Methotrexate Vs Control via diet.

Jo19_65

Hello,

I’m new here! I was diagnosed with RA in October this year and, have been taking methotrexate since October, which makes me so poorly and nauseous, I am thinking of ditching the meds and dealing with this through diet. Has anyone else gone down this route?

Thanks, Jo

annabanana

Hi, @jo19_65 , welcome and thank you for posting to the online community - it's great to have you here! In terms of controlling RA with diet vs medication, it is important to remember that everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. I do always recommend speaking with your doctor prior to making a decision such as stopping methotrexate, as doctors can advise you on how to do so safely.

frogmorton

Why not try the two together @Jo19_65 ?

Start by improving your diet, but not stop taking a DMARD I mean rather than risk a real relapse. The problem is that those DMARDs like Methotrexate are damping down your disease so that your joints don't end up damaged. I'm sure that's the last thing you want.

Have you thought about asking your Rheumatologist whether they can help? For instance they can prescribe folic acid every day except MTX day to help with side effects and some people do better with the injected method rather than tablet form for nausea.

If all else fails there are other DMARDS they might be able to switch you to.

Take care

Toni xx

NicolaS

I was taking the methotrexate tables and couldn’t bare the nausea. I changed to the injection method and this is much better. I still feel nauseous but it’s less worse. Be sure to get a spring loaded syringe on prescription.. all you have to do is position and press a button ( I use Met Ojet) as this is so much easier than the normal syringe.

I started cooking from the following cookbook ”eat well with arthritis” by Emily Johnson. There are lots of uncomplicated recipes, using accessible ingredients. It’s got lots of detail about which foods are good for you and why. It’s now my go to cookbook, as many of the recipes are dairy free, which caters for my husband aswell. Got from Amazon. I don’t know how much this new style of eating is helping but I feel better mentally for following it.

Ferj

Hi Jo,

I am only newly diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and on week 3 of methotrexate. I went and said to my GP surgery about the nausea, heartburn, and stomach cramps I was getting. I spoke with my GP pharmacist and she prescribed me folic acid for 6 days now instead of 1 day a week. Also she prescribed my antisickness tablets which I used week 2 and they took the nausea away.

I started this increase of folic acid last week and my week 3 this week I had no side effects at all. No nausea, no aches or anything. Like others have mentioned you can get it prescribed in injection form which is meant to mean you don’t get nausea etc… it’s good to know you have that option if the increase of folic acid doesn’t work.

Like others have said diet and medication together would be brilliant for your body. As the medication is protecting your joints and organs from inflammation and damage. Then following like an anti inflammatory diet is meant to be good with arthritis. Also like others have mentioned there is other DMARDs you can try, and other medications if those don’t work or agree with you.

Binbrook36

Arthuritis

@Jo19_65

@frogmorton

There’s some good advice here. If you have a cut, you need to do the necessary to stop it getting worse, however once under control by all means look carefully at diet. I did, and got myself off all meds and zero symptoms, but first you have to stop your T cells cutting up your joints, because that damage is reversible only if it’s not too bad, and that capacity reduces rapidly after age 25.

Listen to this ZOE podcast with a research rheumy that is genuinely acting on behalf of her patient’s benefit, and has reasoned arguments & evidence to support diet being the key to recovery.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/zoe-science-nutrition/id1611216298?i=1000696532853

Most rheumies will not question their regulatory dogma and religion of immune suppression being the only answer (supported by big pharma who fund most of the research and sell expensive biologics to HMOs like the NHS, it’s a $40bn/pa business, with no incentive to end that gravy train - this from an NHS rheumy in confidence), but a few do buck the trend.

Listen to the podcast… and then tell us what you think… particularly what patients themselves told doctors on what works. Unfortunately as biologics are so hugely expensive for the NHS and profitable for pharma, you can’t go on those until after 6 months of MTX. That said, anything that cripples your immune system to fix one problem, will start a load of others.

Try to think about how it all works, that will help you plan. MTX does not kill marauding T-eff cells, it just puts the breaks on the rapid generation of new ones. The T cells that have been chewing up your joints live for about 3 months, which is why it takes a while for the pain to stop, but if you listen to the podcast you will see that there are some things you can do to both stop the T cells getting riled up, (diet) and more of them being rapidly reproduced (MTX).

Stay strong