First-hand Fitness #5 | On Diet: Controlling Arthritis with Food

I never noticed how many miracle cures were touted for the lurgy until I found out I had it. My particular ailment, psoriatic arthritis, falls under the general rheumatism / arthritis umbrella that, of late, every newspaper seems to think can be cured by everything from magnets to miracle jabs.

But the more I’ve read about nutrition, and the more I’ve experimented with it, the more I’ve come to believe that disease control by diet should be the first treatment tried. If you take the time to look for it, there is an overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence in support of dietary approaches, yet not a single, in-depth academic study that I can trace (as you can imagine, pharmaceutical companies aren’t all that keen to throw money at studies likely to steer people away from their wares). Yet I’ve found that by following an “alternative” diet - eliminating, or at least reducing to the lowest level practicable, foods that are poisonous to my body, while embracing foods that serve as a natural medicine - I’ve completely halted the progression of the disease and all but eliminated symptoms in my already-damaged joints; they bend again and everything.

Following an anti-inflammatory diet doesn’t mean starving either - as my MyFitnessPal account will attest, I rarely eat fewer than 3,500 to 4,000kcal per day as I’m an exercise freak and need a lot of fuel. Of course, it’s sensible to minimise body fat in any event, and particularly so if you have an inflammatory disease (as fat is metabolically active, producing hormones and chemicals that are known to increase levels of inflammation), but the dietary issue to be addressed here is one of quality, not necessarily quantity.

I’ve been adhering to a strict regime since February 2014, and for the last six months I’ve been without immuno-suppressant “disease-modifying” drugs (my last immuno-suppressant tablets were taken on 23rd January 2015). During these last six months, I’ve only caught one cold, which was fought off within two days. On medication, in fairness, I probably only caught one cold too - but it lasted almost two years, and I suffered with just about every other minor illness under the sun to boot. Indeed, the benefits of immuno-suppressant drugs came at a hefty price for me, and those benefits couldn’t match those that have arisen from careful eating (and also, perhaps, practising mindfulness, which I’ll discuss further in a future instalment). With medication, I’d still regularly find myself limping about on enthesitis-blighted heels with thumbs like red-raw balloons and a middle finger that had started to look more like a snail - not ideal for someone who enjoys running up mountains and chucking heavy weights about in his garage, never mind someone who needs to open the occasional tin of beans for his toddler.

Now though, whilst I still suffer a little with stiffness in cold and damp weather in the joints that were damaged prior to my dietary changes, just as I do with old injuries, the disease itself seems to be dormant. The results of my last blood tests at the end of April showed that my inflammatory markers had returned to a normal level. I don’t know whether they will remain this way, but I’ve certainly no intention of dosing myself up with heavy-duty drugs, the short-term effects of which left me with a constant cold and the long-term effects of which I shudder to think about, unless symptoms return full-force in my damaged joints or new joints start to be affected.

Whilst many have espoused the virtues of a vegan diet (notably Ella Woodward, whose story of recovery from a debilitating condition is one of the most amazing and inspiring that I’ve read), and even more the Palaeolithic (caveman) diet (which consists mainly of fish; grass-fed, pasture-raised meats; eggs; vegetables; fruit; fungi; roots; and nuts), what has worked for me has been slightly simpler, and I dare say more manageable. Based loosely upon inferences drawn from a book called The China Study (perhaps the greatest study on human nutrition ever attempted), I consume mainly whole foods and enjoy a primarily plant-based diet. Despite not being a calf and directly contradicting just about everything that I’ve ever read, I do still consume some cows’ milk, however, and thus far without any apparent detrimental effects. This is largely because whenever I try an alternative to cows’ milk, my symptoms quickly flare up, and I realise that the “unsweetened” soya milk or oat milk or almond milk or whatever the hell it is that I’ve been drinking is actually full of additives, many of which are derived from potato starch or other well-known inflammatory substances. Homogenised and pasteurised it may be, but cows’ milk seems to be the lesser of the tea-topping evils. Should my symptoms rear their head again, I plan to do away with milk of any kind, but for now I’m sticking with cows’ milk (and with a dairy-farming father-in-law, I need to be sure it’s harmful to me before giving up on it).

Unsurprisingly, I’ve found that processed foods and trans fats are terribly detrimental to my condition, as are sweeteners, particularly aspartame which used to cause me flare-ups within hours of consumption. Anything labelled “diet” or “sugar-free” might as well be marked with a skull and crossbones.

However, the more surprising things that I ate a lot of, any or all of which could have contributed to the disease’s progress, were (in no particular order):

- meat from grain-fed animals (so pretty much all meat then, save for fish)
- split-grain foods / refined carbohydrates (white bread, rolls, crackers, most baked goods, white rice and junky cereals)
- acidic fruits (oranges, citrus fruits)
- gluten
- starch
- refined sugar
- burnt foods
- vitamin-C supplements
- goji berries
- paprika
- aubergine
- potatoes (all varieties except sweet potatoes, which, perplexingly, aren’t potatoes at all)
- peppers (red, green, yellow, orange, jalapeño, chilli, cayenne, pimento; every last one of ’em)
- tomatoes

Those last three will be killers for most people, but it was only the last two that really got me. My whole diet used to be built upon peppers and tomatoes - my favourite dishes were super-spicy, chilli and tomato-based Mexican and Indian offerings. Such “nightshades” (the foods highlighted in bold, above) are foods containing a natural insecticide known to cause inflammation in humans. Eliminating them means waving goodbye to almost everything you’ll find on most restaurant menus. Even most veggie options are laced with peppers!

If you decide to give this, or something similar, a try, be prepared to plan ahead and cook everything yourself from scratch. I’m starting to compile The Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook that I will expand and refine over the coming years, which I hope will be of assistance to people. Once you get into eating clean, the rewards go beyond disease control and general healthiness - it’s actually really tasty food and I look forward to every meal. I’d strongly recommend it to anyone looking to fortify their system; for those with arthritis it’s a no-brainer.

And whilst I’ve tried to steer myself away from drugs, I do still benefit from supplements. Vitamin-D3 is, in of itself, becoming a recognised treatment for rheumatism, and so I try to get several hundred percent of my recommended daily allowance each day. My vitamin-D levels have risen from 11ng/ml to 73ng/ml in the last eighteen months, and the higher they’ve risen, the fewer symptoms I’ve had. Vitamin-D receptors are present in every single cell in our bodies, and modern studies show that high vitamin-D levels fortify us against not only arthritis, but also cancer; heart disease; multiple sclerosis; and more besides. You need to be careful though, as if your vitamin-D levels get to 150ng/ml or higher you may develop hypercalcemia, though I take several vitamin-D3 supplements and try to get as much sun as I can (which in England, isn’t much) and I’ve only just hit the optimal 70ng/ml level (though many now argue that up to 100ng/ml is not only safe, but beneficial. I’m not there yet so I can’t offer a view).

Other supplements that I load up on are:

- zinc (also useful for muscle growth / maintenance)
- magnesium
- selenium
- creatine monohydrate (I’ve been taking this for a long time to increase my performance when strength training, but it is now being reported that it’s beneficial in treating arthritis, amongst other things, too)
- omega-3 fish oils
- aloe vera

However, as with any supplements, it’s crucial to carefully check the ingredients as many contain animal produce or artificial nasties.

On a final note, for the sake of balance and managing expectations, it’s important to include my consultant’s view on my progress which is, basically, “Sometimes arthritis just burns out as you get older and your immune system becomes less efficient.” In his view, then, the changes that I’ve made and my subsequent improvement are coincidental. Were I in my seventies, I might accept this opinion, but I’m not and I don’t. My GPs, for their part, take the more pragmatic view that, “A fire can’t burn without fuel, but the spark is still there.” This makes much more sense to me, but a fire without fuel isn’t gonna burn anybody.

Needless to say, I’m not a doctor. This is purely a first-hand account of how a major, long-term lifestyle change – and it is major, there’s no two ways about it – has essentially put me back in the position that I was seven years ago. In fact, I’m now fitter and stronger than I’ve ever been.

This diet may not be a miracle cure of the kind touted by the broadsheets, but it’s one hell of patch.

This article isn’t referenced as, as stated in the main text, there’s not really anything academic to reference it with - just a flood of similar first-hand accounts that you’ll easily find should you choose to Google the issue. Do check out Tomatoes are Evil though - you’ll never look at your beloved pasta sauce or pizza the same way again...