Rheumatoid Arthritis Community

I take 2000mg of fish oil a day.

I started some research and spoke with my MD about "minocycline-antibiotic therapy"-it worked great for about 5 yrs-then the drug manufacturer changed it's formulation in the USA-it was not time-released-thus my body could not adapt to the chnage I had to go off. I then had to go on Methotrexate-which my body eventually (after 2yrs) rejected. I am now on Enbrell-I have recently (3 mos.) started taking Krill Oil Omega-3 (Mega Red) I do have more energy!

I use a product called Metagenics UltraInflamX every morning. It's a powder I mix into rice milk, which is brown rice based, and contains anti-inflammatory ingredients including turmeric, rosemary and ginger. The product is actually designed for people with Crohn's, IBD, etc. It was recommended to me by an integrative MD.

I also add in a tsp. of liquid fish oil (4,000 mg).

I use Zeel, which is a homeopathic remedy for arthritis pain, and, for acute discomfort, I use Traumeel, a homeopathic ointment.

I also take Vitamin D and minerals.

As far as diet, I try to eat fresh pineapple almost every day, and I try (as best I can!) to follow Dr. Weil's anti-inflammatory diet pyramid---lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of whole grains in their original state like barley, quinoa, brown rice, etc., beans and legumes, etc.

It sounds like fish oil is a good standby.

Has anyone tried heat/cold, acupuncture, biofeedback, tai chi, and more .? What were the results? I hope you'll all chime in.

Hi Acupuncture works for me I am up for my 3rd treatment next
week. Fish oil and hot /cold works some time.
I lost a lot of weight so I try to eat a lot of fruit,veggie's and
most anything. Plaquenil is all I am on now that I had a bad
reaction to the Methotrexate.

I've tried hot baths which seem to relieve pain for a bit and I recently started acupunture which seems to relax me. Also, toxin patches at night. Those make me feel much lighter. Strange description I know, but I just don't know how to explain it. I take so many RXs that it seems to help me feel better.

I haven't tried any yet, because Iam on other meds as
well, for blood pressure and depression, Mechrina

Hi Bettie,

Thanks for sharing what you feel has been helpful to you.

I may be trying acupuncture for myself again too.

Hi CChacon,

I do the hot baths too, and thanks for describing the rest.

Hi Mechrina,

Always discuss all treatments with your prescribing doctor(s) but most alternative therapiest should not interfere with those medication and may even help with both those conditions too.

I was diagnosed with RA over a year ago and went on standard treatments with my doctor. I found that the methotrexate did not help and she wanted me to lower the pprednisone dosage. I started taking an herbal pill called Reauma-art and it works very, very well. Only problem is a side effect is very heavy water retention and I was already taking diuretics. I increased the diuretics, starting taking half the dose of the herbal but I still retained water. i am now skipping the herbal on Saturdays and Sundays and increaseing the dosage of prednisone to 3 mg on those two days.
Dennis

Okay, this really works and it works well. I had to find an alternative to anti-inflammatory drugs due to the effect it was having on my kidneys.

I tried lots of things, some hear-say, some talked about, and some recommended. What I eventually tried was a combination of Cinnamon, Ginger Root and Turmeric Curcumin (all from relatively cheap Puritan's Pride Vitamin store online.

The combination was 1000 mg each twice daily with food. My pain had gotten to the point that I couldn't even lift my cup of coffee in the morning, I couldn't open an ordinary jar, and I went up and down my stairs as if I were 100 (not 57). My leg bones were hurting to the point I couldn't sleep. It was horrible and I had to stop taking pain killers, so I was really in a bad way.

After a day or two, I could feel all my aches subsiding and my joint swelling diminished some. After about 3 weeks, I was pain free, no swelling, no aches and I had my full strength back (I'm a fairly big guy and been known to lift a washing machine or dryer when we needed to move them, etc.). In fact, I started feeling so good I quit taking it and what a mistake. In a few weeks it was back to Mr. Crippled. I've started and stopped this a dozen or more times and 100% of the time I would get full relief after a few weeks of staying on it. Getting lazy and forgetful, I sometimes skipped one or more and thru this process I found that Cinnamon alone kept me pain free. However, I can't say that it alone could get me there.

If you have tried anything or everything and could not find something to work for you, try this. I'm no "green guy" that believes big oil is bad, that garden veggies are the only ones to eat, or that natural treatments are better than real ones! I'm just someone that had to find something else and this is it.

I also found that I could QUICK START my pain free mode by taking 2 Naproxen Sodium (Aleve tablets) twice a day for 1 day then following up with the full package of Cinnamon, Turmeric and Ginger and it would hold me in a good place.

Now I've been doing this for over a year and I'm finding that my symptoms have lessened. I don't know if this is a natural lessening of symptoms or if what I'm doing is changing it, but more than once I wondered has it finally gone from me.

I don't get much opportunity to check here for messages, but if you care to find me and write, just go to www.streetglo.net and click on any link to send a Formmail to streetglo and that message will come to me. I would absolutely love to hear from you if you try this. It's something I wanted to share for a long time but never found the right way to share it. Maybe someone will see it here and be helped by it. I sure hope to hear how it works for you.

Thanks,

Bill