Personal Diet Interacts with Arthritis

For most people food and drink are more than ways of keeping ourselves alive. They’re comforts and celebrations, at least that’s how I feel about what I eat. I like to eat what I want when I feel like it, but that’s not always the best idea.

When I was first diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2005, I seemed to scramble at every type of relief I came across. My husband found a book on Amazon, about a woman who overcame her debilitating pain by fasting. I thought, “I’m in a lot of pain, maybe this is for me!” We ordered the book and I dove in. She explained how the digestive tract is crucial to the immune system and that when she fasted she was able to do all kinds of the things that hadn’t been able to do in years. She had been in a wheelchair and now rides a bike. The book suggested enemas and a diet of raw vegetable juice. We bought a juicer and a lot of veggies. I am 5′11″ and weigh 120 lbs, I need to gain weight instead of losing it and drinking nothing but vegetable juice for a week isn’t going to be the best for that. After the first 24, I was begging to have anything else but juice. I was so hungry and miserable. I was ready to accept the pain of arthritis, if I could just eat what I wanted to.

A few days after my attempt at this new diet, I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist and I told him about this juice diet I was attempting. He was quite alarmed and told me to stop it right away. “Yes sir!!” I had no problem with that! There were other routes to take for me, not that the diet wasn’t a good idea, it just wasn’t right for me, because of how slender I am. I need energy for my body to help itself and my metabolism is too high to use this method of reducing pain.

He sent me home with a bunch of reading to do. Information of how to test different foods to see how I react with them. That was very helpful and I noticed that after consuming red peppers and red wine, I would have a flare up within minutes. I removed those from my list of foods to eat. I hadn’t realized how often I had red peppers and enjoyed a glass of red wine. But I miss them less than I miss the flare ups!

When we moved back to Canada I began to see a wonderful Naturopath/holistic doctor. I found that to be a major help in controlling pain. We discussed the medications I take, my conditions with Marfans and bloodthinners, my body weight, energy and activity levels. She reaffirmed the fact that the digestive tract is the big role in the immune system, but there are good ways of cleansing it and repairing it. For 4 weeks I was put on a cleansing diet- no dairy, no red meat or pork, no salt, no gluten, no sugar, no wheat, no corn- no fun! It was something I didn’t want to do- at all. But I thought, “Four weeks, that’s it and then I can reintroduce other foods back in. It’ll be worth and it’ll teach me some self-discipline as well.” The first two weeks were fine, I found a lot of great recipes off the internet, and good food in the health food section at the grocery stores. But by the 3rd week, I could’ve eaten a stick of butter and 7 lbs of chocolate!!

Week number four was done and I was back in the doctor’s office, very proud, and pretty much pain free! We started reintroducing one type of food back in at a time and I took down a lot of notes. Red meat and pork, were things I was bummed out to find that I reacted badly to them. Shell fish was a major trigger for flare-ups, but most of everything else was not a problem. I don’t think I eat enough wheat from day to day to notice any problem and I make sure sugar is is a low quantity.

There are foods that are aids for me as well as triggers. White wine has seemed to help quite a bit. I have one glass in the evening and the next day is a good day, I notice it when I haven’t had any white wine for a week or so, I’m a bit more stiff. Probiotic yogurt is a plus too, it seems to help my body fight off those viruses and bugs that my kids bring home with them from school. I don’t get as sick as often as I was even 6 months ago!

I’m going to go grab a snack- see you tomorrow!

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