SELF EXPERIMENT - STRICT DIET AND THE EFFECT ON MY PA - DIARY

[ripper]

Dear All,

There is very little discussion on the alternative forum about PA, just as there is very little discussion on the PA forum about alternative treatments.

This being the case I am going to write a weekly diary charting the radical change in diet I am experimenting with to see if it makes any difference to my condition, what the differences and how long it takes.

BACKGROUND

ME

1) I am 40 year old who developed psriosis when I was 30 after getting extremely ill from a virus/bacteria. About 4 years ago the symptoms of PA started manifesting in my right shoulder from ther they have spread throughout my entire body with the exception of my hips and my lower back. The arthritis is worst in my neck and my back, though it is constant in my hands. I have constant pain but no swelling. I take mtx tablets. I was on NSAIDS but these were leading to ulcers and constant stomach problems. I do not take them anymore. It is also possible that I have AS, but this is unlikely as I have mild pitting of the fingernails.

I have had a very stressful life and have eaten a lot of garbage, slept poorly and drank more than I should have. I am an ex-smoker.

My grandmother had PA. No one else in the family does.

I was very distressed when first diagnosed and still get that way from time to time. They may find a cure for PA one day but I do not want to be in constant pain till then.

DIET

The diet is a combination of a number of different approaces. It will largely consist of green smoothies with a combination of kale, parsely, cucumber, beets with fish oils, ginger, spirulina and tumeric ( for their anti-inflammatory properties). This may change over time.

I will be avoiding dairy, foods with gluten in them, meat (I do love meat but am disgusted by industrial farming), the nightshades, processed foods and keeping the carbs pretty low. I will aim to purchase organic food but sometimes it is simply too expensive and the quality can be hit and miss - though there is a very good organic market close by.

Basically the diet will be whole food raw-food vegan and gluten free with the occasional soup or something along those lines. This diet covers most of the bases for the traditional anti-inflammatory diets.

I will supplement this with positive thinking and meditation.

I have been slowly moving in this direction for some time and as strange as it sounds I actually look forward to green smoothies even though they made me want to vomit when I first tried one.

The diet trial will last for six months and in that period I will report on developments on a weekly basis. Hopefully you folk can give me some solid feedback in exchange for my observations. A healthy degree of scepticism is always good, but the same goes for traditional medicine. If I can do this without taking a drug that makes me sterile, or will make it more likely that I have cancer then it is worth a try.

This may have no impact, a little, some, or leave me inflammation free. My hunch is that it will assist me a little but that will be born out by experience.

If nothing happens to my levels of inflammation I should be a lot healthier elsewhere if nothing else. I will stay on MTX till I notice any sustained changes in my level of inflammation as I do not want to be in more pain than I have to be.



Arratsalde on (Good Night in Basque)

Ripper

[Gareth125]

Sounds great and hope it works for you , just a word of warning about spirulina ...a great superfood but if you read up about it it has been thought to interfere with biological drugs like humira, infliximab and embrel , so If you ever go that route I would suggest leaving that out if you plan to go on to anti TNF medication . Good luck with it . I can see that it will do no harm . I would suggest trying suppliments of glucosamine , vitamin d3 and fish oil as these may also help

[riaY]

Good luck, I hope it helps

[Lazza]

ripper, great post.  You have a great attitude and plan.  Has MTX done anything for your P or PA??  My only concern is that you say your P was borne out of an infection.  Does this mean you have guttate P?  It seems diet is not too effective combating guttate but rather antibiotics and UV light therapies are.  Or at least it is not as effective as it is combating plaque P.

My only other comment: when you write you will "avoid" certain foods I hope you mean you will absolutely, positively NOT eat them.  You can cheat a bit with nightshades, although I don't, and feel free to eat wild caught fish.

Keep up the great attitude, and be patient!


_Lazza

[ripper]

Dear All,

I am an Australian and you pretty much have to have mutilans to get on a biologic here, but thanks for the warning about spirulina. If I ever get to the stage where I need biologics I won't take it.

While I am it how have other people fared with alternative approaches to PA?

Ripper

[ripper]

ripper, great post.  You have a great attitude and plan.  Has MTX done anything for your P or PA??  My only concern is that you say your P was borne out of an infection.  Does this mean you have guttate P?  It seems diet is not too effective combating guttate but rather antibiotics and UV light therapies are.  Or at least it is not as effective as it is combating plaque P.

My only other comment: when you write you will "avoid" certain foods I hope you mean you will absolutely, positively NOT eat them.  You can cheat a bit with nightshades, although I don't, and feel free to eat wild caught fish.

Keep up the great attitude, and be patient!


_Lazza

Dear Lazza,

The illness I had was described by the Rheum as the trigger  for my condition starting. The consenus seems to be that a seriouos illness, particularly a virus, can trigger a genetic predisposotion. My psoriasis is not guttate, even though I have had a fw bouts of that.

I think MTX has done something but it does not really assist the axial joints, just the peripheral ones. As it just as bad in my neck and back as elsewhere it is a problem.

There will be no suger, gluten or processed foods at all. I may eat occasionally to see if this makes any difference but this will be awhile down the track.

Ripper

[kathryn1989]

great post good luck im sure it will really help you keep us posted!

[Gareth125]

You may want to consider at some stage trying to cut out acidic fruits , foods containing acid can make P.A worse and certainly set me off , there are a lot of foods that contain added acids like cola, fizzy drinks , even those disolvable multivitamin and vitamins C tablets. It might be worth making a food diary to see if any day is really bad in terms of pain and what you have eaten that day . An alergy test may be worth paying for , I had one done at a chiropracter , they put drops of food on your tougne and then test your strength so see if you are intollerant to it . It could save you a bit of time experimenting with different foods.

The other thing you might want to consider is Vitamin D3 as a suppliment ( have a read , as there is a thread on the subject) however you prob get quite a bit of sunshine where you live ? So your body may be able to make enough itself .

Good luck with the diet , I hope you find a winning combination , if it works for you I might give it a go myself.

[Eveloftus]

Ripper, also try peppermint oil capsules, they vastly improved my Ps arthritis. i use to hobble every morning on my sore feet, and could hardly use my hands because of wrist pain, now all that is gone! And my scalp psoriasis disappeared after 2 weeks on the pappermint!

[ripper]

Dear All,
Will give it a try.The funny thing is that my PA is mainly in my back and neck where you tend to get AS, but I do not have the HLA-B27 gene (though they are checking again). They say that  1 in 5 will get the PA in the back and that it tends to be less intense than AS. I would prefer to have PA than AS.

Ripper