Rhumatoid Arthritis

Discussion about the causes of Rhumatoid Arthritis and what lifestyle changes can be made to try to recover from it.

What is Rhumatoid Arthritis?

Rhumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic and progressive disease which affects about 0.8% of the US & EU adult population. It is a painful condition which can cause severe disability and ultimately affects a person's ability to carry out everyday tasks. The disease is able to progress rapidly causing swelling and damaging cartilage & bone around joints most notably the hands, feet and wrists.

What causes Rhumatoid Arthritis?

It is clear that there is a tendency for RA to run in families. For example, there is a 16% chance of an identical twin developing the disease against a 0.8% chance in the adult population as a whole. However, the fact that the chance is not 100% means that "environmental" factors must play a part. These are discussed below and lead to a startling conclusion about the likely true cause of the disease.

A Modern disease?  "No recorded cases before 1800."

Various academic studies of the history of RA provide a revealing insight in to the nature of the disease. Studies of European records show that there are no definite reports of RA before 1800! There are no recorded cases in medical records nor are there any artistic representations and most importantly skeletal remains show no sign of RA deformity. This conclusively points to RA being caused by modern lifestyles.

A Western disease?  "Very few cases in the third world."

Interestingly, the frequency of RA cases is not uniform throughout the world. For instance, RA is very rare in the third world and incredibly not one single case of RA was found in a large study performed in Nigeria! Even more intriguing were a couple of studies from South Africa which revealed a low frequency of RA amongst members of an African tribal group who had stayed in a rural area but European type levels amongst members of the tribal group who had moved to live in the city. This conclusively points to RA being related to an urban and/or western lifestyle.

What treatments are there?

Firstly, there are two types of drugs. The first type are quick acting and help to reduce pain and inflammation. The second type work more slowly and are used to try to help prevent the further spread of the disease.

But...traditional medicines only treat the SYMPTOMS of the disease and never deal with the ROOT CAUSE of the illness.

To obtain true treatment you need to deal with the root cause. Remember the compelling evidence that RA is a modern western disease? Well, prepare yourself for a revelation...

Your Diet is the Single Biggest Influence on Your Arthritis Condition!

Changing your dietary intake of sugar, sweets, processed carbohydrates, soda drinks, fatty food, foods loaded with preservatives and instead switching to natural & healthy alternatives is vital to recover from your condition. You must also cut out cigarettes and, sorry to say, cut down on alcohol!

If you are serious about changing your "modern western lifestyle" then please take time out to examine the resources on this site which may help you on your road to recovery. I particularly recommend The Arthritis Breakthrough which was a recent ground breaking publication on natural remedies for Rhumatoid Arthritis.

I wish you well in your recovery!