Avoiding a flare up

Crablet

Hi, I am still waiting for my xrays to come back for formal diagnosis but seem to have arthritis in left knee. I am also now wondering about the awful foot pain I had all summer? I am 55 and have a very active job in a school.
I have had a really rough couple of weeks, awful pain and fatigue, I seem to have come through that now ( hurrah) although still painful knee on walking. Feels great to get at least some of my mobility back.
Looking for advice on not getting another flare up! How much control do I have over that or is it just one of those things!
Thanks

noddingtonpete

Hello @Crablet have a look at the following, hope it helps

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/knee-pain/

Best wishes

Peter

Arciere

Hi Crablet

This is the million dollar question.

Everyone is different - my own personal view is that something causes an inflammatory response. Whether that’s just the disease or an external contributing factor (food, hydration levels, physiological stressors, weather, temperature, viruses, gut health, and more etc) is the difficult bit.

My own perspective is that there is an event that causes my body to respond and the response is my immune system responding incorrectly - which leads to pain and fatigue

Being totally anecdotal/ without evidence I think I am affected by stressors, weather (rain), gluten, dehydration and poor gut health. I’ve taken quite a lot of interest in the micro biome

Can I avoid them - no. I had a bad flare up this last week after lifting something heavy I think - or from some unknown coincidental event?

however they are better and less frequent with my new diet and the Adalimumab medication I take.

Hope this helps

Crablet

Thank you for replying, thats really helpful. I think I had a perfect storm of illness, stress, overuse and cold weather which caused this flare up!
I guess you have to rest it out when it comes?
Some great tips there, thanks x

poormary

Hi @Arciere

Can I ask, what is your new diet? I’m really interested in healthy eating but find it a little overwhelming.

Arciere

hi @poormary

I bought a book from Amazon - I won’t name drop it specifically here (not sure if I’m allowed to). It was an american rheumatoid arthritis cookbook. What I liked about it, was all the advice was evidenced. It has a list of banned foods that may cause inflammation.

So along with distancing myself from a stressful scenario, I removed gluten, artificial sweetener and deadly nightshade veg (potatoes, tomatoes etc) from my diet. It may all be a coincidence of the medication I take (Adalimumab), but I feel great for it. Regarding the gluten - I don’t try and replicate with many gluten free products - I just avoid consuming it. I was surprised how many products contain wheat - nearly everything….

I have also been taking care of my micro biome, there is a documentary on Netflix about this called “hack your health”. (So I take pre and pro biotics and ensure I consume lots of fibre - through varied vegetables mainly)

So check out Amazon for a RA cookbook maybe.

hope this helps

frogmorton

@Arciere have you tried kimchi? I love it and eat it every day just a tiny bit with my meal a tablespoon or thereabouts it's supposed to be really good for the gut microbiome.

I am also doing the 30 a week (as well as 5 a day) as many different coloured and flavoured fruits and vegs and beans as l can. I usually achieve this by wednesday it's easy and none of it has gluten I don't think.😊

Take care

Toni x

Arciere

hi @frogmorton

Yes! I first found it in the LEON food chain, they do gluten free chicken nuggets and kimchi. I swear I feel sharper and happier when I eat something fermented. I’d like to try the 30 a week - I'll add it to my new year resolutions.