Some time ago, after being on my anti-rheumatoid arthritis diet for around twelve months and being completely free from any symptoms, I decided to carry out an experiment to confirm the efficacy of my RA diet-cure.
In the back of my mind I always had the nagging doubt that maybe my recovery was a fluke or had been brought about by some other unrelated factors.
In order to be sure that my diet was working, I decided to suspend it and deliberately try to make myself ill again, and develop the full range of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. Then, once RA was re-established, I would return to my diet-cure and see if I could repeat my original recovery back to full health.
Prior to starting my diet, I’d had RA for about twenty five years and I was aware of a number of foods that would trigger symptoms almost immediately (within half an hour of eating). These included meals like; fish & chips, pizza, eggs on toast, cheese on toast and any packaged or highly processed meals like vegetarian pies and sausages for example.
Also, specific food items such as; vinegar (including the much vaunted cider vinegar), butter, garlic, lemon juice and many others. Worst of all was anything fried or roasted, or anything containing chemically hydrogenated fat or trans-fats.
I had learned about these RA food triggers from very painful experience.
I began by eating some of my favourite foods and meals from the past, healthy stuff by normal standards, for example; goats’ milk yogurt with chopped bananas, beans on wholemeal toast, baked spuds with goats’ cheese (never actually tried lama cheese though!) and sweetcorn – and most of these foods were organic too.
The ‘More Good News’ Bit
I had expected to become ill within a few hours or perhaps a day and was very surprised when a few days later, I was still perfectly well. I couldn’t understand it, normally by this time I would have expected the backs of my wrists to have developed a sharp stabbing pain, my left knee should have become warm at least, and I should be feeling tired and fairly rough.
I decided to try some of the more aggressive food items to see if I could get things started, I wasn’t looking forward to the outcome but I had to get my experiment going somehow.
I began to eat fried eggs on toast, fried mushrooms and tomatoes, home-made soups with garlic, onions and lemon juice, I ate lots of toast with butter on (actually more like slices of butter with toast on!), I made vegetarian sausage butty’s (full of chemically hydrogenated fat) with tomato ketchup on and I even ate some highly processed ‘foods’ like chocolate, fizzy drinks, cakes and crisps… Still nothing happened, I was still fine and had no symptoms; even after several weeks.
I continued like this for around four months (I had never had a period of health even remotely close to this in over twenty five years) until eventually, finally, I developed my first symptom; a ‘twinge’ in my left knee and it also became a little warm. At last, I thought, I can begin my experiment…
Alas no, not yet, it took me a further two months to develop a set of symptoms which resembled my previous condition, prior to my original diet period. I couldn’t believe it, why had it taken so long to trigger my rheumatoid arthritis?
Having developed a full set of symptoms, I waited until the inflammation in my left knee had reached the point where I would normally begin considering direct treatment (with a corticosteroid injection), then I restarted my diet-cure. At this point I began to lose my confidence again, I became afraid that things would just get worse and my diet wouldn’t work a second time, or maybe I wouldn’t be able to stick to it this time having enjoyed a normal diet for so long.
Three months later, I was well again! (n.b. I also neglected my blog over that period and didn’t begin to post again until fairly recently.)
First of all the temperature in my left knee began to decrease, slowly. Then the pain in my wrists and fingers decreased. Then my neck became free from the burning, pressure-like pain. Getting out of bed became a little easier each day. My shoulders and even my jaw, froze for a few days (good grief it hurt!) then released themselves with a wonderful sensation of relief… Finally, the inflammation in my left knee began to reduce and it began to straighten until it became almost normal again.
I was fairly shaken by this whole process, not nice, I would rather have gone to the dentist every day for a month to have fillings, I think ;-) However, my experiment was successful and it gave me more confidence in my diet-cure.
Conclusions from My RA experiment
1) It appears that having been on my diet-cure for so long (about eighteen months), I had either developed some immunity to the effects of the foods which previously triggered my rheumatoid arthritis, or some repair/healing process had taken place which made those foods less able to affect me.
Either way, the good news is that my diet had additional benefits beyond removing all the symptoms of RA, benefits which may eventually allow me to enjoy normal foods again, permanently. For example, I have already confirmed that I can eat whatever I wish for one day out of a week, without triggering any RA symptoms, as long as I remain on my diet for the other six days.
2) My RA diet-cure really does work, having confirmed it twice I am now confident that my diet removes the causes of rheumatoid arthritis in my own case. I am now trying to extend the range of items in my diet, and eventually I hope to identify the actual causative item or items. I will of course continue to post my results here.
“Surprise!” photo (modified with my caption) taken by Mary is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Amanda Comiskey says
HI…i too have just been diagnosed with Ra…and have been taking hydroxychloroquine for a wk now and am due to start on methotrexate injections soon…which terrifies me…all those side effects are scaring me to death…i spend what seems like every night trying to find some hope on the internet that i maybe can overcome this disease,but can,t find anything positive…im devastated and feel my life is going to be downhill from now on….im going to try your diet advice and hope it helps.
Brian Darby says
Hi Amanda, thanks very much for your comment and apologies for the delay in replying.
I understand how you feel and I understand your fear and anxiety. First let me say that there is plenty of hope, don’t take any notice of websites that say otherwise. Many people have cured their rheumatoid arthritis using natural methods or in conjunction with certain medical treatments such as low dose long-term antibiotics (Minocin). Your life will only go downhill if you let it, curing RA is hard but you can do it if you work at it. You have to keep learning and experimenting until you find what works for you. I am happy to help as much as I can. You need to take control of your own health, your doctors can slow the progress of RA, but unfortunately dealing with doctors can be a very negative experience. Your main priority should be to work on your diet and also to become optimistic and feel positive about making changes that will reduce your symptoms and gradually improve your health to the point of full recovery. As you recover you can work with your doctor to reduce the dose of your drugs until eventually you won’t need them anymore.
Don’t be scared Amanda, instead try to stay calm and focus on learning what needs to be done to resolve your RA. First of all, make a note of how you feel today, write down all your pains, inflammation, stiffness, hot joints, flu-like symptoms etc., and try to get a copy of any test results from your doctor. Keep this information as a comparison for future reference.
Take a good look at all the foods you eat and drink. The quickest way to improve is to cut out all milk products and all bread and wheat based products (gluten). Stop eating all kinds of processed, packaged, fast, junk, microwavable foods and stop eating in restaurants, takeaways and cafes for a while. You have to be in control of what you eat. You need to eat only whole foods that you prepare and cook yourself.
Drink only decaffeinated organic tea, herbal tea or green tea, filtered water and homemade vegetable juice or smoothies. Use soy or almond milk for your tea if you need it. Cut down as much as possible on sugar (all kinds including honey).
Start taking a high quality omega 3 fish oil supplement and cut out all other oils and fats from your diet except cold-pressed virgin olive oil for the time being. Eat lots of green leafy vegetables. Make vegetable juices or smoothies from celery, cucumber and carrots.
Buy a large bag or box of epsom salts and dissolve a cupful of it into a nice warm bath and soak in it for about half an hour or so. Do this a couple of times a week or whenever you want some relief.
Start reading about ‘leaky gut‘ as this is one of the most common causes or contributors to rheumatoid arthritis. In the meantime start eating some probiotic foods such as raw sauerkraut and rejuvelac.
Hope that helps a little Amanda :-) Keep your chin up and work towards rebuilding your health. There’s so much more that you can do but I think the above is a good place to start and should provide improvement within a couple of weeks or so. You can also try my diet as you mentioned, it worked for me for a long time but I have since improved and modified it further with some of the elements I described to you above. I am writing the article about my current version of the diet at the moment and will publish it soon.
Margaret says
I have been diagnosed with ra 3 years ago, nothing so far has helped me. Would you be so kind to share your diet?
Brian Darby says
Hi Margaret, thanks for your comment.
My original diet is here: My Cure and it can still be very effective for many people, but I have updated and developed it further since I first published it. I will be writing about my current diet and latest insights soon, but in the meantime I can make a few more suggestions alongside my original diet for you.
I’m really sorry to hear that nothing has worked for you so far Margaret. There are several general aspects to dealing with rheumatoid arthritis; finding the cause, reducing or elimininating pathogenic bacteria & viruses & parasites, improving nutrition, finding and removing food ‘allergies’ & intolerances, improving your immune system health and your general health, and most importantly – healing your gut and improving the health of your microbiota.
I’d be happy to provide more information on any of these subjects for you Margaret but for now here’s a quick summary of some things which will help.
Eat more probiotic foods like sauerkraut, miso, rejuvelac etc. Remove the most likely irritating/inflammatory foods from your diet such as dairy products (apart from maybe grass-fed butter), gluten containing grains, rice, processed and fast foods, any restaurant or cafe foods where you don’t have control over the ingredients (or don’t know the ingredients), cigarettes and alcohol if you use them. Also try to reduce your sugar intake and completely remove high fructose corn syrup; mostly found in soft drinks and packaged goods.
Make absolutely certain that you don’t eat ANY trans-fats of any kind. Equally; don’t use any vegetable oils for cooking or for eating except cold-pressed genuine olive oil and cold-pressed coconut oil (and possibly the butter I mentioned above). All seed oils, especially refined seed oils are devasting for RA sufferers, they completely ruin your omega 6 omega 3 balance and promote inflammation.
Foods to eat; whole, natural, organic (where possible) foods. For example, green leafy vegetables such as kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, purple lettuce, bok choy etc. Also carrots, parsnips, beetroot, celery, cucumber, onions and garlic. Fruits such as blueberries, papaya and kiwis.
Try to avoid all animal products (all meat) for a while except fish (and fish oil) and grass-fed butter. You can try organic true-free range eggs too as many people with RA are ok with them, but I would suggest leaving them for a few weeks at first then maybe try them later if your symptoms improve.
Various seaweeds are good to add to your diet as are many herbs such as mint, basil, thyme, coriander and parsley. Also, a quarter teaspoon of celery seeds with each meal is helpful; particularly for any gout related pain or inflammation.
The best single technique you can use to add nutrients, balance your ph levels and heal your rheumatoid arthritis is to start juicing vegetables, specifically; celery, carrot and cucumber. It makes a delicious drink and it is pure liquid health… You need a large glass each day or twice a day if you have the time to make it.
All of the above suggestions will also improve your general health and help to prevent further illnesses from occurring.
Try your best to sleep well and regularly (at least 6 hours but 7 or 8 is better), keep moving and exercising as much as you can, take warm baths in epsom salts (about a cup full of epsom salts for each bath) and don’t let RA take over your life, if you work hard at healing yourself you can beat it and remove the symptoms and heal a great deal of the damage. It’s far from easy but it’s the only way to truly overcome this disease.
I hope that helps a little Margaret, I genuinely hope your health improves, try your best. Take good care.
Joy Haylock says
I have embarked on an anti rheumatic diet today as I have Lupus. I have taken three different drugs which all had side effects. One made me dizzy, one gave me a rash and the third compromised my liver. The next drug recommended by my consultant has so many possible side effects (including increased risk of cancer) I cannot face taking it.
I have decided to try and help myself by diet – no sugar, no gluten and no processed food.
Can you advise whether I should also go caffeine free and if so are decaf teas and coffee Ok? or are these classed as ‘processed’.
Also what about butter and cheeses – any advice on which are ok or are they all processed?
Any pointers you can give will be much appreciated.
Brian Darby says
Hi Joy, thanks very much for your comment.
I’m so sorry to hear that you have lupus, I understand the implications of that and I also understand your concerns about drugs and I share them. I can’t make any suggestions regarding your medical treatment (for your safety and for legal reasons) however, I can give you some ideas on how to help yourself through diet based on my own experience.
Your starting point is excellent; sugar, gluten and processed food are some of the most common contributors to inflammation particularly gut inflammation. Sugar also places greater demands on your liver which is already struggling. I found that eliminating caffeine helped me quite a lot, my heart rhythm improved, my anxiety reduced and I began to sleep much better; all of which helped with my RA. In my experience decaffeinated tea is fine (I use it every day and I’m still improving) but make sure it’s organic.
I would avoid cheeses and other milk products until you recover significantly (casein is a problem) but grass-fed butter maybe OK for you. This is a big subject and I’m still learning and experimenting but I believe butter is quite helpful in healing my gut, that has been my experience anyway. When I can’t get organic grass-fed butter I use Kerrygold which is about 80% grass-fed. Generally, fats and oils in the diet increase inflammation but only if they contain trans-fats, too much omega 6 or significant arachidonic acid. Butter is mostly saturated fat with about 30% oleic acid and a small amount of omega 3 and omega 6 which is well balanced. Therefore inflammation-wise, I feel that it’s pretty neutral.
Avoid all cooking oils, margarine, shortenings and so on… including organic cold-pressed vegetable oils (sunflower, safflower etc.). Use only grass-fed butter and, if you can find it, organic cold-pressed virgin olive oil. You can obtain some fat from avocados, almonds and flax seeds for example. Fat is important for energy and for helping to absorb fat soluble vitamins (D, A etc.).
Nightshade vegetables and also rice can sometimes be a problem, it’s worth eliminating these for a while to see if your symptoms improve. Rice, potatoes and tomatoes were OK for me for years then recently they became a problem and started triggering inflammation. I improved immediately when I took them out of my diet.
Everyone is different, RA and lupus have many causes and contributing factors but nutrition, gut health, sleep and exercise offer the best path back to health regardless of the original cause. I’m currently studying parasitic, bacterial and viral infection and will post about this shortly.
Stay optimistic Joy and keep improving your diet. I’m sure you will be successful :-)
Joy Haylock says
Hi Brian
I was searching on the internet today and my e mail of last year to you came up.
I thought I would update you…
Its been more than a year since I embarked on my Anti-rheumatic diet. A couple of months after I started I felt much better and I have now been pain and flare free now for a year.
I am convinced that gluten is the main contributor to my inflammation. I am still on no gluten, no prepared foods, no diet drinks in fact no fizzy drinks at all. No caffeine although I do drink caffeine free tea and coffee. I have been on no sugar too until this month when I had a relapse (it was my birthday) – it has not had any effect so far but I have now given it up again – just in case! I also have the occasional glass of wine and this has not produced any adverse effects but it is occasional and I am very very strict with the Gluten.
In addition I have taken a turmeric supplement tablet which helped and a magnesium tablet too.
I had an appointment with the consultant again this week, she is happy that I am managing the lupus myself but cannot really explain why. I am not taking any medication at all.
This is now a lifelong choice as I now feel so well and would not risk going back to the pain etc.
I do occasionally get a ‘tired’ day but overall I am able to swim a mile 3 times a week and walk 3 miles most days.
Actually, the company I purchase the Turmeric and Magnesium tablets from have written an article about my progress and I believe it is to be featured in ‘woman and home’ magazine in the near future.
I hope this will help others to take control and not take un necessary drugs. I do understand however that Lupus and other inflammatory illnesses are different with everyone and not all are as lucky as I have been in managing the illness with diet alone and others should not risk stopping their medication without speaking with GP or consultant.
Brian Darby says
Hi Joy, it’s great to hear from you :-)
Thanks for the update, I’m so happy that you’re doing well and that you’ve identified gluten as the main problem. Magnesium is so useful and turmeric is a great anti-inflammatory. Caffeine-free tea still seems to be fine for me too, well done you for avoiding sugar!
You’ve done so well, I’m sure your occasional tiredness will improve after a while too. Well done with your exercises, that’s amazing! I wish I could do that much in a week :-)
That’s exciting! I had a quick look for the article but I don’t think it’s been published yet, when it is let me know and I’ll put a link here so that our visitors can read it too.
Your update is very encouraging for other sufferers Joy, thanks again I really appreciate it.
Jonathan Bentley says
Ahhhh!!! I love this post so much! I love how you tested and retested!!!! This gives me so much hope for the future since I am just now starting the nutritional journey out of RA/AS. I cannot wait to read even more of the blog posts since this is the first one I read!
Jonathan, 26M, RA for 18years
Brian Darby says
Hi Jonathan, thanks very much for your kind comment :-)
Sorry to hear that you’ve had RA for over 18 years, I understand how difficult and painful your life must have been. Good luck with your nutritional solution I’m sure you will succeed. Please let me know if you have questions or need a bit of support. You probably already studied these aspects of your RA and health, but just in case; have a read about ‘leaky gut’ and also parasitic infections; worms and flukes etc. Best wishes for a successful recovery.
Paula Mcdaniels says
I have recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and am in a lot of pain. I’ve been o medication for only a week though, so I know it’s early. Would you be willing to share your diet? I have looked on the Internet but would live to hear what you eat for such tremendous success.
Brian Darby says
Hi Paula, thanks for your comment.
First let me apologise for such a long delay in replying, I was very ill for a long time and am only recently recovering and restarting my blog.
I am so sorry to hear that you were diagnosed with RA, I hope you have managed to improve since and that you are now doing well. With regards to your question; I have since improved my diet significantly and have learned a great deal more since you commented. If you are still interested I would be happy to explain more about my current diet in an effort to try to help, please comment again anyway and let me know how you are getting on. I wish you the best of health.