Hi! I have had Rheumatoid Arthritis since I was 13 (almost 20 years!) and I've had ups and downs, and for the past 5 years or so I've been implementing nutrition and natural ways of healing, which have been pretty effective.  I've never really been on any medication since I refuse to since I don't want a host of liver and kidney problems in addition to the arthritis! I can usually fight it with well enough with diet and stretching, chiropractic, massage, etc.  As for diet, I've basically been a flirt for several years, since I know animal products promote inflammation.  I started hardcore flirting about 3 months ago and with this recent flare-up I've gone strict Vegan (with mostly superhero foods), starting about a month ago.  I've experienced the common detox symptoms stated on the site and the book (grumpy grumpy grumpy!), but overall feel better in my head and lighter on my feet.  However the inflammation is NOT better and feels worse!  It is so painful!! I'm sleeping terribly, can hardly move around during the day.  It hurts to touch my back in several places.  I'm so frustrated!   Could this be rheumatoid detox??  Does anyone have any  suggestions for relieving inflammation that I'm not thinking of?  I'm also trying my best to avoid Nightshades.  I'm stretching, walking, drinking lots of water, eating well, chewing my food.  I'm considering acupuncture... any thoughts??  Thank you!

Hi Celina,

I would agree that I would also have expected your system to be able to settle down after avoiding exposure to the common triggers (animal products). It is possible for these symptoms to also be caused by other foods like nightshades, corn, gluten or soy. The immune system is more likely to make antibodies to animal products but any dietary protein is a possibility.

If you have been superhero for about a month and feeling worse maybe there is some food or ingredient there that is the culprit. Acupuncture has a good track record at reducing these types of inflammatory patterns but I tend to look to diet for the permanent solution.

Justin

I feel for you. I was just diagnosed 2 days ago after a knee surgery. I am in constant pain 24-7.  I too would love to hear from anyone who has had success with this.

The Superhero plan has a very good track record against this syndrome. It is essential to remove animal protein from the diet and especially the dairy proteins casein and whey. Make sure these ingredients are no-where to be found in your diet! they are often hidden. It can take a few weeks to start to feel better.

With such a plan, many have found remission. If you can't figure it all out, relatively quickly, all by yourself, don't despair or give up, consider a consultation with a macrobiotic councillor.

Neal Bernard, MD also has a book out concerning food and chronic pain.  You can buy it on PCRM's (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine) website.

 

Doctor Barnard's Elimination Diet

 

Start with a simple baseline diet, excluding foods that are more common triggers (dairy products, corn, meats, wheat, oats and rye, eggs, citrus fruits, potatoes, tomatoes, nuts, and coffee), and including only those foods not implicated in arthritis, listed below:

Brown rice. Cooked or dried fruits (cherries, cranberries, pears, prunes). Cooked green, yellow, and orange vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, chard, collards, lettuce, spinach, string beans, squash, sweet potatoes, tapioca, and taro). Plain or carbonated water. Condiments (modest amounts of salt, maple syrup, vanilla extract).

After approximately 4 weeks on this diet, if symptoms have improved or disappeared patients may introduce previously eliminated foods one at a time, every 2 days. Patients should keep a food diary and add these foods in generous amounts to observe which cause arthritic symptoms. Foods listed above as common triggers should be added last. A newly added food associated with increased joint pain should be removed from the diet for 1 to 2 weeks, and reintroduced to see if the same reaction occurs. If no symptoms are experienced, that food can be kept in the diet.

Thanks Justin for your recommendations. I am going to get Dr. Barnard's book. If anyone else that has suffered from RA & has tips I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Since being aware of the pain/diet connection I have noticed that I experience MORE pain the day after eating dairy or sugar.  Has anyone else noticed this connection?  Has anyone else out there tried Dr. Bernard's elimination diet?  If so, what are your results?

I'm curious as to other's results as well.  I have a close friend with RA who I'm trying to convince to go vegan.

The only thing I would add is that several studies lately have shown that sugar causes inflammation. Try cutting that out and see if it helps. :)

I have advocated elimination diets for auto immune disorders like RA for ten years with tremendous success.

The vegan approach is commonly all that is needed to put the disorder in remission. The vegan approach still has several potential triggers so some people would have needed to go superhero. Even the superhero approach has the potential of containing triggers so a drastic elimination plan is used fro a short time to try and determine cause and effect.

Once the culprit is identified (often it is dairy, could be sugar), it is eliminated along with the disorder itself.

I have been experimenting with food choices & have found that I DEFINATELY have more pain the day after eating too much sugar.  It is hard to give it up all together...but decreasing it has helped.

my mom has RA and went into remission for over 15 years just by eliminating certain foods!  sugar is HUGE!  no sugar.  None.  going the whole foods non-processed way is the way to go.  

She came out of remission about 2 years ago - would have inflamation so bad that once we had to rush her to the ER  - we had her tested for food sensitivities - not food allergies, food sensitivities.  She came up positive for, among other things, coconut, soy and wheat.  Took her off these things.  Within 24 hours her hands which were swollen to twice their size came down.  Within a few weeks she was able to sleep through the night and walk.  She still has a lot of issues that we are dealing with, but just eliminating the sensitive foods has given her about 50% improvement.  We did the Prime test, which is not readily available.  Another good one is ELISIAC.  

there is a definite link between food sensitivities and autoimmune disease.

also consider anti-inflamatory things like omega oils, quercitin, bromolin and other natural supplements.

 

I don't know enough about RA so this may not work.. but with Gout the vegan diet did the trick for my hubby.  But before he would agree to this and continued to eat meat his flare ups were so bad, he couldn't move.  I filled up a bath tub with water and some Apple Cider Vinegar.  After soaking his foot/ankle/leg, he experienced full mobility and the swelling went down considerably.

So now he does that with every flare up... but since eliminating all meat and most dairy, he hasn't had a flare up in over a year.

My friend has pre-mature arthritis in her hands (she is only 30ish) and when drinking green smoothies every day, her pain started to go away.  I do feel food is huge in fixing... just finding the triggers is the hard part.

Good luck and I hope you continue to feel better quickly.

Such wonderful comments & recommendations! Thanks to all who are contibuting!