Autoimmune diseases suck. You really, really do have to take care of yourself first; my girlfriend had the same “take care of everyone else first” habit, but she was literally ordered to stop by her doctor because she was overworking her inflamed joints.

I also for the first time am finding that weight loss is more difficult than it used to be. I like chocolate, but instead of eating it in high fat form like ice cream, I substitute hot chocolate or chocolate soy frozen dessert. Still get the taste but without the fat and calories!

2) Get a George Foreman grill. You wouldn’t believe how sweet these are, and not just from broiling steaks (even well-done steaks are tender on this thing). They let the fat drain off and the meat — be it chicken, steak, pork or what-have-you (salmon fillets work beautifully) — is cooked with the flavor sealed in. (Love stir-fry but not the fat? Steam the veggies in the microwave, cook the meat on the George Foreman, chop up the meat and stir into the veggies with a couple tablespoons of oyster sauce or whatever you desire.)

3) RE: Catstaff @ #127 — I do a similar thing, but I use an ear syringe filled with warm salt water to rinse out my nasal passages. Do it at the first sign of a cold, and it zaps the cold dead; even if you’re doing it with the cold in full flow, it’s still good because it blasts open the nasal passages and kills the cold germs simultaneously; do it right before you go to bed and you’ll be able to sleep straight through the night.

“Would you have the comments section draw up the deed to your house? If you don’t have a rheumatologist, get referred to one. Some people do OK on nonsteroidal antiinflammatories like Voltaren (not for people with allergies to the aspirin family of drugs). I’ve heard good things about water aerobics (less pounding on the sore parts). Chelation therapy, except for heavy metal poisoning (chewing on paint chips lately?) is a total fraud and has killed people. There is one glimmer of truth in some of what the faddists are saying: the typical American diet is way high in calories of all kinds, and you can do with a lot less in the way of concentrated flour and sugar based products. For some people, this is very difficult. And as for vitamin supplements, even more nonsense.”

I read that to mean that you find the use of supplements to be nonsensical. Maybe I misunderstand.
.
Four years ago I was diagnosed with near adrenal failure. My doctors were offering steroids. Having seen my father’s health seriously deteriorate (kidney failure) after many years of steroid use, I chose to see a naturopath. I was put on bed rest, dietary changes, omega 3s, amoung some other supplements. I am well today and avoided the use of steroids by using alternatives.

To me it has made perfect sense.

I do agree that corporations selling supplements have one thing in mind and that one shouldn’t believe the claims that are made for either alternative supplements or mainstream pharmaceuticals by their manufacturers.

I don’t have bad knees but I struggle to maintain my weight and usually am successful but every few years my weight will “suddenly” creep up on me. It’s because I eat too much and eat too much of the wrong things. It’s not rocket science. I find Weight Watchers to be the best (and I have tried several). It really is not a diet but the right way to eat a balanced diet and get enough fruits, vegetables, milk and protein for good nutrition.

I am very good about exercise though. I like weightlifting because you see the results faster and it helps keep your metabolism up. It’s pretty mindnumbing so I find it calming. Form is everything not heavy weights unless you can maintain proper form. I also find an eliptical machine the best for cardio, I have really bad feet with some arthritis in the big toe joint with the bunions so walking and the treadmill are out. That gives me shins splints anyway. But the eliptical machine is weightbearing (good for bone density) and gets your heart rate up without hurting knees, hips or feet. I also like Pilates because it really helps keep my back from going out. It strengthens the abs and back so it helps prevent back strain. Again form is all important and it takes a long time to get good at it. I go to a half price book store that has dvds and video tapes for exercise videos. Very cheap and I can get a variety of Pilates and other exercise tapes. I find rubber bands good for weight training at home if you don’t go to a gym. Joints are better protected when the muscles around them are strong.

For joint pain, the older guys at the gym swear by Certo (the stuff you use to make jelly). They put it in grape juice and drink it. They say it really helps with arthitis pain and joint pain. At least it won’t hurt you. I think weight loss, a good nutritious diet and movement simply keep you healthy so you feel better.

The key to fitness is getting your mind right. If you’re not ready for weight loss and exercise routines you probably will quit. Exercise has to become part of your routine so that you make an appointment with yourself and fell terrible if you miss your exercise time. Anyway, that’s what works for me.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01Qu…..detox.html

Some of the posts on this thread remind me of the tax rebels who claim that the income tax is unconstitutional. They manage to convince themselves of their assertions via heroic exercises in illogic, but their premises are fatally flawed. As a practicing biochemist (and member of the Endocrine Society), I find some of the posts here as strange as Christy must find the rantings of right wing bloggers and tax anarchists.

Many other posts in this thread make sense. Moderate exercise is good for us (you don’t have to be a marathon runner — walking 30 to 60 minutes a day helps a lot), but if your knees and hips are aching so badly that you can barely stand, it is hard to get the normal amount of exercise. For people with inflammatory problems, water exercise can be a real help, as can various forms of physiotherapy, but people without autoimmune problems should not expect that what works for them will work for somebody with r.a. There may be some overlaps, but there are also significant differences.

It was curious to find myself misquoted at Inmymind’seye 199, where the post has me saying “And as for vitamin supplements, even more nonsense. Luckily, their claims are baseless anyway.”

Perhaps it was just a case of unfortunate editing. What my post was meant to refer to are the nonsensical claims about supplements boosting the immune system. Here’s what I said: “If your immune system is attacking some of your tissue, why would you want to make that effect stronger, which is what the supplements industry is always promising people. Luckily, their claims are baseless anyway.” In other words, it is unlikely that a dietary supplement would boost the immune system enough to make your autoimmune condition worse, because it is unlikely that the supplement does much to the immune system at all (unless of course you are allergic to it). There are deficiencies of excess in the American diet (way too much sugar) and probably a relatively low intake of magnesium on the average, but these are easily solved. The difference between the scientific viewpoint and the food faddist viewpoint is that the scientist doesn’t see any food source as magic, or spiritual, or “natural,” or anything but molecules. Most of what we are (proteins and DNA and so forth) we make within our own cells. Most of us can cut down our intake of sugar by five-fold and be better off for it, at least in the long run, but there is nothing new about this idea at all.

An aside: There are lots of ways to boost the immune system — getting sick is probably the most effective, along with vaccinations and the normal give and take of everyday life, which is filled with exposures to bacteria and viruses of all kinds. The immune system is itself very complicated, and it has to deal with many threats of several different kinds. It’s probably not surprising that it misfires once in a while, something which is painful and difficult for the sufferers. The fact is that the best researchers and scholars don’t yet have enough information to explain the details of these disorders, but a lot of fundamental understanding has been added since the 1970s.

In the meanwhile, doctors treat autoimmune flareups as best they can. At one time they used colloidal gold injections (they worked to some extent), and later the various drugs that basically do what aspirin does have been popular (voltaren, the cox2 inhibitors, etc).

Life stress can induce a flareup, and the resulting pain induces more stress, so it helps if you can break the vicious cycle somewhere along the line. I don’t know if it is possible to avoid stress during the Libby trial, but we can try to do our best.

One other point that many normal people don’t quite understand: Some autoimmune sufferers have a shutdown in circulation to the fingers and toes in response to cold (Reynaud’s disorder). Once they get cold, it doesn’t matter how thick their gloves and socks are, because they don’t have enough circulation going to warm those parts up. The only relief is to get out of the cold, and the subsequent thaw can really, really hurt. Some people find that a glass of wine helps

also, take one pill at breakfast of omega 3 oil, 1000mg; this LUBRICATES the joints; within a week you will feel better for this;

good luck with it all; hang in there; this too shall pass; val up in wpg minus 23 Centrigrade; lousy cold weather!