Arthritis

Arthritis

General Comments

Unless the damage to the joints is too far advanced, arthritis can be "cured" by diet and food supplements. I have done this for several others in the past. Exercise helps, but pain must be reduced to the point where useful exercise is possible. In several cases, the doctors had given up, and just put them on painkillers or advised them to have tendons cut! Some of my ideas are used by local golfers, particularly in winter.

In the last few weeks I have trawled the Internet for more information, including clinical trials on supplements, and data on various foods.

Below is my latest advice.

Dietary Advice

	Reduce consumption of meats such as beef, pork, and lamb.
	Cut down on all animal fats and reduce consumption of saturated fats.
	Use turkey, game, chicken, and fish, as protein sources.
	Eat oily fish daily, even if it is only a small portion. Use mackerel, sardines, salmon, pilchards, herring.
	Reduce protein to low levels, about 20 to 30 gms. per day. It is acidic and mucous-forming.
	Throw out all margarines and hydrogenated oils. Use butter (sparingly!).
	Go easy on bread, it makes sugar (and hence fat) levels surge.
	No refined sugars at all.
	Read labels on food containers very carefully.
	Use lots of vegetables, and eat some raw.
	If you eat nuts use only Walnut, Almond, Brazil. (Walnut for oils, Brazil for selenium)
	Use olive oil (Virgin, cold pressed) or Grapeseed oil for cooking.
	Use Sunflower oil if desired for drizzling over food, as it reduces triglycerides in the blood.
	Eat lots and lots of fruit, and eat the skins as the good chemicals are there.
	Use fruit juices with bits, but raw fruit is better. Juice drinks are no use.
	Avoid grapefruit.
	Avoid grains as much as possible, and never eat breakfast cereals, as they are full of sugar and bad for arteries, even without sugar.
	Use sprouted seeds if desired. Mung beans work well.
	Detox slowly on high fruit diets for a few weeks to see the results. Everyone is different, so results will vary from person to person.
	Switch the diet to alkaline using a lot less protein (very acidic), less carbohydrate (mildly acidic), more vegetables (alkaline), and lots of fruit (very alkaline).
	Eat fruit with a high ratio of skin to volume, eg grapes, berries, etc..
	Use herbs, fresh if possible, for their high mineral content.

Supplements

Below is a brief list of supplements for arthritis:

Mineral/Vitamin Use a good quality one daily, e.g. H&B ABC Plus Senior.

Vitamin B3 100mg. per day in 2 doses of 50mg. Buffers free hydrogen.

Vit. C 1000mg. Time release as desired.

Cod Liver Oil One teaspoonful thoroughly mixed to a colloidal state with juice.
Take first thing in morning, no food for 15 mins.

Boron One of the best supplements, kills bugs, reduces pain, swellings.
Take 9mg. in 3mg. tablets per day for 4-6 weeks, then reduce to
one 3mg. tablet per day.

Honey, One teaspoonful each, mix with hot water. Good for aches, pains,
Cider Vinegar but most give up because of stomach irritation and taste.

Glucosamine Need 1500mg. per day, must be pure, takes 4-7 months to start.
Body makes its own if minerals, vits. present.

Chondroitin Better than glucosamine, need 1200mg. pure.

Combinations They use glucosamine, chondroitin, cartilage, vits.. Better.

MSM Alters permeability of cell walls. Don’t use.

Glucosamine Gel Expensive, gives fast pain relief, but active ingredients are menthol,
herbs, and penetrants to aid absorption. Glucosamine cannot pass
through the skin. Try neat vodka rubbed on joint!

Starflower/Borage Omega 6 oil, not the kind you want. Don’t bother, eat fish.

Linseed Oil One teaspoonful per day, keep in fridge, good omega 3 oil.
Can also use seeds, crushed, fresh. Best source of omega 3 oil
in plants. Needs mins/vits to work properly, but very good.
Some results take weeks, some 6 months, but improves the
whole body as is used in many enzymes and prostaglandins.

Fish Oils (other) Use as desired, see item 4.

Diet Simple

	Greatly reduce saturated fats. They are found in animal fats. Wild animals are low fat 2-4%, beef, pork 20-25%, lamb 25-30%, chicken (no skin) 7% or less, turkey 4%. White fish has virtually no fat, and oily fish has good fat with omega 3 and 6 oils.
	Cut out all refined sugars and foods that contain them, such as cakes, biscuits, sweets. They cause sugar levels in the blood to rise rapidly, then fall, causing hunger, and forcing the body to convert the sugar to fat and store it in special fat cells.
	Avoid cereals as they have high sugar levels, and grains can damage arteries.
	Use no hydrogenated fats. They are trans-fats and are dangerous, reducing the conversion rate of omega 3 oils by 20 to 40 %. Eat no margarine at all! Use butter-sparingly!
	Use semi-skimmed milk and diabetic, sugar-free jams.
	Cut back on bread, as it is a fast-release carbohydrate. Use sparingly, and mix with oatcakes, etc..
	Cut out starches such as rice and potatoes, as they act like sugar.
	Eat lots more vegetables as they are slightly alkaline, and supply fibre.
	Nuts are high in fats, eat carefully, and favour walnuts, almonds and brazil nuts.
	Make soups using oat bran and yeast as a base. Gives fibre and B vitamins.
	Eat small meals, and eat when hungry. No sweet or fatty snacks between meals, use fruit if hungry.
	Eat some food raw before every meal as it helps digestion and controls the immune system.
	Eat lots of fresh fruit with the skins as the good chemicals are in the outer portions.
	Make the overall diet more alkaline by eating more vegetables and fruit and less protein.
	Take regular fibre to keep the digestive system operating.

Diet Alkaline

Same as simple but cut protein to 20-30 gms. per day, as is very acidic and mucous forming.

A by-product of protein is ammonia, and the body has to work hard to get rid of it.

Carbohydrates are mildly acidic, fats are neutral as they are burnt to water and carbon dioxide.

Vegetables are mildly alkaline, and fruits are very alkaline. Tomato is a fruit. Canned fruit is fine if in fruit juice, but not good if in syrup or sugary juice.

Diet Fruit

Extreme, but healthiest of all. Surprisingly, it is adequate in minerals, vitamins, and protein. Must be fresh, and grown on good soil, plus the rest of the body has to work in order to make all the required chemicals from the building blocks in fruit. Not recommended, but can use for a few days at a time to detoxify.

Wine

Use Pinot Noir as has seven times the level of some chemicals that are good for arteries and the heart. As a general rule, use wine from thick-skinned grapes in a hot, arid climate.

Oils and fats

Saturated means no double bonds between carbon atoms. This is the dangerous type.

Mono-saturated, with one double bond in the chain of about 18 carbons, is better. An example is olive oil.

Poly-unsaturated means several double bonds. Margarine and some plant oils are like this, but margarine is made from liquid oil by a process of adding hydrogen to make it solid at room temperature. This changes the shape to a trans-fat, which is dangerous. With this shape, it interferes with other processes, such as usage of omega 3 oils.

Platelets in the blood are less sticky when omega 3 and 6 oils feature highly in the diet.

There are lots of different opinions on fats, with suggested percentages in the diet of from 10 to 30-35% by calories. They are needed in the body but can be made internally if other chemicals are present, hence an all-fruit diet is actually OK for fats, weird though it may seem. Personally, after quite a bit of reading, I would favour a low figure of about 10-15%.

Canola oil is Canadian oil, and is a special variety of rapeseed, higher in omega 3 and 6 oils. The rapeseed oil as sold in shops here is extremely low on omega 3, about 0.3%.

Cereals and Grains

Often mentioned as a healthy option, grains have some nasty chemicals in them. Not a feature of hunter-gatherer diets, they were of little use till fire was used. The heat was needed to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors, but also destroyed some good chemicals. Groups living on grains tended to be smaller with less stamina than meat-eaters or fruit eaters. Austrian autopsies ( 20,000 or more) over years have shown that grains damage arteries, making them harder and less flexible. Use sparingly, and watch out for added sugars. The bran from oats is very good, but wheat bran can score the linings of the intestines.

Sugars

In the raw state, they have over 200 other chemicals, some used by the body as recognition signals. Once refined, these chemicals are lost, and the result is a fast rise in blood sugar, the pancreas having to work frantically (twice the size in the West compared to those who eat fruits) to reduce sugar levels. Some has to be stored as fats in special fat cells, and the blood sugar levels then plunge to under normal, leading to hunger. Watch foods for the hidden refined sugars.

Advice that Worked

	Cut down on saturated fats
	Alkaline diet
	Fruit
	Cod liver oil, one teaspoonful per day, with juice as colloid, in morning
	Vitamin B3 100mg. per day
	One a day multi mineral vitamin tablet
	9mg. Boron per day for 6 weeks, then 3 mg. per day

Results: Could walk down the street in 4-6 months, back at work in 8 months, pain free, joints ok, and after 2 years walked his dog to Carnoustie along the beach! Also cured heart palpitations. No medicine needed now.

Others: Cured swellings and joint pain with only Boron. Doctors had given up, suggested only cut tendons or inject steroids into joints which will destroy them in about two years. Pain free in a week, back golfing in two weeks, and OK since.

Overall View

Best Boron, it kills bugs, reduces inflammation and pain (reduces pressure on nerves), has no known side-effects, does not interact with other drugs, and gets into places such as joints where antibiotics cannot reach. Acts fast, is cheap, at about £4 for 100 3mg. tablets. Now used by some doctors, raises cure from 30% to about 90%. Should be part of a holistic approach.

Cod Liver Oil Very good, ordinary oil will do. Use as described, mixing very thoroughly with juice or milk. Radioactive tracers have proved that it does get into the joints. Takes time, expect results in months, not weeks.

Vitamin B3 Use daily, reduces acidity, buffers hydrogen is calming, and gives extra energy and concentration as well. Sounds impossible? It’s true.

Diet Use alkaline diet with fibre, avoiding sugars and saturated fats.

Margarines Do not use at all! Use butter, but sparingly.

Glucosamine Too slow, ineffective, body makes its own. If desired, use combinations but note quantities required, purity, and other ingredients.

MSM Don’t know, no good trials found, not toxic in rats, but I don’t like leaky cell walls. Personal view is don’t bother with it.

Icelandic Oil Expensive, quantities too small, needs taken as colloid to be really effective. Switch to normal cod oil, it works.

Linseed Oil Use. Try one teaspoonful per day, wait 2-3 months for overall results. The best of the oils for general health.

Borage Oil Waste of money, is only omega 6, needs mins/vits for conversion, blocked by margarines, eat fish.

Raw Food Recommended.

Fibre Necessary, use oat bran for soups, with brewer’s yeast for B vitamins. Then simply add canned if desired. Fibre is in vegetables, fruits, skins, legumes.