Subject: Re: Treatment
The way I see it is that there is are unpublicised alternatives within the mainstream that you have to dig for to find. As to why some alternatives get no press - I feel that vested interested are at play. As good comparison is the use of Ketogenic or a V Low Carb diet for diabetes management (or blood pressure / obesity / epilepsy) - proven to work well for 1000's and administered by a growing number of GP's. I find it a bit sinister that Arthritis Care would ban people for talking about Roadback (or diet changes for that matter). I would say this is more than policing the forum it is protecting profits of pharmaceutical companies. BTW - Again a similarity to the diabetes forums and charities - where they simply perpetuate the 'food pyramid', 'low fat / balanced diet' that got us it to this mess in the first place. Yes - British Dietetic backs diabetes research and yes Kellogs, Unilever, Coca Cola all have reps on the board of the British (and US and Australian) Dietetic Association. As to suggestions that 'very mild' conditions can respond to alternatives - I could give people a guided tour of my back, rib cage, feet - show the xrays of bone spurs - the pain I was in at times! Diet changes worked for me. As Lemons says - we all need all the information to be public and for all our doctors to be versed in this information. If I see 100's of articles in medical journals that suggest that diet changes can work for arthritis for some people - and then the powers that be say don't bother trying. Regarding diet - The most telling thing in recent years was an appeal from very senior mainstream practitioners as part of a Commons / Parliamentary Select Committee - it makes interesting reading as it highlights that even with this type of evidence from such senior medical figures they are left discussing whether to allow it to become 'mainstream'. Link below for the whole discussion - the end point is pretty useless and frustrating, I imagine a bunch of toffs haw-haw-ing. www.fhf.org.uk/files/index2.php?id=6&download=true The above article states these actual words from the Senior Rheumatologist and Senior Professor of Immunology, just a few years ago!
"We do not treat patients well. We give them anti-inflammatory medicine which is expensive, only partially successful and which has side effects. We could help a lot of people by suggesting they try an elimination diet and, if it does not help them, they could try the drugs." The background was - "Gail Darlington conducted a double-blind placebo study in which one group of patients were given a special tablet (the placebo) and one group were subject to a dietary intervention. Some 20%-30% of the group taking the placebo felt better: a strong placebo effect; while 70% of the patients on the diet felt better. There was no doubt that some foods were implicated, including some which had not been suspected, such as wheat. It took cumulative amounts of quite large quantities of the implicated foods for them to have an effect. In later studies, the results have shown smaller, but still significant, changes. There is no doubt in Professor Brostoffâs mind that food intolerance is associated with an exacerbation of RA in a proportion of patients. RA is one of many conditions that can be exacerbated by some foods...... RA is one of a number of diseases that responds well to an elimination diet if you can be bothered to follow it; others include migraine, Crohnâs Disease, asthma and eczema." In this article linked above the 2 telling reason as to why they wont tell you are "Is intervention useful if it is a great hassle to make the dietary changes required? .... You need to balance the challenges of a new diet against the reason for adopting it the severity of your symptoms" 1) DOCTORS ARE NOT TRAINED TO KNOW THIS STUFF 2) THEY DON'T TRUST PEOPLE TO HELP THEMSELVES 3) VESTED INTERESTS
Lastly - you cot just stop bread for a few weeks and say that diet did not work, it is part of a huge effort of elimination, testing and listening to your body. When you are on drugs you cannot listen because the volume has been turned down.
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