Do you suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis or know someone who does? Learn how I naturally reverse arthritis with my patients so you too can live a pain-free, drug-free life.
Most textbooks teach that once you have arthritis you always have arthritis. Unfortunately the drugs that are used to treat arthritis have devastating side effects on the body, making the chance of reversing the condition nearly impossible as the drugs break down the body. If you’re reading this, you either have arthritis or know someone who does. Please listen – you can naturally reverse arthritis. I’ve personally seen it happen…
My first involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis was when a young man came in who was suffering from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. He was 30 years old at the time and had some of the worst arthritis symptoms I’ve ever seen. He was taking copious amounts of prescription medication and had no quality of life. His doctor told him that there was nothing that could be done and that he would likely have a short life as the disease would eventually take his life.
Long story short, within 2 months of working with the individual, he was arthritis free. He went to his managing specialist for arthritis and he was stunned. He says he’s never seen anything like it. From this point forward, I knew that arthritis can be reversed naturally. But before I tell you how tot naturally reverse arthritis, lets first talk about what it is.
What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disorder that is autoimmune driven. This means your immune system is attacking your own body tissue, driving a chronic inflammatory response. RA commonly attacks the joints but can also damage the cardiovascular system as well as the skin, eyes and lungs. This in turn causes pain, swelling, stiffness and a decrease range of motion in the involved joints.
It is estimated that 54 million Americans suffer from arthritis, with 1.5 million being specific to the rheumatoid type. Women are three times more likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis than men and the disease typically onsets in the age range between 30 and 60 years old.
While suffering from RA, one will have episodes of intense pain and periods of relief that are brought on by an increase and decrease in inflammatory levels within the body. RA tends to last years, as it is a chronic inflammatory issue. There is “no cure” according to medical standards for those who suffer from this disease. Most believe it can only be managed through medication.
Though medication is thought to be the only option available for RA patients, holistic health providers think quite differently. Holistic doctors believe that taking control of your health through a lifestyle congruent with your genetic requirements can yield results beyond what you thought possible.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Causes
When you consider the causes of RA, you have to direct your thoughts to the root cause of chronic inflammation and autoimmune disease. The mechanism that occurs in RA is a cellular and chemical attack on the synovium in the joints. This attack is driven by the immune system and wears down the cartilage within the joints.
This immune system attack causing a breakdown of the joints and inflammation has many involving factors. Those who seek out the root cause of the chronic condition (such as myself) believe it to be due to:
- Toxins: Toxins in our environment have increase tenfold over the past several years. These toxins are anything from standard household cleaners to synthetic chemicals found in everyday food.
- Leaky Gut: An estimated 80% of people suffer from leaky gut. Leaky gut causes particles of food to cross the gut barrier into the blood stream, causing the immune system to spiral out of control, ultimately causing an autoimmune disorder. For specific advice on how to heal the gut, read here.
- Obesity: Those who are overweight are known to be at a higher risk for arthritis, especially when diagnosed at the age of 55 or younger.
- Genetic Predisposition: Though your genes alone don’t determine whether or not you will suffer from arthritis, they can make you more susceptible. Your environmental factors will activate the disease if it is your genetic weakness.
- Toxic Food Syndrome: Toxic food syndrome refers to foods that your body determines are harmful when consumed. These foods drive inflammation every time they are eaten and disrupt immune function.
- Nutrient deficiencies: When nutrients that support the balance of our immune system and a dampening of inflammation are lacking our body cannot thrive.
In many cases, it is not any single one of these factors that is the culprit. Rather, it is a combination of many of them, which have a negatively-charged synergistic effect. In my personal experience I find that most people have a combination of 3 or more of the above factors.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
Rheumatoid Arthritis has many of the same symptoms as other arthritis diagnoses so let’s try to narrow it down as much as possible. In the early stages, Rheumatoid Arthritis attacks the smaller joints, particularly in the fingers, hands and toes. As the disease progresses, it attacks the larger joints like the knees. Symptoms specifically related to RA are as follows:
- Tenderness in joints
- Swollen warm joints
- Stiffness, more so in the morning or after inactivity
- Low grade fever
- Fatigue
- Weight loss
- Frequent infections
- Weakness
- Pain and aching in more than one joint
Rheumatoid Arthritis also can attack organ systems. It is estimated that 40% of people who suffer from RA will have complications with skin, eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, salivary glands, nervous system, and blood vessels. This is why, it is very important to treat it and find a way to naturally reverse arthritis symptoms.
What Triggers Rheumatoid Arthritis Flare Ups?
Anyone who either has RA realizes there are times of flare ups that are very uncomfortable. These flare ups are a surge in inflammation that occurs usually over a 3 day period that intensify the already painful symptoms of RA. Though the exact cause of these flare ups cannot be certain, RA sufferers can link it to one or all of the same factors:
- Stress: A review of 16 in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy found that stress is a factor and certainly a flare trigger.
- Toxic Foods: As mentioned above as a root cause of arthritis, eating foods that the body deems a foreign invader can cause flares. Of course unhealthy foods like processed foods and sugar are obvious toxic foods. But flare ups can be caused by food as healthy as a strawberry or a tomato. Testing your food sensitivities is a must to determine what should and should not be eaten.
- Overexertion: When you have a disease such as RA, the word overexertion shouldn’t exist in your lifestyle. Not getting enough sleep and pushing your body to the limits are sure ways to cause an increase amount of inflammation in the body.
With RA, it is good to journal good and bad days. Journal food eaten, sleep at night and your daily stress levels. From there you can deduce what has a negative affect on you and strategically avoid those particular stressors to your body.
Prevalence of Arthritis
An estimation of 54 million people suffer from some form of Arthritis. Of those the most common form of arthritis is of the Rheumatoid type, equating to about 1.5 million people who suffer from RA alone. The risk of arthritis increases with age and is found more often in women than men. Women are 3 times more likely to suffer from RA than men are. Women also tend to get RA in their middle ages whereas men tend to develop it later on in life. Arthritis is on the rise and is already the leading cause of disability. It is projected by 2040 that arthritis will increase from 54 million to 78 million individuals being affected.
How is RA diagnosed?
RA is diagnosed by reviewing symptoms, conducting a physical examination, and doing X-rays and lab tests. It is optimal to act on reversing Rheumatoid Arthritis as soon as possible. If it goes undetected for too long it can begin destroying the joints and connective tissue. Proper changes to lifestyle and diet should be implemented immediately.
Tops Ways to Naturally Reverse Arthritis
When it comes to managing RA you have to make a choice as to how you want to proceed. If you go the conventional medicine route, corticosteroids, anti-inflammatories, painkillers and immune-altering drugs are often used. These arthritis medications are used at a cost as they have side effects that include liver damage, kidney damage, vision and even heart problems. Going the natural route can yield incredible results without all the harmful side effects, but the choice is yours.
Here are many of the ways that you can mitigate symptoms and naturally reverse arthritis in order to increase your quality of life and reduce damage to your body.
- Detoxify your body.
Detoxing your body at a cellular level is a must when overcoming chronic conditions. It not only dramatically supports the reduction of inflammation but also removes all the toxic buildup in the body that is robbing you of your health. A cellular detox is the only way to truly cleanse the body of toxins and an important step to naturally reverse arthritis. Your body is genetically designed to thrive, but only if we remove the toxins which are interfering with your body’s innate ability to heal itself. All of my best advice for cellular detoxification can be found in my Cellular Detoxification Program.
- Reduce stress
One of the major culprits of RA and its associated flare up is stress. Reducing stress through mindful meditation, journaling, and deep breathing exercises is a sure way to reduce both symptoms and flare ups associated with RA.
- Get sufficient high quality sleep
When you sleep your body heals. Arthritis pain and flare up are correlated to fatigue and lack of high quality sleep. If the quality of your sleep is a concern, I’d recommend utilizing a sleep tracker to determine how many hours you are sleeping a night and the quality of those hours. Many times people lay in bed and are either not sleeping at all or not going into a deep sleep. For more information on sleep read my “Sleep Your Way To Health” book.
- Reduce inflammation
Reducing inflammation is key when healing RA. After all, inflammation is one of the major factors in this disease’s destructive process. Although inflammation will be reduced by eating a high quality diet (see below) and removing toxins from the body, I still recommend Herbalflam. It is a natural supplement loaded with all the known anti-inflammatory herbs. I have witnessed this supplement reduce pain, discomfort and inflammation in so many people.
- Eat a diet that heals the body
There are diets that break down your body and diets that heal. Eating a diet that heals is 100% necessary when reversing RA. A healing diet includes whole foods high in good quality fats, moderate in protein and low in carbohydrates. It is also important to avoid sugar of any kind, as it drives the inflammatory process within the body. You can learn more about the Heal Yourself Diet that was written by my wife and I here.
- Exercise and stretching
One of the major symptoms of RA is stiffness. By exercising and stretching on a daily basis you will keep your joints limber and release hormones that support healing in the body. Exercise is also know to support healthy immune function which is a plus when healing an autoimmune disease. Those who suffer with RA find that some form of exercise on a daily bases is very important.
- Hot and cold therapy
Utilizing infrared heat therapy and cold therapy offer tremendous benefit in the way of healing the musculoskeletal system. You can use anything from portable infrared saunas to infrared heating pads. As far as cold therapy, you can use anything from ice packs to ice baths. It is recommended that this type of therapy is used daily for maximum results.
- Supplementation for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Though there are some very basics that I will recommend here, you should work with a health expert to really narrow down what your body requires and begin to naturally reverse arthritis. Anyone that I have ever worked that suffered from RA was tested for nutrient depletion. I find that RA patients are grossly deficient in multiple nutrients. Here is an example of one patient’s deficiencies.
Every person will have different deficiencies and one of the keys to reversing RA is to address the health concern with accuracy.
Here are some supplements that are known to reduce arthritis symptoms:
- Turmeric (more about the benefits of Turmeric)
- Ginger
- Omega 3 Fish oils
- Vitamin C
- MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane)
- Boswellia Serrate (frankincense)
- Cat’s Claw
I hope this guide to Naturally Reverse Arthritis serves you well. Let me know in the comments section your experience with RA or post any questions you may have.