I have had rheumatoid arthritis since 1989. For years I got by on just Placquenel Since I went through menopause it started getting worse and I started taking Humira also. It helped a lot for a while but by 9 months it wasn't working well. I had to take a shot once a week and it wasn't lasting for more than 4 days. One doctor was going to increase my drugs to include methotrexate, and predisone also and another on methotrexate and asulfazine along with the humira and placquenel. I was just going to start the methotrexate because I couldn't take the pain anymore. I decided though before I added anymore new drugs, I would give diet and supplements a chance. I started researching
Previously I had found being on a no gluten diet helped a little. After having done some research into allergies and arthritis I decided to try a non dairy diet too. My son convinced me to try the no dairy because he claims the casein in milk affects a lot of people badly including him. It gives him migraines. I also was having some hoarseness problems last winter and a top throat specialist said it was due to acid reflux and put me on a low acid diet. I also read about supplements in the magazine from the Arthritis Foundation and decided to take some fish oil, eveing primrose oil, ginger as well as the glucosamine chointroiten that I have taken for years. These all act as antiinflamatories.
After being on the no gluten, no dairy and low acid diet for a month, I started feeling much better. The humira started lasting 2 weeks again and I am able to work out at the gym 5 to 6 days a week. I don't take any pain killers and never had to go on the methotrexate. When I cheat and eat some bread or a little dairy, I start feeling pain within a couple of days. I also lost the 15 pounds I haven't been able to lose for years. This diet sounds hard to do but it isn't so bad once you figure out what you can replace the missing foods with.
I just want to tell people that this diet seems to have helped me greatly. I feel so much better, I can hardly believe it. No one I know with rheumatoid arthritis would even consider trying this diet for a month because they say they can't live without bread and dairy. No one likes bread and dairy more than I do but I am now having no trouble doing it. You can supplement the calcium with other foods and pills. Not eating gluten and dairy makes it so much easier to lose weight I just wish someone else with try it for about 6 weeks and see if they feel better. Even if they don't feel better, at least they'll be a little thinner.
So if anyone is getting desperate to feel better without taking even more drugs and wants to try the diet, let me know and I'll help you anyway I can. Maybe my remission after being on the diet for about a month is a coincidence. But maybe not. I'm not suggesting anyone stop taking any medicines for their arthritis.The medicines definitely help. I'm not saying diet is a cure. Most doctors though, just throw more and more medicine at us, no matter how tough it is on bodies since that is what the read about in materials written by the drug companies. There is no money for research into treating arthritis in other ways such as diet. Just look up what research has been done, and it is incredibly scarce. I think a combination of drugs, diet, supplements and exercise is healthiest compared to just piling up more and more toxicity.
Brenda