Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
i know that a lot of this stuff has been talked to death on this board....
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7639807
now i have been taking fish oil capsules regularly. my diet has not changed drastically in any other way. it's been about 5 months since i started taking fish oil daily (or at least 5 days a week). i have experienced a noticeable decrease in inflammation and affected joints. could it be related to something else? could i have been having a really long, intense flare that subsided? sure. but with the other benefits to fish oil, i'll continue taking it.
i've also started weight lifting recently. my husband has been lifting for years and finally convinced me to start going for power instead of weight loss. (i also have disordered eating behaviors, along with other mental illnesses; any time i've changed my diet or stepped into a gym in the past it's been for weight loss. this time it's for happiness.) i'm focusing on dead lifts, straight leg presses, and flat bench presses for now. i have to work up my squats but my left hip is still a point of contention for me. the past few days it's been particularly annoying and i've been taking 2-3 advil a day to ease it (along with a nagging headache ugh).
i've stopped taking any prescription RA-related medications. i was bit by a cat two weeks into starting xeljanz and stopped taking it to heal (i had super heavy duty antibiotics and a tetanus booster thanks to one of my cats). since mid-september i have not taken any RA-related meds (other than occasional advil) and have only recently started feeling more pain in my hip and wrists.... i think my lifting may be affecting my wrists so i'm working on modifying holds.
i have *not* changed anything else. i am still practicing yoga once in a while, still eating whatever i want (still limiting meat as i have been for years), and still watching my aspartame intake as i think that might be a slight trigger for me. as long as i keep it limited it doesn't seem to cause a problem. i drink less than a 2-liter of diet ginger ale a week... it usually goes flat before i finish it. the only thing i really can attribute it to is the fish oil.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7639807
now i have been taking fish oil capsules regularly. my diet has not changed drastically in any other way. it's been about 5 months since i started taking fish oil daily (or at least 5 days a week). i have experienced a noticeable decrease in inflammation and affected joints. could it be related to something else? could i have been having a really long, intense flare that subsided? sure. but with the other benefits to fish oil, i'll continue taking it.
i've also started weight lifting recently. my husband has been lifting for years and finally convinced me to start going for power instead of weight loss. (i also have disordered eating behaviors, along with other mental illnesses; any time i've changed my diet or stepped into a gym in the past it's been for weight loss. this time it's for happiness.) i'm focusing on dead lifts, straight leg presses, and flat bench presses for now. i have to work up my squats but my left hip is still a point of contention for me. the past few days it's been particularly annoying and i've been taking 2-3 advil a day to ease it (along with a nagging headache ugh).
i've stopped taking any prescription RA-related medications. i was bit by a cat two weeks into starting xeljanz and stopped taking it to heal (i had super heavy duty antibiotics and a tetanus booster thanks to one of my cats). since mid-september i have not taken any RA-related meds (other than occasional advil) and have only recently started feeling more pain in my hip and wrists.... i think my lifting may be affecting my wrists so i'm working on modifying holds.
i have *not* changed anything else. i am still practicing yoga once in a while, still eating whatever i want (still limiting meat as i have been for years), and still watching my aspartame intake as i think that might be a slight trigger for me. as long as i keep it limited it doesn't seem to cause a problem. i drink less than a 2-liter of diet ginger ale a week... it usually goes flat before i finish it. the only thing i really can attribute it to is the fish oil.
After Enbrel and Mtx had to be stopped, I stayed in remission for a couple of years. My doctor said that 6 months is more typical before symptoms return.
ON the fish oil, how many mg of omega 3 are you taking? I started with 450mg omega 3 from flaxseed and 600 omega 3 from fish oil. I've been taking it 2 weeks and I'm off the Enbrel (stupid liver enzymes up from it - rare, but this is twice for me on it).
I have an apt with my pcp and I'm going to get the 2000mg omega 3 prescribed. (or it might be 4000mg - whichever, it's rx strength).
I'd keep doing what you are doing!
The weight lifting is definitely great!
I need to start a post but I'll just tack on that I spent the afternoon with a neurologist. He went into detail about how RA can affect muscles. And how RA predisposes us to possible rheumatoid myositis. Muscle bulk is key, but it's hard. Build super slow as if you are brittle. That was my take away message.
BEST OF LUCK!
i'm taking a combo 3-6-9 - from numerous sources, including flaxseed and salmon. it's about 300mg of each... which isn't a lot. i don't consider myself in remission - i still have pain and stiffness but it seems to have lessened a lot. i'm going to have to look into the Rx omega 3 - i didn't know about that.
i don't know that my bones are brittle - i've only ever broken one bone - a toe in a car accident - and have been told in the past i have 'heavy bones'. rheumy never mentioned anything about that. but then again i haven't been to a rheumy in months and months.
So even before the two weeks on xeljanz, you weren't on anything? That's really truly great! Perhaps it's a combo of all the good things you are doing!
So definitely keep it up and thank you for posting it here!
I see the liver doc next week to hopefully get cleared of elevated enzymes. I'm going old school this time and only going to take plaquenil. And fish/flaxseed oil.
It could be any number of things helping you feel better, from the fish oil to the old regression-to-the-mean. In any case I'm glad to hear you are feeling better rather than worse.
Take care, and don't be a stranger.
bcatz, the xeljanz escapade ticked me off. i didn't even get two weeks under my belt before i had to stop. it wasn't helping yet - would have been nice to see if it would have helped more. i'm probably at 80% overall of what i think i remember feeling like... hard to remember lol. i made it 13 weeks on enbrel before a raging URI took me out; 11 weeks on humira before yet *another* raging URI. don't care where it came from, just enjoying it.
my wrists/hands/fingers bother me on and off but not bad, just annoying. my ankles bother me once in a while. my hips go from 'okay' to 'sucking' but it's all manageable. the one thing that isn't always manageable is the fatigue i still experience. i work three days a week from 12-8:30pm and two days 9-4. it's very frustrating not having a really set sleep schedule. i'm still pushing for all days but i'm not holding my breath; i'm low person on the totem pole still.
'I am about to CRAWL out of my own skin. help. I have had 80 mg of pred today for my lungs. so I am going to go on and on and on and on and on. because you listed a topic that is close to my heart for which RA has ripped from me. I am going to live through you, is that OK? :) AND BECAUSE I AM WIRED FOR TAKE OFF but you know what I can breathe. that is a thing of beauty.
just my 2 cents opinion from this as a hobby since about age 14 and power lifting in my 30's and up to about the year of onset for this diagnosis.
1. wrist wraps
2. experiment on grips if you can on a safe exercise, thinking about your wrists, again.
3. no heavy dumbbells, i mean you don't have to use the one pound pink things but better for you to be pulling down on a lat bar than say doing the same move with two dumbbells, no? i know, no stabilizer muscles, but after my hand /wrist surgery i can hold shit. just a rumination.
4. dead lifts are fun. they are so good for your hamstrings and what a lower back stretch. do they make that hip feel better?
5. straight leg presses are sometimes over rated. what i saw from running a gym for 10 years is that the guys(sorry men and NOT your beloved, of course) would get on their and push mega mungo weight which puts the low back at way risk, on that machine. but it is fun because you can visualize something you want to PUSH away :)
6. OK flat bench presses. way fun. What woman does not want to push a bar away from her, no? it is so freakin' empowering. and you have your very OWN spotter: have fun. but be wise which you already are
7. squats - oh try the plie with a light dumbbell in your middle/cocktail style - yeah I know the guys don't do em, but your hip might like the stretch rather than being loaded up on your shoulders - if you need a squat rack i have one in my cellar collecting dust. send a truck. it will look better in your living room than a sofa. and the neighbors will talk which will be even better.
missed you.
maybe its just you turn and time to feel better
run with it just run with it.......................
happy strength! so proud and happy for you!!!
depot
as the weight i'm lifting is increasing, i'm considering wrist wraps. dead lifts are one of my favorites - my personal record right now is 2 reps at 135# sumo dead lift. i mostly like straight leg presses because i can do A LOT so it makes me feel accomplished: PR is three reps at 820#.
i have to be careful because certain things bother me once in a while: the past week, my left shoulder has been stupid. last week, my left elbow felt funny. the week before that, my hips were too stiff for me to feel okay doing leg day. my husband is my personal trainer - he's gained 40+ pound of muscle in the last three years. he pushes me to do more than last time, but he totally respects when i say 'this feels weird, i'm not doing it'.
we use a lot of free weights; i didn't think of what you pointed out depot - i'll have to discuss it with him. thanks depot :)
Weight training is wonderful, as I can no longer do jumping wild (impact) aerobic stuff. Glad you can keep doing it to. I also REALLY enjoy the rowing machine, so incredibly good for the core! Hang in there.