either. In my opinion,this is why some people are still remaining ill.
In spite of this, keeping a good diet and staying off the major allergens should give the immune system a bit of a break. This should help while some other people like myself, try and tackle the other root causes of disease.
The sooner people make diet and lifestyle changes, the better. I did everything very late. Lets give newly diagnosed and young people some hope and highlight the importance of diet. They may be able to turn themselves around quickly, like this mans wife. I've seen many other people with various different chronic diseases do the same in other health forums.
Thanks for posting. It will help some people. I blame the system for my lack of progress. Not anyone suggesting things that may help and assist in the healing process....
Well said! Been very busy hence my absence. My clean diet has helped me immensely. I have also lost some weight which has increased my mobility. I think persistence is the key! It's a bummer having RA and ( for some) unhappily feeling perhaps forced to make lifestyle changes but I am grateful to have that choice where other health conditions don't, like some cancers. My dad's healthy lifestyle made no difference. The cancer won! My immune system is very sensitive and I have to be careful of diet, stress and exercise. If I am careful, I feel better and able to cope. I have found that diet is a strong factor in combating symptoms of RA. I welcome and support your post. I wouldn't question you why you write on behalf of your wife as its no one's business and doesn't really matter. Lots of people do it for different reasons. I know someone who can't type due to Rheumatoid damage.
Your positive feedback is very much appreciated Allsopp. All the best to you and your wife. xx
Thanks Shalf. Yes there are a variety of factors involved in disease. Diet is at least one thing that we are capable of trying and controlling. I did discuss cancer with a specialist once and he felt it was largely caused by toxins. A diet alone would not be enough to detox a body full of toxins, it would help, but defo not enough.
Even some infections are linked to cancers. Infections suppress the immune system and let cancer take hold. Sometimes genetics are involved in disease, however after discussions with immunology this seems more rare. You would have to have zero immunologlubins to have a primary immune fault (genetic). Autoimmune diseases, i believe are normally regarded as secondary. Another conventional dr told me that he didn't believe that people are born autoimmune. Who knows?
To be honest infections, toxins and nutritional deficiencies alone play havoc with the body. They suppress the thyroid, tax adrenals, slow the detox system down, have the ability to cause neuropathy and damage organs.
Therefore, It is no suprise that the immune system becomes compromised. As long as people understand that disease can be complex but clean eating is an important aspect. If you dont eat healthy, not only do you compromise your gut health, but if you have underlying infections or cancer then you feed them with sugars/carbs.
Thanks for your support shalf. I rarely come on health groups these days. I am glad healthy living is helping u. Fingers crossed that you will continue to make progress. Xx
Thanks shalf. Working on killing infections with herbs, medicinal mushrooms and anti virals. The infections have suppressed thyroid and adrenals etc so now treating them too. Feeling positive. Fingers crossed xx
Been getting infections too! The drug Sarilumab is apparently known to lower white cells that bit too much. I am on that just now but changing once bladder infection clears up. As for diet, still taking berries and mushrooms regularly and raw broccoli in salads. I am able to do a forward bend and touch my toes now ( just ) so although things aren't hunky dory, they are better
That's a shame. It can take time to get things under control. Well done on your improvements though. Stay positive, as like you said any stress etc is so deterimental to the immune system. Thank you. Likewise. Take care xx
I’m absolutely going to take issue with you here. One of my dearest friends recently died from cancer. He was incredibly healthy and fit. He was in no way to blame for his cancer and that’s how your post comes across.
I rarely rant in here, but your comments that toxins are to blame and clean eating would have prevented it absolutely gets my goat.
Tell that to his widow and see how she reacts. I’m sure she’d be very pleased to hear it was his own fault.
And whilst I’m on a rant, look at the Facebook group RA treated naturally and see how they’re getting on and the number of people that have now got issues that are non reversible or died due to lung issues.
When your google degree is better than many decades of research by eminent scientists, perhaps then people will listen, until then, don’t be surprised when you get responses like mine.
You are misinterpreting the posts. To be quite honest, chronic infections and toxins are in the science for causing chronic diseases and cancer. An NHS specialist told me he felt toxins were also a major cause of cancer. Sugar and carbs do feed microbes. Also, allergies like gluten can lead to cancer too. A friend of mine died because she passed the celiac test. After she died, drs told her husband that they strongly believed that the cancer was caused by gluten allergy. For yrs she was told it was IBS and not gluten allergy. No blaming. Failure of the testing system!!
Please present an intelligent counter arguement as to why this is insulting? People deserve to know the implications of diet, chronic infections, allergies and toxins. Also, their role in disease.
I have clearly stated that diet alone is not always enough due to the nature of chronic infections and toxins (you haven't read my posts properly). I find your response pretty, immature and uneducated. The system is largely to blame not the patient.
Ps stop guilt tripping people that are trying to educate and help people. It is people like yourself that are causing people to leave this group. If people like yourself keep ranting, then no one will post any ideas that can help and you will put the over 20,000 people in this group at a major disadvantage!!!
In addition, i have a degree. I dont just use google. That was incredibly presumptious of u lol. Thank u.
I have never ever had a rant on this group - not ever. Telling people it's their own fault that they have cancer is an absolute disgrace. I couldn't care less if you have a degree - I have 2 if we're playing Top Trumps and I work in healthcare. I have never ever heard an oncologist say that toxins/sugar cause cancer - not once. If they knew what it was, don't you think they would do something about it. The closest they have got to finding out causation is a genetic predisposition that's triggered by something, but what, there's no evidence.
Get off your high horse - and stop blaming people for having diseases that are out of their control.
Not responding after this. No one suggested cancer was anyones fault. Please read my posts before making false accusations. Again u misunderstand. Toxins r in the enviroment, cleaning products, dentistry, perfumes and hair dyes etc. There is no way u knew your friends toxic load. Also infections slow down the detox system and allow toxins to build. Again no ones fault
U said i used google which suggested i didnt have the educational background to comment on these matters. I reponded to your cheeky remark. Dont turn this around on me. Specialists are saying this too.
Admin should step in here. Ive stated i am seriously ill and this is out of order.
I personally do the ketogenic diet. Low carb/sugar and high good fats . I have cut out the major allergens like gluten and dairy though. I use coconut milk and avoid a lot of the gluten free stuff, as most of its still high carb.
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