Dietary Cure? | Arthritis Information

Howdy y'all!
Back with a quick question. A friend of a friend (isn't always? lol) is in her 60s and has had RA for years. She did a 180 turnabout from extremely bad to almost disease free by switching to a non-gluten, low sodium, extremely strict diet. Since I was diagnosed a little over a year ago, I've heard of lots of friends of friends who "cured" their RA through a dietary change. My mom even bought me a book that flatly condemns all the drugs I'm on and advocates a purely dietary approach to treating RA. (To be clear, my mom does not want me to go off my meds...she just thought it was an interesting read and it was recommended to her by the wife of a coworker of my dad...lol see what I mean?

The diet thing is real - I think it's all some sort of 'leaky gut'. Too many reports of people being helped with making some sort of dietary change. The hard part is figuring out what your body is reacting to. Some people go almost totally vegetarian. Others do a modified Atkins. And it's a lot cheaper than the meds.

Pip

I think the "diet thing" does work for some people but not all. You have nothing to lose---so try it and then let us know what happens.

Becky has been on a uric acid reduction diet for 3 weeks - lost 3lb initially but has put it on again luckily. However, her JIA has got worse over the winter but we are presevering with the strict diet until April at least. It's a healthy diet but she really misses chocolate...

Dee

I don't think diet is the cure all but it can help inflammation and the pain involved. I'm on a low carb diet. What works best for me is to eliminate all white carbs. I still eat fruit and only brown, whole grains and low fat meat. Within a week of starting the diet swelling and inflammation improved. I also feel better mentally. Prior to the start of the diet my blood sugar was all over the grid and I knew that I needed to stabilize it. The effect on pain and inflammation was a secondary response to the diet. My blood sugar has remained normal. Lindy I've read so many instances of going gluten free helping, it must work for some people. I am right now reading all sorts of leaky gut diets to see what they have in common. I think I might benefit from a gluten free/lactose free diet, but it's a problem because I'm going on a four month road trip in about 4 months and how can I stick to a gluten free/lactose free diet when I'm living on the road and in buttfutt nowhere?

When you're on a lactose free diet you can still have homemade kefir and yoghurt because if you ferment it long enough the bacteria convert all the lactose for you.
There is no one diet that will cure everyone, because you can heal gut dysfunction but still have food intolerances or allergies that will trip you up.

I found out gluten severely affected me, but later on I discovered that all grains bothered me to some extent. Allergies tests turned up clean, so it was a variety of food intolerances.

Many (if not most) people with autoimmune disease have an underlying form of gut dysfunction. There is a very strict diet that aims to heal gut dysfunction. I am doing it now. Many people can go back to eating regular food once they have been symptom free for a year.

It's based on a book by Elaine Gottschall titled Breaking the Vicious Cycle. There are some great reviews of it on Amazon.

After reading the book, you can read the protocols on Pecanbread.com where it tells you about the different stages and how to introduce foods. The Pecanbread site is mostly for parents of ASD kids (the diet has been shown to greatly help autistic children) but I think everyone should do it that way, because then you can test yourself for food intolerance as you go. The diet also includes a probiotic rich yogurt that you make yourself. I'm making my first batch at home now. My doctor was impressed by it. It's way better than popping the probiotic capsules, because the yogurt is far more potent.

There is also a Yahoo! group called Pecanbread that offers great support and help as the diet is hard to follow. Everyone makes mistakes at first.

I know it won't work if you're going to be traveling for a few months. My son and I have been on it for a month and we took a four day trip. I brought all of our food and made sure to stay in hotels that provided a mini fridge. It worked out well.

I have had RA for five years now and I'm doing the best I ever have. My doctor thinks I can eventually get off medication, and I was diagnosed as moderate to severe.

My blog which is linked below details my experiences with the diet so far.

Hope that helps a little bit. As a bit of backstory, I've done a lot of research as I was a medical editor for a year and learned to read the abstracts and such on PubMed.

EDIT: In response to the comment about dairy free, you're encouraged to make the yogurt with goat milk in the beginning, but if you choose to use cow milk, the 24 hour fermentation breaks down the lactose completely. The book Breaking the Vicious Cycle has a list of cheeses in it which are lactose free due to the enzymes used as well.
slbridges39455.5055324074Agree with Lin B. Everyone in our house is gluten/dairy free, no additives whatsoever, and tons of fruit and veg every day, everything made fresh, even tomato ketchup! I still have RA and take a wad load of meds.... Im sure though that the healthy diet helps.... Everyone benefits from a healthy diet particularly people with chronic illness.
Anna
Anna, I too make my own ketchup. Almost all condiments include corn syrup...YUCK! It is very easy. I throw a can of Campbell's tomato juice in my big stockpot with 1/2 cup of vinegar (you can use less) and I let it simmer with the lid cocked a bit so I can monitor it but I don't get coated in tomato sauce. Takes about an hour. Then I stir in a little honey, a teaspoon or so. It's YUMMY. My hubby LOVES it.

I remembered reading about a case study on PubMed where a woman's RA went completely into remission when corn was removed from her diet. So I had to give it a whirl. Unfortunately a lot of our medications contain corn (the pills) so I am fortunate to be able to try it.
Hi SLBridge
Snap!
Anna
anna_uk39455.5182175926slbridges, I just finished reading that book. It seems like such a restrictive
diet! Although it does have a lot of sweet treats included in it. How long did
you do the diet before you saw any results? I may try it for 4 months just to
see if I get any positive results.My son and I have been on it for about six weeks now. Within the first week, my son (he has autism) stopped biting and headbutting at school -- completely. It was rather astonishing.

My journey has been longer. I was gluten free for quite some time but after I moved to California, my disease became more active again. I started the Paleo diet (by Loren Cordain) which is grain free, and it helped. But I had terrible problems with sugar addiction, which is another sign of gut dysfunction (yeast overgrowth causes bad sugar cravings).

So I decided I would break my horrible sugar cravings once and for all, and I went on a strict vegetables and meat only diet for 7 days. It was hard, but at the end of it, it worked. I no longer craved sugar and I didn't even notice candy as food anymore.

I discovered the SCD and switched us both to it on a long weekend so I could figure out the cooking. I did a lot of stumbling (see http://scdgirl.blogspot.com for some of my more spectacular errors) and we are still making it work.

It's true that you need fanatical adherence in the beginning. Silly things will trip you up. But I realized I actually DID have severe gut dysfunction despite the absence of any stomach symptoms and despite the fact that I have no food allergies. I followed the Pecanbread.com protocol and I ate a food that was too advanced and I was RUNNING for the bathroom. That never happened to me before! So I know it's working.

Since I've gone on SCD I've had another decrease in swelling. Currently I am only on Enbrel and fish oil. I finally got rid of all the grain (including condiments and salad dressings) and I think that really helped me out. The gluten free stuff did almost as much damage to me as the gluten. It made me cranky to boot. LOL.

Generally I manage the diet by doing a ton of my cooking on one day over the weekend. I work full time so it can be tricky. But I think it's worth it.

Hope that helps!

I don't eat dairy or wheat and i do far better. I also lower my sugar intake. I have a doctor that believes part of my RA swellings are due to digestion and hormonal balance caused by digestion.

Once lowering the wheat and dairy, i have done a lot better. Even though i am horrible without meds (sometimes they take me off for medical reasons) i can get around even though the pain is extremely horrible. Before i fixed the diet, i couldn't sit up or roll over in bed without my husband moving me.

So, yes I do believe the diet has something to do with many people's RA, probiotics help regulate the bacteria in your gut that food messed up (additives and preserves in food). There are many here who also agree that regulating with probiotics is a great idea.

I did stop eating sugar and next thing i knew, i didn't crave it or salty foods anymore, it used to rotate.

I don't have food allergies, but i have multiple chemical sensitivity and some foods have additives and preservatives that make me swell like a balloon.

Women have more problems with the digestion then men, something to do with hormonal balance.

This link has some good info, you click the highlighted words in the article for more info on diets etc. http://www.womentowomen.com/symptoms/digestiveissues.aspx

Yes we all have are own food allergies. We could never have a big banquet and get everyone on this board satisfied. We are all so different in manyways. Some of us can only have the opposite of the others. I put pinapple juice i my no list with orange juice this week. I think it gave me a tongue fissure. Made my tongue split. And nothing tasted good the rest of the week. Better now. I know it was that as my tongue caught on fire the minute i drank it. So some trial in area in everything as i have had pinapple juice when not flaring and no such problems. Oooch.Thanks y'all! That's what I love about you guys...y'all are always willing to share y'all's experiences and info. I really appreciate it! Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Milly

I get the same "sort" of problem. I can't have citrus because i get mouth soars and a horrible stomach burn.

I really hate food.