Rheumatoid Arthritis Update: Eating Gluten and Dairy Free Round 2

I started this post after I went wine tasting last week in Spokane and that was a major fail. Trying again!

About a month and a half ago, I wrote a post about how I really was struggling with my rheumatoid arthritis again. I’ve written on the blog before about previous flare ups of the pain, and when serious Aleve intake wasn’t helping anymore I overhauled my diet in an effort to quell the inflammation (actually one of the most popular posts of Dani California Cooks in 2014!). It was a frickin’ miracle how the pain just went away! When the same pain became persistent early this year and seemed to be unaffected by intensive Aleve dosages - I decided to wipe all gluten and dairy from my diet again. I wrote about that, and some thoughts on my disordered eating, here. Looking back on that, I pretty much followed the guidelines I set for myself to get back on track, minus definitely indulging in some alcohol and sugar. Who cares!

Anyways, For the first couple of weeks, there was some dairy that snuck into my diet. It was kind of when Nate returned home, and I was so excited that sometimes I couldn’t say no to cheese. However, I remember lying in bed in Boca Raton before our sailing trip, and my joints just felt like they were on FIRE. I just lay there on my back, and everything felt so stiff and uncomfortable. I couldn’t decide whether to stay still or move around to make it all feel better, but I decided that it was really time to get serious about cutting out those inflammatory foods. About a week later into being very strictly gluten and dairy free, one day I woke up on the boat on the sailing trip, and just like that *snaps fingers* the arthritis was gone. GONE! It felt truly amazing. I haven’t taken an Aleve since!

Now, it’s a month later, and I am so happy to relay that I continue to have no pain. I have been very cognizant about avoiding gluten and dairy, and continue to take 2 fish oil pills, 1 probiotic, and a multivitamin every day. I’ve also been making an effort to eat lots of fermented foods - kombucha and sauerkraut, mostly - to help with promoting good immune health to be able to tackle that inflammation. I plan to keep out gluten and dairy until the end of May, and start incorporating those foods again. Hopefully, like last time, it won’t cause any more flare ups. Until then, you’ll see only gluten and dairy free recipes on my blog because I taste test and eat everything I share with you!

I feel extremely lucky to know that I have a lot of personal control over quelling my arthritic pain, as I know many struggle with prescriptions and diet to no avail. I am learning how to respond to my body and provide for when my autoimmune disorder rears its head, and I’ll certainly keep you posted on how that goes!

I’ll cheers to that, my friends. Starting and ending the post with wine tasting.

Question for you all: Have you ever made any significant diet changes in an effort of healing or health? I’d love to hear about how (or not) it worked for you!

It's only fair to share...