There is no cure for RA. Remission maybe possible with meds for some people. Others may never go into remission. Healthy eating is good for everyone but it is not a cure.

i consider stress a reason for living - you know challenges, deadlines, l i f e....

even when it is negative i manage to spin it (my childhood was abysmal i learned this tool a long time ago) -

no for me stress has nothing whatsoever to do with the life of my RA.

i follow my blood work, my MRI's, my restrictions, my range of motion, my limitations and my successes - and I modify everything and anything i can get my hands on to do what I want to do in some modified crappy but still there way.

I surround myself with folks who I notice love life and challenges and BEFORE they had RA they thrived on stress and embraced life loud and hard and squeezed the breath out of it, so now that they have RA it's just more challenges of different types and a slower lane to catch the colors of the butterflies.

my RA buddy who was first diagnosed with lyme and then in quick succession: RA, ank. spond. and then lupus had remicade pluck her out of a wheel chair after the same RA took her business, her home under construction and left her homeless on the wrong coast as the house she was building with a storage place selling off her stuff.

she is the happiest person I know if happiness is defined as owning the moment she is in and coming up with a reason to laugh and life and love. what she has taught me is that different personality types respond differently to disease and we happen to have a similar one. and goddess was she grateful for remicaide - it changed her life. i noticed that she always was going on and on but what a difference the remicaide made and not the loss of her business or her home. when I asked her why - she said because compared to where she was when she was diagnosed, she was grateful for what she had instead of what she did not have. then she laughed. we have been laughing ever since. find someone like THAT for a buddy. it really makes a difference, honest :)

you are in your 20's. - YOU have a special challenge diagnosis wise from someone being diagnosed at 75 or 55 when their career life is ensconced or approaching peak. there is a GREAT group of 20 somethings on here that will respond to you about college, work, school, family pregnancies all the good stuff with RA.

welcome

Depot

I'm disappointed to hear that doctors have told you that you can cure RA with diet. Shame on them- they ought to know better. Same with stress: while some feel that it exacerbates symptoms, others see no correlation at all.

There are a couple of people here who have gotten some good relief of symptoms by following strict diets, but a cure? No.

The current scientific thinking on RA is that as many as 50 different genes play a role in developing it. There do seem to be triggers that can set the genetic house of cards into collapse, many of them viral.

Please don't fall into the trap of thinking you did ANYTHING to cause this. It's not your diet, it's not your stress level, it's nothing else you did or didn't do.

There have been a couple of threads on here along the line of, "What's the stupidest thing anyone has told you will cure you?" I think everyone's favorite "cure" was "petting a short-haired dog", followed closely by eating raisins soaked in gin.

How is Remicade working for you?

I've had RA for 46 years now, and I can tell you that, in my experience, diet had nothing, nothing to do with the waxing and waning of this disease. I have had numerous remissions, the best ones when using gold salts (not used anymore). I went years, sometimes, virtually symptomless. My diet had absolutely not effect on my RA symptoms.

Tried quite a few diets, highly recommended for RA with zero results. I have heard that childhood abuse can be a trigger for RA. I was in a small RA group once, and all 14 women in the group had been abused.

But, of course, not the only cause. I was an organic, long time vegetarian when I got RA. I have been told it may have been the allergy shots I got for my severe asthma that may have been the final trigger.

Apparently now, they ask if there is a family history before they will allow you on these shots. I was on them 7 years, but probably 2 or 3 would have done it. Would have it made my RA less severe? Who knows!

As for getting into remission, if the drugs work, then stay with it. Never stop something that is working well, to try something totally unknown. You may be worse if you have to come back to the drugs, and the one that is working now may not work if you drop it for a while. Just what I have been told.

Your first sentence is surprising-a couple of questions, are these MD's who specialize in rheumatology? Do they have a vested interest in selling their program for a "cure"? People make lots and lots of money selling books and products for this disease. It is difficult to treat and in my opinion is a big reason diet,herbal,and other remedies have gained traction. Its is potentially debilitating, life altering, and causes people to feel desperate and ready to try anything.
I have only seen people feel better with diet changes when they actually have a sensitivity to the problem food. Also keep in mind when people are faced with a life altering disease or circumstance they often channel energy into action/advocacy and feel better because they are doing "something". Does it always result in change, no, but acting feels better than not and that is the lift.
As for mind-body, I can attest that I always ate healthy and was active, did the work clearing out the nastiness/toxic people, and tried the mantras. Had a better life because of it but RA came on full force after that.
Do what you can to feel the best you can and remain cautious as you are in checking up on these types of claims. There is a lot of valuable first hand experience from so many on the board that will surely help you sort it out.

I wish there were a like button on here! I loved reading the responses by you experts, yes, experts! You all have lived this stuff for much longer than I have.

I've had the gluten free thing thrown in my face by this miss know it all, and it made me angry. She had an entirely different issue going on and was told by her doctor to do it. It helped her, so she naturally thought it would help all AI diseases. I just told her I'd talk to my doctor about it. But in the back of my mind I keep thinking is there something to this. Then I go back to the thought that if there were, all the doctors would know about it and would be pushing it.

So thank you to all who responded with your words of wisdom!

I swear if there were a diet/alteration in food, it would be the first thing all MDs would advise! That said, there is NOTHING WRONG with going anti-inflammatory if there is ever GUT involvement. It helps many people with crohns, ulcerative colitis, ibs, ibd, and celiac.

I found I'm lactose intolerant. It's amazing how I don't have terrible gas, cramps, and diarrhea when I remember to take a lactaid pill before eating dairy. Or if I just stop eating dairy.

There are some natural things that can help you. Many people get help taking turmeric. And if muscles/nerves are involved, magnesium helps. Can't remember the rest, but there are beneficial natural aids for a few symptoms.

(a small handful of folks actually do get RA relief on diet. I don't want to discount them. But for most of us - thumbs down.)

Cure RA with diet? I wish, am hopeful one will be discovered but I doubt it. I can control the swelling and pain to a very great extent but the disease does march forward. Since we do not have to disclose every scrap of every ingredient on every label things will get into your system that you don't know about as I've found trying to avoid nightshades (hello Paprika). This is how I also know that Humira is actually changing things within my system. Unlike when I was taking just plaq or plaq and MTX, now if I consume a small amount of nightshade (say what is in mayo) I suffer none where before Humira a joint would want to lock-up for two to three days.

Just my opinion that diet cannot cure RA but it can be used as a tool to help control pain and swelling.

Diet def isn't a cure all. Like most of you here know from experience. When I was Dx with Hashimoto's (AI thyroid dsiease) I was told to lay off gluten. I've had people tell me to stop eating gluten and dairy again and again and again now because they think that's what is causing my joint/spinal pain. My thyroid antibodies dropped down to a "normal" level on their own...not because I stopped eating gluten or went on a fad diet. AI disease isn't always constant and I think people that never experienced having their own body atack itself and destroy organs and/or bones and tissues just don't realize that intermittent remissions can happen and is very spotaneous at times.

Not that I haven't tried all kinds of different diets and ways of eating to feel better. My only phases of feeling good are when these diseases run their course and wax and wane on their own. Food hasn't made any difference for me either.

Let me just say, I've done every diet possible. I do still avoid dairy, because after years of antibiotics for pneumonias, before RA, I lost the ability to digest it. But I use pro-biotics and they help with that - but pharmaceutical grade, not health food store quality.

I am just about at the end of my wits for diets, herbs and other "cures." I know people mean well, but the don't KNOW well. They don't know anything. Sometimes I think social media is more dangerous than anything.

I did know one woman who said paleo controlled her RA. Well, she was not that bad in the first place and she still uses a lot of prednisone. So is that a cure??

Think of some clever come back lines to put these people in their places. I am just sick and tired of being in terrible pain, and having people send me links to diet, etc. cures.

When I do talk about it to anyone , which I avoid, I stopped a while back mentioning arthritis. At least that cuts down on some feedback of remedies they've "heard about". Ugh so frustrating.

i have a new lunacy for you all

i was considering dating someone until they mentioned my astrology sign might have to do with my disease.

they must have been born under the sign of the idiot

hang in there all

depot

ROFL Depot!

That has to take top billing for absurdities about this disease!

Ha Ha Depot! I am giggling as I write this.
I have tried all kinds of diets, none worked for me. I was seeing an alternative M.D. before and after RA was diagnosed. He could not stop the inflamation markers from rising, and once I was diagnosed, he told me to not stop taking RA meds. I still take lots of vitamins and all my RA meds. I am doing very, very well, but do not expect to ever be symptom free.
Lynne