I don’t ask “why me” because I feel sorry for myself. I ask because I really need to know. I want to help myself get better and to do that I need to find the root cause of my particular case of rheumatoid arthritis.
I have total confidence in my ability to treat the symptoms with herbal medicine. I can suppress my immune system with prescription medications, but the thing is . . . I don’t want to live with this disease. I don’t like it being a part of who I am. I believe that we are a combination of mind, body and spirit that combination needs to work in harmony. My imbalance is perfectly represented in this disease. My mind was stressed, which sent those signals to my body causing the fight or flight reaction, my body wasn’t getting the nutrition it needed and my spirit was shattered.
There are many websites devoted to helping people with rheumatoid arthritis, and I have tried most of their solutions to no avail. I believe this disease has a particular catalyst for each person suffering with RA. No doubt, some of these solutions work for some people. I have seen the proof. I have had my most success with methotrexate combined with reishi mushroom.
It wasn’t until I made a double extraction tincture of reishi mushroom and started taking it daily, that I experienced actual relief from the agonizing pain in my feet. I now walk perfectly normal and without that pain. I am grateful to prednisone, because it immediately stopped most of the pain in my body and my inability to walk. You see, by the time I first started taking this prescription, I had lost 30 pounds in 2 months. That weight loss was purely muscle. It took a few months for the methotrexate to start working in my body, but I still had the horrible pain in my feet after 9 months on this medication. I am grateful to prednisone for being there when I needed it, but I am even more grateful to not need it anymore.
One of the symptoms of RA is stiffness in the joints and particularly after a period of inactivity. Getting out of bed in the morning was a struggle before I started the prednisone and methotrexate. I literally needed to rock myself into a sitting position before I could stand up. I still have the stiffness when I sit for any amount of time, so you see . . . the prescription and the reishi mushrooms that I take allow me to function, but they are not curing this disease.
So Really - What went Wrong?
Stress . . . Ugh. How can you avoid it? I really don’t think you can avoid stress and live in modern society. When my symptoms first started, I was under a tremendous amount of stress. I had been living my dream on property I purchased in the mountains, when the local government decided that my way was not their way, and I was forced to leave my home. It really just boils down to not wanting to allow people to live by their own means. We are truly not free, and I learned that the hard way. Sad, and I won’t go into more detail here, but it still causes me stress if I dwell upon it. So, lets not dwell.
Stress is literally a killer, but there are ways to lessen its effects. You can try meditation, yoga and a plethora of natural therapies to help you to relax. There are herbs that can be used to gently bring the body back into balance. I do feel better and less stressed with each day that passes, but I have a long, long way to go.
The other culprit, I believe is not getting the proper nutrition. In general this will continue to become more difficult as we deplete the soil year after year by not growing our food in the way nature intended. The balance is broken and I believe we should strive to go back to growing our own food . . vegetables and herbs at the very least and humanely raising animals for meat. I am not saying that everyone would or even should raise livestock, but I hope that we will one day soon have all of our livestock and produce raised locally. It’s the very least we should expect from the foods that are meant to nourish us, and it’s something that we should strive to change in food production for everyone. So please, support your local sustainable farmers and grow your own vegetable garden.
That’s my plan for the spring. I’m excited to take more control of my health with the food that I grow myself. I was growing some really nice herbs in the mountains and I can’t wait to start some here. Truly, this will be a labor of love and will help tons with my stress. Maybe I’ll start an indoor herb garden now . . . and one for salads too. That sounds like fun.
Perhaps the most important factor here is the spirit. Pain is said to have emotional roots. It is women who are most often afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, and women are frequently taught to not express anger from a very young age. Emotions associated with rheumatoid arthritis are unexpressed anger, resentment, criticism (mostly of self), lack of support and fear. When I was stricken with this disease I was feeling all of those emotions. It is said that expressing your emotions can help to release them. I’m not entirely sure yet how to do that, but I am determined to try.
Armed with what I have learned thus far, I will carry on in the hope of banishing the culprits and perhaps actually finding a cure for my disease.
