Recently, a colleague of mine reported that a relative of his, who was previously in very good health, had suddenly come down with a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. He asked a group of us to pray for this person, which we did. But even while we prayed, my mind whirled as I immediately began putting together a treatment plan in my head for this person.
Now my colleague is an excellent but fairly conventional specialist. I was a little hesitant to give unsolicited advice to him especially when it involved thinking outside the box, which is what I like to do. I’m never quite sure what conventional doctors think of me and my sometimes odd (i.e. unconventional) methods. But this particular doctor was already concerned about the fact that potentially harmful drugs might have to be used to help his loved one, so I hoped that maybe he would be open to hearing about some inexpensive and nontoxic alternatives to be tried first.
I immediately thought of four action steps in particular that could avert the need for powerful “biologics” or DMODs in that person.
- Get off common food allergens. Food allergens can cause a wide variety of problems including joint pains and gut inflammation, especially gluten (gluten is the protein that holds bread together like gluey rebar and is found in wheat, barley, and rye). But also, a multiple food allergy elimination diet for three weeks should be implemented. That means no milk products, corn, eggs, soy, sugar, chocolate, yeasts, citrus, tomato, and coconut oil. Also, I’d get off all preservatives, colors, dyes, stabilizers, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, and anything else that God did not put into our foods. Some people would also say, get off all “nightshade vegetables.” So that would include tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers (except black), eggplant, and tobacco. Of course, it goes without saying that no one should use tobacco. I would also limit beef as it is high in arachidonic acid, which promotes inflammation.
- Address Leaky Gut Syndrome. Typically present in most autoimmune disorders, it’s a common condition wherein the junctions between the cells of the intestinal wall become damaged and leaky. That allows stuff to get into the bloodstream that shouldn’t, which sets off a negative immunological and inflammatory cascade in the body. The 5 R’s of Leaky Gut Syndrome treatment are Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, and Rebalance. This article https://experiencelife.com/article/how-to-heal-a-leaky-gut/ does a nice job explaining all this.
- Low Dose Naltrexone or LDN. This is a novel use of an OLD drug that was used to treat drug and alcohol addiction. It’s called “low dose” because it is dosed at about 1/12 of the normal conventional dose. It’s mechanism of action is not fully understood yet and is the subject of ongoing research. One of my patients who asked her other doctor (a specialist) about LDN was told that LDN doesn’t work and it’s a myth. I guess he has not read this article yet: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3962576/ . There are quite a few doctors in the US, including me, who are now prescribing this and many good compounding pharmacies who are filling those prescriptions. It costs less than $1/ day. Compare that to the $1,000s for biologics. There is an entire website devoted to LDN called, www.LowDoseNaltrexone.org and there is a new nice little book available now written by a group of medical doctors called “The LDN Book.” (Isn’t it nice that the name of the website and book are so easy to remember?)
One final thing this person should do is read and follow Dr. Ann Myers’ book called, The Autoimmune Solution, which details the above approach except for low dose naltrexone, and is available on Amazon.
Hopefully, when I give my friend this info, it will be well-received. I’ll pray it is.
For more information on Dr. Epperly’s approach to rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune disorders, contact us today.
