Recovery from Rheumatoid Arthritis

Books

"Allergies: The Arthritis Connection" by Dr. John Mansfield

This book has a wealth of very good information relating to food allergies, how to identify them, and their role in the arthritis process. It's very readable with practical information about arthritis and environmental factors involved. Mansfield practices in England and has had a LOT of success in treating, among others, several thousand arthritis patients. He comes at the disease from the perspective that one's environment (food, inhalents, etc.) can have a decided impact on arthritis. In this book Dr. Mansfield describes in detail the elimination diet he uses in identifying food allergies associated with arthritis (and leaky gut). Several case studies are presented with multiple scientific studies also shown.

If you have ever stopped eating one or two foods in the attempt to identify a food or food group that triggers your arthritis (the usual term is "elimination diet") and been frustrated (most people are), you will find that Mansfield's method is MUCH different (and MUCH more effective) than this approach. I personally used Mansfield's elimination diet and consider it to be the key thing to take away from the book (in addition to the association between arthritis and the environment).

Excerpts from Mansfield's book (and a few of my comments):

Masked Food Allergies
"Imagine, therefore, if one if dealing with a patient who has allergies to wheat, corn, milk, and yeast, there will be different curve of symptomatology for each food depending on the frequency at which it is eaten. Any relationship between food and symptoms will in these circumstances become far from obvious. I emphasize this point because many physicians believe that if food allergy is present, it will be obvious to all those concerned. It is partly this simplistic view of the subject which has led to its neglect. The concept of masking is the single most important factor to grasp about the inter-relationship of food and arthritis. It explains why so many arthritis patients feel so bad first thing in the morning. Many of them think it is the immobility of the night's sleep and the subsequent stiffness that this might engender. There may be an element of this but mostly it is the non-consumption of the foods to which they are sensitive. Arthritis patients often also feel worse if they happen to miss their breakfast which normally contains one of the foods to which they are sensitive."
Dr . John Mansfield

My Comment: Taking out one or a few foods is NOT an effective elimination diet. If you don't account for the other variables in your situation (other foods consumed), you are UNLIKELY to succeed.

Adaptation
"An allergy represents the failure of an organism to adapt to its environment. Much human illness, therefore, stems from the inability of the human organism to adapt to new foods or chemicals brought into the environment, or an overdosage of such items. The original concept of adaption was first described by Hans Selye , an eminent physiologist working at McGill University in Montreal. In 1936 Selye's work was published in the journal, Nature, entitled 'The General Adaptation Syndrome.' He described the Adaptation Syndrome as a characteristic set of events which could be produced by a wide range of harmful agents.

He stated that experiments on rats showed that if the organism is severely damaged by acute non-specific harmful agents (such as exposure to cold, surgical injury, excessive muscular exercise, or intoxication with sub-lethal dosages of diverse drugs) a typical syndrome appears, the symptoms of which are independent of the nature of the originating damaging agent and represent a response to damage of whatever cause. Selye described various stages of the development of this syndrome, which Dr. Theron Randolph soon realized were identical to the various facets he had observed in the development of allergy. The whole subject of masking, withdrawal symptomatology on avoidance of foods and the Rinkel Hyperacute Response fitted in exactly with Seyle's observations in animals."
Dr . John Mansfield

Mansfield's Elimination Diet Results
" In my experience of about 3,000 patients with arthritis of any type, about 85 percent will be showing definite benefit by day 7 or possibly day 8 of the diet. Let us now consider the 15 percent who do not....some of them may be suffering exclusively from inhaled allergy, or possibly reacting to the yeasts in the flora of their gut."
Dr . John Mansfield

My Comment: I experienced severe withdrawal on the second day of the elimination diet and had some but not significant clearing of symptoms. I was in Mansfield's 15 percent. Why? I had a raging case of candida albicans yeast in my leaky gut. The answer? An antifungal medicine.

Common Problem Foods
" Humans have eaten vegetables, fruit, fish and meat since the Stone Age. Physicians working with food-allergenic patients know that these foods, especially in their organic form, are for most patients the safest. The reason for this is probably that we have, as a species, eaten these foods for two to three million years and we are hence fairly well adapted to them.... A perusal of the food trials shows wheat to be the commonest item implicated with arthritis. Corn, milk, cane and beet sugar, yeast, and soya beans are also among the more common offenders. Although bread is regarded by many people to be the 'staff of life', most people are surprised to learn that cereals such as wheat and corn are a relatively recent addition to the human diet. Corn was originally planted in Egypt 4,000 years ago, but there is no evidence of cereals being grown in Britain prior to the Roman invasion around 2,000 years ago. Yeast has probably been used for about 8,000 years, originally to make scrumpy. Sugar was unknown in Britain until cane sugar was brought from the West Indies in the sixteenth century, only about 400 years ago. Soya beans have been introduced into Britain only since 1955."
Dr. John Mansfield

My Comment: Recall that Mansfield is referring to Britain in many of his comments, although they also apply to other modernized countries as well.

Communication of New and Different Ideas
"As with many discoveries in life, the biggest problem is not really in making the actual discovery, but in its dissemination and recognition. Are the methods of human communication so inadequate that a method of curing one of the most crippling diseases known to mankind is discovered, used successfully in a large number of patients, written about extensively, and yet remains unknown to most of the medical profession and most patients who suffer from the condition."
Dr. John Mansfield

My Comment: As noted above, Mansfield has a HIGH success rate. Why is it that this is not standard protocol for RA? Three things come to mind. 1) Formal research in this area has been limited as funding is extremely low 2) there is little money to be made from this approach and 3) we all have been conditioned to want a quick fix to the problem. Many people are in "diet denial." I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard "the things I eat are one of the few pleasures I have since RA has taken so much from me. I can't give up my food!" This is TRAGIC as food may be the key for them to regain their health.

Not long ago I ran into an interesting series in the November 1999 issue of the British Medical Journal about nutrition-based complementary medicine. It's really sad that we have gotten to the point where food is alternative medicine. Below is a link to a testimonial on the BMJ site by a journalist who has gotten rid of her RA through changes in diet. What caught my eye is that she referred to Dr. John Mansfield's work. Take a look.
British Medical Journal: RA Testimonial through Nutrition

Amazon.Com Review of ALLERGIES: THE ARTHRITIS CONNECTION

"Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Dr. Weston A. Price, D.D.S.

A fascinating book (complete with over 150 photographs) whose findings would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate today. Price was a dentist who traveled to various parts of the world in the 1920s and 30s (his book was originally published in 1939) to try to determine why modern societies had so many health problems, especially of the gums, mouth and teeth. His findings went far beyond dentistry.

His method was to visit and study relatively primitive people in remote areas who had not yet been exposed, or were only partially exposed, to modern society. These people acted as his "controls" for scientific purposes. A sampling of the people/places he visited: Swiss in remote Switzerland mountain valleys, Gaelics on islands northwest of Scotland, Alaskan eskimos, North American indians in northern canada, Seminole indians in the southern Florida everglades, over 10 African tribes, Australian Aborigines, Peruvian indians, etc.

The diets of these people were all over the map - major meat eaters, mostly plant-based, and somewhere in between (one diet does NOT work for everyone). Price noted that nowhere were people doing entirely without some form of meat. Out of necessity, all of these people had been eating according to what they had available to them for centuries. Dr. Price noted (and photographed) many times the fine health that these folks enjoyed. Great bone structure and teeth (wish I had teeth like these people, truly amazing, rarely seen today and with NO dental care), absence of chronic disorders, great physical prowess even at advanced ages, etc. With very few exceptions, Price was also able to confirm the healthy skeletal structures of their ancestors (several pictures here also).

Now this book gets interesting. Price found that when these people started consuming modern foods (refined flour, processed foods, sugar, etc.), their health started to deteriorate. This happened in EVERY location (dozens). Offspring in subsequent generations fared even worse. Some of the problems that started occurring were skyrocketing cavity rates, tuberculosis, lowered reproductive capability, birth deformities and INFLAMMATORY ARTHRITIS. Dr. Price provides photos of both healthy and diseased/deformed people to substantiate his findings.

Recomendations and Excerpts from Price's book (and my comments):

"I cannot emphasize too much the importance of this book. It should be made compulsory reading for every person who has anything to do with the people's health, especially when it involves their nutrition."
Abram Hoffer, M.D., PhD
Victoria, B.C., Canada
March, 1989

Dr. Price's Purpose
"The evidence seemed to indicate clearly that the forces that were at work were not to be found in the diseased tissues, but that the undesirable conditions were the result of the absence of something, rather than of the presence of something. This strongly indicated the need for finding groups of individuals so physically perfect that they could be used as controls. In order to discover them, I determined to search out primitive racial stocks that were free from the degenerative processes with which we are concerned in order to note what they have that we do not have."
Dr. Weston Price

My Comment: It may be hard to believe, but the people Price visited (and photographed) had very little IF ANY chronic disease. They typically had NO formal medical or dental care. He saw the same thing happening in dozens of remote locations throughout the world. The common thread: they were eating food their ancestors had eaten for generation after generation. The adoption of modern eating habits (refined foods, sugar, etc) meant the beginning of chronic disease for them. You see the same thing happening so much today that everyone thinks this is normal .

Beginnings of Degenerative Diseases Observed
"While a primary quest was to find the cause of tooth decay which was established quite readily as being controlled directly by nutrition, it rapidly became apparent that a chain of disturbances developed in these various primitive racial stocks starting even in the first generation after the adoption of the modernized diet and rapidly increased in severity with expressions quite constantly like the characteristic degenerative processes of our modern civilization of America and Europe."
Dr. Weston Price

My comment: Price's written observations may make one curious, but the pictures in this book are very difficult to deny.

Amazon.Com Reviews of NUTRITION AND PHYSICAL DEGENERATION

"BioBalance" by Dr. Rudolph Wiley

This book is important because it recognizes that there is no "best" diet for everyone. We inherit the way we metabolize food the same way we inherit our hair, skin and eye color. This makes intuitive sense when you look around the world and see people eating DRASTICALLY different food yet achieving the same levels of health. Those that recommend one diet only (vegetarian, low fat, four food groups, etc) are denying this fact. The three metabolic subsets described by Wiley (and originally researched by Dr. George Watson, discussed in his book NUTRITION AND YOUR MIND) are acid (meat eater/hunter gatherer), alkaline (very little meat, agriculturalist) and mixed (a little of both extremes but slanted toward hunter gatherer).

Among other things, all of these diets recommend removing processed foods and sugar. This is in recognition of the fact that it takes thousands of years for our bodies to adapt to eating "new" foods. Processed and refined foods, as they have been consumed only within the last few centuries, definitely qualify as new foods. Today's mainstream diet has deviated far from what our ancestors consumed. The idea is to approximate a diet we are adapted to while living in today's society. This is not always an easy task, but even though I'm not perfect at it, it has been more than worth the effort. In addition to my recovery from arthritis, see the Other Benefits page for health benefits that I have experienced.

Wiley discusses measuring blood plasma ph as a sure method of determining one's metabolic type. There are also other ways to make a good "guess" as to one's type - certain blood tests results such as uric acid, reaction to caffeine, hunger levels during Mansfield's elimination diet, etc. If unsure, one can also try each diet for a short time period (1-2 weeks) and choose the one which gives you the most energy. The answer should be obvious. My course of action here was to work with an expert who guided me through this (reference the More Information page) as pain levels can influence one's thinking and judgement. Use Dr. Stoll's bulletin board or look at this link to obtain more information on this subject.

Foods unsuited for one's metabolism will cause blood plasma ph to be other than optimal levels. The theory is that over time if this situation persists a person is highly likely to become ill in various ways. This breakdown of health ties into Dr. Hans Selye's theories about stress (in this case, the body breaks down under the physiological stress of eating foods that it cannot metabolize properly). You end up "swimming against the current," and this doesn't last forever. Some are lucky and end up with things like frequent colds, allergies, headaches, mononucleosis, etc - at least in the short term. Some, depending on their genetic makeup, get asthma, fibromyalgia, RA, etc.

I can't claim familiarity with this next point as I'm a guy, but according to Wiley's research some women switch between metabolic types in relation to their menstual cycles.

Research results and several case histories are presented in the book, with the diet foods and associated customized supplements shown. You can find this diet in a slightly modified format at this link .

What evidence do we have to back up Wiley/Watson's theories? One example is that Dr. Weston Price saw people in living color that would fit into three metabolic categories and described and photographed them in his book NUTRITION AND PHYSICAL DEGENERATION.

I have followed this method of eating (it's more of a lifestyle rather than a diet - I consider this to be a permanent change for me) since early December, 1998. I continue to be amazed at the health benefits I've obtained. I think the mental part of eating this way is the most difficult, at least at first. In my case, it has helped to pay attention to how you feel (of course, RA pain and inflammation are pretty difficult to ignore) and to recognize that this is much closer to what I was made to eat.

I have come to think of the modern diet as "fool's gold ." It's convenient, looks great and also tastes the same way in many cases. However, sooner or later you are in for a major letdown, in this case a physical one. Some find this out too late, some find out in time, but today most never find out at all.

By no means do I believe that this method of eating is a "perfect" diet (we continue to evolve, mixed genetics complicate things, etc.), but it's the best that I have found. Two years ago I could barely stand. Today I am healthier today than the vast majority of people I meet.

Excerpts from Wiley's book:

Unfortunately I have this book out on loan, so I'm unable to add quotes at this time.

Here is a link to Wiley's description of his book, Wiley's background and several customer reviews on Amazon.Com. All reviewers gave this book 5 stars.

Amazon.Com Review of BIOBALANCE



"Saving Yourself from The Disease Care Crisis" by Dr. Walt Stoll

Dr. Walt Stoll is a pioneer in the area of combining mainstream and alternative medicine techniques. A trained conventional physician, he experienced a huge turnaround in his own health using alternative techniques, and has spent many years learning about alternatives and how they can augment traditional methods. His book covers a lot of ground and provides an introduction to what many consider the future of medicine.

On the preventive, lifestyle side, Dr. Stoll advocates the concept of "wellness": primarily stress management through relaxation techniques, diet improvement through whole foods, and aerobic exercise.

I admire this man because he has stood up for his belief that the patient comes first, not his own income or standing in the medical community.

Dr. Stoll also has a website ( http://bcn.net/~stoll/index.html ) which has a bulletin board where one can obtain free advice from multiple experts including himself, archived articles and discussions on a myriad of health topics. I have greatly benefited from this site and continue to visit it regularly.

Excerpts from Dr. Stoll's book (and my comments):

Stoll's Background and Motivation
"I have practiced medicine for more than thirty years. The first ten of those years was as a board certified family practitioner in a small, rural community in Ohio. The next three years were spent teaching at the School of Allied Health of the University of Kentucky Medical Center. I had a joint appointment as an assistant professor of medicine in the department of family practice of the school of medicine. The last seventeen years have been spent practicing complementary medicine; that is, conventional medicine used in conjunction with as many alternative healing approaches as the practitioner can learn how to use.

I have learned that combining other healing philosophies with allopathic medicine (orthodox medicine in the US) finally enabled me to do something about those chronic conditions that my MD training along had seemed powerless to resolve.....I feel I bring a unique perspective to this subject since I practiced strictly conventional medicine for many years. I have taught conventional medicine at the medical school of the establishment. I have practiced complementary (holistic) medicine for many years. I have applied the principles of each approach to my own personal health and have seen the differences both in myself and in my patients. I have seen the hunger of my community for the information being denied them by the political actions of the allopathic monopoly. I want to do something about it."
Dr. Walt Stoll

Belief in Leveraging Conventional Medicine's Strengths
"One of the great hopes of allopathic medicine is that we will be able to correct those 'inborn errors,' by inserting what is missing back into the gene with a viral carrier. I believe that we eventually will be successful in that endeavor. This is just one example of why I say we need allopathic medicine too."
Dr. Walt Stoll

Stress and Intestinal Tract Problems
"It has been known for many years that stress plays a very big part in the long-term causation, as well as the short-term flare-ups, of all chronic dysfunctions of the intestinal tract. The increasing incidence of these disorders in our modern society is only to be expected as we watch the levels of physical/chemical/social stressors continue to rise. Dr. Dantzker believes, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1993, that these changes in the intestinal tract serve as the 'canary in the coal mine' for the human body." 54
Dr. Walt Stoll

54 "The Gastrointestinal Tract: The Canary of the Body?" by D.R. Dantzker,
Journal of the American Medical Association 1993; 270:L1247-8.

My Comment: Of course, if the canary gets ill or dies, the mine is in trouble. Same for the colon and the rest of the human body. How many people with RA have obvious stomach or intestinal problems? A LOT

Amazon.Com Review of SAVING YOURSELF FROM THE DISEASE CARE CRISIS

"Lick The Sugar Habit" by Nancy Appleton, PhD

Dr. Appleton holds a BS degree in nutrition and a PhD in health services. This book describes her personal experience with degenerative disease and sugar. She also covers how excess sugar upsets one's body chemistry and makes us more susceptible to disease (including arthritis).

Along the way related topics are discussed: stress and its effects on us, the effects of sugar on children, a practical plan for reaching and maintaining good health, self-help techniques and recipes. Appleton references over 250 studies and articles that give more credibility to her book. I read this book about a year after I eliminated sugar from my diet, so I was already aware of the positive impact doing this could have for me.

Excerpts from Appleton's book (and my comments):

Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Summarization
"Dr. William Catterall points out in an article in Arthritis News Today that in over 232 cases from four independent investigators , in which the diets of arthritis patients were carefully controlled, the following observations were made:

• With few exceptions, when a restricted (or fasting) diet was followed, acute arthritis symptoms disappeared.
  
• Arthritis symptoms returned when certain foods were individually reintroduced to the diet.
  
• The symptoms disappeared again when each one of such foods was withdrawn.
  
• Most patients experienced several cycles of symptom production and remission in response to certain foods.