Alternative treatments for inflammatory arthritis.

Forget acupuncture or homeopathy for starters. Practitioners of both have told me they cannot touch RA.

Diet can relieve the pain somewhat.

On another thread a woman is reccommending very high doses of fish oil.

I'm a mainly-vegetarian anyway and tried non-dairy, no caffiene, no wheat, acu., homeo. family constellation and voice dialogue, and eventually, after 9 months of suffering, I surrendered to big pharma.

A healthy diet is always going to help. Weight loss very important to reduce the stress on the joints anyway. Exercise where it's not weight bearing is very good.

Best of luck!

I would recommend fasting on vegetable juices for a few days, in particular carrot, celery, cucumber, beetroot and kale - preferably using a slow press juicer because it preserves the enzymes and the juice can be stored for longer. Then re-introduce foods one a day to test if they cause problems, starting with fish, meat and vegetables. Do not eat gluten, dairy products or refined carbohydrates, including sugar, until you have plenty of foods to eat from the re-introduction and then introduce goats or sheeps yoghurt instead of cows milk. It is probably best not to eat gluten at all.

Yesterday, there were articles in the national press regarding new research funded by Arthritis UK that will look at the effect of the gut microbiome on the development of arthritis.  The idea is that the wrong type or excessive amounts of some gut bacteria can cause an auto immune response and inflammation in the joints and tendons.  Hopefully this research will work out which bacteria cause the greatest problem and how to control them. It's likely that overuse of antibiotics, particularly in childhood, has made the problem worse, but caesarian births and bottle feeding will have also contributed. Also various childhood illnesses caused by bacterial infections, i.e. tonsilitis may contribute - again, overuse of antibiotics and bacteria that mutates and settles in joints and also gastroenteritis.

It may take over five years before the scientists have any workable answers, but at least there may be some hope for sufferers of inflammatory arthritis, in particular.  I think they will probably suggest that the diet is changed as above, because it seems that the bacteria that causes most of the problems is the stuff that really likes sugar and refined carbohydrates. Also yeast must contribute to the problems as when antibiotics kill of all the bacteria in the gut, the yeast is untouched and grows excessively.

It may be a good idea to take a good probiotic that has been scientifically tested and provides good amounts of good bacteria, without fructosaccharides that can cause even more problems. Also, it may be a good idea to take a multivitamin and mineral each day (hypoallergenic) and at least 1000mg fish oil and 500mg evening primrose oil as these are anti-inflammatory. These supplements will give you the basics needed to prevent or correct any nutritional deficiencies without doing any harm.

Peppermint and ginger tea are very good and exercise is crucial.  If you are unable to walk far without pain, it may be a good idea to invest in an exercise bike and try your hardest to keep to an exercise regime for at least five minutes every morning and evening.  And also plenty of sun is needed or Vitamin D absorption and it may be a good idea to take Vitamin D3, say 1000mg during the winter.

Hope this all helps. With any luck, when doctors see the research coming in about the effect the microbiome has on health, they will able to offer better advice, including the possibility that nutrition has an effect.

Emis Moderator comment: I have removed product/company names as we do not allow repeated posting of these in the forums. If users wish to exchange these details please use the Private Message service.

http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398331-private-messages

http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/news/press-releases/2016/january/microbiome.aspx

I bought a newspaper on 25/01/2016 because it ran a first page headline on this research but I don't think the moderator will let me say which newspaper! I have taken the link from Arthritis Research UK as they are financing the research.

Also, you can gain more information about how to balance the gut microbiome by researching the dietary changes needed to alleviate the symptoms of illnesses such as crohns disease and ankylosing spondilitis as changes in diet have been proved to help the joint pains that accompany these illnesses. There are many research papers pointing to an imbalance in the gut microbiome causing illness particularly since the Human Microbiome Project was launched in 2008. It's just a question of waiting to see which bacteria/fungus cause problems and how to change the gut flora permanently so that good health can be managed.  

As the gut is unable to hold on to "unrecognised" bacteria for very long (i.e. any bacteria that was not introduced in the first 3/4 months as a baby), it's likely that the bacteria will need to be changed by adjusting the diet to specifically encourage the growth of healthy bacteria i.e. no refined carbohydrates and avoidance of individual food intolerances (which can cause gut fermentation due to malabsorption) together with the ingestion of daily "cultures" like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut etc. 

Unfortunately it can take a while to return to good health. If you follow an exclusion diet for a few weeks, work out which foods cause problems, then eat lots of vegetables, a little bit of fruit, good quality protein and introduce a small amount of natural yoghurt and fermented foods, hopefully you will notice a gradual difference and eventually be able to return to a "normal" diet in moderation. Some people have an immediate relief of pain after the first few days of an exclusion diet if food intolerance or allergy is a major cause but it can be very difficult to find the food or foods that were causing the problem and easy to fall back into eating them every day again. Gluten, dairy products, citrus and refined carbohydrates seem to be the biggest problem for most people.

Alessio Fasano has published papers proving the link between gluten intolerance/celiac disease and a permeable gut wall and I think that research is heading towards this being the major problem in auto immune disease where the body attacks harmless bacteria and toxins that have broken through the integrity of the gut wall and triggered inflammation elsewhere i.e. joints.

The information is out there.  Unfortunately, doctors will not act unless everything has been put through double blind trials, so meanwhile, they will just follow the present medical protocol because......I have absolutely no idea!!!!!!!!

Hope this information has helped a bit. Wishing you all the best.