4 mos later.....

[brandy]

Martha,

Age 35 - 50 I took no prescription meds for hand/wrist arm arthritis. I took glucosamine and chondroitin and also fish oil for 12-15 years. I was still in a lot of pain even w/ the glucosamine and chondroitin and fish oil. Pre MC, age 50 it was hard for me to apply makeup and chop onions. During big flare (age 50) I stopped all of my supplements for about 8 weeks. I added back calcium/magnesium first, then vitamin D3 per Tex, then multiple B vitamin. I kind of forgot about glucosamine and fish oil. After about 10-12 weeks of GF I was pain free. I added back glucosamine about a month ago due to a knee injury and added back fish oil just last week. So I agree with your last statement. It feels wonderful to be pain free. Yea!

Phil,

Regarding your Entocort questions. We're not anti drug on this forum. Entocort helped me. The GI docs typically recommend 8 or 12 weeks of Entocort and then want you off. History on this forum shows better results with a much longer time period like 6 months or longer with a long slow taper off. The longer period allows the user to work on diet.
History of this forum is that high risk of relapse within 2 weeks of getting off of Entocort without diet changes. Re: risks of longterm use of Entocort. The biggest one is bone loss/osteoporosis. This is probably a bigger risk for the women although can be a concern for the men. A lot of the women on this board do weight lifting in the gym to counter bone loss. The other thing that comes up with long term usage (we're talking years here) is that the same number of pills sometimes is less effective over time. That being said a number of users are on what you would call a "maintenance" dose of Entocort.

One thing that struck me was that after 4 months you are still on 3 pills. Diet changes should help you and help you pretty fast.

Try this for 2 weeks--I'm thinking you are in FL/GA area so this is Publix based

breakfast have any or all of the following every day:

coffee, eggs, uncured bacon (pork belly), GF toast (udis bread) with earth balance soy free spread, banana or 1/2 banana, Chex cereal (GF) with almond milk

lunch:

boars head low sodium turkey sandwich on GF bread (udis bread) with either mustard (mustard ingredients should be water vinegar mustard seed, salt or something like that or earth balance soy free spread; either 8 potato chips or 8 corn tortilla chips (see notes below), banana or 1/2 banana, already cooked chilled Publix short cut carrots from produce dept (these are the carrots that are about the size of a finger, cook them in advance and eat them chilled with your fingers) Unsweet iced tea, after you heal some more you can add in a peeled apple

Alternative sandwich fillings are: leftover pork, chicken, beef, or fish from prior dinner.

Dinner:

Rotate between the following: pork, chicken, fish, beef, wild game, gator, shrimp or scallops
Rotate the following: white potato, sweet potato, Udis GF garlic bread toast (hey I'm a southerner)--to make this take the GF Udis white bread and smear with earth balance soy free spread and sprinkle with garlic salt and put in oven, white rice--use the earth balance soy free spread as your toppers for potatos rice etc
Rotate: Vary your vegetables each night

Have in extreme moderation: GF store bought cookies, white wine, GF beer, sugar, corn tortilla chips, potato chips, anything with more than 3 or 4 ingredients

Don't have: any raw fruits or raw vegetables, salad until you are healed, don't have any dairy until you are healed, stay clear of nuts till you are healed.
All of this is at Publix in the following areas:

Uncured bacon (pork belly)--ask Publix employee, sometimes it is not in the bacon section
Udi's bread--Get the white one. This is in the health food freezer section at Publix
Earth Balance soy free spread--This is in a margarine type tub in the butter/margarine section at Publix, make sure to get the one that says "soy free"
Chex cereal gluten free--this will be in the regular cereal aisle. There are about 5 options.
Almond milk--next to the cow milk in the refrigerator section or comes in a box in the health food section of dry goods.

HAVE IN EXTREME MODERATION:
Potato chips--I get one on the regular chip aisle that has 3 ingredients: potato, oil (not soy) and salt. Try to get a bag that says GF.
Corn tortilla chips--again you want one with no soy and not a lot of ingredients. Try to get a bag that says GF.
Lara bars--in the bar aisle of publix.
GF cookies--These are in the health food section of publix.

As a general rule it takes a lot of protein and overcooked veggies to heal from MC. You'll heal faster on a lot of protein and overcooked veggies but I wanted to give you some real life food options that I was eating when I was on two Ento per day and a regimen that I thought my boyfriend could manage.

Restaurants: Outback--ask for the GF menu--it is 4 pages and plenty of options
Fastfood restaurant--5 Guys french fries are GF, get the burger w/ no bun (thanks for tip Zizzle)

Give it a try, the above should give you plenty of options and not feel restrictive.

Since you are suffering from 3 auto immune diseases suggest read Loren Cordain's The Paleo Answer. It gives the science behind why anyone suffering from an auto immune disease should eat GF. Dr. Cordain is a professor at University of Colorado.

Keep us posted, Brandy

[Leah]

Everyone here is telling you the same thing. If you had changed your diet, after four months you probably would be on a much lower dose.... on your way to getting off of them completely. I hope you consider giving it a try.

Leah

[Zizzle]

Phil,
I thought of you when I came across this blog post when doing some research for a friend with Guttate Psoriasis. So many people getting better off gluten and many off dairy.

http://andysideafactory.blogspot.com/20 ... iasis.html