The  Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet 

How I Stopped Hurting And Started Living Again

About five years ago I was told that I may be developing rheumatoid arthritis. As most of you reading this probably know, that's the crippling kind where your immune system starts attacking your joints.
Let me tell you, it's no cake-walk (and if you have RA you know what I’m talking about). I was a life-long athlete before RA, and my whole life has changed due to this disease. It has put a definite hamper on my physical activities, that's for sure.
Still, after I got through the denial phase ("that can't be right") and really did some research on it (that was my "oh crud" phase), I did the one thing I know to do that will improve your chances of success in any given situation.
That’s when I decided to control all the factors that were within my power to change, and then I gave the rest over to God.
So, I sat down and made a list of all the things that were in my power to change. Here’s what I came up with:
I can control how I think; in other words, my attitude. I realized I could choose to look at this disease from a “poor me” perspective, or I could wake up every day and choose to focus on all the blessings in my life. Which you do will make a tremendous impact on how you feel from day-to-day, as we’ll talk about in a minute.
I can control my activities. I was doing a lot of high-impact exercise, because that’s what I’d done all my life. That was an area that was in my direct control to change.
I can control my lifestyle. I could change certain things in my life to make my life less stressful and make it easier for me to deal with the ups and downs of the disease.
I can control what I eat. I knew from years as an athlete that nutrition has a tremendous impact on how you feel; so, I set about finding out how I should eat to help my body heal, or at least to maximize my energy levels and how I feel.
After making this list, I changed the following in an effort to improve my body's ability to heal:
I changed my attitude, to focus on what I had to be thankful for each day…
I changed my exercise intensity, to cut down on mechanical inflammation and to avoid increasing the “stress hormones” in my body...
I started doing low-impact exercise, to maintain the range of motion in my joints...
I started taking supplements to help my body heal...
I cut down on my stress, by eliminating things in my life that were stressing me out (stress alone can make you sick - be sure to breathe and de-stress every day)...
And, the most radical thing I did was that I revamped what I was eating, and adopted a strict rheumatoid arthritis diet of my own creation.
So, did it work? Well, I went from being basically bed-ridden most of the time, to being able to live a fairly normal life. I now enjoy doing many of the activities I used to enjoy before RA.
Definitely, the answer is “yes”!
Let’s talk about each of these in turn, to get an idea of why and how this had such a tremendous impact on how I feel from day-to-day.

Attitude

Your attitude is the first thing to change so you can come up with your own plan for managing your disease as an RA sufferer. Yes, RA sucks, yes it’s debilitating, yes it can lead to other problems…
But how in the world does it help you to dwell on all that? Obviously, it doesn’t, which is why you need to improve and adjust your attitude to focus on the positive things in your life.
Many studies have been done on the effects of attitude (and faith, I might add) on how well patients adapt to and recover from acute and chronic illnesses. Overwhelmingly, patients who adopt a positive mental attitude and outlook enjoy a much better quality of life.
So, however cliché this may sound, it is of the utmost importance that you adopt an “attitude of gratitude” and that you make a conscious decision each day to look on the bright side of things in your life.
I’ll definitely go deeper into this in a later section of this book, because attitude is vitally important to your health if you have RA.

Activities

For some who have lived with RA for a while, this may be obvious to you… but for those of you who are new to this disease (especially if you’ve been an athlete like I was), you should know –
All the intense exercise you used to do? You need to let that go.
Look, I know it’s hard. I was a professional martial arts instructor for most of my adult life. I finally had to realize that, although I could enjoy some of those activities with modification; however, all the hard contact and jarring on my joints was just accelerating my disease process.
I would go and attend a seminar over a weekend, load up on anti-inflammatory drugs, and then spend weeks recuperating. Plus, I was teaching martial arts full-time; everyday I’d take NSAIDs to cut down on my pain so I could get through four hours of classes and a full day at the school… only to go home on the weekend and lay in bed until I had to get up and do it again the next Monday.
That’s how badly I wanted to hang on to the life I had known. Finally, however, I came to realize that the only thing that mattered was my quality of life from this point on; and, clinging to the life I once knew was doing nothing to improve my current and future quality of life.
Once I came to that realization, I sold my martial arts school, gave up 95% of my martial arts practice that involved impact training, and started focusing on writing, blogging, and consulting as a means to support myself and my family. I’m not saying it was easy, but I am much healthier as a result.
So, adjust your activities to suit your current situation, and leave whatever you were able to do in the past behind. Believe me; you’ll be happier and healthier for it.

Exercise

Exercise – regular exercise – is extremely important when you have RA. The tendency is to sit around like a bump on a log and not do anything, because in most cases any significant movement is going to cause you pain.
Well, guess what? You are going to hurt anyway, so you may as well do it while doing something that will make you feel better.
That’s right, I said better!
Here’s the thing – your body needs to move to be healthy. And as someone who has RA, you are at a higher risk for heart disease and stroke. Do you know why?
It’s not only because of all the increased inflammation in your body… it’s also because most RA sufferers cut back considerably on physical activity after they get the disease!
The bottom line is you need to do some sort of gentle low-impact exercise every day – so MOVE YOUR BODY every day! Your mental outlook will improve, you’ll physically feel better, and overall you will stay much healthier, longer.
I’ll go into more detail on this in a later chapter, but for now just know you need to do some sort of appropriate exercise a few days a week if you want to enjoy the best quality of life with RA.

Supplements

There is a lot of quackery out there with regards to supplements that can make you feel better. I’m here to tell you right now, there’s no magic cure for RA.
That being said, there are supplements that can help you feel better on a daily basis, if taken regularly. Certain herbs, like ginger and curcumin can help reduce inflammation. And, taking a good B-complex and other vitamins can help your energy levels. Also, some enzymes have been shown to help reduce inflammation in the body.
One thing I’ve found is that some of the supplements commonly recommended for regular arthritis sufferers don’t help much for people with RA. So, it helps to know which ones do work best for RA sufferers.
I’ve spent a great deal of time testing different supplements and researching literature to find what works best for me, and I take those supplements every day.
And yes, I really do notice a difference in how I feel when I forget to take my supplements. Later in this book I’ll tell you exactly which supplements I take and why, as well as which ones I believe are of minimal benefit so you can avoid wasting your money on supplements that don’t work well for RA sufferers.

Stress

Stress can have a huge negative impact on you if you have RA. For one, stress can trigger flare-ups. Second, it increases the levels of stress hormones in the body, which are typically already elevated when you have rheumatoid arthritis due to your chronic pain.
The main stress hormone is cortisol, which suppresses the immune system. This may seem like a good thing since you have an autoimmune disease, but actually over a prolonged period it can be problematic. It also changes the way your body uses the glycogen (sugar) in your bloodstream, which can cause you to gain weight.
Also, cortisol can cause loss of collagen in the tissues, which is a real problem considering your joint connective tissue is made from collagen. It can contribute to osteoporosis over time, and can impair learning and alter your ability to process events clearly.