"Natural" cures for arthritis?

Question:
I have osteoarthritis in my hip due to an accident 15 years ago (I'm now 33) and have recently read several books which describe cures based on rigorous diets. Can anyone testify that something like this has worked for them?

Answer:
A natural cure, I also have OA in my hip my cure, cycling It's coming up 2 years since I took it up and so far doing fine no diets no pills am doing things now I couldn't do 5 years ago. From: Running Fo - view profile I have read and practice is people who have fractures are (along with any woman) more prone to have a cacium deficiency. I am under this catagory. Calcium has to have certain helpers to be effective otherwise it might just past thru. Vitamin-D & Boron is a plus. Have you ever heard of an apple a day? Amung other things it has boron. I also I take cod liver oil which is rich in V-D Also natural cleansing of your inner body is the starting point to a trip to success. I have come across into what I beleive is the best natural product for all forms of artrhitis. This product comes with double blind studies from Europe and and a study is currently under way in the U.S. to be published possibly by this fall in The Lancet/an/or/ the New England Journal of medicine. Has anyone ever heard of something called OPC300+. I am looking for more information on it. If there is studies done or not please let me know. Last thing I heard about it was that it helps with arthritis and cancer. Not sure. My father is trying it right now and says it has helped him but I would like more information on it before I let my wife use it. There is no natural cure for arthritis. RA is held in check by a rheumatoligist. A doctro who specializes in arthritis. Anyone who uses the word Cure about arthritis should be held under suspicion for several reasons. RA also strikes young people who must deal with it in the same way that older people do. In my view, Harv is correct in saying there is no natural cure for RA. I am not a medical expert and don't pretend to be. It is also my view that blind trust in anyone (including RD's and others considered to be experts in a particular field) should be avoided. I emphasize the word *blind* as the difference between that and either earned trust or trust arising from one's willingness to seek and consider all points of view that are worthwhile is akin to the difference between light and dark. A cure for those in the early stages of RA where no signifficant joint damage has occured may be available with the correct and supervised employment and dosage of certain antibiotics. One way to find out more is to visit the URL below that contains a brief description of the cure and numerous medical journal references that may or may not support Dr. Mirkin's assertion that there is a cure for RA. Vegetarian diet eases arthritis Adapted from an article in the Lancet (12/10/91) by Dr Jens Kjeldsen-Kragh and colleagues of the Department of General Practice, University of Oslo, and from a report in the Independent by Celia Hall. Fasting is known to be an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, but most patients relapse on reintroduction of food. The effect of fasting followed by one year of a vegetarian diet was assessed in this randomised, single-blind controlled trial. 'They began with a seven to ten day subtotal fast. After the fast the patients re-introduced a 'new' food item every second day' 27 patients were allocated to a four-week stay at a health farm. They began with a seven to ten day subtotal fast - taking only herbal teas, garlic, vegetable broth, decoction of potatoes and parsley, and juice extracts from carrots, beets and celery. After the fast the patients reintroduced a 'new' food item every second day. If they noticed an increase in pain, stiffness or joint swelling within two to 48 hours this item was omitted from the diet for at least seven days. If symptoms were exacerbated on reintroduction of this food item, it was excluded from the diet for the rest of the study period. During the first 3.5 months, the patients were asked not to eat food that contained gluten, meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, refined sugar or citrus fruits. Salt, strong spices, and preservatives were avoided - likewise alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee. After this period, the patients were allowed to reintroduce milk, other dairy products and gluten-containing foods in the way described above. The patients who did not use cod liver oil supplemented their diet with vitamin D during the first four months. A control group of 26 patients stayed for four weeks at a convalescent home, but ate an ordinary diet throughout the whole study period. After four weeks at the health farm the diet group showed a significant improvement in the number of tender joints, Ritchie's articular index, the number of swollen joints, pain scores, the duration of morning stiffness, grip strength, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, white blood cell count and a health assessment questionnaire score. In the control group, only pain score improved significantly. The benefits in the diet group were still present after one year, and evaluation of the whole course showed significant advantages for the diet group in all measured indices. Food allergy or intolerance is unlikely to explain the improvement in all the patients who changed their diet. Interest has been drawn to dietary fatty acids and their ability to modulate the inflammatory process (Kremer JM, Lawrence DA, Jubix W, et al. 'Dietary fish oil and olive oil supplementation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical and immunological effects.' Arthritis Rheum 11990; 33: 810-20). A switch to vegetarian diet causes an extensive change in the profile of the fatty acids of the serum phospholipids. These changes may favour production of prostaglandins and leukotrienes with less inflammatory activity. This dietary regimen seems to be a useful supplement to conventional medical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.