excellent thread idea MC, considering how widespread is arthritis, affecting both sexes.
Acupuncture helped you enormously - I would not have considered that. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to other's successful remedies also.
Regarding my success in pain management, at the time I was diagnosed with arthritis I was fairly young (30's)and the specialist was surprised. I now attribute it directly to my crazy intake of coke (coca cola that is :smoke-pot:) I consumed large quantities throughout the day for many years. The rest of my diet wasn't too bad, but I immediately changed my diet at that time, although I still kept drinking coke (didn't yet know the connection re sugar phosphorus, etc)
Arthritis - diminished immune system causing inflammation. Nutrition is key. So any supplementation should be in addition to eating only nutritious food. Be ruthless about it!
My diet: when possible, raw milk and raw milk product, grass fed meat when possible, if not then organic. Also pastured eggs from local farms, the requisite fresh vegetables (heirloom when possible - we just started a large garden w/heirloom seeds) and we stopped eating all processed food - which most fast food and supermarket food.
Because of looming gallbladder issues, I began drinking organic unfiltered apple juice w/ tablespoon of Braggs ACV each day. That isse went away, but I continue to have each day.
Multi vitamin, fish oil, coq10, vit e supplements.
This was all about 12 years ago. My health soared and arthritis improved greatly.
About 2 years ago, probably just due to increased activity level and stress, the pain increased in knees and neck. It escalated so that I had to address.
I finally stopped drinking all soda. Can you believe I was so careful about everything else, yet continued drinking this poison?
I added minerals via more multi, krill oil, B vitamins and chromium (adrenal), also homemade kefir w/flaxseed oil for gut and immune support. That definitely helped, but not enough. Luckily there are several smart people at my church who share health remedies and one of them told me about high dose vit C. I researched thoroughly - Linus Pauling, etc etc. and was comfortable attempting, since there is such little downside.. Here's a quick paragraph:
Dosage
Oral vitamin C can be taken to what is called bowel tolerance. When the body's maximum saturation tolerance is reached, diarrhea results. The aim is to adjust the oral intake to a point just below the diarrhea point. The following general recommendations are summarized from the Linus Pauling Institute's protocol for oral vitamin C ingestion.
Large amounts of vitamin C should be taken in divided doses throughout the day.
Begin with 1 or 2 grams (equivalent to '/»to Vi teaspoonful) of pure crystalline vitamin C dissolved in juice or water.
Increase the intake by 1 or 2 grams on each subsequent day until a laxative action develops. At this point, reduce the dose by 1 or 2 grams below this bowel tolerance level and maintain that dose thereafter.
Crystalline vitamin C can be obtained at reasonable cost as ascorbic acid or as the calcium and sodium ascorbate salts. See the appendix for a source of reliable, inexpensive supply.
It is important that vitamin C therapy be consistent and be maintained indefinitely, once the dose level is decided upon. If there should be any need to discontinue the therapy, it is important to decrease the dosage gradually to avoid the rebound effect.
There are so many other reports and testimonies about it.
Check out some recent Natural Society articles. Amazing.
http://naturalsociety.com/achieve-results-iv-mega-dose-vitamin-c-orally/Also Curezone. Just search "Curezone high dose vitamin C". Lots of references and other info there.
I can attest that within
a few days I felt much better, and now - a few months later- pretty much pain free.
I have to say I also added tumeric recently due to this study:
http://naturalsociety.com/turmeric-vs-ibuprofen-knee-pain-study/I believe this with the vit c is what worked for me.
Two final things:
1. Be sure your vitamin C is easily absorbable, either in powder form (it's bitter - mix w/AJ) or a capsule. Also, be sure all your supplements are from good sources. Lots of poorly made ones out there, so caveat emptor.
2. This should be #1! Every good thing comes from the Father and I thank Him for helping me, even though I did not ask Him about this issue in specific prayer. Suffering is a great blessing after all, right? I presume He now wants me to serve Him more actively with my renewed health, and He's thrown 2 projects in my path that I could not have done had I still been in pain.
Many blessings to the good people of Cathinfo. You are all very special, and I don't mean in the little yellow school bus kinda way! :dancing-banana:
Well, maybe a few...