My History

[greeno]

Starting AP today.

I see my AP Doctor for the first time today. I've just finished the Henry Schammell's book over the last week and a half.

I was diagnosed with RH the start of 2001. For the first 10 months I followed the usual approach of Methotrexate and the rest.

Research into the disease led me to abandon the traditional method, and look at my diet.

Elimination Diet: http://www.frot.co.nz/dietnet/resources/ediet_howto.htm
        http://www.frot.co.nz/dietnet/reviews/mcferran01.htm

Probiotics, and Supplements

I decided to follow an elimination diet by April 2004. I dropped all medication, including meds for inflation, and removed most foods from my diet.
After a week of die off (herxing) I started to add back foods one by one, and keep a diary so that if one food source effected me I could revert back to the diary.

To this day the following foods cause pain in my joints:

Wheat, dairy, sugar – I consider these three the number one initiators of the disease. I believe dairy has been bad for me from birth, I just don't have the ability to digest it in any form.
Sugar – I get gas/bloating from anything with sugar in it – Fruit, dairy. refined foods which stimulate body sugar production,  etc.
meats (bacon, cured hams etc), tea, coffee, chocolate, lemon, tomatoes, cumin, pepper, soymilk. scallops, and most sauces

I can tolerate – brown rice, Quinoa, buckwheat, oat bran, most meat except too much beef causes inflammation, and all veg except tomatoes.
The diet is restrictive, but it works. I've been able to reduce my RH factor from 100 to 34 on the diet, and if I'm extra good my inflammation levels can get back to normal.

I'm hoping the AP approach can compliment the good effects the diet has had. I take Probiotics, and Supplements which also help a lot. Since AP has a Herx effect, led me to believe it was working to remove the disease. With the diet, I've never been able to stick to it  enough to see full recovery. Those little microplasma devils are too hard to wipe out, I would need to be diet restraint for 1 to 2 years to see full recovery. Thus I'm hoping against hope that AP will give my system the boost to completely eradicate the problem. One of my joints has completely mended (why I don't now). It was probably the first knuckle joint to be infected. I remember having to carefully squeeze it open, since it would lock in a fist position. So one day the pathogen decided to leave that joint. If AP is to work for me, I expect to see the same thing happening with other joints. An infected joint, has read mottling around it, I expect this to be gone. What's interesting is the severity of the cured joint, which now demonstrates no previous existence of the condition. Even when I have no inflammation in a joint, and feel great, I can still see that the disease is still present from this red mottling.

Talking about diet, and from reading Henry's book, it's evident to me that most of these dietary constraints should not have to be maintained indefinitely as the AP starts to work. Since RH, according to Dr Brown, causes a hypersensitivity response to substances, then as the AP starts to remove the microplasma these sensitivity should start to diminish. I expect to see this in foods like tomatoes and lemon's, and to some degree grains. However I never intend to eat dairy again in my life, as I now that this condition stems from my bodies complete intolerance to this substance.

Having said that, one icecream a year can't hurt.

More to come.

[greeno]

Two weeks ago I started AP. I did 5 days of intravenous, starting at 100 mg on the Monday, and finishing with 900 mg on the Friday, which was topped off with a nice lunch at the Docs house afterwards.
Last Tuesday I had another intravenous hit of 900 mg. From now on I'll be going in for 1 fortnightly, and then easing back to once monthly. I'm also taking 100mg Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week I took 2 and 4 drops of MMS (Miracle Mineral Supplement), check out the thread going on in General Discussion section. I stopped it on Friday, because I don't do will with any of the activators that compliment MSS i.e. lemon, vinegar or citric acid.
On Saturday 14/June/2008 I went to see a Kinesiologist, and on Sunday 15/June/2008 I took 2 drops of MMS with a glass of water in the morning, and 1 drop in the evening both without the activator.
Of the foods I consider RA activators, I had coffee, strawberries, a glass of red wine and a packet of crisps on Friday. On Saturday I had strawberries, and two glasses of red wine.

I took one 200mg iboprofen Saturday evening as I was expecting to feel a bit rubbish Sunday morning from breaking the diet. It was also Saturday evening that I did some more research on MMS, and thanks to Spacehoppa, I saw the benefits of MMS could still be achieved without the activator.

So on this morning Monday 16th June 2008 I feel good, I don't have the usual pain that I would expect to have after the weekend. SOMETHING IS WORKING.

Could it be the Minocin, the MMS or the Kinesiology. Personally I think it's a combination of the Minocin and MMS. But then the Kinesiologist did come highly recommended haha.

The thing is I always felt that a buffer was what I needed, as I, no doubt, have acidosis due to something living in my GUT. Whether it be Micoplasma, Candida or a combination of both I don't know, but it's definitely in there. When ever I try to eat one of the bad foods on my  list e.g. wheat, dairy etc I get bloating, gas and worse symptoms. I believe the MMS is putting my system into balance, and giving the Minocin the chance to do it's work. It's early days though, so let's just hope this isn't an anomaly.

Interestingly the Minocin definitely hasn't had the strength to get into my Gut and fix the bloating etc. if I have better results though this week with my Gut, then I'll be over the moon, as this will definitely be a step in the right direction.

[greeno]

Hi fellow battlers,
It?s now been a year since starting AP,  and I must confess I feel great.
I have all of my strength back, and only really suffer when, on occasion, I drink too much. But it?s only fine red wine, so that?s ok. I would suggest a bottle of Spinifex Esprite 2007  to knock your socks off.
I still take AP 3 times a week, but stopped intravenous in September, partly due to returning home to Australia. I?ve been in touch with a very good doctor in Melbourne, who prescribes the Minocin, and also wants me to start the Marshal Protocol. I?ve been holding off on that one, but I?ll get there eventually.
I?ve had RH for 9 years now, and until AP I managed it with diet alone. I went down the usual Rheumatologist route for the first 8 months of diagnosis, but wisely ditched them early on.
I strongly believe my excellent recovery rate on AP has been in no part due to the work with diet, and not having my immune system compromised with stuff like Methotrexate. Diet alone helped me to get through the tough years, although it was very tedious, and boring at times.  I still don?t have sugar or diary, but I eat bread again, which is blissful.
All I can say is AP works. Work on your diet, boost your immunity and your in with a fighting chance. Check my previous posts on diet for more info.
p.s. I mentioned MMS in my previous posts, but only tried it briefly,  so can?t really speak for it that well. MMS has been around for a while now, so I?m sure others hear would have better experience, or knowledge on the subject.

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