The food hospital...

LignumVitae

is making me angry! 'being overweight CAUSES inflammation' or does disease activity cause inflammation and being overweight put extra pressure on already struggling joints?! Misinformation and sending out quite a dangerous message. If it could be controlled by the inflammation diet would we not all be eating that and is a sensible and balanced diet not the way to go for most people? Irresponsible broadcasting but that's just my opinion! Rant nearly over, how do we ever get to communicate arthritis, particularly RA type arthritis diseases, to the wider population with this kind of twoddle? As if we are all just eating the wrong diet....grrrrr

Starburst

I'm half watching, half trying to ignore the lecture from my mum about how the diet is the best possible cure for me. :roll:

dreamdaisy

I've just endured that conversation with my 88 year old mum - 'milk is a good food' - no it bl**dyb isn't as I am NOT a calf. And you should damn well know it too, Ma, as it upsets your system but you still persist in drinking it because you like the taste. Ye gods.

I was listening to the radio earlier today about the 'news' that over-indulging in pain dullers causes headaches. Yes, it can do that, it's old news but they interviewed someone with RA who is on daily Naproxen and daily pain relief to ease her joints. She does have headaches but not that often and the headache 'expert' diagnosed her (on air) with migraine. We are not the worried well, we have a problem. Ye gods.

I ignored the first series of this because of its sensationalist approach and will be ignoring this one too. It may have a tiny amount of relevance for the 'neurotic' healthy but for us? It's a relevant to me as tap-dancing, turning cartwheels and dong the can-can. I can't resist: ye gods. DD

Nicchick

Never seen this before as I don't have a telly but watched it with newly repatriated folks and as ma said 'you do/don't eat all those foods and you were skinny when you were first ill....' says it like it is says ma!

I didn't like the generalisation and like DD and others that it's as simple as modifying diet as if it was we would do that before taking some pretty nasty, dangerous and life shortening drugs...we are not idiots after all!

I was touched that the folks had noticed and made a point of watching it as until recently I think they were of the 'bit stiff in the morning' brigade or even 'it's a bit damp right now....' or *gasps* I might even be imagining it....:(

I do wish though that when he asked her how her joints felt that instead of saying 'stiff' she had said 'like they are made of ground glass and every movement hurts like hell on earth' but that's just my opinion!

What does everyone else think? Nx

mercedes2012

My first viewing of this programme out of curiosity. It has prompted me to look at their website and further investigate my own condition, being cervical spondylosis (under their title of ankylosing spondylitis) and has been the only website I had found with comments from similar sufferers.
These comments have actually made me wake up as I had assumed my condition had to be endured and that I just had to "get on with it" without any understanding of the ensuing long term symptoms. I actually thought I was just a miserable, aching, moaning 52 yr old menopausal woman. But in fact apart from the obvious chronic neck pain, I have discovered that the fatigue, chest pains, lower back pains, pins and needles, crawling scalp, headaches are all symptomatic of my condition.
This then drove me to search more on the internet and I have now found this organisation. If there are any others with cervical spondylosis it would be interesting to hear their stories.

tillytop

I have recorded the food hospital for later viewing - or maybe not based on what you peeps have said and what I already suspected. :roll:

Hello and welcome to you Mercedes. I was interested to hear what you said about the information on the Food Hospital website because I thought that AS was an inflammatory condition (based on the fact that I have met people in the rheumatology dept who are being treated with the same DMARDS/biologics used for Rheumatoid and other inflammatory arthritis types). And conversely I thought that Cervical Spondylosis was more akin to an osteo-arthritis type condition. I have RA though so I'm not really sure if I'm right about this. Either way, we have forum members with experience of both (and pretty much every other type of arthritis too) so I hope you will find the forum to be helpful.

Tillyxxx

mercedes2012

Hi Tilly,
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your interpretations of this, which just shows how little information I have on the subject. I have coped with CS for 7 years with no further referrals, and no pain management apart from adapting my lifestyle and off the shelf painkillers when my neck is unbearable. However various ailments are appearing that I had not connected to CS. I am not one to complain and tend to "put up and shut up" but this did make me question what is happening to me.
I think I was trying to make the point that the programme, whether good or bad, had actually prompted me to investigate my condition further and thankfully the outcome being that I have discovered this help forum after all these years !
I look forward to hearing from everyone
Thank you for your support
Mercedes x

skezier

Hi LV,

Didn;t see it (kinda glad about that cus I am stressed enough just now But did see something about food and IBD.... It was wrong not other word for it it was wrong.....

I love the notion you can 'cure' the pain by food... why what does it so regrow shift joints eaten by any of the arthritis's.... or discs of muscle...

I think had I seen it I would be agreeing with you wholeheartedly and from the comments here I do any way Cris x

Hi Mercedes,

Glad you found here and it isn;t a case of get on with it Help is out there and they should be ok at sending you to some!

I am lucky after years of basically neglect I was sent to the pain clinic and she has pulled out so many stops to try and help. It might be worth you trying to get a referral to one. They all have their own ideas but I was assessed for cryo and chemical denerving as well as electronic implants before they decided that the neck was 'too far gone' and settled for injections into the effected joints and triggers.... That still helps though now we have moved from cortisone to medrone and botox but it is helping even after four or five years I think it is now.

I was lucky cus I have also got pa and it was the rumo who sent me to the pain clinic but you should be able to ask for a refaeral and if they say there is nothing they can do that they can;t do....

They are wrong so please dig in. Nice to meet you and hope that the neck will ease off a bit for you. Cris x

Helenbothknees

I didn't watch it. I tested the food theory THOROUGHLY some time ago, for OA not RA but the arguments run the same. It helped slightly while things were mild, then they got lots worse and it didn't. So it's wrong. End of story. I don't watch idiotic TV programmes. Neither do I care what they say to the stupid people who believe them because "I saw it on the telly". I have better things to get upset about.

Neverthelless, why doesn't one of you write to the Radio Times letters page or somewhere similar and tell it like it is. You may well get it published; you could even win a digital radio; I did once when I wrote in about something which incensed me.

Petitesse

After being diagnosed with reactive arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis I have realised more than ever the truth about people who are ill, overweight etc.: DON'T EVER say - 'Why don't you just....'
If we could JUST do something, then we would have. And most of us have probably tried a variety of things. There is no simple solution - if there was we would know about it.

It IS good to try different things when you have the energy to do it and can accept yet another dissappointment. Because you might come across something that will help YOU. But more likely - you may not.

My story:

I got sacked from my job at the end of 2005 after having had time off because of severe stress.
It took time to recover from the stress and time to get over feeling sorry for myself for the fact that I had worked myself half to death for a company that didn't care at all.

Then I decided I would do EVERYTHING I could to become healthy and happy again. I knew diet and exercise should be good.
I started running every evening and doing exercise at home too. I became a vegetarian. I stopped smoking and drinking alcohol. Stopped eating fast food and candy and drinking coca cola etc.

I was getting super fit and healthy.
2-3 months later I became ill with joint pain. The rest is history.

A while back when I was at arthritis rehab hospital I told them my story. They said that stress can cause the start of this condition. But even more likely was the dramatic change in diet and at the same time to stop smoking. Simply because it is a chock to the system that messes up the balance in the immune system.
They said they had several patients who got joint pain and later diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis after they quit smoking. They would never say that to the public though, because the risk is still small compared to the benefits you would be more likely to gain.


You just can't win, right?

salamander

I'm a bit late with this thread as watching the programme on catch up tonight. Agree with you LV, had NO idea that being overweight causes inflammation ha ha. Funny that I lose a lot of weight when my arthritis is most active.

Vis a vis foods, I don't eat red meat but try and have two portions of oily fish a week. More is not recommended due to mercury. I eat lots of nuts and a fair bit of ginger. Regarding turmeric, apparently you would have to eat a huge amount in your diet every day to get any effect, probably the same with other spices. Anyway, my point is that it hasn't done a lot for me.

There is no doubt in my mind that a healthy diet is important but this programme is simplistic at best. Did you notice her surprise when he said her ESR had gone down? Interesting that she wasn't asked how her joints were. Hmmm is about all I can add!

Nicchick

Ha!

That's exactly what I said when a fellow tweeter mentioned seeing the programme - I too wondered why they didn't ask her how she actually felt pain-wise (people also do think that it's just a bit of stiffness that will 'go away') and as for the ESR going down, mine isn't up to start with so that surely can't be an accurate indicator?

Eating healthily is important for everyone not just us chosen ones...which reminds me, I have been having trouble with tramadol affecting my appetite and eating first thing has been *urgh* until I remembered how I used to make smoothies for the Boy (now 18) in order to get him to eat fruit!

Ta da! A use for those forgotten bananas and perfect to cushion the day's first celebrex!

Nic x

tillytop

I absolutely hated this programme and sat there literally wailing and gnashing my teeth in total frustration. I have already had a phone call from an excited friend, telling me about the programme and saying that she had written down the information for me. It is so kind of her to care but I am sure she now believes that just by eating their special diet it will all just go away. If only it were that easy. I too picked up on the fact that at no time did the docs on the programme ask the lady whether the ESR reduction has actually made her feel any better.

Tillyxxx

dreamdaisy

The informed amongst us (ie all of us ) are well aware that our inflammatory markers can be pretty high but the joints feel fine - or they can be quite low and the jonts are bl**dy awful. This programme is a good example of the cheap, sensationalist telly which currently abounds, , fodder for those who have to have things very dumbed down so they think they understand matters and so feel better about themselves. Berks. DD

Soretoe2

Hear hear! people are so uninformed in general and seem to think that a change of diet or some useless gadget will miraculously change our lives.
I suppose though if you are fit and healthy you can have no conception how awful it all is. They are so lucky they just don't know it. Joy

earthspirit

actually i was going to contact them.

i have multiple swellings in most joints - all fingers wrists elbows shoulder knees and ankles. i am underweight. i have never been overweight in my life. i have eaten a very healthy diet all my life. i am very familiar with foods that help certain conditions and i am a homeopath with a deep interest in alternatives or going the non drug route

seriously what a lot of crap they are putting on. yea losing weight will perhaps the weight bearing joints but it is NOT going to stop the progression of the disease. im not taking RA meds like a good little sheep and trying everything in my power and the knowledge i can get from internet doctors consultants etc etc to get my disase under control

i didnt see the programme but i read everything i could find on what was said.

giving people false information and possibly false hope is terrible.
sugar isnt good on my joints and certain foods do seem to increase pain and yea there are allergies and leaky guts and coeliac diseaes etc etc but the programme almost trivialises the disease and that is what we are trying to get rid of. we are trying to educate and they are just making a pretty programme.

i remember the one with the woman who had a 6yrd old girl who always had cystitis. the kid went through all kinds of tests and processes and pain and it turned out she only ever drunk blackcurrant diluting juice. she didnt like water. well a. i thought the mother was really dumb not to know this and b why did not doctor or nurse ever mention that water was the best way to rid yourself of this problem.

to make a prog on healthy eating and cures based on good nutrition etc etc is good for the general education of joe public but they shouldnt twist the truths about things in order to get good ratings.
idiots.
sorry rant over

LignumVitae

I don't think taking RA meds makes you a sheep. In my case I looked at the options and found that the meds were right for me, independent of what others did and based on significant amounts of detailed research.

frogmorton

mercedes2012 wrote:

My first viewing of this programme out of curiosity. It has prompted me to look at their website and further investigate my own condition, being cervical spondylosis (under their title of ankylosing spondylitis) are all symptomatic of my condition.
This then drove me to search more on the internet and I have now found this organisation. If there are any others with cervical spondylosis it would be interesting to hear their stories.

Well mercedes at least some good has come of the programme!! YOU found US

I have cervical spondylosis as do lots of folks on here and some have AS too (not me)

Lovely to meet you

Toni xxx