If I hit my thumb with a hammer, it would hurt and it would become inflamed, but after a couple of days or so the pain and swelling would disappear. Great, this is my body doing its job and repairing the damage, it does this amazingly well.
If I repeatedly hit my thumb with a hammer, say three times a week, then the pain would increase, the inflammation would increase and the damage would increase. If I took pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs, maybe I could stand the pain and maybe the inflammation could be controlled, but the damage would still be done and pretty soon my thumb would be permanently destroyed beyond repair.
I like my thumb very much (in fact I like both of them!), so in order to keep it in perfect health, which of the following methods would I choose?
- Take lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs and try to take my mind off it.
- Stop hitting my thumb with a hammer.
I would choose option 2. It’s obvious and it’s common sense and this has been my approach to tackling my rheumatoid arthritis. I’m an engineer and my entire life’s experience tells me that there is always a cause and effect, so I decided to look for the cause of my arthritis instead of just dealing with its effects.
Treat the Cause of Rheumatoid Arthritis Not Just the Symptoms
It amazes, saddens and depresses me that almost all of the research I have read concerning therapies for rheumatoid arthritis deals almost exclusively with treating the symptoms and not the cause. Please don’t misunderstand me here, treating the pain and inflammation is important in order to function and get through each day with RA. However, every encounter I’ve had with a medical professional has produced the same basic response; treat the pain and inflammation, control the damage, and monitor the side effects.
However, there is rarely a hint of a cure, a reason for optimism, a sign of hope; it’s as if they have forgotten about the ‘hammer’, ‘the elephant in the room’… With all due respect, that was, and is not, good enough for me. I wanted to find the cause and remove it. As far as I’m aware none of the (many) medical professionals that I have consulted over several decades, has ever experienced the effects of rheumatoid arthritis for themselves.
“It’s a problem with the body’s immune system, it mistakenly attacks the joints.” Hmm… I was walking along one day, perfectly healthy, minding my own business, been that way for twenty five years or so, then suddenly I have rheumatoid arthritis? Suddenly it leapt out from behind a bush, re-programmed my immune system then said “Ha! Got you!”… I’m afraid I can’t accept this.
My arthritis didn’t just sneak up on me; something caused it. Something triggered it. Yes, I am sure there are contributory factors for many people such as a genetic disposition to having a weaker immune system, perhaps heavy smoking or excessive alcohol for example, but despite these factors and whether a person is more or less susceptible; I believe there is still a catalytic cause. This cause may be developing over time or it may occur suddenly; I would like to talk more about this in another post later.
If it’s a problem with my immune system, then why does my immune system become operational again once I stop eating? If it was my immune system, it would continue to be faulty, it wouldn’t say “Eyup lads we can take a break from dismantling this knee, he’s stopped eating.”
I believe the illness caused by rheumatoid arthritis is more like an allergy or the effects of a poison. For example, if a person is allergic to peanuts a doctor will recommend ‘not eating peanuts’, the doctor will not say “Continue eating peanuts and take these drugs to counteract the effects.” In this case the cause is well known, so the solution is to remove the cause; the peanuts… ‘the hammer’.
In my own experience, rheumatoid arthritis behaves the same way. When I eat certain foods my body reacts badly, obviously I’ve upset it and it’s trying to repair the damage or imbalance that I’ve caused by introducing some sort of poisonous or disagreeable foods into my body. The task for me was to discover which ones, and whether any other materials might be contributing to the problem such as toothpaste, tap water or vitamin supplements etc.
Composite “Thumb“, “Sign” and “Hammer” images are all 
public domain
Brian,
I just discovered your blog and am so very grateful for what you have shared. I, too, am an engineer with RA. Like you, I have refused to take any of the prescription medicines rheumatologists have recommended. I agree with you that diet is the answer to eliminate RA symptoms. I also agree that there has to be something that triggers RA in each of us. An injury, an exposure, or an overload of stress.
I was in my early thirties, working 12-hour days in addition to teaching aerobics classes three times a week, when RA arrived one morning as an unbearable pain in my feet. RA soon progressed throughout many of my joints, always arriving with a pain I described as something like “being set on fire and then jack hammered.” Like you, I read dozens of books and experimented with my diet to try to stop the pain, swelling and heat. (You are right: there are a lot of interesting books, but so much conflicting information!) Meanwhile, I had to give up my aerobics classes; my cello, guitar and piano began collecting dust. I eventually had to have reconstructive surgery on both feet to be able to walk. I never stopped working or gave up my coffee with honey each morning. (I agree with you that it is tough to work in stressful, busy jobs while dealing with RA. Pain can make it so hard to stay positive.) I eventually learned that if I ate nothing but raw fruits and vegetables, the RA pain would reduce significantly within a few days. Later, I discovered green smoothies, made only from raw greens and fruit, would calm almost all symptoms within three days. I could maintain the raw food diet or smoothies for a few weeks, but then I would go out of my mind craving salt, cheese or bread. I could follow the weeks of raw foods with a short time eating whatever I wanted without pain, but then all the pain would return…with more pain…when I continued to have any ‘ normal’ foods. I tried an elimination diet and gradually learned that dairy, vinegar, meat, any canned or processed foods, wheat based foods and any ‘fast’ foods were the primary culprits of my RA symptoms. Yes, pretty much everything except fruits and vegetables caused pain.
So, this is why I was fascinated by your list of ‘safe’ foods: I was not surprised by the vegetables, but I was surprised by filtered water and tuna. I was surprised to not see many more fruits and vegetables. Has it been your experience that other foods do cause RA symptoms? Or, has it been your experience that your list of recommended foods is beneficial in that they allow one’s body to heal? What is it about filtered water that is better for us? Has it worked for you long term to stay on your diet six days a week and to have one day off per week? This sounds promising, and may be the sanity I need in my approach.
Thanks so much again for sharing your story and success with your diet. It is so good to communicate with others have discovered the truth about the connection between our health and diet.
Angela
Hi Angela, thanks so much for sharing your story I really appreciate it. Sorry for my late reply I’ve been away from my blog for some time due to a resurgence of RA caused by a long course of strong antibiotics (Rheumatoid Arthritis – Infection Plus a Gut Reaction).
It’s great to hear from another engineer and fellow musician; I understand you completely – my guitar and violin have been collecting dust for about three years now. Yes: stress, diet and one or more triggers!
I also understand your description of the pain… It must have been particularly demoralising for you as an aerobics instructor.
Well done for researching and persevering, I’m glad you found that fruit and veg (especially raw) are so helpful; this is my experience too. I understand the difficulty in maintaining this type of diet and also the cravings – mine were for cheese on toast ;-) It’s interesting that you also found vinegar to be a problem, this is something I discovered too more recently.
Yes, I see your point… The diet I described in ‘My Cure’ wasn’t meant to be a list of good or bad foods for RA as such, it was just a particular meal combination that worked for ‘me’ for quite a few years. It worked so I stuck with it; I think I ate that meal about a thousand times altogether! That was early days, I’ve learned so much more since then.
Definitely filtered water is very important, tap water often contains chlorine and fluoride which from memory, interferes with iodine absorption (iodine is essential for immune system health). Tuna was a compromise at the time; I’ve always been vegetarian but to survive on a very restricted diet at the time, I added tuna as the protein source since I didn’t react to it.
My current diet and lifestyle is pretty much as I describe in this post How to Avoid Rheumatoid Arthritis and Many Other Chronic Diseases so yes, I now eat lots of fruit and veg mostly raw. Yes, there are so many other foods that worsen my symptoms so like you, I stick to mostly raw fruit and veg but I include steamed veg and legumes. Yes, when I was in remission, I had one day a week where I could eat anything.
Thank you for sharing your story too, yes I agree completely, diet is probably responsible for 80% of our health. Hope you are continuing to improve.
Love your website!
You inspire me!
Hope to recover soon!
Hi Hanifa, thanks for your kind comment.
Sincere apologies for my very late reply. I have only recently returned to my blog after a long period of illness.
I hope you are well, please don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything I can help you with :-) I am keeping up to date with my blog now..