What about other herbal treatments?
Posted , 12 users are following.
Someone suggested tumeric to me, and they said that there is a product called cucumen that is a combination of tumeric and pepper, and that the pepper helps absorb the tumeric. I don't want to add a lot of additional products, but I heard of this from two different people. Does anyone know about this? I was doing well until I stood in line as I said earlier for about 20 minutes with friends waiting for a table in a restaurant. The next day I hurt from my neck to my toes. My hips are VERY sore and my upper back. It's lessening but very slowly. It's almost like the original flare up, and it just keeps hanging on. Some folks add things like over the counter drugs, but what I've read just says that pred negates it. I also have gained about 4 or 5 pounds, and i don't want to go in that direction. I've worked hard to get off 40 lbs. Low carb is the only thing that works for me. If it isn't a fruit, veggie or protein then I should not have it, but I do give in like most of us do at times. This is not for sissies.
0 likes, 49 replies
sandra28555 elizabeth53956
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Anhaga elizabeth53956
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EileenH elizabeth53956
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Low carb has worked for several of us to avoid putting on weight in the first place and in my case to lose 36lbs of pred fat. I find fruit problematic - fair bit of sugar in some so I stick to veggies in large quantities.
One lady on here swears by using turmeric and garlic in cooking - said she could always tell if she hadn't had her usual fix of that or her oily fish 3x weekly.
There has been a discussion recently where someone said that the capsules tend to be high doses and can upset your stomach and chelate iron - causing anaemia. I have no idea whether that last is true but I think the general concensus was that using turmeric in cooking was fine.
Have you tried any complementary therapies? Some of us have found Bowen therapy VERY helpful for back pain - it won't change the PMR but it may help what I call the add-ons that are often found alongside it, such as myofascial pain syndrome. Layne will tell you about her experiences I'm sure. There is a thread about Bowen therapy.
ptolemy elizabeth53956
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elizabeth53956 ptolemy
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ptolemy elizabeth53956
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Anhaga elizabeth53956
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EileenH elizabeth53956
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If you eat/drink a lot of calcium-containing food or have renal problems it is best to check with the doctor how much supplement to take - too much calcium can lead to kidney and gall stones in some people. And of course - dietary calcium is far better than a tablet but you will need a supplement for the vit D - less than 10% of what we need comes from diet as there are so few foods containing vit D. In the US milk, orange jouce and some other foods are fortified so if you drink a lot of either you will get more.
iellen32 elizabeth53956
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Be safe. All the very best.
🌺
hilary_76724 elizabeth53956
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i make it up for myself and my dog who has lots of joint pain?
i cup of water
half a cup of tumeric
quarter a cup of coconut oil
one and a half teaspoons of black pepper.
put Tumeric in the water and bring to the boil, stirring until it thickens, add coconut oil and pepper. Allow to cool. Put in a jar in fridge. Add a large spoonful I n stews, sauces etc once a day..
EileenH hilary_76724
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karenjaninaz elizabeth53956
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elizabeth53956 karenjaninaz
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FlipDover_Aust elizabeth53956
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So, no dairy, legumes, eggs, grains of any sort... it's really hard until you get used to it and get a few recipes to use regularly.
I do try and use a lot of tumeric and ginger becuase it's thought to help. It also adds flavour!
My view is that if you eat nothing but 'real food' you have to be doing better than eating crap.
And trust me, I love eating crap.
EileenH FlipDover_Aust
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I was chatting to my grandaughter last night - she's been veggie for about 6 months on ethical grounds and decided recently she might as well go the whole hog and go vegan. Some of you will remember she has really severe asthma, been in and out of hospital over the last few years, far too many times in resus making the doctors panic. As a baby she was allergic to milk - eczema cleared when she was put onto a non-dairy formula after weaning (she'd been fine with breast milk).
She is now walking home from school - well over a mile, where before she struggled to walk across the road. She has been able to reduce her pred dose down to 10mg (she'd been on way higher than that almost permanently for months and months) and has lost another 4kg in weight.
But I quoted Flip's comment because when I asked her if she missed anything she said not really, there are substitutes for almost everything - though she does miss trying stinky cheeses (I've lost my mate there, everyone else is cheddar-orientated ). And she said "I have even stopped craving junk crap" - and believe me, she downed a fair bit as a teenager! I had hoped she'd realise what a dreadful diet she was eating but she had to make the decision herself - and I can also say, take out the carb rubbish and within a couple of months you will no longer miss it. It's got to be really good to be worth it.
That said - I tried leaving out nightshades and stuff - all it did was reduce my choice of food, made no difference to my PMR. But I do think adopting a good diet can make a big difference - but you have to be honest about what you are eating anyway.
elizabeth53956 EileenH
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EileenH elizabeth53956
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ptolemy elizabeth53956
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elizabeth53956 ptolemy
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FlipDover_Aust elizabeth53956
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I'm going to sound like a zealot, and I'm really not, and neither am I telling you to suck eggs (pun inteded!) but I hate to say it but your desire to restrict calories might actually be doing you more harm than good in this case - egg whites tend to be particularly troublesome in autoimmune inflammation because they can permeate the gut lining and cause the immune system to react even more.
If you are interested in they whys you can try searching for "Egg Whites and Autoimmune Discease" Loren Cordain. of course there's a lot more literature out there about it if you want to look further.
EileenH elizabeth53956
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karenjaninaz FlipDover_Aust
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i had a bowel obstruction and part of my small bowel died and bacteria leaked into my abdomen and I almost died. That is "leaky gut". And here I am with PMR - but why those of Northern European ethnicity( thanks Estonia) have more PMR? Their diet is high in fish not egg whites.
Go figure.
For a long time milk and cream were thought to heal ulcers until the bacteria Hpylori were found; appropriate antibiotics cured it when the "ulcer diet" never did.
Anhaga karenjaninaz
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EileenH karenjaninaz
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Not as I understand it - that is peritonitis and a leak like you get from a bucket with a hole in it. Leaky gut is not leaks in that sense - it is due to cell membranes that are letting things through into cells that they they shouldn't.
There almost certainly isn't a single answer to autoimmunity disorders - and while some northern countries may eat a lot of fish, the UK certainly doesn't even if it is an island! Genetics plays a role - and that's the Scandinavia gene pool. So probably does environment - and that is just outside us but also what is in our food in the form of contaminants.
As for a food source of vit D: Inuit ate a diet with at least 50% fat and much offal. When Searles ate that he was healthy, when he tried eating meat with less fat - on the grounds it must be healthier - he wasn't. It is perfectly possible that the changes in diet so that offal is relatively rarely eaten today and breeding of animals with far less fat in their meat has contributed to the vit D deficienies we see now.
By the way, last week I read a report of some work from an Innsbruck group who think they may have found a cause for colon cancer: the presence of specific bacteria together with the absence of a particular protein (a genetic factor probably) leads to the development of tumours. Add the protein - no tumours. Much the same as H pylori - and presence of gastric ulcers is often a precursor to gastric cancer.
karenjaninaz EileenH
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After recovering from that I had intractable bilateral hip bursitis which no therapy - save steroid injections -which helped. Then bursitis began in both shoulders, then the knees.
Here I am. That illness was in 2012 when I just turned 70.
EileenH karenjaninaz
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Anhaga EileenH
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EileenH Anhaga
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Population Rh(D) Neg Rh(D) Pos Rh(D) Neg alleles
Basque people..........21–36%............... 65% ......................∼ 60%
other Europeans..........16% ..................84%...........................40%
African American.........∼ 7%..................93%........................∼ 26%
Native Americans.........∼ 1%..................99%........................∼ 10%
African descent.............< 1%...............=""> 99%............................3%
Asian ............................< 1%...............=""> 99%............................1%
Anhaga EileenH
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karenjaninaz EileenH
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Two of my son's in-laws developed Wegeners arthritis after blood transfusions. I've had plenty of those during my 4 scoliosis surgeries. Gee, I would make a great case study for someone.
LayneTX FlipDover_Aust
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I keep seeing this whole leaky gut thing, but I've been ignoring it other than being a fan of probiotics.
How does one know if they have leaky gut issues? I don't have what I have read about like bloating, unless I ate something fried or too much wine, always had good bowels.
Eggs, geez, I eat them every single day and I may feel better in some ways my inflammation is not going away. Hmmmm, obviously I'll look in to this. Thanks for this info FlipDover.
LayneTX FlipDover_Aust
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Basically I was shocked to hear of the egg white you talk about. I have never heard of it being inflammatory. I will research more and thank you for mentioning this. Maybe they'll post my original response.
EileenH LayneTX
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FlipDover_Aust LayneTX
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I first read about the eggwhites when researching the AIP...lol
As usual - google.
FlipDover_Aust karenjaninaz
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Diet is something I *CAN* do... as opposed to feeling useless. Evn if it's just reading the latest speculations!
EileenH LayneTX
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I seriously doubt that diet can cure anything. But not eating hard durum wheat products stops me itching. There is a plus to being on 15mg pred - I can eat with without itching so am indulging in the odd sin
And I DO have to say that my asthmatic grandaughter is doing VERY well on a vegan diet. She went veggie about 6 months ago on ethical grounds and decided to see what happened with vegan - as a baby, milk caused eczema. Seems it might be helping. It isn't much of a hardship these days - she says there are substitutes for everything. Though she does miss cheese - she was my stinky cheese buddy
LayneTX EileenH
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I tried to to go vegetarian once, couldn't do I read about that blood type eating, said type O's are meat eaters. Other types (I forget which) are more able to go vegetarian.
My husband hunts venison, I need to get him to do that more and I need to learn to cook it so it taste good!
i see my moderated post did appear. See, I didn't say anything except for the symbols perhaps. Ha, ha.
But I did ask why you have asked me several times why the egg whites.
LayneTX
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so...if no eggs for breakfast, and supposedly no grains, what can I eat?
No way am I eating salad for breakfast!
EileenH LayneTX
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The cholesterol being dangerous story is rubbish - eating eggs actually probably helps keep your blood cholesterol down, but even so, if you don't eat cholesterol-containing foods, your liver makes the stuff. It is one thing for the people with a genetic disease that makes them produce excess cholesterol but even so, not eating cholesterol makes little difference even to them. But the "nutritionists" started the "eggs are bad" mantra and wouldn't back down in the face of the biological evidence. A few years ago it was admitted eggs are good for you - you should eat up to 7 or something per week. But like all the recantations - it didn't get the same publicity as the "eggs will kill you" message did originally. And there are STILL doctors who'll tell you you shouldn't eat them.
It was because of your doctor's rather strange (IMHO) dietary restrictions I asked you. Because I see no justification for it - so I wondered about her reasoning.
I don't think that whole eggs are that bad - but I'll have to go and look for evidence.
And you mentioned leaking intestines, using a different formulation - that almost certainly trigger it.
EileenH LayneTX
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The "egg whites and leaky bowel" association appears in articles by the Paleo diet advocates. I'm not going to get into an argument about that and I know there are people who get on very well eating it. However, the "paleo diet" doesn't actually have much scientifc backing in terms of the claims "man wasn't designed to eat blah blah blah". Nor does the "leaky bowel" theory they propose fit too well with much known physiology. Google it and look at what sciencebasedmedicine says for example. However you want to look at it: there is no evidence that (relatively) large chunks of undigested foodstuffs simply wriggle their way unchanged through the gut wall and cause problems.
I'm not saying there aren't people who would benefit from changing their diet in certain ways. I'm not saying that there aren't people who would benefit by omitting certain things from their diet. What I am saying is that some of the stuff you will find on the tinterwebs has no good scientific evidence to back it up and sometimes there are directly contradictory facts floating around. If you omit certain foods from your diet and you feel better for it - great. However, if you omit too much then you run other risks in terms of lacking nutrients. Any diet that is very restrictive becomes very difficult to follow which poses other risks - I replied to a young woman with lupus on another forum recently who was descending into a spiral of depression as she fought a cycle of failing at her diet and so feeling a failure for doing so and becoming stressed that she couldnt cope with the diet and, and, and ...
Anhaga EileenH
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Anhaga LayneTX
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Anhaga LayneTX
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ptolemy Anhaga
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EileenH ptolemy
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