Will to survive and other glass half full comments for nay-sayers in regards to fasting etc...

[Guest guest]

The following is the text from one of our members: The username is

unimportant; however, the text is necessary to get to my point.

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Quote in regards to fasting and dietary changes to help ReA.

" The obvious problem with theories like these is that they rarely fit

the observed data; they're usually just things people " want " to be

true. For instance, I'd love it if I could change my diet and get this

crap to go away and resume actually playing sports, much less walking,

but if it were remotely diet-linked in the first place, I'd not have

expected it to come on SUDDENLY a couple of weeks after a very high

fever (so sudden I thought it was a broken toe), and maintain unabated

despite many dietary changes in the meanwhile (as I tried, and failed,

to stay at the healthy weight I was when it first came on - when I was

in the best shape of my life due to very vigorous exercise).

" natural " isn't any more likely to be better for you than

" artificial " . In many cases, in fact, it's less likely to work. "

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Author of the above letter,

I assume that after reading your comments to my original posting in regards to

fasting and diet changes, you have read the book that I speak of and understand

the entirety of what is required in order to find the foods that possibly affect

your immune system. Furthermore, I assume that you have tried one of these

" fasting " techniques " yourself...otherwise, you would be just playing nay-sayer

for no reason other than to play the glass-half-full role.

How was your 5 day water/juice fast? After you fasted for the 5 days, what

procedure did you do to slowly reintroduce foods into your system methodically

in order to discover whether or not each of them worked well with your immune

system? I am finding it difficult to get past day 1 in my fasting in order to

clear out the toxins in my system and am looking for any advice to get me to day

2 without ripping into a bag of chips.

My ReA came on about 6 weeks following a knee surgery much like yours " very

suddenly " starting with one toe on my right foot (the one next to the " pinky

toe " ). A few weeks later, my back...then my chest (opposite to the back pain

location), then one wrist, then my non-op knee, then my other wrist. This was

at age 33. I had spent the previous 15 years since joining the military working

out 3 to 5 days a week and owned memberships to Bally's and 24 hour fitness at

the time. I have a $2100.00 Cannondale Jeckyl 1000 mountain bike (not to brag

about the price...just wanted to express my seriousness of my riding by the

quality of the bike) and probably could not have been in better shape mentally

or physically if I wanted to be. 6'1 " at 188lbs and felt unstoppable. Even

while waiting for knee surgery, I would hobble into the gym up to the second

floor and lock into the decline bench press with my good knee under the pad in

order to hit the bottom of my pecks. I was

addicted to fitness to say the least.

I'm getting to the point...just hold on...

Then, within 2 months of my surgery...ReA had taken all of that away from me.

I went from building a deck in my back yard to having my wife put my socks and

shoes on for me while whining like a little bitch about the pain. One day...I

stood in the shower (after having my wife turn the water knob on for me)

thinking that if this is as good as it gets for me from this point on...I will

not live like this. ....skipping forward through all the crybaby crap...

A few months later I hired a new rheumy who offered me Enbrel. I reluctantly

took it after doing a crap load of research on it and other TNF inhibitors and

considering other issues. Tossed around the idea of freezing some of my

swimmers for a couple years just in case the wife and I decided to have kids if

the ReA went into remission...and decided to forgo the Popsicles in an effort to

cleanse the gene pool of another potential road-rag-er and began the Enbrel

treatments. Almost immediately, I had great results. I was back up and on the

mountain bike again within 2 months and was able to get a day of snowboarding in

with some knee braces to lessen the impact on the recovering joints. Did I

suffer for it...HELL YEA...but 3 days of recovery for a day of thrashing down

Keystone was well WORTH IT!

I am now 15 boxes (4 weeks per box) into the Enbrel and with recent dietary

changes have started to ween off of it to where I will be taking it once every

10 to12 days with no signs of the ReA creeping up. I had tried this previously

without altering my diet and the ReA would rear its ugly head around day 6.

Today is day 9 and I plan on going to the gym for the first time in around 5

months.

Why am I telling you this you might ask?

Because there are only a few possible things that could be making me get

better.

1. Spontaneous remission

2. Change in diet habits

3. Change in season

4. More sunlight in my diet from putting in a pool

5. MY POSITIVE RECOVERY ATTITUDE IS HELPING FIGHT MY IMMUNE DISEASE

In reference to #5...have you ever heard of " a persons will to survive

directly affects their ability to stay alive " ? If you believe in this concept

at all...then you believe that a person's outlook, positive attitude, positive

surroundings, chi and what-have-you do directly affect the body's own amazing

ability to overcome extreme circumstances. My own cousin is a testimony to this

theory. He was involved in a very bad accident involving a huge piece of farm

equipment involving too many injuries to list here...and was back to work a year

later. It is one of those stories that should be told on " I shouldn't be

alive " . Here is the archive link to his story if you are interested in hearing

about a Will to survive and heal:

http://www.ashlandwi.com/dailypress/index.php?story_id=188306

The moral of my rant here is: How can you say that " natural " isn't any more

likely to be better for you than

" artificial " . In many cases, in fact, it's less likely to work. " ...when it is

my guess that you have not even tried any of these methods of healing...much

less developed a " will to heal " by your given comments?

Until you have exhausted every last attempt and laid yourself to rest in a

pine box...I believe that your time would be better suited thinking a bit more

positively and would leave the nay-sayer comments to another sounding board.

The only thing that we need on this site is PROVEN medical advice, positive

commenting/support and information on out own experiences with the disease and

meds.

Rob in Houston OUT

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