RE: Anyone else giving up nightshades?

[Guest guest]

Dear Marty, I've heard about nightshade problems before but of course my

doctor doesn't think there is any connection. One thing I find really

strange though is since I've had PA and been on prednisone I can't get

enough tomatoes. It bothers me to think I could be hurting myself more,

when I thought I was being really healthy since they are now considered a

good cancer fighting fruit. Does anyone else feel like nightshade plants

have made their arthritis worse? I'm just curious before I give up my big

weakness right now? I can live without potatoes and never have even eaten

eggplant, so I'm ok there. Take care and I'm glad something is working so

[Editor's Note: Fran, I gave up nightshades for about 6 months and if anything

I felt worse. Then someone explained to me that MANY people are allergic to

nightshades and, of course, some of those people also happen to have arthritis.

If you have PA and are allergic to nightshades, giving them up will help; if you

are not allergic, giving them up will deprive you of foods you enjoy, but will

do nothing to help your arthritis. Kathy F.]

[ ] Success With Diet Controlling PA

Thought some of you might be interested in a pretty notable success

story using diet to

control PA. Perhaps my case is simply a light one but nonetheless, I

am thankful to be

relatively unaffected by the PA. I'm 53, have had P on and off since

mid 20's and started

getting PA at around age 37. I have always been athletic but it got

to the point where I

could not hold a tennis racket, and I was also going to have to stop

skiing due to

extremely painful ankles. A rheumatologist put me on stronger &

stronger anti-

inflammatories. When he got to methotrexate, I decided to see if an

aternative strategy

would help, since methotrexate is so strong and caustic. A homeopath

(I had never been

to one before) suggested I take all meat (beef, chicken, pork) as

well as the nightshades

(tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant) from my diet. Within 3 weeks, I was

90% improved and in 3

months 95-98% better! Truly incredible! Now 16 yrs later, I play

tennis 3-5 times a week

and only occassionally have flare-ups which have thankfully been

manageable in various

joints. A recent flare-up in a new joint plus the onset of plantar

faciatis(sp?) in one heel

has me wondering if the diet solution is going to continue to work,

but so far so good, and

I'm still on the tennis court. I do get a little stiff but at 53,

that's OK, and I seem to limber

up if I keep moving! According to the homeopath, the enzymes my body

was producing to

breakdown the complex proteins in the meats were attacking my own

joints. As for the

nightshades, apparently it is not uncommon for people to have an

adverse reaction to

them in some way.

Marty

[Guest guest]

Dear Kathy, thanks for your feedback. There is always something about the

diets for arthritis that make me feel like my health problems are all my

fault. it's probably just in my head, but I always end up thinking if I

could eat right maybe my problems would all go away. Though I have to say

that normally when I've dieted in the past my health actually would get

worse, just like you said. My other problem is I'm already limited on what

I can eat due to my jaw being in such bad shape from arthritis. If I keep

on limiting things it would simply get too difficult at times to even bother

eating. I don't know about you, but when I feel really bad the last thing I

want to do is good a healthy meal.

Thanks again Kathy for your viewpoint. I'll talk to my doctor about it once

more, but in the meantime I think I'll keep my tomatoes. Love, Fran

[Editor's Note: Hi Fran, I'm certainly not saying that there is no correlation

- but everything I've ever researched about this shows anecdotal rather than

empirical evidence of the link between arthritis and nightshades. I only know

that for ME, there was no improvement during the time I gave up all nightshades.

Kathy F.]

[ ] Success With Diet Controlling PA

Thought some of you might be interested in a pretty notable success

story using diet to

control PA. Perhaps my case is simply a light one but nonetheless, I

am thankful to be

relatively unaffected by the PA. I'm 53, have had P on and off since

mid 20's and started

getting PA at around age 37. I have always been athletic but it got

to the point where I

could not hold a tennis racket, and I was also going to have to stop

skiing due to

extremely painful ankles. A rheumatologist put me on stronger &

stronger anti-

inflammatories. When he got to methotrexate, I decided to see if an

aternative strategy

would help, since methotrexate is so strong and caustic. A homeopath

(I had never been

to one before) suggested I take all meat (beef, chicken, pork) as

well as the nightshades

(tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant) from my diet. Within 3 weeks, I was

90% improved and in 3

months 95-98% better! Truly incredible! Now 16 yrs later, I play

tennis 3-5 times a week

and only occassionally have flare-ups which have thankfully been

manageable in various

joints. A recent flare-up in a new joint plus the onset of plantar

faciatis(sp?) in one heel

has me wondering if the diet solution is going to continue to work,

but so far so good, and

I'm still on the tennis court. I do get a little stiff but at 53,

that's OK, and I seem to limber

up if I keep moving! According to the homeopath, the enzymes my body

was producing to

breakdown the complex proteins in the meats were attacking my own

joints. As for the

nightshades, apparently it is not uncommon for people to have an

adverse reaction to

them in some way.

Marty

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/28/04 4:07:05 PM Central Daylight Time, fran@...

writes:

If you have PA and are allergic to nightshades, giving them up will help; if

you are not allergic, giving them up will deprive you of foods you enjoy, but

will do nothing to help your arthritis. Kathy F.]

hit on the key point regarding nightshades and any potential health

problems arising from their consumption. A few years ago I had a terrible time

with PA through the winter. The next summer we had tons of organic home grown

tomatos. We gave away all we could and tried to eat the rest, shame to let

them go to waste. We were also growing bell peppers and ate a lot of them as

well. Might also add that I am a smoker so theres 3 different nightshades

consumed on a daily basis and during that summer the PA greatly improved so I

can

say with full confidence that tomatos do not exacerbate psoriatic symptoms.

Some people are equally as convinced that nightshades are to be avoided due to

their own experiences. I think anyone could go a month without them to test

and see if there is improvement. If not go the opposite direction and eat them

every day to prove to yourself. By the way, if you do decide to go opposite

and binge on them do it during the summer, theyre much cheaper! Orin