“I’m going down the tubes,” I said to my chiropractor nearly 20 years ago. In my early 50s, I had gradually become more and more debilitated. No one seemed to know what was wrong with me. My knees had swollen to a circumference of 28 inches. The sharp knee pain was almost unbearable. Standing, walking and getting up and down from chairs (and toilets) took great determination and time. I felt debilitated, depressed, and many years older than my chronological age. Zombie-like fatigue plagued me. I slept at every opportunity, sometimes as much as 18 hours a day. My nose had turned red and I laughingly blamed my mother whose nose had also become reddened with age.
“It’s just old age,” I thought.
Knowing what ravages steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications could cause, and knowing that this was the traditional approach of treatment for arthritic like conditions, I hesitated to seek medical advice.
I was a nurse educator in a large teaching hospital and intractable knee pain finally forced me to visit the employees’ health clinic. The nurse practitioner offered me no advice except to see a rheumatologist, the very thing I had been avoiding. I relented and at my first visit to the doctor, his exclamation at the sight of my gross looking knees convinced me that I had done the right thing. He attributed my swollen knees to middle aged osteo-arthritis and injected cortisone into the swollen knee joints. He also prescribed a strong, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. He ordered no blood work.
Miraculously, within a day or two I was able to walk without pain, sit and stand effortlessly, and my discomfort was a fading memory. I wondered why I had waited so long to seek medical advice.
As treatment with the NSAIDS continued, I experienced gastrointestinal burning. Each time I reported these side effects to the doctor, he would give me a sample of another brand of a non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drug. After attempting several different brands with no relief, he stopped the treatment altogether.
As if on rebound from withdrawal, I awoke one morning and noticed a large red mark on one cheek. Assuming it was from sleeping on that side, I thought no more about it, but by the time I arrived at work there was a matching redness on the other cheek. The dreaded butterfly mask of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus had suddenly appeared. The mystery of my red nose was solved and the mystery of my illness was finally becoming clear.
Even before I sought the rheumatologist’s advice, I had been walking stooped over like a gorilla. This weird position relieved some of the stress on my knees apparently, but it compromised my lower back muscles. I began to get a chiropractic adjustment every week and it was at this very low point in my life that I found myself telling the chiropractor that I was “going down the tubes.”
“Mike has something new for knees,” he said excitedly. “I think you should see him.”
Mike was a pharmacist who owned a Liggett’s Rexall drugstore and the adjoining Parkade Health, a natural food and vitamin store. He was a disciple of the late Carlton Fredericks and a self-taught practitioner of alternative methods of healing. He realized the dichotomy of his role as pharmacist and his beliefs in natural healing. Many years later he closed the pharmacy, enlarged the health store and earned a masters degree in nutrition. I remember the excruciating knee pain as I climbed up the three stairs to his nondescript, little office. Yes, all the pain had returned after the “miracle” drugs had left my body. He questioned me at length about my diet and other symptoms I might be experiencing. Mike told me that overwhelming yeast infections could cause autoimmune disease, and even when I assured him that I didn’t have any signs of yeast infection, he planned my treatment around that assumption. I learned that “yeast infections” were not exclusively a female condition, and that yeast could grow anywhere in a body cavity that was warm and moist. I confided to him that for several months I had been embarrassingly and unbelievably flatulent, especially at night. That convinced him that he was on the right track. Mike had me eliminate all dairy foods, red meat, sugar, wheat, and limited fruit to one a day. Among the nutrients he prescribed were: crystalline vitamin C, 10,000 grams, calcium citrate 1500 mg 1 tablespoon each of emulsified omega-3 and cod liver oil, vitamin E 400 IU, B 100 complex ,a multi-vitamin/mineral complex, chondroitin, and a high count acidophilus powder. The nutrients were so numerous and frequent that I had to make med cards in order to take them properly.
Within a week, another miracle occurred: I could walk without knee pain! With each passing day I could see improvement. A month later, I was casually telling this story to the employee health physician at the hospital where I worked. He immediately ordered two definitive tests for Lupus; an LE Prep and the Anti-Nuclear Antigen Assay. They came back positive for Lupus. Subjectively, I was already 50% better.
When I informed the rheumatologist of these results, he laughed and said, “Even my mildest Lupus patients don’t have a titre that low!”
He had never ordered these tests when I was at my worst and didn’t seem to care that I was getting better. Thank goodness for this omission. I know the titre would have been sky high, had he done the tests when I first went to him. I would have accepted the only traditional treatment at that time,
prednisone for life.
I continued to improve. One month later, a repeat of these two tests came back negative. Annual testing has continued to be negative.
The ravages of Lupus had destroyed the cartilage in my knee joints, and after a traumatic fall on both knees several years later, I experienced unrelenting intractable pain in my right knee. Another cortisone injection failed to give me relief and I opted to have a total knee replacement. After surgery, it took nearly a year for me to appreciate my new knee and be free of pain. I pledged to do everything in my power to avoid replacing the other.
My nutritional regime has changed somewhat through the years. New nutrients unknown 20 years ago, have been added and others have been decreased or eliminated. I am presently on the following group of nutrients:
• Glucosamine sulphate 1000 mg
• omega-3 2000 mg
• MSM 1000 mg
• calcium citrate 1000 mg
• 1 tablespoon cod liver oil
• magnesium citrate 500 mg
• 1000 mg vitamin C
• iron free multivitamin/mineral capsules
• B complex 100
• evening oil of primrose 1300 mg
Traditional medications would be less expensive than nutrients because of health insurance, but I am happy to pay the price of supplements in exchange for good health.
Occasionally, I will have a flare-up that reminds me that this disease is still with me. A nasty, persistent nasal sore usually appears in winter. Fatigue, puffy knees, and some skeletal pain manifest themselves periodically. When this happens, I sleep, get off my feet, and take two aspirin. Exposure to sun will precipitate a flair so my life style is to avoid the sun, eat a diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, chicken, grains, ground flaxseed and eliminate simple carbohydrates. Sometimes the nightshade family that includes tomatoes, potatoes, pepper, and eggplant might cause a flare-up, so I keep these foods to a minimum. I also get plenty of rest.
I thank God for the rheumatologist’s omission to do the diagnostic blood work necessary to rule out Lupus, for the chiropractor who sent me to the nutritionist, and for the employee health physician who ultimately ordered the proper tests. Had I been diagnosed prior to the nutritional intervention, I would have subscribed to traditional treatment without hesitation. If I had been taking prednisone, I would not be writing this account of my triumph over Lupus. For starters, I probably would not be alive and would have undoubtedly suffered many of the innumerable side effects of long-term treatment with steroids. Congestive heart failure, diabetes, cataracts, hirsutism, psychosis, peptic ulcer, acute adrenal insufficiency and the typical moon face are but a few of the side effects that can occur with long term steroid use.
The point of this story is to encourage people to investigate alternative treatment, to educate themselves in the benefits of good nutrition, and to question their doctors. In order to curb ever rising health care costs, emphasis must be put on prevention of illness and acceptance of natural medicine. One must also research the validity of any treatment they accept from a reputable practitioner of alternative medicine. Since Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as are Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, psoriasis, and arthritis many people could be helped if research would prove that my turn around was not accidental.
June Noble is a valued Vitality contributor.
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