Rhuematoid Factor

[RAWCA]

Hello
I got my blood test done and my RF factor is 110 and that means prone to Rheumatoid artritis or have it already
I have none of the symptoms, at least i dont think i do
Are there any natural methods: diet, supplements, excercise that would stop this from progressing?

Thank you in advance

[Arky]

1) Keep including plenty of anti-inflammatory foods in your diet.

2) It appears it may be time to start investigating whether or not you might have certain toxins in your body which may give rise to systemic inflammatory conditions. As I have mentioned many times, here on RFT, a major cause of systemic inflammation can be heavy metals, but of course there are many other potential causes, including, for example, gut dysbiosis.

3) Keep a detailed diary of your various health symptoms (everyone has these, even though they may not necessarily be overtly troublesome). The point of this is not to become a hyperchondriac. One should 'hold this task lightly' rather than becoming obsessed by it. But, holding it lightly, one should nonetheless be calmly diligent about keeping a good level of detail in the diary. The point is that, over time, patterns may become discernible which one was previously unaware of. These can be very valuable in figuring out possible underlying mechanisms. Again, please let me stress that this is not to be a 'black hole' that draws one into obsession with niggling health symptoms; it's just a journal with a view to it eventually serving you, rather than you becoming a slave to it.

4) Be sure to support the function of your liver. There are many options for doing this, but at the very most basic, ensure you daily consume something very bitter, by which I do not mean sour or tart, I really mean something specifically bitter. You're already on a good track eating plenty of raw foods, but, speaking generally, western society has become side-tracked with consuming too many sweet foods and ignoring the importance of consuming bitter substances. Even the raw foods community is often guilty of this. Bitter substances are very valuable for stimulating bile release, which aids in detoxifying the liver. Even green tea (unadulterated with sugar or milk) counts as a legitimate bitter, and since you're by no means new to health matters, I'm sure you know many, many, other appropriate bitter substances you could include in your diet. Turmeric is an interesting one, since, in addition to stimulating bile release, it is also overtly anti-inflammatory.

5) This one may be considered optional, but regularly consuming fermented foods (or a commercial probiotic, if you prefer), can be helpful in regulating healthy immune function, and in ensuring good detoxification of the bowel. It's particularly relevant if one has pathogenic dysbiosis in the gut, a superb real-life illustrative example of which is Jordan Rubin's severe case of Crohn's Disease, which he resolved using a combination of soil-based organisms and fermented foods. As you may be aware, Crohn's disease is a very serious auto-immune inflammatory disease, extremely poorly understood by coventional medicine, yet Jordan experienced a dramatic healing. So profoundly was he affected by fermented foods that he started his own company ('Garden of Life') producing probiotics and fermented supplements. Home-made sauerkraut, in particular, is not only abundant in healthy bacteria, but also rich in vitamin C, to continually detoxify the body (and many of the healthy bacteria perform detoxification duties, too; something few people are aware of. Natasha Campbell McBride is one proponent of this aspect). If one includes some shredded beet in the sauerkraut then that's even better, since it supports liver function. I could go on about the many benefits of sauerkraut but I'll refrain! ;-)

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[Arky]

5) This one's merely optional, but regularly consuming fermented foods (or a commercial probiotic, if you prefer), can be helpful in regulating healthy immune function, and in ensuring good detoxification of the bowel. Home-made sauerkraut, in particular, is not only abundant in healthy bacteria, but also rich in vitamin C, to continually detoxify the body. If one includes some shredded beet in the sauerkraut then that's even better, since it supports liver function. I could go on about the many benefits of sauerkraut but I'll refrain! ;-)

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Hmmm... by curious coincidence, Mercola just sent out a fermented vegetables info link to his e-mail list, within the past hour or so:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...1215_DNL_art_1

I don't agree with the method recommended therein, of fermenting entirely in standard mason jars - for sound technical reasons, and based upon my own experience, and centuries of crockpot tradition, I believe a
traditional water-sealed crockpot:

http://www.curiousfarm.com/wp-conten...ock-inside.jpg

or modern equivalent of a brewers' airlock:

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-1996718...8_2238_2547878

should be used.

However, in other respects, it's a really informative article, so, as ever, I concur with the dictum 'don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!' :-)


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[MysticTree]

Another interesting post Arky. When you talk about bitter foods I must say I don't like them much. The "stumps" of lettuces such as romaine and little gems are about as bitter as I fancy. They have that same milky sap you get in other bitter leaves. Kale can have a bitterness about it and I am eating a fair amount of kale at the moment. I don't like dandelions for example though. Pity really; they grow like weeds here.

[Arky]

...When you talk about bitter foods I must say I don't like them much. The "stumps" of lettuces such as romaine and little gems are about as bitter as I fancy. They have that same milky sap you get in other bitter leaves. Kale can have a bitterness about it and I am eating a fair amount of kale at the moment. I don't like dandelions for example though. Pity really; they grow like weeds here.

Swedish bitters are very effective - half a teaspoon of tincture in a cup of warm water, just before a meal, and you're good to go.

some related discussion may be found in another recent thread:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthrea...697#post711697

[Arky]

...When you talk about bitter foods I must say I don't like them much. The "stumps" of lettuces such as romaine and little gems are about as bitter as I fancy. They have that same milky sap you get in other bitter leaves. Kale can have a bitterness about it and I am eating a fair amount of kale at the moment. I don't like dandelions for example though. Pity really; they grow like weeds here.

Swedish bitters are very effective - half a teaspoon of tincture in a cup of warm water, just before a meal, and you're good to go.

Some related discussion may be found in another recent thread (see the section entitled 'Options'):

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?71018-Gastric-Issues&p=711697#post711697

..and, as you know, there is some associated discussion here, too:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthrea...ver-and-Kidney



Although I don't wholly concur with everything proposed in TCM, it is notable that TCM does stress the importance of consuming bitter substances regularly in the diet. It's very wise in stressing this. Bitters support the liver, and the liver supports virtually every part of the body.


Western diet being what it is, very few people do like bitter foods/herbs, so you're certainly not alone! However, having come to a deeper understanding of the very positive ways in which bitters affect the body, I have made a point of consuming them and, over the past 8 years or so, I've gradually come to the point where I actually enjoy them now; so much so that (although it wouldn't be a healthy thing to do) I could honestly quite happily chew my way through a kilo of gentian root in one sitting. I now adore the taste of gentian root. Problem is, it costs around £30 / $50 a kg! (2.2 lbs)


Will you drink green tea? I am well aware of the potential negative aspects of caffeine and theobromine etc., but even substances like tea, black coffee, and cacao are beneficially bitter, consumed in moderation.


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[RAWCA]

Thanks for the advice
So what do you propose are some bitter that I can partake in?
Any excercises?

[Arky]

If you follow those links, you'll find a number of bitters discussed, but if you're on medication of any kind, or if you have other health issues, do please check with your doctor before introducing any herbs into your diet. The safest bitter substances, in this regard, would be the foods such as tea, coffee & cocao (in strict moderation, of course)


Excercise is a very individual thing. If you find it hard to stick to an exercise routine, then something really short & simple can be a good thing to do, as you'll be more likely to stick to it. Some options include Surya Namaskara or the 5 Tibetan Rites, but only you can know what exercise suits you. However, the aforementioned exercises have the benefits of being low-impact and good for the skeleton and for circulation, so at least consider them. You can find them being demonstrated in various videos on Youtube.

Remember that from an ongoing detoxification standpoint, in addition to consuming bitters regularly, if you happen to have access to a sauna, these can be excellent.

I'm not absolutely stating that RA is always caused by toxins, but having said that, I am discussing toxins from a deeper understanding than simply throwing the term around (it is thrown around rather dogmatically and indiscriminately, in raw food circles these days). If your body is experiencing systemic inflammation then this does suggest that something may be antagonising your immune system. It is therefore worthwhile at least seriously investigating this possibility now, rather than ignoring the possibility.

[Arky]

Related thread:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthrea...ting-arthritis

[MysticTree]

I will look at Swedish bitters but I don't get on with tea - any kind of tea!

[MysticTree]

Must it be a tincture? Bf is alcoholic so tinctures are probably best avoided. Thanks.

[Arky]

No, as I've mentioned in the linked post, glycerine-based tinctures are also available, though less ubiquitously. You might be able to get glycerine-based swedish bitters on special order from your local health food store, but some stores only supply the alcohol-based bitters. If you don't mind ordering online, a very good quality independent supplier in the UK is granaryherbs.co.uk - they make & sell both alcoholic and non-alcoholic types.

Alternatively, you live rather near to Cotswold Herbs (cotsherb.co.uk). They offer plenty of bulk herbs, including the likes of gentian, milkthistle, dandelion root, and artichoke, all 3 of which can be consumed in simple powdered form, or the powder added to hot or cold drinks (taste notwithstanding). I consume powdered herbs in all forms, as I see fit according to my needs - as-is, in hot fluid, in cold fluid, tinctured in alcohol, even in oil.

All bitters will serve their basic, bile-stimulatory, function in any of these forms, although, for certain specialised purposes, there are benefits to using alcohol or oil as carriers, since these offer the potential for greater specificity of targeting towards the liver, given that the hepatobiliary system handles these substances, albeit in different ways.

If you prefer turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, aniseed, cardamom, fennel, etc., then find a decent asian foods store that supplies these in 500g or 1kg bags. A teaspoon of turmeric in a cup of hot water is quite pleasant and, over time, softens the skin from the inside out, too, which is a pleasant side effect.

A further alternative is to obtain chinese bupleurum, coptis (use only in moderation, due to the bernerine content), or scutellaria, etc. from a Chinese herbalist or online supplier. These canbe obtained in 1:5 concentrated powders, or as raw dried cut herbs. An excellent supplier for these, in the UK, is healthylicious.co.uk

So, there are many options available to you, and, for the simple purposes of stimulating bile release, you needn't fret about using them in alcholic tincture form.

[Arky]

Generally-speaking, in terms of things one consumes,

other than juicing, consumption of a healthy natural diet with a good proportion of raw foods and careful inclusion of fat-soluble vitamins, and sufficient daily fluid intake, there are 2 things I consider to be particularly helpful in maintaining good health:

* Bitter foods (and/or herbs)

Bitter foods stimulate bile release, thus aiding ongoing liver detoxification and healthy bowel/stool transit and thereby ongoing detoxification (since bile itself both stimulates bowel peristalsis and serves a somewhat 'sanitising' effect upon the bowel tissues, in addition to discouraging parasites)


* Fermented foods (provided one does not have an existing yeast/fungal overgrowth condition, in which case fermented foods may exacerbate this)

Fermented foods support healthy immune function, since a very considerable proportion of the immune system resides in the gut and relies upon the incalculably-complex interplay between the trillions of microbes also resident there, and the myriad substances they produce. Some of these microbial functions additionally encompass detoxification. They also produce a number of healthy organic acids and some B-vitamins (I suspect this microbial production of B-vitamins may be one reason why I've found consumption of sauerkraut to improve both the quality of my sleep and my level or energy upon awakening)

[Living Food]

(provided one does not have an existing yeast/fungal overgrowth condition, in which case fermented foods may exacerbate this)

Really? That contradicts everything I've ever heard and experienced about fermented food. Fermented veggies are great for yeast/fungal problems.

A few examples:

* The probiotics and yeast/fungi have completely different food sources.
* The probiotics are in direct competition for space with the fungi and enough fermented food will go a long way towards re-establishing balanced gut flora.
* The probiotics produce compounds that kill the yeast/fungi.

Do you have any information you could share to back up your statement?

[Arky]

Really? That contradicts everything I've ever heard and experienced about fermented food. Fermented veggies are great for yeast/fungal problems.



Do you have any information you could share to back up your statement?

I understand your perspective, and, as you point out, it can be correct in some circumstances. I'm very well aware of this. Donna Gates' 'Body Ecology diet', for example, is promoted very heavily for the purposes of fighting yeast/fungal issues, and some people experience great improvements. That's great.

However, there are exceptions to every rule

For those of us with heavy metal issues, which suppress the immune system, we can be more sensitive than others to contaminant molds which are often present in home-fermented foods. Source = personal experience.

Once I make deeper progress in my chelation (just a matter of time), I may be able to resume eating sauerkraut etc., and believe me, I look forward to this, because I did enjoy the many benefits of it when I was tolerating it.