RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

When I was first asked to give a talk on my recovery from Rheumatoid Arthritis, my immediate reaction was to say “NO I can’t do it” but later on at home I recalled how when after a few months on Nature Cure I started to feel a lot better and was at last given hope, I wanted to shout about it from the roof tops. Now after almost five years since I first saw Atul, I have taken for granted the wonderful feeling of good health.

When I was first diagnosed, after a blood test, as having Rheumatoid Arthritis, I was very ill with swollen hands, feet and knees, with shoulders and arms I could hardly lift, with pain it seemed in every part of my body, even in my jaw bone. At first I resisted taking, drugs, because my Aunt who died aged 60 had had severe Rheumatoid Arthritis for approximately ten years and was terribly deformed and in dreadful pain (even when touched) and had had every drug possible pumped into her, which left her with other problems too. She was a very quiet dignified person who towards the end of her life begged to die.

However, my doctor assure me that H.R.T. would definitely help me so I was persuaded to have this, and also as I was very depressed, she gave me anti-depressants. Neither of these things seemed to help.

When I saw the Rheumatologist, I explained about my Aunt and as a result my fear of Rheumatoid Arthritis and her actual words to me were “Well, then you know you cannot be cured and that you will gradually deteriorate.” She then went on to say that I must try to put on weight and stop being depressed, or I would deteriorate even quicker. When I refused to have a steroid injection, she gave me leaflets to read on two different kinds of drugs and to make up my mind which one would prefer to take, along of course with anti-inflammatories. I decided on Salazoopyrin which seemed the lesser of the two evils, and then went to see my doctor with my choice. She then arranged for me to have blood tests every month.

As you will have gathered, I am not very up on medical matters, but I had read in various books that Rheumatoid Arthritis could be cured or relieved by diet and as a result had started to experiment but without much success. So I tried types of therapy such as Chiropractic, Acupuncture and then Reflexology. Nothing seemed to help me, but Mrs Cline, the Reflexologist, recommended Nature Cure to me and sang its praises and particularly Leslie Harrison.

When I rang Mr Harrison he was making his retirement plans and couldn’t take me on as he said it would take him at least two years to help. However, he say his colleague, Atul Shah, would be able to help, but he was away on holiday, and I should ring when he got back.

By the time I did get around to seeing Atul, I was in a pretty bad state. I couldn’t dress myself properly or bath myself. My hands were useless and I could hardly walk. Just combing my hair was an ordeal. But all that was to change.

The diet Atul put me on was completely alien to me, but fortunately he wrote everything down for me to make life easier. However, I still found it very difficult at first to give up so much, particularly bread and dairy produce, but Atul showed me an article in the Lancet in which some Norwegian doctors had put a number of ladies with R.A. on a diet with great success. Incidentally, when I mentioned this to my Rheumatologist the second time I saw her (and I might add the last time) she said she hadn’t seen the article which I think is quite amazing. She commented, however, on the fact that I had improved much quicker than she had expected.

At first I used to see Atul weekly and I will admit the bus travel from Hull was very painful and used to dread getting off the bus because I was in such pain and very stiff, and then of course I had quite a long walk to Albemarle Road. My sister used to accompany me and she was a tremendous help.

I think by the time I was seeing Atul fortnightly, I had reduced my drug intake by one tablet. I was already on two potato days a week, having progressed from two grape days a week.

After having dropped one tablet and having no adverse effects, I was very keen to drop others, but Atul wouldn’t let me rush. In all, it took 18 months and I can honestly say I never felt any adverse affects as a result of dropping the tablets.

Of course, I still had pain here and there with stiffness too, but very slowly I was improving both physically and mentally. Of course, I realized that I couldn’t be cured until I had finished with the drugs, so I was always nattering to Atul about reducing the dosage but he was always asking me to be cautious.

And then, after the drugs finished, THE COMPRESSES STARTED.

For five nights a week for two years I had night compresses. At first I hated them, but as I persisted they became to be very comforting and certainly improved my sleeping pattern.

Atul never let me get complacent. As soon as I started to improve, he would get me doing something extra, such as lengthening my walks, going to the gym, deep breathing and exercising. (I was already having a sauna once a week an his advice, which I found wonderful). He also suggested swimming and think this is the only time I haven’t done what asked me, as I hate swimming. However, he will be pleased to know I have started to do this now.

And of course during all this time found out about the wonderful pain reflief of hot and cold compressing, which also helped with the swelling.

Going back to my visits to the doctor once a month, she was always amazed as to how well I was doing and in particular the blood tests, muttering things like “YOU can’t have arthritis with these results.” When I was first diagnosed my ESR. was 68 and it eventually dropped to below 20, so of course I quite enjoyed my visits to the doctor. Eventually she said I could drop one of the Sala Zopyrin tablets as I was doing so well, but on no account was I to drop the anti inflammatories. Little did she know that by that time I was only on one of the Sala Zopyrins and one of the anti-inflammatories per day instead of, as I said, a total of seven tablets.

She used to complain about my weight, but that didn’t worry me, because Atul told me this would happen and that one day it would level out and then I would slowly regain my weight which of course I did, much to my husband’s relief.

In other words, hadn’t the faith in Nature Cure that I had. But now he visits Atul with me and is on a diet, although he does have meat twice a week. I am sure that once my son, who’s is 22, leaves home my husband will become totally vegetarian because then I won’t have meat in the house at all.

My son realizes too that Nature Cure has worked wonders for me, be he believes at 22 that he is immortal and doesn’t need to look after himself in such a way.

I rarely have any aches or pains now, although I am still on the same diet. I love my diet and cannot see my every changing it much, although I still do hanker after bread.

I hope I haven’t bored you with my experiences and those of you who doubt the merits of Nature Cure will gain a little more faith. It takes time but it’s worth it. My advice is to try and do exactly what Atul asks you to do, although it may seem a little bizarre. I once fasted for 5 days at his request (although I was quite reluctant) and it did me a lot of good.

Finally, I just want to thank Atul again for all he has done for me. He doesn’t accept praise, but says that I have cured myself, but without Atul I couldn’t have done it, nor would I have met such nice people.

J.M. Hull