Rheumatoid Arthritis??

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and wondered if anyone here had any experience with it and how you treated it. I will be seeing a rheumatologist later next month, but I'm not very patient and am trying to educate myself as much as possible beforehand. So thanks in advance for any info. you have to share

reply to post by ihp07


Hi ihp07,

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

I have this book at the moment which looks at alternative treatments.

Pages 175 - 177 discuss the treatment.

RA is similar to Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) in that a bacteria which is found in the gut, causes the auto-immune condition (or similar to).

Whilst researchers propose powerful antibiotic treatment to RA in order to destroy these bacteria, there is possibility that cutting out starch-based (carbohydrates) such as breads, pasta, cereals, rice and potatoes may help reduce the bacteria that causes AS (i.e. Klebsiella)!! However, this is not confirmed unless other, more up-to-date empirical research points to this.

I am not a doctor, so please look far and wide, and also ask your consultant about dietary plans to reduce such bacteria, or improve intestinal ability etc.

Here is his website:

link

reply to post by ihp07


Okay, I'll try this again. Just did a long post to you and lost it. :bnghd:

My Bride has been diagnosed with r. arthritis since her late 20's. She's now 50. At one point, she had to walk with a cane, and would come home and crash, having "let loose her pain from the box." It's an autoimmune response, and there are things that have helped her in dealing with it. She has been taking about a tablespoon of apple vinegar for a long time. Sometimes I hide it in salad dressing.

I was on the internet, looking for accupuncture information, as I was willing to learn/do anything to give her some relief, and I came across an AMA report about glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate. They, together, are basically the building blocks of cartilage and connective tissue, and there is a fair amount of thought that some forms of arthritis are an inability of the body to synthesize these things on their own. GS & CS are pretty much ground up seashells.

Where we live -- it's pretty pill-oriented, and people expect immediate effect from a tablet. This is sometihng you take to give your body the raw materials to rebuild. m'Darlin' took it for several weeks, and one day I came home and she was doing aerobics!!!! Not only that, the grinding I could feel in her knees -- bone on bone -- was much more fluid and not nearly so noisy. Now both of these compounds are not thought to be applicable for r. arthritis, but it did help her quite a bit.

Later on, I became involved in learning something of accupressure -- again to help her with the pain. It was and remains very effective.

Last year, we travelled to the big island for a new therapy, called P-stim -- point stimulation and the IS-3 . This is a form of auriculotherapy, and was absolutely amazingly effective. TEn treatments, and she was completely pain-free for the first time in her life since her 20's. This lasted about six months after the treatments. Our insurance turned us on to the process, as they were then paying all but $75.00 of it. Money well spent. The company pulled out and went to the U.S., so that's no longer a viable option for us.

Along the way, I learned that fresh ginger and ground tumeric were very powerful natural antinflammatories. I am the cook of the family, and I use a lot of both. It has made a real difference, along with the accupressure.

Last month, we went to an accupuncturist, and she was wonderfully instructive, showing me where I could locate points to help her.

These days, we're back to taking long walks, riding our tandem trike on the weekends and swimming. Six years ago, we bought a portable hot tub for $1400. It's a blessing. Last year I made a solar collector so all our heating is done by the sun. Heating costs a lot of energy/money. Later on last year I got some solar panels and batteries & inverter, such that even the cleaning c ycle and jets of the tub are run from solar. Basically we spent USD $1000 to save ourselves $150.00 per month. Wet heat like that helps a great deal. Her loosing excess weight helped as well.

I really thing she is healing, not just masking the pain. I hope some of this might be of use to you. Please feel free to U2U if there are any other questions I can help you with. I'm not a doctor, this is not medical advice, just a recounting of our strategy, however I think we've just about looked at most of the remedies. Oh, I forgot....... we tried magnets for a while under the tutelage of a friend of ours who is a self-proclaimed expert. For my darlin' that was of a lesser help, but not without worth.

I'm not a physician, and this is not medical advice, just a recounting of our strategy for dealing with it. More than anything, I'd like to leave you with the idea that there are a lot of things that can work, and maybe along the way you will find your own combinations that make it something that you can deal with.

feel better, and don't forget to laugh. Your body LOVES endorphins.

cheers

[edit for spelin']

[edit on 21-5-2009 by argentus]

Thank you both for your replies! I'm going to look into the book mentioned by Breifne and the treatments your wife used, argentus. Again, thank you for sharing your info. It is much appreciated!!!!!

Originally posted by ihp07
Thank you both for your replies! I'm going to look into the book mentioned by Breifne and the treatments your wife used, argentus. Again, thank you for sharing your info. It is much appreciated!!!!!

The book only contains very limited information about RA itself and is more generalist in nature, but enough to spark further searches down the avenue of diet, so I would not want you to waste any money buying it!! I remember reading the piece on RA and decided to throw it into the thread.

It appeared to offer a dietary approach to the dealing with a bacteria in the gut that relates to auto-immune symptoms, and I am a great believer that proper food can 'heal' certain or specific ailments.

You can still try his link (see my first post).

I'm sure there are a multitude of approaches you can take, as Argentus has shown.

Keep us up to date (if you wish) on your progress, and good luck.

Breifne

I had a terrible problem with rheumatoid arthritis last year, it was so bad I had to wear a boxing glove while sleeping. Taking pills only masks the symptom and does not deal with the cause (as most already know here).

I did a lot of research and found that vitamin D3 was found to be deficient in people with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I purchased a liquid supplament that had D3 in it (it was liquid calcium/magnesium + D3 supplament) and it cleared it up.
Vitamin C also helped.

DO NOT COVER UP THE SYMPTOMS WITH PILLS. These will destroy your liver in the long run, and you will still have the underlying symptom/cause left undealt with.

The cartilage supporting supplements mentioned earlier in this thread also sound very good, I will look into that. They support the body's means of healing itself rather than covering up symtoms.


ps. note...it is Vitamin D3 NOT plain ole Vitamin D.

[edit on 23-5-2009 by SirPaulMuaddib]

[edit on 23-5-2009 by SirPaulMuaddib]

I remember replying to a thread very similar ,I too am afflicted after several injuries,I was told to drink apple cidar helps relieve it,seems to work for me,I've had it with prescription meds

So ...

Apple cidar,
Vitamin D3,
Accupressure & P-STIM IS-3™
Heat applied to the affected joints (ad hoc only),
Low or no carbohydrate diet to reduce levels of Klebsiella in the gut,

... combined should affect a fairly good strategy to reduce pain of RA, or reduce it's effects on the long term. It would be interesting to gather all alternative helpful remedies in one place that control / dampen the effects of RA. I know it is difficult to live with as I know someone close that has it. Therefore, it would be nice to have this as a resource to call upon when needed.

BTW. This is not a bad list to take to your consultant when you next meet her / him (for alternative medicine to RA).

Good luck.

Hi,
I've taken many of your suggestions and have started on vitamin and herbal remedies which seem to have helped some. After seeing a Rheumatologist, I am not overly excited about any of the prescription drugs available. I researched the choices the doctor gave me and the side effects weren't pretty. A few of them being, nausea, vision loss, and my personal favorite, sudden death! (I kid you not, that was an actual side effect of one of them!) So if anyone has any other helpful suggestions, they are always appreciated!
Thank you!

First, I am very sorry. RA sucks!

You can stall it, but it is progressive, if no cure is found, expect surgeries and crippled hands later on.

Here is a good site to go to for support:

www.creakyjoints.com

It is created by a guy in his 30s who has RA.

I know that you will have to go through several medications before you find one for you.

Here is another good sight for chronic issues support.

www.butyoudontlooksick.com


I suffer from fibro and early arthritis, and am currently waiting for results for lupus.

Pick a REALLY good rheumy. That keeps themselves updated on the latest and greatest, and is compassionate.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Thanks for the reply and for the links!!!
I hope your lupus test is negative. That was one of the things ruled out before the RA diagnosis for me.

And I agree wholeheartedly, RA sucks!!!

Take care and good luck!

Talk about synchronicity!

I went to my Rheumatologist today, thinking i at least had some exotic desease or the big "C" or something terrible.

Well, i'm happy to report i have Arthritis, and i will live with it the rest of my life.

The key word is "live"

I am now trying one med they gave me to take in the morning.

Op, keep on trucking and doing what the doctor says and i think we will both be ok.

Good luck.

reply to post by dgtempe


Hi dgtempe,
Thanks for the reply. Do you mind sharing what medication you've started on? I'm considered in the "early stages" of the disease and have 4 meds to choose from, which I'm still debating over. Thanks again for the reply and words of encouragement
Take care!

Hi there,
Really sorry to hear you have RA and I hope you choose the right meds and feel better soon.

I am in my early thirties and for the last 6 years have had a gnawing, burning deep ache in my left shoulder ( the socket ) and my right knee. I went to the doc's and he sent me for a blood test.

When the results came back I was told I did have inflamation and given diclofenac to relieve it. I took the tablets for about a week and then stopped because I thought what am I doing, they have given me no firm diagnosis but here i am taking these tablets? but I think RA is what I have

I dont have this pain all the time, it comes and goes ( mostly there when the weather is cold or wet )
Excercise and moving around, keeping busy seems to help a little and take my mind off the pain when its there.

I have been poorly for the last 6 months now with chest and repeat secondary infections ( I even had Hib last xmas, I thought only babies got this ). I know my immune system is very poor at the minute, maybe I have auto-immune disease or something like that?

So my advice to you is, dont stop moving and try to stay positive because you will find a way to manage this...

I will keep you in my thoughts

Originally posted by Breifne
reply to post by ihp07

 

Hi ihp07,

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

I have this book at the moment which looks at alternative treatments.

Pages 175 - 177 discuss the treatment.

RA is similar to Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) in that a bacteria which is found in the gut, causes the auto-immune condition (or similar to).

Whilst researchers propose powerful antibiotic treatment to RA in order to destroy these bacteria, there is possibility that cutting out starch-based (carbohydrates) such as breads, pasta, cereals, rice and potatoes may help reduce the bacteria that causes AS (i.e. Klebsiella)!! However, this is not confirmed unless other, more up-to-date empirical research points to this.

I am not a doctor, so please look far and wide, and also ask your consultant about dietary plans to reduce such bacteria, or improve intestinal ability etc.

Here is his website:

link

I would love to know more about this Gut bacteria as I also suffer with my tummy and again I have been for a couple of tests for this ( the others are far more intrusive, so I didnt make them yet ) but all they came up with so far is IBS? Sometime my stomach is so sore, I feel like Im going to pass out.

It is so frustrating/exhausting to have lots of health issues and no diagnosis.

What type of bacteria are you talking about? I would like to look this up. thanks

reply to post by Beauty_HairyBeast


Hi beauty,
Have you ever been tested for Celiac disease?
I'm sorry you're feeling so crappy, I hope things can get resolved for you soon!

Originally posted by ihp07
reply to post by Beauty_HairyBeast

 

Hi beauty,
Have you ever been tested for Celiac disease?
I'm sorry you're feeling so crappy, I hope things can get resolved for you soon!

Hi ihp07,

No, never been tested for that but I have multiple health issues that are steadily worsening.
The problem with auto immune disease is that the symptons are all kind of similar but I will look into Celiac disease as I have not heard of this one until now.
Thankyou and I hope you are able to slow your RA somehow before it progresses..

Take care and try to stay stress-free. Stress makes you tense which leads to tense muscles and tense muscles are no good for joints and RA.

I hope all goes well when you visit the specialist.

[edit on 1-8-2009 by Beauty_HairyBeast]

reply to post by Beauty_HairyBeast


Hi beauty,
Here's a link to Mayo Clinic with a good run down about what Celiac disease is all about. It might be worth looking into.
www.mayoclinic.com...
Take a good look at the symptoms and see if they relate to what you've been dealing with.

I try to stay as stress free as possible -- I have three young children that keep me on my toes -- I pretty much live on the brink of insanity

Take care of yourself and I hope you can find some answers!!

Originally posted by ihp07
reply to post by Beauty_HairyBeast

 

Hi beauty,
Here's a link to Mayo Clinic with a good run down about what Celiac disease is all about. It might be worth looking into.
www.mayoclinic.com...
Take a good look at the symptoms and see if they relate to what you've been dealing with.

I try to stay as stress free as possible -- I have three young children that keep me on my toes -- I pretty much live on the brink of insanity

Take care of yourself and I hope you can find some answers!!

I will take a look, thankyou.

I also have 3 kid's and yeah I know exactly what you mean - my eldest is soon to be a teenager..Oh the joys of parenting ha ha



Take care :-)

I dont mind telling you at all i was put on just 200mg of Celebrex and its really made quite the difference.

I'm a new person. Last week and for months i've thought i was dying from the horrible pain.