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In reply to the discussion: 70 lbs. down. Now I can rant about obnoxious fitness fanatics. [View all]riverbendviewgal
(4,255 posts)You may find this informative. I too have arthritis and weight gain. I lost 40 lbs 4 years ago but put it back on, after going off my no carbs and no sugar diet. I also had fbromyalgia which went away after losing the weight.
I am going back on the no carbs diet (max 20 a day ) and no sugar except in fruits.
here is an excerpt of the NYT
Walker is a social worker and massage therapist who works with cancer patients at NorthShore University HealthSystem outside Chicago. When Shanes rheumatologist presented methotrexate or steroid injections as the only choices, she was horrified. Because she worked in the integrative medicine department a combination of alternative and conventional treatments she knew there were other things to try. She dug into medical-literature databases. She learned about a centuries-old, anti-inflammatory Chinese concoction called four-marvels powder from a visiting naturopath. And she sought guidance from her colleague, Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, the head of the hospitals integrative medicine program, who, while wary of the risks, had been comfortable giving Walkers program a three-month trial. I tried everything that I knew was safe to see what would work, Walker told me.
I grabbed my pen and paper and started taking notes. No gluten. No dairy. No refined sugar. No nightshades, a group of plants that includes potatoes and tomatoes, which are thought by some to be potentially inflammatory, as is sugar. Every day, Shane took a probiotic. Plus two tablespoons of sour Montmorency cherry juice and at least 2,000 milligrams of omega-3s from fish oil, known for their anti-inflammatory properties. Instead of naproxen, Shane took a combination of ibuprofen and Tylenol to lower his overall intake of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, which can be hard on the gut. And a quarter teaspoon, daily, of the four-marvels powder.
Walker said she believed that her sons arthritis was caused by something I had never heard of before leaky-gut syndrome, a concept that has been accepted in alternative circles for years despite a name that asks you not to take it seriously. The idea is that inflammation in the gut causes the tight junctions between the cells that make up the intestinal lining to loosen. Then, like a lax bouncer, the barrier starts letting through undesirables, various proteins or bacteria that would normally be rebuffed; they then leak into surrounding tissues. The uninvited guests, the hypothesis goes, then trigger an offensive by the body, which uses inflammation to try to get rid of them. That sustained inflammatory response characterizes autoimmune disease.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/the-boy-with-a-thorn-in-his-joints.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130203&_r=0&pagewanted=all