Arthritis Update for those who are curious page 2

[fuzzynavel]

My husband, who is 29, has had psoriatic arthritis in his knees for the past few years. When he gets a flare up, he's basically crippled. We've tried EVERY dietary thing we could think of - removing lectins, nightshades, dairy, gluten, legumes, omega 6 fats, alcohol, and on and on, but nothing foodwise seems to have any effect. We're fairly convinced it's 100% due to stress. We're also working on trying to improve his digestive issues, since it seems that an overburdoned liver and/or leaky gut issues could have some impact.

Fuzzynavel, Methotrexate is pretty serious stuff - my husband refused to take it because he was worried about the effects of suppressing his whole imune system. You didn't mention if it was helping - I hope it is!

Darwin, I hope this new way of eating is your ticket out of the PA nightmare - so far, seems promising!

Methotrexate (MTX) has worked well for me but has not stabilised me yet. I am in the process of upping the dose with the blessing of my Rheumatologist.
I too was worried about the side effects before I started but thankfully I haven't had any that I have noticed...I had to come off the mtx when we were trying for our second child as it is a teratogen and I really noticed the effect that it had been having on me (it was working). I had no hesitation about going back on it.....possibly for the rest of my life... I do have the inconvenience of monthly blood tests though which is a pain but being in the UK, thankfully I don't have to pay per visit..

One thing that helped me massively was keeping a diary....I recorded my food, exercise and anything that I thought would be relevant....it definitely helped me reduce the number of flare ups that I was getting.

[fuzzynavel]

Methotrexate is some nasty stuff!!!! Jacked with my liver so much that I had a biopsy done to check out the damage. I would take milk thistle extract as that normalized my liver function on the methotrexate.

It has the potential to be nasty stuff but I am being closely monitored for liver function, ESR, Lymphocytes and a lot more....The way that I see it.....my immune system was overactive and attacking my joints so if I suppress it a little then that is ok with me.
I still get immune responses but rarely get the colds etc that my children bring home from nursery. I guess I am just one of the lucky ones where methotrexate is concerned.

[Darwin17]

Update:

Client meeting....3 beers and some onion rings and a fajita wrap......knuckles starting to ache

First time non paleo like that in a long time.....won't make that mistake again

[js290]

Update:

Client meeting....3 beers and some onion rings and a fajita wrap......knuckles starting to ache

First time non paleo like that in a long time.....won't make that mistake again

Brown rice and sorghum causes psoriasis for me. I had duck marinated in a sorghum based liquor last week; didn't know at the time the liquor was sorghum based. Now I know. It doesn't take much. For acute symptoms, moderation doesn't work.

[Darwin17]

I agree as I have been super compliant for the past 3 months so have not really had the chance to do that to myself without taking medication. That was not a very good usage of judgement but a good experiment when I think about it.

[Sol y Sombra]

Darwin17, do you mean to say that gluten affects your arthritis? I think this may be the case with my mom, only she has to give it more time... She has been ill a very long time, so I suppose her body would need more time to heal. And she has mostly given up gluten, but will have a piece of bread or cake on festive occasions and that's about once every two months or so. If she is indeed sensitive to gluten and it's making her worse, she would need to give it up for a longer time to let her body 'flush it out' of her system and begin the healing process. Of course, if she had an acute reaction like you did, she would be able to pinpoint gluten as a cause and give it up immediately, I suppose. But she hasn't been able to identify a single cause or maybe her body has gotten too confused over time and its responses are blunted. Oh, I hope I can convince her to stay completely off gluten for 6 months and see how she feels.

[fuzzynavel]

Darwin17, do you mean to say that gluten affects your arthritis? I think this may be the case with my mom, only she has to give it more time... She has been ill a very long time, so I suppose her body would need more time to heal. And she has mostly given up gluten, but will have a piece of bread or cake on festive occasions and that's about once every two months or so. If she is indeed sensitive to gluten and it's making her worse, she would need to give it up for a longer time to let her body 'flush it out' of her system and begin the healing process. Of course, if she had an acute reaction like you did, she would be able to pinpoint gluten as a cause and give it up immediately, I suppose. But she hasn't been able to identify a single cause or maybe her body has gotten too confused over time and its responses are blunted. Oh, I hope I can convince her to stay completely off gluten for 6 months and see how she feels.

The problem that I have found with gluten is that it is found in the most unexpected places such as in sausages and burgers to help bind them together...thickeners in sauces.....i make most things myself now to avoid this issue......

[Mud Flinger]

The problem that I have found with gluten is that it is found in the most unexpected places such as in sausages and burgers to help bind them together...thickeners in sauces.....i make most things myself now to avoid this issue......

Fact!!! Also, when there are several things causing problems, removing one big problem may not be enough to make you feel much better. A strict elimination diet will allow a time to heal a bit and then once feeling better (maybe a week or several months later) slowly add foods back in to see their effect. Auto-immune diseases wreak such havock in the body that it can take some time to calm the immune response down ... and then there are still the permanently damaged parts that may or may not get much better even when your remove the problem. Some of us take years to heal and when you have the "take a pill" immendiate mentality, it is very hard to allow the body the time that is needed to make real progress.

[Darwin17]

Darwin17, do you mean to say that gluten affects your arthritis? I think this may be the case with my mom, only she has to give it more time... She has been ill a very long time, so I suppose her body would need more time to heal. And she has mostly given up gluten, but will have a piece of bread or cake on festive occasions and that's about once every two months or so. If she is indeed sensitive to gluten and it's making her worse, she would need to give it up for a longer time to let her body 'flush it out' of her system and begin the healing process. Of course, if she had an acute reaction like you did, she would be able to pinpoint gluten as a cause and give it up immediately, I suppose. But she hasn't been able to identify a single cause or maybe her body has gotten too confused over time and its responses are blunted. Oh, I hope I can convince her to stay completely off gluten for 6 months and see how she feels.

For autoimmune issues I think it seems to very wildly for individuals. For many it is gluten for me I think it is a part of it but really seems to hit it when I have unnatural oils.

It is very rare I go off but I have had a bit of gluten here and there but to be honest in about 3 months have had something with gluten on 4 occasions and have not had any reaction from it. I eat lots of eggs and a fair amount of night shades as I like hot sauce etc. It seems to be the fats I eat as frankenfat destroys me in #2 land and now it gave me a flair up it seems.

[Sol y Sombra]

Yes, frankenfats are a part of the picture too, it seems. Here in Bulgaria sunflower oil has been the most used oil for cooking for decades. Now we haven't used it in 8 months, we've replaced it with EVOO, but we have been consuming it for decades, my mom especially