Curing Rheumatoid Arthritis – Removing the Causes
Over the three and a half plus decades in which I’ve had rheumatoid arthritis, the severity of my symptoms has varied greatly day by day, even hour by hour. Stress, weather, sleep, exercise all had an impact but I eventually discovered that my diet was the most powerful symptom-determining factor.
I had a low-level tooth/gum infection throughout this time which gradually became worse in more recent years to the point where it became a critical health issue and I had to get it treated. I had a course of powerful antibiotics which significantly reduced the infection and I later had the tooth removed and the socket cleaned. I now believe that this tooth infection set the stage for the development of my rheumatoid arthritis by releasing pathogenic bacteria over a long period of time and compromising my immune system. The combination of dietary triggers (via leaky gut) and the bacterial infection from the tooth caused and promoted my RA.
I came to realise many years ago that when I stopped eating (apart from filtered water) all my symptoms would reduce then disappear. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, I could only maintain this for a few days at a time. It was very ironic that eating (essential for survival) was actually killing me.
So, I began to experiment with my diet and spent many many years trying to isolate and identify the particular foods that were causing my symptoms (at this stage I wasn’t taking the tooth infection seriously). I subsequently read dozens of books on this specific subject, all very interesting but most of them contradictory.
Unfortunately, although I tried hundreds of times over a thirty odd year period I could never produce a diet that worked and still allowed me to be healthy. Drinking water and breathing fresh air just wasn’t enough :-)
I did manage to identify a number of foods (and food substances) which were particularly devastating to me, and I was very optimistic each time that removing these from my diet would cure my illness. Alas, no… I realised that there had to be some thing (or things) causing a reaction that I was eating all the time, no matter which diet variation I tried.
The problem was (still is) that in the real world I had to earn a living, run my company, take care of hundreds of things every day, every week… It was almost impossible to stick to any kind of test diet without drifting off slightly or becoming discouraged and giving up.
Whenever the stress increased, the accuracy of my dietary experiments would decrease. After working fourteen hours on my computer or on-site, it was difficult to avoid drinking a coffee or making a quick snack that wasn’t quite within my test limitations ;-)
The problem is, in my experience with rheumatoid arthritis, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are, how good your diet is, or how old you are, if you eat the wrong thing you become ill.
Ultimately I did develop a diet which effectively cured my rheumatoid arthritis for a period of several years, eventually however, my tooth infection gradually became worse and my diet was no longer enough to maintain remission. At this point I sought treatment for the infection and later had the tooth removed, but due to the infection and the antibiotic treatment I received, as well as mistakes made by several doctors; my RA became even more aggressive and destructive than before.
Since then I’ve been trying to recover for the second time and reach the point where I’m in remission again or effectively cured. This time around it’s been much more difficult and I’ve had to do a tremendous amount of work and research to achieve modest results for myself (so far). The reason I’m writing this is because I feel certain that the knowledge I’ve gained through this process will help fellow rheumatoid arthritis sufferers to reduce their symptoms, halt the progression of their disease, and hopefully in many cases reverse it. I know for myself, if I’d had this knowledge just five years ago I could have maintained my cure and stayed in remission, and avoided all of the subsequent suffering and wasted time. I’d be extremely happy if I could help even one other person to avoid my current situation.
At this point I’m going to update this page to reflect my current (as of 2018) diet and lifestyle which is based on everything I’ve learned and experienced since I originally wrote the content for this page. I’ll leave my original, earlier conclusions and RA diet cure below towards the end of this page. It was effective at the time and may be helpful for those who don’t want to adopt a fully whole food plant-based diet.
My Whole Food Plant-Based Anti-Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet (2018)
I now eat a whole food plant-based diet because prior to adopting this diet I wasn’t making any progress with my RA. My current diet is made up from the following whole food groups.
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Legumes
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Grains
- Fungii
I don’t eat any processed foods, fast foods, packaged foods, snack foods, cafe or restaurant foods or alcohol. I don’t eat anything with an ingredients list.
I don’t eat any added processed oils or fats.
I don’t eat any meat, dairy or any other animal products.
I’ve minimised my added salt intake to a maximum of 1.5 g per day, often I don’t have any added salt.
Likewise, I’ve minimised my added sugar intake to 5 g per day or less.
Currently, I take only two supplements; B12 and an algae derived DHA.
I drink plenty of filtered water.
I try to obtain around twenty minutes of sunshine each day when possible in order to obtain my D hormones.
I try to sleep seven hours each night starting before midnight when possible.
I aim to do at least forty-five minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day.
The summary above represents the base of my current anti-rheumatoid arthritis lifestyle and I’ve highlighted the most important components of it. It’s not an easy lifestyle to adopt but it is very simple, and based on current knowledge it’s by far the most health promoting and disease preventing lifestyle, not just in terms of rheumatoid arthritis but for all other chronic diseases.
To treat my rheumatoid arthritis I’m combining the above lifestyle with the identification and elimination of RA triggers. As I mentioned earlier it’s important to have a health promoting lifestyle as a base but for the treatment of RA it’s extremely important to remove inflammatory triggers.
For the majority of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers the most common inflammatory triggers are usually; dairy products, gluten-containing grains, nightshade vegetables, corn, trans-fats, saturated fat (especially animal fat), any highly processed so-called foods, cigarettes, alcohol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (speak with your medical practitioner before changing any medication), and citrus fruits. Regardless of specific triggers which vary from person to person, I believe in all cases of RA that dairy products should be removed from the diet immediately.
I’ve found that the best approach is to start with a very simple starch-based meal and eat that for a week and see if RA symptoms improve. The starch-based meal should be as simple as possible for example rice and broccoli with a little added sea salt, or buckwheat and Brussels sprouts with some added sea salt :-) as long as you obtain enough calories from the starch base and include some greens then this should form a safe starting point for the identification of food-based RA triggers. If symptoms calm down after eating this simple meal for about a week then individual new food items can be introduced one at a time for a period of two days each time, whilst monitoring symptoms. If you react badly to a particular food item, remove it again for a period of two days and then try a different food item. A highly nutritious and enjoyable diet can then be developed based on whole foods, diet which no longer triggers or aggravates RA symptoms.
I’m currently creating a number of recipes with photographs and videos which I will post here on this page to help fellow RA sufferers who want to trial my method of treating rheumatoid arthritis :-) in the meantime, I’ve provided quite a lot of information and tips in some of my more recent posts including explanations of why I think this approach offers the best chance of recovery.
My original (old) anti-rheumatoid arthritis diet can be found below, this is from 2009 but I prefer my new approach which I’ve described above (2018).
I Managed to Build a Safe Anti-Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet (2009)
As I explained in my ‘About Me‘ page; some time ago with some deduction and reasoning but mostly luck, I finally discovered some foods which were safe for me (at the time) :-)
So, here is the result of my initial twenty-eight years of study, research and experimentation. This worked for me, not just a bit, not just sometimes; it worked 100% as long as I stuck to the diet. However, it wasn’t easy and required stupid amounts of willpower. So if you are going to try this, then follow these instructions literally. If you’ve known the pain of arthritis, then you should be able to find the willpower to give it a go. You’ve nothing to lose (except maybe a few pounds in weight) and everything to gain :-) Also, keep an eye on my latest posts for more recent insights into RA and for my latest dietary changes.
Obviously, if you’re already on a very strict diet prescribed by your doctor, or if you suffer from another illness which a change in diet may adversely affect, then seek medical advice before making any changes. Then use common sense.
In my own experience, I would suggest trying this for one month if you can manage. If it’s going to work for you, you’ll know within this time. In fact, you should notice a difference within a day or so, but persevere anyway.
Foods and Other Substances Bad for Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Cigarettes.
- Alcohol.
- Illegal substances (I have to mention this, because many people use them and they will have an effect on the success of this solution).
- Junk food: burgers, fish and chips, curries, pizzas, fizzy drinks etc.
- Processed foods, ready meals, mixed foods, TV dinners, microwavable stuff etc.
- All fried food, all baked food, all grilled food. No cooked fat or oil whatsoever.
Stick to this diet and this diet only, nothing else literally, no tap water, no fruit drinks, no nibbles, no one off chocolates, no sips of your friend’s coffee, don’t even use toothpaste or gargle with mouthwash! You have to put only the following foods into your body and nothing else (apart from any essential prescribed drugs of course), ideally for a month.
If you’re taking pain killers or NSAIDS by your own choice, i.e. you decide when to take them to suit your pain levels, then try to reduce the quantity or frequency or remove them altogether after the first day, and see if you can manage without them.
Here Is the Diet That Removed the Symptoms of My Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Filtered water (use one of the many carbon filtering systems available).
- Organic tea (bags).
- Natural unrefined cane sugar.
- Soy milk (I initially used Sainsbury’s own brand, but subsequently switched to organic soy milk with D3).
- LoSalt, the actual brand name one, not an equivalent (later I switched to Himalayan Pink Salt).
- Black pepper – buy the peppercorns and grind your own, don’t use normal pepper powder.
- Extra Virgin, cold-pressed olive oil. Don’t use any other oil or fat, at all.
- Potatoes.
- Carrots.
- Parsnips.
- Swedes.
- Brussels sprouts.
- Cabbage.
- Broccoli.
- Bananas.
- Tinned tuna fish in spring water (only spring water!).
- Tomato puree (the bottled stuff made from tomatoes and more tomatoes!)
OK, that’s it. Make your tea with the filtered water, soy milk and unrefined sugar. Clean (but don’t peel) the vegetables and steam them using the method described below. Mix the tuna fish with olive oil, tomato puree, a little LoSalt and some black pepper, then blend it together. Put the steamed veg on a plate, put a little LoSalt, pepper and olive oil on them, and then empty the fish paste onto the veg and enjoy! Eat bananas as a snack, maybe two or three each day if you like.
It was actually quite nice, but I must admit after 2400 servings or so, it began to lose its appeal :-)
Steaming the Veg
Use a typical steaming arrangement (one of the many tiered pan sets that are available) or just use my method. I used a medium sized pan with a few centimetres of filtered water in the bottom, then I placed a colander type pan over this which contained the veg. I put the lid on the top, set the flame to a fairly low setting and let the boiling water do its job. Usually it took about twenty minutes or so. Watch that it doesn’t boil dry ;-) I did this many times!
Making the Fish Paste
Use a small hand blender if you have one, there’s less washing up to do later. Open a medium tin of tuna fish (in spring water!) and drain off the water as much as you can, you just want the fish. Empty the fish into the blender cup. Add about an egg cup full of olive oil (or less if you prefer). Pour some tomato puree in straight from the bottle, about two or three egg cups full. Add a little LoSalt and black pepper.
Screw the twizzy thing onto the blender cup and shake it up (it helps with the blending process). Then blend it until it becomes a smooth paste.
Final points
I just want to stress that the above list of foods is all that should pass your lips! Nothing else at all if possible. This is a perfectly healthy diet by any standards and you must try to manage on it if you want to give this a proper chance.
I have since found other food items which are OK for me and I am continuing to experiment. I will post the results here on my blog and I would appreciate it if you could do likewise for the benefit of other readers (myself included). You are welcome to comment at the foot of this page or on any relevant post.
Good luck, try your best and I sincerely hope it works for you too :-)
Harman says
Hello Brian!
Thank you so much for your page.
I have been living with rheumatoid arthritis since past 7 years now.I was off from my meds for a year last year. But my symptoms have started coming back since 2 months now. I am going to follow your diet plan and hopefully it will work for me as well:). My questions to you are: can we eat other vegetables like green beans, eggplant etc, or i should strictly stick to the ones that you have mentioned. And what about chicken and eggs?
Brian says
Hi Harman,
Thank you very much for your comment, apologies for my extremely late reply I have been very ill for some time and also very busy with my company so unfortunately I neglected my blogs for a while out of necessity.
Thank you and I hope my diet will help you too. :)
İf you want to try and get an immediate improvement, I would try to stick to my diet for a week, maybe two if you can manage. If it works well for you, you can easily add more things later. In general, many vegetables are ok but I would avoid corn, chickpeas, and other legumes/beans at first.
Avoid chicken. Egg yolks are the best and safest part of eggs, but eggs can be a problem for some people, so avoid at first.
I mentioned a list of suggestions to Tyrene in the previous comment on this page; it may worth you checking through these too, especially looking for problems with teeth.
Hope that helps a little, take care.
Harman says
Thank you so much Brian!!
Brian says
You’re welcome :-) Let me know if you need any help.
Tyrene Black says
Hi Brian,
It has been very interesting reading your blog. I am a 35yrs old with recently diagnosed RA (3yrs ago but had another baby, now 3mnths old, before talking to specialist about drugs). I am not on any medication as I have refused Methotrexate and I am trying to find a cure instead. I have read three books so far that have all promoted elimination & vegan diets. I have been experimenting over the last 12 days and have seen pain relief and quiet dramatic reduction in swelling in my hands. I saw my RA Specialist last week to say I will not be going on the drug and she has said that diet will not cure this terrible disease. I see her again in June and I am determined to prove her wrong and cure myself.
Although the elimination diet has worked there are still niggles and I have cut out things like the recommended Buckwheat & Quinoa. Could it be toothpaste? I have also read about shampoo and creams…what do you use as toothpaste and can you use shampoo, etc.
Going to definately give your diet a go and will let you know how I get on.
Brian says
Hi Tyrene,
Thank you very much for your comment, apologies for my extremely late reply I have been very ill for some time and also very busy with my company so unfortunately I neglected my blogs for a while out of necessity.
I’m glad you found my blog interesting, much appreciated.
I am of the same mind, I would much rather find the cause of my RA than suppress the symptoms with drugs that cause even more symptoms (often worse than the RA). In the meantime I use natural methods to control the symptoms and damage (along with some targeted orthodox treatment when necessary).
Yes, diet has an enormous impact on rheumatoid arthritis (I speak from 30 years’ experience, medical professionals are welcome to disagree, but it is an absolute fact). The problem is that no one type of diet is effective for everyone. My diet and some elimination diets have proven to be the most effective for me and many of my friends and contacts throughout the world. In many cases, cutting out all processed food and trans-fats is enough to provide a huge improvement in RA, particularly for a person whose diet is largely fast and processed food.
Your RA specialist is typically demoralising, it may be that diet will not cure in the medical sense, but it can and often does eliminate most or all symptoms and for me, this is a cure. So far, in over 30 years with this illness, I have never met a medical professional who has experienced rheumatoid arthritis first-hand. If they had, they would be as scared as the rest of us, and would be less dismissive and more sympathetic and understanding – and more importantly, they would spend more time keeping up with the latest advances in treatment; both medical and dietary (of which there are many).
I understand; I have been through many phases where I suspected the tiniest thing might be causing or affecting my RA, including toothpaste. However, I think it’s important to look for more fundamental causes first, before getting on to smaller possibilities. For example, check for the following: any kind of problem with your teeth, especially an abscess; buy a home test kit for celiac disease and see if you have a problem with gluten; forgive me for suggesting this next one, but it is important – hepatitis, chlamydia and one or two others can also cause RA – I had myself tested for these and others, a long time ago – negative thankfully; chlorine and other tap water chemicals, buy a carbon water filter and only drink and cook with this filtered water, see if it makes any difference to you; cut out all polyunsaturated oils from your diet, just eat cold-pressed olive oil for a while; make sure you are getting enough vitamin D – if you spend a lot of time inside, it might be worth asking your GP for a test, if you are deficient, buy a good quality D3 supplement made from sheep skin/wool oil. These are just a few major things which are worthwhile checking and trying.
My diet provides a great start for anyone wanting to try something simple and effective, it works well for me. A personal elimination diet would be even better but more complicated. My diet eliminates many of the most common intolerances for RA and at the same time provides many anti-inflammatory ingredients such as olive oil, broccoli, and some omega 3 oil from the tuna (not much because of the tinning process, but some).
Take good care of yourself, and do let me know how you get on :-)
Melinda Kent says
Hi Brian and other contributors,
I have had RA since I was 8. I am now 31. Over the years I have required medication and for a period of ten years it seemed to disappear! The last 6 years though it returned with vengence….I have been on methatrexate, predlisone and now for the past 6 years I have been on plaquenil 2 tablets daily. This has worked great but unfortunately 2 days ago my left leg looks very similar to the pics above. I can hardly move my knee, difficulty getting dressed and I cant even drive my car as I cant release the clutch quick enough due to minimal movement in my leg.
Waiting to see my rheumy on monday to see where we will head. I had a cortisone injection two weeks ago as i had minimal swelling but obviously that didnt work.
I am also been tested for Cealiacs disease as I have a long standing digestive problem as well. Reports I have read it that many suffering RA are also Gluten intolerant and the best appraoch for any RA person is to cut gluten out of their diet completely. I am going to start this on Monday as I am fed up anything is worth a try. I must say for the past 2 months I have been on a clean eating diet but still consuming some wheat for my testing for cealiacs to come out accurate.
It’s nice to know Im not the only one out there suffering!!!!!
Brian says
Hi Melinda,
Thank you very much for your comment, apologies for my extremely late reply I have been very ill for some time and also very busy with my company so unfortunately I neglected my blogs for a while out of necessity.
Melinda, it must have been so difficult for you to have RA at such an early age, I am amazed that you managed to cope. I understand very well, and I understand about the car; I have been driving an automatic for many years now simply because it is so much easier to use.
That’s a pity, usually direct cortisone injections are the most effective mainstream treatment (with minimal side effects), at least they have been for me.
The digestive problems are often caused by the medication (diclofenacs for example). I think often that is the other way around, people with rheumatoid arthritis are often given the same types of drug therapy, which can then lead to a host of side effects such as ‘Leaky Gut Syndrome’, and an ever increasing list of food intolerances.
The one thing you have to do, is keep trying… it is definitely possible to cure RA, there are very specific causes and if you can find yours, you can remove it and become well again. I believe I have recently found the original cause of my own rheumatoid arthritis and I will be writing about this of course, once I hopefully prove it to be the case.
You are not the only one :-) there are hundreds of millions of us around the world..
Take care of yourself and good luck!
Cynthiane says
hi Brian
I found your blog interesting, found it by chance while browsing the internet. I thought it was worth mentioning that I have found out some of this information on my own, but my hot foods seem to be different than yours. I find I do better if I limit almost all carbs for a while, I think I may have some food allergies to some of the foods that do me harm (i.e. dairy… have switched to almond milk). I have lupus, sjogren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, hashimoto’s, raynaud’s and fibromyalgia. Doctor is starting me on chemo medication now as the immuno suppressing meds are not slowing the progression as we had hoped. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Be well and here’s hoping your continue to find other ways to manage your illness. xx
Brian says
Hi Cynthiane,
Thanks very much for your comment, apologies for extremely late reply I have been very ill for some time and also very busy with my company so unfortunately I neglected my blogs for a while out of necessity.
I am really sorry to hear that you have so many problems at the same time, even I can’t imagine how difficult that must be for you. I understand and I hope the chemotherapy has worked for you, my fingers are crossed for you :-)
Thanks you so much for your kind wishes, I hope the same for you too. I have done a massive amount of research in the last few months and also tried a huge number of new strategies and solutions for my RA. I will be writing about these very soon, there are some genuinely encouraging new developments plus I have discovered some new things which are very beneficial.
Take good care
Brian xx
Mark says
Hi Brian,
I’ve had RA since I was 12 and have had several surgeries but none really helped. And I also tried lots of different medicine like Methotrexate but I get really sick from them.
Recently I’ve been looking into food myself and find your diet very interesting.
You say in your conclusion that it is a short term diet, but you have been using it for 2 years, is that right?
Let me know thanks :) And take care,
Mark
Mark says
I wasn’t able to edit my post ha,
But I forgot to mention that I can relate to how you felt, feeling down and disconnected from the world as you can’t participate in normal life as much as you’d like.
I try to keep myself busy as to not think about my disability, that usually works for me.
Brian says
Hi Mark,
I don’t think it’s possible to edit ‘posted’ posts :) but I’ll look into the programming and see!
Thanks for that, I appreciate it :-)
I’m the same, I am running a small IT/web design company, teaching English and Turkish languages, running my blogs, and recording the occasional song or two! ;-) Keeping busy definitely helps..
Brian says
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your comment, sorry to hear that you’ve had RA since you were 12, that’s really rough…
Yes, Methotrexate drugs and similar are very strong with well documented side effects, as you will be very well aware of course.
It’s interesting that methotrexate is used to terminate pregnancies and also to treat cancer; clearly a powerful drug ;)
Thanks Mark, I’m glad you had a look at my diet. It has worked for me (when I stick closely to it) for something like three years now and continues to work, though I am always trying to improve on it and extend it too.
Yes, I’ve been using it for around three years as I mentioned, and I’m also developing it further. The reason for the ‘short term’ use recommendation is because I don’t want to suggest to people reading my blog, that my diet is ideal nutritionally, over the long term. ‘I’ am prepared to use it long term because it is better for me than the alternative, which is to take the types of drugs we mentioned above. However, I can’t make that decision for other people and it would be irresponsible of me to try.
Nutritionally, there are a number of other oils, vitamins and minerals which I would like to add to the diet, I am trying to achieve this now. When I have successfully expanded the diet further, I will add the details to my blog.
So for now, I would recommend to people that they try my diet for a month initially as this would be enough to discover if my diet will work for them too. If it works, then it could be continued for a couple more months, but I would suggest during this time that people try to gradually add more food items back into their diet until they are getting all the nutrition they need.
Cod liver oil with fish oil would be a good thing to add for example, and I’ve found it to be relatively ok RA wise… Most other root vegetables appear to be ok too and I’ve tried pears successfully for example. However, to give the diet a chance, stick to it literally for one month (unless you have some other medical condition which needs to be taken into account).
Hope that helps Mark :-)
You take care too, don’t hesitate to ask if I can help in any way; I’m busy with my company/work but I will always reply as soon as I can :)