Diagnosed in July 2009 with seronegative RA. Diagnosed in September 2010 with psoriatic arthritis. Symptoms first evident in June of 2008. The following vitamin and supplement protocol was designed specifically for me by my Doctor of Naturopathy–a Registered Pharmacist, Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Homeopath and Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine in an attempt to manage my chronic illness on a daily basis. My vitamin, supplement and diet protocol has gone through many stages and trials and still changes from time to time depending on my body. Over the past few years, I have withheld a multitude of various foods and products from my diet and my body to help relieve the burden on my body and to investigate whether or not certain food(s) and chemicals give me trouble.
I have also followed an intensive gut healing protocol to help support the integrity of my digestive system since 70% of our immune system stems from there. If even a pinhole size lesion occurs, any type of food can potentially aggravate the body. I had an Elisa Act blood test done and learned that my immune system was reacting negatively to green tea, almonds, flaxseed oil, and red grapes to name a few. Those things were in my diet in huge amounts! They are supposed to be good for you, but they were making my body irritable due to gut penetration I believe.
I feel like I have found a good place to be with my core vitamin, supplement and diet protocol. It suits my body and can be added to and then taken away from on an as needed basis. It is currently helping to keep the inflammation at bay (minus days when crazy weather blows in and the times I go crazy and eat “bad” food with abandon), my energy levels up and my immune system strong. (Ha, ha, did I just call my immune system strong?!)
On August 5, 2010, I also added an antibiotic protocol because diet and supplements were not getting the job done on their own. I believe something else was going on. I struggled for a long time over the pharmaceutical route I would take because on the one hand I had the immune suppressants and a cocktail of other things that would probably/hopefully help or I had an antibiotic approach, involving the very type of drug I was trying to keep out of my kids and I the best I possibly could. I had to make a decision though because whatever was going on needed to be stopped.
I then read the work that documented that roughly 10,000 patients had benefitted from a long term course of antibiotics at the core of their protocol. And on the Road Back website, you will find a multitude of others that have benefitted. I’ve connected with some of them and they have incredible information to share. Antibiotics are known to possibly make the going very tough at the outset (which is a good sign with this approach and happened with me), with improvements gradually appearing over time. It is also known to take longer–years, for some–before any major improvements appear. This is the case for those who have experienced the disease more intensely and for longer. At the same time, I scoured my insurance plan for information on biologics and other RA related drugs to know where I stood if I needed them. And I flooded my body with good things–whole organic foods, local meat and eggs, vitamin C and D, fish oil, healthy fats, probiotics, etc.
My rheumatologist (God love him!) prescribed two antibiotics and I gave them a go for nine months to potentially kill mycoplasma–which is the name given to a unique group of microorganisms that fall in the category between the bacteria and viruses. I chose antibiotics because I believe that mycoplasma had made me a nice little host.
“Mycoplasmas, unlike viruses, can grow in tissue fluids (blood, joint, heart, chest, and spinal fluids) and can grow in living tissue cell structures without killing the cells- as some viruses and bacteria do. Mycoplasmas are frequently isolated from the oral or genito-urinary tracts of normal population and are found to infect females four times more often than males, which just happens to be the same incident rate in rheumatoid arthritis and other related disorders. Mycoplasmas can attach to specific cells without killing the cells and thus their infection process can go undetected. No symptoms suggests no disease. In some people the attachment of mycoplasmas to the susceptible cell membranes acts like a living thorn, a persistent foreign substance, causing the host’s immune defense mechanism to wage war. This allergic type of inflammation often results in heated, swollen, and painful inflamed tissues. In such cases the mycoplasma may not be isolated from the inflamed tissues but is detected by the host’s serum antibody level. A positive response would indicate that mycoplasma has infected the host.”
I have experienced what I believe are remarkable improvements. Pain and inflammation have been diminished (slowly, but surely) and range of motion has improved in some areas and returned completely in others–Praise the Lord! My rheumatologist told me he has used antibiotics as a last line of defense with his other patients, after they have tried all of the other drugs. I asked him about his results and he said they were good. So I became his first patient to try it as a first line of defense. But I had to ask. He calls it an alternative therapy. It was a miracle in my life. (December 2011) I haven’t had a joint explode on me in a year (as of Dec. 2011) and I am pharmaceutical free (coffee is drug of choice) at this point in my life. Grateful for each day that I have experienced less pain and more mobility.
While on antibiotics, I took high doses of probiotics and supplements to support my liver. As poisonous as the antibiotics were, I fared well while on them in the grand scheme of things. I recently completed another round of a supplement protocol to cleanse liver and repair gut to help detox and heal from any damage that occurred from long term use of antibiotics. (December 2011-February 2012)
Antibiotic Protocol/Allopathic (From 8/5/2010 – 4/29/2011)
* Rifampin 300 mg – once daily
* Azithromycin 250 mg – Mondays and Thursdays
Current Protocol/Naturopathic
Daily
* High quality multivitamin
* Vitamin D3 - 2,000-4,000 iu (My D level is through the roof! Woohoo!)
* Vitamin C (ascorbate powder, corn free) – 6 grams (3 divided doses)
* High quality probiotic
* Omega -3 oils - 4,800 mg – (2 divided doses)
* Undenatured Type II collagen – (.5 mg) (The literature on this is fascinating! Read it! I believe it helps.)
* Water - LOTS of it!
* Whole foods diet (Plenty of it raw, organic, local). Soy, corn, grain, commercial dairy, artificial and natural flavor (can also have MSG) free as much as possible. This makes a HUGE difference! Restaurant food and anything processed or pre-packaged is not my friend–or anyone’s for that matter!)
* Deep breathing, stretching, prayer, quiet time
* Rebound
* Epsom salt bath (Hot bath, cold rinse when I can get one in.)
* Fresh air and sunshine (Wonderfully therapeutic and free!)
* Good night of rest (As often as possible.)
* Taking time to do things I enjoy/relieve stress — (DIY, home decor projects bring me joy and can make me giddy!)
Once every four weeks
* GENTLE Chiropractic adjustments (It’s keeping me moving! And helped me avoid surgery (thus far) for a bulging disc in my neck that was said to need surgery without a doubt.)
When the pain becomes overwhelming
* Acupuncture (Incredible results! Also a key component in my ability to avoid surgery on my c-spine.)
