Rheumatoid Arthritis, (RA), while less frequent than osteoarthritis, is a serious and painful joint disease. Rheumatoid arthritis affects nearly 2.1 million people in the U.S., most of who are women. The problem usually starts between the age range of 20-50, although it can begin at any age.
Signs and Symptoms
The onset of RA symptoms can be slow with mild discomfort in the joints, morning stiffness, low-grade fever systemically or in the affected joints, and a gradual increase of symptoms. Or RA can strike quickly, and people can develop the disease seemingly overnight.
Night sweats, depression, lethargy, fatigue, low-grade fever, weakness, joint stiffness, and vague joint pain. These symptoms can lead to the appearance of painful, swollen joints within several weeks. RA may affect only one side of the body, but it is common for RA to strike the same joints on both sides of the body simultaneously – in the elbows, for instance. Later in the development of the disease, the affected joints become thicker and deformed.
Causes
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues. This is called an autoimmune response. The disorder affects many organs throughout the body, but is most noted for its significant disability, deformity, and inflammation of the joints and other structures comprised of connective tissue.
Delayed food allergies which disrupt the permeability from the intestinal wall space can lead to the onset of RA. This particular abnormal permeability allows undigested food particles to damage the walls of the digestive tract and to enter the bloodstream where, if not cleared, they are ultimately deposited within tissues. This can cause an inflammatory reaction, as the defense mechanisms begin to attack the tissues, especially around the joints.
Many scientific studies have documented that there is increased intestinal tract permeability in over 90% of patients with autoimmune illness and arthritis. The foods known to bring about rheumatoid signs and symptoms include whole milk, yeast (both brewers as well as baker’s), wheat, nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, as well as potatoes), corn, and eggs.
Other causes of rheumatoid arthritis consist of genetic susceptibility, lifestyle elements, nutritional elements, toxicity, as well as microorganisms. There may also be an association between rheumatoid arthritis and abnormal bowel function. These types of underlying causes work in numerous combinations to trigger inflammation in the body. Cigarette smoking and persistent exposure to secondhand smoke may also contribute to rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
Natural Cures
Aromatherapy: For treating rheumatoid arthritis, the following are recommended: Detoxification with cypress, fennel, and lemon. Massage affected joints with rosemary oil, benzoin, lavender, camphor, juniper, or rose.
Ayurveda: Problems in the digestive function of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats increase the production of intermediate molecules known as ama, along with a condition called “leaky gut,” syndrome. This digestive condition triggers defense and allergic responses and results in the inflammation of the joints.
Patients are further recommended to avoid proteins, especially from animal sources such as beef, chicken, seafood, and pork (fish proteins are acceptable), and to avoid alcohol, coffee, and teas. Pineapple juice with a touch of turmeric helps the body combat leaking gut syndrome.
Diet: Diet plan plays an integral part in reducing or preventing the onset of all types of arthritic conditions. A diet that includes excess consumption of fatty meats, hydrogenated fats such as margarine or shortening, as well as conventionally created dairy products creates highly acidic conditions within the blood. For healing to occur, these foods should be minimized if not eliminated in the diet. Caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, and all processed sugars, ought to be eliminated. Replace processed sugar with natural sweeteners or normally sweet fruits. An occasional green tea is alright if caffeine is preferred, and alcohol should be had in moderation, such as a glass of wine during a special event.
Soft drinks are high in phosphoric acid, which can dangerously raise phosphorus amounts in the blood. The normal ratio of calcium to phosphorus in bone fragments is around 2 to 1, although a one-to-one ratio is adequate to maintain skeletal growth. However, within the average American diet, this particular ratio is very skewed, rich in amounts of phosphorus relative to calcium. This causes your body to pull calcium from the bone fragments to supplement blood calcium levels, which could exacerbate arthritis conditions.
An essential step in treating arthritis is based on achieving regular body weight, because excess weight puts increased tension on weight-bearing joints impacted by arthritis. A diet rich in an abundant selection of fresh vegetables, and a wide variety of fairly sweet and non-sweet fruits, nuts, and whole grains is recommended for maximum dietary benefit. Whole (unprocessed) foods are rich in the nutrients needed to fight destructive free radicals, promote pore, skin and tissue health, restore bones, and muscles, and promote bowel frequency. Additionally, eating a whole foods diet may gently and slowly detoxify the system, ultimately resulting in higher energy and inspiration to eat better, exercise, and follow through with required lifestyle changes on your road to health and healing.
Dietary fats are an important thing to consider for anyone with arthritis. The wrong kind of fats can increase inflammation in joints, while the “good” fats will help reduce inflammation. Hydrogenated fats as well as trans-fatty acids may directly cause inflammation and also the destruction of joint tissues. Avoid foods that contain these types of fats, such as margarine, vegetable shortening, mayo, crackers, chips, cookies, cakes, pastries, packaged breads, candy, and most refined foods. Read all food labels, and do not purchase or eat food that contains partially hydrogenated oils, canola oil or any artificial, chemically generated fat.
Whole foods are usually high in healthy fats, including the essential fatty acids (for example Omega-3 as well as omega-6 natural oils). Cold-water seafood is a good source of essential fatty acids, much like flax and hemp oils and seeds. All are valuable for the prevention of arthritis due to their anti-inflammatory characteristics. Joint disease patients showed major clinical improvement whenever supplementing their diets with cod liver oil, which may also reduce the inflammation process.
Also strongly recommended for arthritic conditions are the whole or juiced exotic goji and/or acai berries, and Noni juice, which is especially great for counteracting excess inflammation and for strong antioxidant protection. Pomegranate fruit, in concentrated amounts has been shown to block enzymes that contribute to cartilage degradation, particularly in cases associated with osteoarthritis.
As stated before, arthritis victims commonly have high amounts of acidity which increases the potential for developing inflammation related conditions. Decrease your intake of acid-developing foods as well as increase your intake of alkaline-forming foods to decrease acid. (See our pH section for comprehensive information, in-home testing, as well as diet methods.) The most acid-developing foods are sugar, alcoholic beverages, vinegar, espresso, meat, trans-fats and dairy products. Foods known to decrease the alkalinity in the body include all vegetables, especially generous amounts of clean raw salad vegetables such as kale, chard, collards, and energy-providing natural foods such as chlorella, algae, barley , wheat grass, parsley, and alfalfa.
Get tested for potential food allergies and sensitivities and avoid those meals to which you test positive. Consider a rotating or elimination diet plan in order to additionally reduce the likelihood of food allergies.
Nutrition and diet tend to be key factors in the recovery and removal of imbalance as well as disease. For a complete, nutrition packed, whole foods eating plan, browse the Whole Foods Diet plan. You can printout these full articles for simple reference.
The Raw Meals Diet – The uncooked food plan is a diet that can have many advantages. After a few months of following our suggested basic whole-foods diet, it’s possible to then transition into a 100% raw diet if desired. This diet is composed of raw and live meals only, and includes a large selection of uncooked fruits, vegetables, soaked and sprouted seeds and nuts, and ocean vegetables, in a wide variety of innovative combinations. If choosing a raw food plan, we highly recommend daily consumption of fresh green juices, produced from an array of vegetables, such as celery, romaine lettuce, spinach, carrot, kale, parsley, with an ever rotating periodic selection of additional organic vegetables. Daily meals include dehydrated flax cookies, seed and nut pates, blended soups, smoothies and marinated veggie salads, frequently mixed with soaked sea veggies. Since virtually no cooked food is consumed, the raw diet offers the advantage of immediate elimination of many common allergens. No cooked wheat, whole wheat byproducts or even grains (generally) are consumed, and very small, if any, dairy products. Raw foodists sometimes include small amounts of dairy, typically cultured uncooked goat or sheep’s milk, yogurt and kefir, generally homemade (these items can occasionally be found online or from nearby sources).
Uncooked food creates rapid results because of its capability to thoroughly detoxify and liberate your body’s previously untapped power. Dr. Gabriel Cousens, from the Tree of Life Middle in Patagonia Arizona, promotes the uncooked food plan as the ultimate recovery diet, and offers delicious 100% raw food meals at all of the healing retreats he offers.
We recommend the raw food diet with regard to long term cleansing and detoxification. Eating mainly raw meals for 3-12 months is definitely an incredible way to help improve energy, detoxify your body, and reduce food allergies. Most of us eat a variety of addicting foods, from sugar to pasta. The addictive nature of these meals is often overlooked, even in the healthiest of food plans. When consuming raw, these things are instantly eliminated, therefore freeing up energy the body may use to heal.
What is important to note when choosing a raw diet is the issue of trade-offs. You may miss prepared foods, although you will not miss your disease, and more often than not the raw diet is an incredible device that can be used to help shift serious health problems into better overall well-being.
Environmental Medicine: Allergic reaction and allergic reaction-like sensitivities are often factors which contribute to the painful signs and symptoms in arthritis patients. Theron G. Randolph, M.D., the founder of environmental medicine, found that the link between arthritis and allergic reactions is environmental chemical substances in meals. His research with over 1,000 joint disease patients found commonly consumed foods, particularly nightshade veggies, as well as chemical substances (ranging from natural gas, auto exhaust, paints, fragrance, and hairspray to pesticides, and tobacco smoke from cigarettes) caused a lot of his patients’ symptoms.
Extra research has discovered that foods, chemicals, grasses, pollen, molds and other airborne substances caused allergic reactions within the joints associated with nearly 85% of the arthritics in one study. Food additives, as well as foreign invaders like protozoa, bacteria, yeast, and fungi, can also bring about or aggravate arthritic signs and symptoms.
Although any kind of food may theoretically trigger an allergic reaction in a person, the following includes the most common food allergens of arthritis patients: Milk products, beef, whole wheat, yeast (each baker’s as well as brewers), eggs, chocolate, grapefruits, sugar, nut products, corn, green or yellow wax beans, and nightshade vegetables (eggplants, Irish potatoes, green and red peppers, paprika, tomatoes and cigarettes).
All joint disease patients should be tested in regard to food allergies. Once you know the foods you are allergic to, the next step is to get rid of them in your diet. Initially, you should totally refrain from eating all allergenic foods for 60-90 days. Following this period, start to slowly reintroduce all of them into your diet. You should also vary the foods that you eat every day to avoid building new allergies.
Cleansing and detoxification might help arthritis sufferers reverse the accumulation of toxins that otherwise promote the destruction of joint tissues and contribute to additional degenerative conditions. Many methods of detoxification are currently available, such as colon and bowel cleansing therapies, renal system and gallbladder flushes, physical medicine, and homeopathic remedies. Related therapies for detoxing incorporate bodywork, lymphatic water flow, aromatherapy, antioxidant defense support, and nutritional and herbal supplements in order to boost the organs used for detoxification.
Going on a fast is another detoxification strategy used to reduce allergy symptoms and the corresponding arthritic symptoms. During a quick, a patient typically eats just high–nutrient soups broths, pure water, and/or vegetable juices. Following this kind of protocol below an alternative doctor’s care for several weeks can prove very useful, and reduces the number of immune complexes (the substances created when antibodies attach to antigens) circulating in the blood.
Physical exercise and Physiotherapy: Isometric exercises, stretching, and yoga can help ease arthritis pain.
Herbal Treatments: Many anti-inflammatory herbs assist in alleviating the symptoms of the 3 types of arthritis. Of the many possible combinations, of this can be a safe blend that can be taken over a long time. Combine the tinctures of meadowsweet, willow bark, dark cohosh, prickly ash, celery seed, and nettle in equal components, and take one tsp. of this blend three times each day. In cases associated with rheumatoid arthritis, add wild yam and valerian to the blend (one teaspoon, three times a day).
Yucca and devil’s claw possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. The use of the yucca plant has proven extremely successful as a nonspecific immune stimulator which reduces infection and irritation. Yucca extract is made from the yucca plant found in deserts in the southwestern U.S. and in South America. Yucca extract is secure enough to take for long periods of time to prevent any kind of recurrence of symptoms and can be purchased without a physician.
Green tea (Camellia sinensis) consists of bioflavonoids called catechins, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and is helpful for dealing with rheumatoid arthritis by neutralizing toxins that act on synovial membranes.
Ayurveda physicians dealing with rheumatoid arthritis conditions used Boswellia serrata, also known as boswella, for centuries. Its chemical component, boswellic acidity, has effective anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity. Boswellic acidity inhibits allergen-causing agents, helps prevent interference with GAG (glycosaminoglycan) synthesis, and improves blood and lymphatic system circulation to the joints.
Lignum vitae (Guiacum officinale and Guiacum sanctum) is a tree native to southern Florida and a few other southern states. The gum of this sapling, guaia-gum, contains therapeutic resins and natural oils used as a pain reliever for osteoarthritis, rheumatism, and gout.
Other recommended herbs include licorice and alfalfa. Feverfew has also been found to be effective in inhibiting the functionality of inflammation related compounds and decreasing your body’s inflammatory reaction. Herbal remedies that have proven effective with regard to rheumatoid arthritis include turmeric, ginger, skullcap, bupleurum, and ginseng.
Hydrotherapy: Hydrotherapy is the process of using water, ice, steam and alternating hot and cold temperatures to maintain and restore wellness. Treatments consist of full entire body immersion, steam baths, saunas, sitz baths, colonic cleansing and the application of hot and/or cold compresses. Hydrotherapy works well for treating a wide range of problems and can easily be used in the home as part of the self-care plan. Many Naturopathic Physicians, Physiotherapists and day spas make use of Hydrotherapy as part of their treatment.
There are several at-home hydrotherapy treatments. For treating rheumatoid arthritis, we suggest constitutional hydrotherapy (apply two to five times weekly) or a heating shrink (apply once daily to affected areas). Please seek the advice of your alternative health care specialist before going through these procedures to make sure they are appropriate for you.
*Purified water is important for any hydrotherapy treatment.
Juice Therapy: For treating rheumatoid arthritis, the following juices are recommended: Carrot, celery, cabbage juice, and parsley; the juice of half a lemon before every meal and before going to sleep; carrot, beet, and cucumber; celery liquid; and radish and garlic juice.
Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers should avoid tomato juice, because tomato is a nightshade veggie.
Nutritional Supplements: Numerous researchers believe a proper balance of minerals and vitamins is essential in the treatment of arthritis. Large quantities of vitamin C in many cases, is recommended. Functioning both as an antioxidant and as an anti-inflammatory agent, vitamin C helps repair and maintain healthy connective tissue. It is essential for collagen manufacturing and the upkeep of joint lining, helps tissue repair, and reduces the discoloration and inflammation often associated with arthritis.
Nutritional vitamins A, B1, B6, and niacinamide (a form of supplement B3) also have proven effective for treating and stopping arthritis. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble nutrient, considered to be both a supplement and a hormone. It regulates the assimilation of calcium and phosphorus used in bone formation.
Other dietary supplements that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties are important for joint disease prevention and treatments include boron, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, pantothenic acid, and sulfur. Bee pollen, regal jelly (another bee product rich in pantothenic acid), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and evening primrose oil are also helpful in relieving arthritis signs and symptoms, especially among rheumatoid arthritics. All these supplements, though, should be taken only under supervision by a competent health professional.
Manganese has many functions in the body, including regular growth and metabolism. It helps to trigger enzymes, is used for normal bone improvement, and functions as an anti-inflammatory. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are usually significantly deficient in manganese and supplements are recommended.
Cetyl myristoleate, a rare substance which is currently created synthetically, acts as lubrication for important joints and muscle tissue, modulates defense mechanisms function, and has anti-inflammatory effects. Cetyl myristoleate is usually given orally for a one-month period, in a 10-15g dose. It is also available as a lotion. This fatty substance should be taken in conjunction with 100mg of lipase, an enzyme which digests body fat.
Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)* is a source of sulfur (derived from wooden pulp, garlic clove oil, or even as a byproduct of petroleum) and is regarded as a free-radical scavenger with anti-inflammatory properties. Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a sister compound of DMSO derived from food sources. MSM is naturally created in the body, however, levels reduce with age and degenerative ailments such as arthritis. These supplements can reduce inflammation and scar tissue, relieve discomfort, and improve blood flow for improved nutrition. Of unique importance within rheumatoid arthritis, MSM can help normalize the defense mechanisms and reduce the autoimmune reaction.
*Caution: When using DMSO on the body use clean hands and cotton swabs. Be extremely careful because whatever substance comes in contact with DMSO carbamide peroxide gel is soaked up quickly and driven deeply into the body. Avoid contact with dirt before the area is totally dry.
Shark cartilage in pill form is now being used to combat the pain of arthritis. Shark cartilage contains large amounts of mucopolysaccharides (carbohydrates that type chemical bonds with water), which stimulate the immune system and reduce irritation caused by joint disease. Shark cartilage material is administered by mouth a minimum of 30 minutes before meals. Enzymes, especially Wobenzyme, a pancreatic enzyme, are also essential for helping to reduce symptoms of irritation.
Alternative Expert Care
The following therapies are recommended for treating rheumatoid arthritis: Acupunture, Detoxification Therapy, Energy Medicine (electrodermal screening), Environmental Medicine, Enzyme Therapy, Magnetic Field Therapy, Mind/Body Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine, Orthomolecular Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, Oxygen Therapies, Qigong, Sound Treatment, Tai chi, and Chinese medicine.