**Update on diet changes & RA

*Update* I am having huge successes in alleviating my symptoms from changing my diet!! Please if you are visiting and have RA...try this. Or contact me... I am not only a mission to fix myself but to help others!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Results are in!

What a day... woke up feeling great and full of energy...and excited for my food testing appointment!! 

It was so interesting.  They tested over 80 foods.  They used a machine/ technique called "biotron."  Here is what they found.

Foods that have zero benefit to me (can eat sparingly)
- whey
- mushrooms
- candida

Foods that I should avoid
- barley malt
- yogurt
- onion
- baker's yeast
- caffeinated tea

Foods that are BAD, that should be completely eliminated! (yikes!)
- COFFEE... OH NO
- BANANA...crap... I love these.  ** This was probably my big offender a few weeks ago!!
- SUGAR (of the refined form)  After I freaked out, she quickly ran and got some sugar alternatives which all tested ok (sucanat, stevia, honey, maple syrup)
- CORN  (not a biggie although this is found in a lot of foods!
- ICE CREAM (too bad...)
- SMOKED MEAT (no biggie, can't remember the last time I had this)
- CHOCOLATE (what the ......)
- COLA (don't drink it anyway)

So, there you have it!  Not as bad as I would have thought.  After my test, I met with a Naturopath doctor and we had a nice time chatting.  She thinks and supports the elimination diet that I'm on is great.  She would like me to stay away from the above mentioned foods and stay away from dairy & wheat for the time being.  I also spoke to her about some of my other concerns (leaky gut syndrome) and she gave me some high quality probiotics.  I have been reading that it is very common for people with RA to have leaky gut syndrome.  Sounds gross eh.  It's not really... here is the definition:

Leaky gut syndrome describes a condition of altered or damaged bowel lining, caused by toxins, poor diet, parasites, infection or medications, which has led to increased permeability of the gut wall to substances which normally remain isolated in the lumen, away from the body's internal circulatory or interstitial areas. NSAIDS such as aspirin are known to erode the gut lining and cause inflammation, other medications such as corticosteroids suppress immune function and disturb intestinal flora, and antibiotics indiscriminately kill bacteria causing bacterial flora disruptions in the small intestine.
It has been proposed that, when substances such as toxins, microbes, undigested food, waste or larger than normal macromolecules leak through an abnormally-permeable gut wall, they affect the body directly, while others postulate an immune reaction to these substances.

She also gave me some pharmaceutical grade fish oil. 

So, my plan is to keep chuggin along with my e-diet.  Avoid these bad foods and see what happens!  It's all so interesting!!

8 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your post, Jen! My mom has RA so I'm always trying to convince her to find natural treatments/change her diet. I have UC and just started the SCD diet seven days ago. Check out my blog at http://organicallyautoimmune.blogspot.com/
    Best to you.-Christina

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  3. I had typed chocolate wrong but I guess I can't really hide my error! LOL

    Great news, except the chocolate. Keep on feeling better and writing!

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  4. Where did you get your elimination diet information from? I just read your entire blog yesterday and bookmarked it to follow you. I have just been diagnosed at 28 with RA and just don't forsee taking medications and switching them and increasing them as a great future (and who KNOWS what else).
    After reading your experience and a few others, I was reminded that when I was young and had allergy testing corn had reacted. Not a huge reaction if I remember, but it reacted nonetheless. BUT...corn is in the medication: methotrexate and plaquenil. I'm trying to sort out how to go about with this diet thing now...

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  5. @ Christina: Thanks!! You may want to check out my friend Kat's blog http://www.scdkat.com/ She follows the scd diet and has an awesome blog! I will check yours out too!! Tell your mom goodluck! If she ever wants to chat, I'm here!

    @ Karen: Thanks for the words of encourgement! Totally sucks about the chocolate!! lol

    @ Natalie: I'm so gald you read the blog (which I'm curious how you found it?...) RA and the drugs used to treat it are scary! I encourage you to give this diet stuff a try. Here's my email if you want to chat off-line... I'd love to help you if I can. jen_mcconnery@yahoo.ca

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  6. apparently I missed your first July blog with the info on your diet. Just saw it now. I found your blog on the arthritis canada forum. I saw yours and the arthritis-alternatives.com blog.
    Thanks for your email address. Mine is blredbug@yahoo.com

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  7. hi jen

    have you seen this?
    http://www.conqueringarthritis.com/alcat/

    isabelle

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