Fun Ways to Fight Rheumatoid Arthritis with Nutrition
Rheumatoid Arthritis: Nutrition, Tickles, and Trunks
How do you make an elephant float? Two scoops of ice cream, root beer, and an elephant.
Sorry, I know it’s corny. I’ve been telling that joke for almost 40 years and I still laugh. I’m incorrigible.
Is Rheumatoid Arthritis nutrtion that easy? Well, if you’ve ever searched Rheumatoid Arthritis on Google, you know there are lots of ridiculous recipes for a cure. There are foods to eat and foods to avoid. There are gloves and creams and sprays. Funny, fake, and preposterous cures abound – anything to get you to CLICK HERE NOW!
Once, we were visiting NASA on a “free entry for locals” day. A woman who saw me struggling to walk approached me with her cure: “I was like you just last month – until I drank acai juice.” She meant well, so I didn’t laugh in her face. But, I think my kids gave her a look.
A friend of mine did give me a large bottle of the juice. I was glad to give it a try. I’m not a cynic. I’m even willing to inject myself at home with chemo drugs and new-fangled biologics – Hey, I’m willing to try anything within reason to treat Rheumatoid Arthrits, nutrition included.
Rheumatoid Arthritis, nutrition, and pills
That brings us to my internist. He is a good doctor. And I know he cares because when he got a look at my numerous abnormal lab results, he had the vitamin talk with me. He gave me list of supplements he wants me to use. It’s not one more absurd attempt at a cure. He just knows that Rheumatoid Arthritis is out to destroy my entire body and he wants me to put every good weapon in my arsenal.
When I looked at the list of the supplements, I did the math. “That’s a lot of pills,” I thought. Then I started collecting the various bottles on the counter. “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE,” I said. (It really is a huge number of pills because of the amount of each supplement that I need.)
You may know this one already: How do you eat an elephant? …One bite at a time, right?
Rheumatoid Arthritis Nutrition can be easier than it looks
So, I devised a plan for the vitamins and supplements. It has really helped. I got one of those large divided pill boxes people use for weekly pills. But, I don’t label it with the days of the week. I open the bottles and fill up the compartments. One is for fish oil, one is for calcium, one is for vitamin D, one for iron and so on. I can fit enough in there to get through several days.
Here is the rest of my method: I keep the box nearby and every time I eat a meal, I swallow some pills. If I eat a brownie at night with the kids, I swallow some pills. That takes care of about half of the pills for a day.
The other half of the pills, I take this way: chill some healthy juices that are considered a special treat. A couple of times a day, I pour out a big shot (about six ounces) and swallow some pills. These have to be the ones that don’t cause much stomach upset, like Vitamin C or flax oil. Since the juice is a treat, the pills go down easier. Sometimes, I add healthy nuts or something like that. As for juices, my favorites are the V-8 fusion flavors or Welch’s purple.
It’s not cheesecake, but it’s still a good thing.
How about one laugh for the road?
Why are elephants trumpeters? …Because it’s too hard to learn to play the piano.
- Recommended reading:
- Some Answers for Rheumatoid Arthritis Just Bring More Questions
- What Is the First symptom of Rheumatoid Arthritis?
- Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Kitchen: Hey, We All Eat!
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What a great trick!
Reading this and realized I forgot to take my meds today. Thanks for the reminder.
Kelly, I would love to see your list of supplements! I would love to see everyone’s list of supplements. I know that there are some things that I should take, but I have no idea how much to take. My doc doesn’t help much with this and I don’t really trust the folks that actually sell this stuff. I mean, some of them are also fans of the coffee enemas! LOL
I take:
Nature Made folic acid with DHA 2 600mcg/day
Nature Made biotin 2 2500mcg/day
Costco chewable calcium with vit. D (2)
I know that I should take fishoil but I’m allergic to shellfish so I’m a bit leery of it. A friend has just given me some omega 3 oil made for vegetarians. I’m going to try that.
Any other suggestions?
Kate, I have a feature post begun on supplements. I’ll get to it asap. We do need to do the most we can to be healthy, even if it is not the cure to RA! RA’ers need to eat healthy even more than others for lots of reasons…
Just checking: does your doc prescribe a folic acid dose? It should probably not be an otc folic acid because the FDA can’t require that the exact dose is correct in each tablet. It is cheap by prescription and this way you get exactly what the doc wants you to have, which is usually at least 1000 mcg / 1 mg per day.
My Rheumy has not really discussed the other supplements with me. But as I mentioned here, one reason that I love my gp is that he does. I think taking time to talk to people about nutrition is a good quality in a doctor, so maybe your pcp would be willing to look at a list with you. He goes over my lab work and looks for anything we can do to fight my various deficiencies which are mainly caused by RA.
Oh, by the way, try taking flax oil for Omega-3 if you cannot take fish oil.
Here’s the link to the post on supplements I promised. More to come on RA Kitchen soon…
I know there are a lot of nutritional ideas. but I found for myself when I tried to loose weight with the modified Atkins diet with my Rheumatologists ok that:
1)increase of protein–some every meal
2)decrease of processed carbohydrates like breads, pastas, and desserts decreased a lot of my pain.
I then also increased my activity even if I hurt because once the “juices” got flowing It was easier and less painful.
Now I know that this does not work for every one but it worked for me, and if I am haveing a large increase in pain I review my diet to see if I have fallen to far off of the wagon and it helps to decreas some of my pain. I know that it probably will not matter eventually but it does now.