gadji

I'm late to the party here but stumbled across this thread and felt compelled to chip in. I too had a serious auto-immune disorder following a serious bout of food poisoning. I had a condition called Reiters Syndrome which you might call a reactive arthritis. This attacks the soft tissue insertions to the joints. 'Luckily' in my case it went for my ankles-mainly my achilles tendons and plantar fascia. Fortunately it didn't target my shoulders, elbows, wrists or fingers. In any case I became an outpatient in the rheumatology dept and ended up on 32 tablets a day and injections into my achiles every month. Each month a different leg in plaster. I couldn't walk for 2 years. I was told the fight I had was with inflammation. Eliminate inflammation and you eliminate the disease. Hence all the drugs-some for pain, some to fight the disease and some to fight the side effects of all the drugs I was on. AND THEN....I happened to read a book...How The Ryder Cup Was Won (Ian Carter was the author I think). This charted the European victory, in golf, against Team USA at Gleneagles (just up the road from me) in 2012 I think it was. In the book it touches on Tiger Woods desperate attempts to get back into the team for USA following back surgery. One monumental sentence changed my life. It stated that TW had put himself on an anti-inflammatory diet in a desperate attempt to speed ip recovery and get back into the team. I almost dropped the book-this was my eureka moment!! I had been seeing specialists for 5 years by this point and not one of them had suggested this. I changed my diet instantly and within 3 weeks I was off all my meds-33 tabs a day gone. I thought I was okay when I was taking all these drugs BUT when I came off them it was like someone turned on a light. I was so heavily medicated I had gotten used to living in a fog. I know I was hellish to be around at this time, but at the time I thought I was fine. Only when I came off all this stuff could I look back with clarity and appreciate the reality....I was like a zombie, and a foul tempered one at that, while on all these meds. My take-home message to anyone with an auto-immune disease of any kind would be to go on an anti inflammatory diet. Stop feeding the inflammation and you will get better. Of course doctors don't mention this. Their training, broadly speaking, is about prescribing post second world war medicines backed up by clinical trials-funded by pharmaceutical companies. And because there is no clinical evidence with diets etc...they don't recognise it. This evidence will never exist because who would fund it? Nobody, because nobody stands to make a profit out of it. It's sad but it's life. Pharma companies do amazing work and produce some miracle drugs but they do make vast profits from these. They can afford to invest $billions into clinical trials because they will profit from it. Who's going to profit from good dietary advice? Nobody, therefore who is going to fund the trials? Nobody, therefore there is no clinical data. This means that doctors will not advice you on this because, in their eyes, there is no clinical data-just common sense. Not good enough because they must be seen to be taking an evidence based approach to medicine. I am 98% cured and play upright as well as electric bass gigs. I no longer consume an anti-inflammatory diet incidentally and probably don't treat my body with as much respect as it possibly deserves. That said, I do keep relatively fit and allow myself plenty of indulgences as a reward. I hope this helps somebody. If you need any pointers I'd be happy to help. Andy

Hi Dougie I am through in the Edinburgh festival playing every night apart from mondays. I play upright and electric4, 5+6 string as well. I'm a jobbing pro and teach bess up at strathclyde uni among places. If you want me to drop by when in Edinburgh let me know. Best wishes Andy