Alternative Medicine and Therapies

lucyjgardner

Has anyone tried any of the supplements which are good for Rheumatoid Arthritis? Like cod liver oil and glucosamine. They work well for me!
I am hoping to go on an 'acid free' diet, taking the supps, doing plenty of physio/hydro and wearing splints.

My condition is in remission, but I'm left with the damage of it, with very bad loss of range of movement from nodules. - Have you heard of Cider Vinegar also???

Please let me know thanks
Lucy

jillyb1

I've tried all the " quack " remedies over the years ; cider vinegar , gin and raisin etc etc ; they may work for you but didn't for me ! I am careful about diet though , no dairy , no citrus , no potatoes , no aubergine , no alcohol , but many people find diet makes no difference either . We're all very different so it's really trial and error to find what works for you . Jillyb

stickywicket

I agree with jillyb1, Lucy. Tried the lot, got the T-shirt, remained resolutely arthritic. In fact, I didn't think any claims were made for cod liver oil or glucosamine as to their efficacy for RA - I thought it was just OA. My husband has mild 'wear & tear' in his hip, takes them regularly and reports a difference if he doesn't. BUT, that's to enable him to play golf. For most of us on here golf would be a pipedream.

Physio & hydro, however, are great at keeping muscles strong so that they can support your joints thereby resulting in less pain. I hope they help you.

dreamdaisy

Oh yes, we've heard of them all, and some of us have even tried them all. There is no empirical evidence that these things work, either for the immune system based arthritises and OA, but as we are all different in how we are affected by our various forms of arthritis there is no reason why some of us should not feel the benefit (placebo or otherwise) of taking supplements, swallowing rose hip tablets, drinking cider vinegar, aloe vera juice or sticking to a food diet that helps. Of all of those only the latter makes any kind of sense to me.

If you feel you are benefitting then that is great. I've been there, done that, got nowhere - actually that kinda sums up my life! DD

frogmorton

Hi Lucy

there is no harm in trying these diets if you can afford to financially and you dont deprive yourself of any essentail nutrients.

I did try glucosamine and something else beginning with C at one point and noticed no improvement sadly.

You could run it by your doc/pharmacist?

Love

Toni xx

suzygirl

I think we all wish our condition could be fixed so easily. sadly I have tried all the remedies going and none have helped, a lot made me very ill actually, but then I have lupus. A lot of alternative remedies are contraindoicated in this case.

I wish you well and I hope it works for you.

ironic

Hi Lucy,
I am so pleased that you are in remission but sorry that the nodules have done so much damage to you.
Before I could get treatment I did try high dose Rose Hip capsules (LitoZin) which did help but they were expensive having to take the highest dose. It is supposed to be for OA rather than RA but what works for one does not always mean it works for another. I did try the fish oil capsules and the glucosamine but they did not seem to help.
I don’t know if I have done this right but if you go to the following site you should find the results of arthritis research on complementary medication.

www.arthritisresearchuk.org/pdf/complementary

I hope you find it interesting and let us know how you get on.

Take care,

I x