Reversing RA and diet

Gadgetgirl

Has anyone heard of Chris Motree? He says that he can help reverse RA. I am looking into signing up but reaching out to see if anyone on here has heard and tried or if it is a con.

Link removed as not allowed under guidelines - Peter (admin)

PeterJ

Hello @Gadgetgirl sorry I had to edit your post. However have you looked at the Versus Arthritis YouTube stretching videos?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Vqr4toAms

They cover general stretching exercises as well as specifics for hips, knees etc.

There are also a couple of schemes which aim to help people with arthritis which you might be interested in

Nuffield Health Free Programme

Escape Pain

Both are worth a look before paying out for something external.

Gadgetgirl

Hi thanks for that. I wasn't aware I couldn't use a link. Have you any advice or know of a Chris Mortee?

frogmorton

No-one has ever mentioned him before here that l remember you are the first, but the price!!!

I had a quick google.

There are people here who work very hard to put their RA into remission through various methods, diet exercise etc.

@Arthuritis for instance, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't used an RA coach just himself and his own research and efforts.

I do usually say to people if it's ok by your medical team (doesn't interfere with your meds) and you can afford it it's up to you. Don't think many of the alternatives people have mentioned have been quite that price though.

Wishing you the best of luck and if you go for it I'd love to know how you get on.

Toni x

Arthuritis

Hi @Gadgetgirl @frogmorton @Trish9556 Apologies for the long absence as I was getting into the holiday season. Sadly I have heard of Chris Mortee and similar coaches like him, none have ever produced clinical evidence of their expensive “wonders”, (“testimonials” are not clinical evidence), taking advantage of people in great pain, and it’s the fault of the obstinate medical community who will not do a differential diagnosis that might identify other causes of RA, (they are supposed to but they rarely do). The more senior the consultant, the more arrogant the approach, enabling charlatans and snake oil salespersons to ply their trade. The medical community today don’t know the history of modern medicine, that it’s not Hippocrates but the son of a snake oil salesman who wanted to get into the profitable vitamin & drug industry, and with the money from his profitable oil business, started a philanthropic foundation to fund medical education, with 1 proviso, that only medical practice where a drug product can be sold to treat the “defect”, would be recognised, all this stuff about finding the cause to cure or diet or gut biome would be considered “quackery” and outlawed. (1910 Flexner report on which modern medical training is based). So docs since then, have all grown up with this mindset, and won’t recognise clever docs like Prof Tim Spector, and talk disparagingly about his work, despite being a recognised doc & scientist at Kings College, London.

The charlatan coaches know this, so wrap a lot of sciencey sounding mumbo jumbo around a few small truths, (eg leaky gut, gut biome) that conventional medicine is only just starting to recognise.

The short version is you can get this knowledge free, I got it from a real licensed doc who suffered from lupus, and then discovered more by myself by my own research and accidental discovery through self experimentation (latter not recommended).

So the docs: Dr Brooke Goldner M.D. & Dr Monica Aggarwal (cardiac surgeon with RA). They both have YouTube videos and are proper licensed docs. No need to buy anything, but they’ll get you started.

The second is reading about “leaky gut”, explained very nicely here by Prof Claudia Mauri, UCL. (I tried adding a link but couldn’t)

So here is her illustration instead.

This explains that sometimes external causes such as bacteria or viruses can trigger an autoimmune response, and as nobody has done any studies of differential diagnosis where killing off the bacteria removed the RA pain (the antibodies and immune memory of RA cells remain, so if the same bacterial cause reappears, you do get RA again).

For me, Identifying and killing off the offending bacteria, (usually bacteria) and cutting off its fav food supply keeps it at bay, and reducing proliferation of rampaging white cells falsely attacking your joints is the name of the game.

I used to be on 400mg HQX daily and 25mg MTX weekly which made me nauseous, susceptible to loads of infections, painful shingles clouded my mind and gave me depression for the 48hours after taking it. (Nobody told me that) I found out these are the symptoms of folate depletion (it’s how MTX works) and more info available on the NHS website, (look up B12 & Folate deficiency).

Then during one of my bouts of bacterial infections I was treated with 2 antibiotics… and within 2 weeks, my RA symptoms were gone. This was last March. Unfortunately the senior RA consultant refuses to accept any alternative treatment method, despite having asked one of his colleagues to perform an ultrasound test on my hands to find not a trace of RA, while last year I was suffering so badly I would struggle to hold a pen or open taps and wracked with pain.

So the first thing to do is find a Rheumy who will do a differential diagnosis, preferably one not too old and set in their ways. As a well known consultant at Guy’s & St Thomas’ says… “Where there’s retirement, there’s hope”. Also where @Trish9556 mylar mallet is available, there’s education!

You need to find one who knows about reactive arthritis, accepts that there are pathogenic causes of RA that can be treated, and recognises Prof Claudia Mauri’s research into leaky gut triggering an autoimmune response.

I found that my offending bacteria LOVE fructose syrup and invert sugar, present in almost all factory baked goods like cakes and biscuits, as it gives an intensely sweet taste, but we can’t digest it so limits calories absorbed, but the offenders love it, and seem to trigger my RA, so I can detect a biccy with this cheap sugar in it within hours of eating it. Ouch!

The other is limiting protein intake, adults unlike growing kids, don’t need much, and the excess just goes to help proliferate the white cells attacking your joints. The body prioritises, and after using protein for normal repairs the rest goes to white cells or turned to carbs.

These two dietary practices have kept the RA & MTX need well away… whereas previously being even an hour late for my next dose would have left me in pain. The two docs I mention above do a variation of this, as it has to suit your gut situation.

I hope this helps.

Arthuritis…

Arthuritis

@Gadgetgirl

This BMJ article illustrates that the offending bacteria could be anywhere they can trigger a chronic immune response:

https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/73/1/263.full.pdf

Welsh1

So do you not take meds now? I read about this guy all behind a pay wall and as you say no science just testimonials

Arthuritis

@Welsh1 That’s right, my rheumy requested ultrasound imaging of my hands as he did not trust the results of the hospital imaging team, but accepted that one of his colleagues with imaging training showing him that I had no trace of RA, despite positive blood results. I almost felt sorry for him, like a flat-earther being confronted with evidence that the earth is not flat, and neither is it the centre of the universe. He briefly looked like his most cherished long held beliefs had just been vaporised. But I guess at that age change is hard to accept, so he decided I was an anomaly, (instead of revising his theory or beliefs) but in the absence of imaging evidence he could not prescribe any medication, particularly not something as toxic as MTX, without imaging evidence to support prescription. Sadly his arrogance also prevented him from seeing other causes (bacterial triggers) so I sometimes every few months if I get re-infected, have to get another doc to treat the “skin” infection. (Someone else, a young woman, here reported exactly the same thing, magic cure/remission after treatment for an infection).

Both docs (GP + rheumy) refuse to read Prof Venables’ (Oxford Uni) published papers (included in the BMJ) or Tim Spector’s. The younger rheumy was much more helpful and knowledgeable of current research. I guess where there’s retirement there’s hope. For now I am enjoying the MTX and pain free time. Dunno how long it will last, but I hope it stays.

I suspect the paywall snake oil salesman probably managed to work out what I did, and decided to turn it into a money spinner for himself as NICE/NHS have no interest in expensively investigating anything and need one of the big pharmas that produce profitable rheumy drugs to sponsor the research to put patients in remission without meds… like turkeys and Christmas!

I even asked if they’d like to study me, to see if the results could be replicated as a possible treatment for other patients in pain and suffering, and he told me “we already have a few anomalous patients like you, but we aren’t studying them as we can only treat the way NICE allows us to treat, so there’s no point. “

Me: “So even if you could help other patients to get off drugs, you won’t?”

He nodded.

Another senior rheumy from a major London hospital told me flat out, there’s no cure because there’s no financial incentive for a cure.

Now if you are really interested in the political drama that is modern medicine… read about Nobel Prize winning doctor Dr Barry Marshall, who went through the gauntlet to debunk similar cherished beliefs, but the mindset of arrogance simply never changes.

What I concluded was that changing diet alone won’t give you the break, you need to reduce the quantity of bacteria, maybe change it even. The low sugar veggy diet goes a long way towards this, and the antibiotics clear the remaining bacteria. You also need to have had a condition that allowed harboured bacteria to come in contact with your immune system to trigger the autoimmune system, whether it’s a damaged leaky IBS ridden inflamed gut, or gums. Killing off the bacteria then removes the trigger and gives you the break. That’s my theory, and so far it’s made useful predictions such as what will trigger an RA flare up, and so I avoid those triggers.

Hope that helped.

Welsh1

Interesting yes. I had gum issues wisdom teeth removal this year after cyst. Long standing Ibs.I had a lot of antibiotics after the cyst and wisdom teeth removal. Was am generally healthy.Covid appears to have triggered the RA. Will read the people you mentioned. Thanks