RASally is correct. RA has different causes and so perhaps different ways of treating it.

How do I know? Pretty simple....we all take different meds to help us. Just in the biologics, there are 6 drugs that block different parts of the immune system. We are all told we have Ra because they aren't ready yet to say something like....RA- TNF type or RA-IL6 Type. They have not found the all the immune factors that can trigger an RA syndrome.

But what I DO know is that I went for 28 years before I was finally diagnosed with RA and for 25 of those years, I got tons of cortisone shots and took NSAIDs like TicTacs and tried every food and supplement known to man as a possible cure or would help as well as acupuncture and other eastern therapies....AND NOTHING WORKED. Finally Plaquenil helped and so has MTX and biologics and steroids.

We all have a choices to make. We can try the foods and supplements and different therapies and then when they fail, try what the docs push. Or you can do both right from the get go...what I think most of us here, do. We can make choices.

But here is a cautionary tale. My best friend has relapsing MS so it can be horrible and then be gone for months and even years at a time. She became a evangelical Christian and prayed for God to relieve her of her MS....and it went away. She did well for a few years and then, as MS does, paralyzed 3 limbs and put her in the hospital. While there, hubby #2 who was also an evangelical Christian(or so he said) molested her 2 girls and embezzled a whole lot of money from her. She lost more than her limbs and her daughters trust in her, she lost her faith and hope.

Chronic diseases have a chronic course where they can disappear, not to re-appear sometimes for years. But I will NEVER put all my eggs in one basket. I will use my faith and my meditation and the rheumy's drugs and any foods I feel might help and I do take supplements that are good for RA(like Vit D). I WILL NOT be taken by anyone and convinced to do what they say....they aren't in my body and haven't lived my life. I've made my choices.

My friend got her faith back but it was a long haul that almost killed her. When you have no hope, your body gives up.

To me, that is the damage that listening to others can do to us. How much can we emotionally invest in a possible failure of a supplement or food that others say will cure you? What will a failure do to you? Will you lose hope and faith?Others have their own motives and we don't know what they are.

Each of us has to do what we think is best for us and that may mean many options at the same time. But don't think that what works for you will work for another. You have your Ra and I have mine and they may be opposites.

Jen

Ditto for me Jen " I will not put my eggs all in one basket"
"They aren't in my body or lived my life"
"I've made my choices"
It amazes me how many opinions people have on my body my treatments my life. Amazes me more how upset some become because I choose to treat my body my way.
My response to those well meaning advisors is this, if there was some very successful treatment option that worked on so many we would surely hear about it. Don't you think?
I may have these nasty diseases but I'm not blind, death or stupid (may feel that way on the worst of brainfog days but that will stay between us).
Where are these people when all that well intended advise fails & my body is rebelling big time? When my joints are so deformed I am forever changed? I've never heard I'm sorry or I was wrong.
Come to think of it I've never had advice about other treatment options come from any actual patients suffering from the same problems.
By the way I noticed the Orencia commercial now states an actual number of years that Orencia may work, I think it's 3years but don't quote me on that number. Never noticed that from previous commercials.
Sammy

Thought you might like to hear from another person with slow, mild onset of the disease.

Obvious, but mild symptoms started around puberty (though I was diagnosed with my first autoimmune disease at 5). I received a diagnosis from the family doctor but I doubt that it was based on blood work since I'm still seronegative. It would have been based on physical exam, medical history, and my strong family history. I don't recall starting DMARD's or steroids back then, but I was a kid and it was back when they didn't treat aggressively or early. Thanks to ibuprofen, good fortune, and stubbornness, I remained a competitive athlete through high school and the first year or so of college.

Around age 19 I had a significant worsening of symptoms over the winter. I switched to prescription doses of naproxen and that sufficed for daily activities for many years. Though I stayed quite fit, I was no longer competitive. I had a bad experience with a complete creep of a rheumatologist and avoided care after that.

In my late 20's, I had another significant leap forward. It became much more difficult to control with NSAID's and really started impacting daily activities, but not enough for me to seek treatment. I suppose I was in denial. In hindsight, I recognize that from the start I've had frequent flares of fatigue, malaise, fever, and pain. I always thought I was just sickly, but I rarely got 'sick' for more than a day or two. I also had memory issues. I never understood why and I took a lot of crap for it from my co-workers and spouse.

By my early 30's it was bad. I was missing more work, not doing things I wanted to do, not able to do a lot of house and yard work, or not able to do it for as long as I needed too. I was taking frequent breaks to put my feet up as they were swelling badly and very painful. Couldn't wear rings that I used to wear. Had a lot more pain in more locations. At this point I had a lot of small flares and a few really nasty ones, but enough intermittent good days/weeks that I still avoided treatment, mostly because I was afraid of the drugs and still had personal issues with doctors.

By my 35th winter, it was really bad, more often than not. I knew I was getting to the point where I couldn't just push through anymore, so I scheduled an appointment with my PCP who started me on sulfasalazine and after I had a severe allergic reaction to that, referred me to a rheumatologist.

We've been trying for a year to find a DMARD that I can take, due to allergies and some genetic issues and now a side effect that I don't particularly like but I'm toughing it out on a reduced dose to see if my body adjusts. The next step is biologics and sometimes I debate whether I really want to go there, especially when I read scary news stories and anecdotes from people who don't like them. Then I remember the nice rational people on this forum who, for the most part, seem to have a very good relationship with biologics.

My rheum is BIG on complementary medicine and functional medicine. She has pretty good conventional and 'alternative' credentials. Her go-to recommendations for patients who want to try a 'natural /alternative/complementary' approach, is testing for B and D vitamin deficiencies and supplementing if needed and a trial of curcumin. Curcumin did nothing for me but has worked miracles on my dog's OA :) She also advises eating a TON of vegetables of every color, getting as much variety as you possibly can. Beyond that, she does think that reducing carbs is a good idea and so do I since I have blood sugar issues and I do notice a difference. She does place more importance on good nutrition than reducing carbs. But none of that is a cure, or even a stand alone treatment. What it might do is reduce whatever role diet plays in exacerbating inflammation. This is a very poorly understood role, so you pretty much just have to try it and see if it helps you.

For me, the disease was very mild and incredibly slow to progress. It was the same way for my mom who is also seronegative but after 40 years of RA has joint deviations. It has been similar for my paternal grandmother, which is an unusual coincidence. For my part, sometimes the pain is bilateral, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's sharp, sometimes it's dull, sometimes it's hot. Sometimes there's visible swelling and redness, sometimes not. Everything may be affected or it might just be one joint, or a pair of joints, or my lower body. It moves around, sometimes multiple times in one day, other times it stays put for days or weeks. The inconsistency and unpredictability are frustrating! Now days I have at least moderate pain and inflammation all the time. I have a very high threshold for pain and I attribute that the to the fact that I lived with low levels of persistent pain for decades. As a result, I was under-reporting my pain until I read a comparative pain chart and realized that what I thought was a 1-3 was really a 5-8. For me, 0 meant 'normal' rather than no pain. I don't actually know what normal feels like. Anyway, bottom line, I know I have RA, other than the bloodwork, I can easily check off every symptom. My rheum has no doubt. But I still doubt myself from time to time. Do I really have RA? How bad is my pain, really? How bad is my fatigue? You can make yourself crazy with these questions :)

In the last year I have done a 180 on RA drugs. I now accept (a bit late) that this disease does real damage and poses a real risk to one's quality and length of life, and that the only way to slow it down is to take the drugs. But heck, when the drugs start working and I feel not quite so crappy, I start to question whether I really need them, or that disability parking placard ... then the good day or half a day or whatever is over and I snap back to reality :)

I don't know if that helps or not, but maybe you relate to some of it. I will say that rheumatologists generally don't make an RA diagnosis lightly, they're usually fairly confident. That doesn't mean they're never wrong, but most people have the opposite problem, trouble getting the diagnosis.

Shar, I do feel your pain on someone insisting, "It's your diet." Really, oh my goodness, you mean, millions of people are suffering from a disease caused by their diets?" Why didn't we think of this?" I'm having a talk with my doctor.

Gentle hugs

Shar, I believe, like you, it's important to eat healthy. And, in the past, I was guilty of believing "If you do the right things, bad things don't happen, or at least, not so bad of things happen." I had a college prof who was the poster guy of fitness, marathon runner, vegan.... He died of cancer. Everyone was in shock. They truly couldn't believe it. And I realized it's a philosophy that makes people feel safe, provides control, "If you do the right things, you'll stay healthy, plan well, you have financial freedom, stay a size five, etc," but sometimes, for some reason, there are people who get diseases and/or become financially unstable, and some, who did it all wrong, don't. Go figure.

I usually eat well, but lately, I fell off the wagon, or rather the wagon fell on me. I don't do anything well on Steroids, especially the Steroid Bursts. So last night at 2:00 am, because sleep is impossible, I started thinking of eating a Mayonnaise sandwich, only because awhile ago, someone here was on Steroids and posting about eating Mayo sandwiches. I've never even eaten one, but I wanted one. I can't believe I didn't cave.

Gentle Hugs