Rheumatoid arthritis affects 2% of the world's population. It would seem not much. But, if you are a woman 40-50 years old, you are at risk. In men, the incidence is lower. This disease is ancient - the first cases of the disease date back to 4300 BC. However, even in the 21st century its mechanisms are not fully understood. In such cases, scientists use a clever and mysterious word - autoimmune process.
Fasting as a therapeutic procedure
Fasting is an alternative medicine
Fasting for the purpose of treatment is a procedure that belongs to alternative medicine. The bottom line is that a person voluntarily refuses to eat food, and sometimes even water, for a certain period. Without breaking down and processing elements entering the digestive system, the body is able to remove accumulated toxins and wastes and restore its barrier functions.
If fasting for arthritis is carried out correctly, according to certain principles, then it will not cause any harm to the body. The only thing a person can feel is minor changes in mood.
The process can last from 1-3 to 21 days. To increase the effectiveness of fasting, it is necessary to perform additional cleansing and supporting procedures: enemas, massage, breathing exercises.
Treatment methods
Modern medicine approaches the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in a comprehensive manner. Essential medications include:
- Antibiotics to treat the infection, if present.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (meloxicam, celecoxib).
- Glucocorticosteroids.
- Immunosuppressants (methotrexate, sulfasalazine).
The disadvantage of traditional medicine is that the effect occurs after long-term use of the drugs (6 months or more).
At the same time, their side effects also appear: NSAIDs cause stomach ulcers, hormones cause obesity, and immunosuppressants run the risk of catching chronic, persistent infections. The liver and kidneys are damaged. At the same time, the disease does not completely recede for everyone, but only reduces its manifestations.
Types of therapeutic fasting for arthritis
The type of fasting depends on the stage of arthritis
There are different types of fasting for rheumatoid arthritis in terms of severity and duration. The correct type of abstinence should be selected depending on the stage of the disease, the intensity of the symptoms and the characteristics of the body.
It should be borne in mind that refusing food for 1 day will not bring the expected result. For arthritis, fasting should last from 3 to 5 days.
Types of therapeutic restrictions and their characteristics are presented in the table:
| Type of therapeutic fasting | Description |
| Dry | This type is also called absolute, since it involves a complete refusal of food and water. Dry fasting for arthritis can be a challenging option for a beginner as it requires some preparation. You need to get out of it yourself according to the algorithm, so as not to harm the body. During the period of complete refusal of food and water, glucocorticoids are produced, which take part in the fight against inflammatory processes. |
| Wet | This type involves avoiding food but drinking water daily. In this mode, you can fast from 1 to 40 days. Patients with diseases of the elbow, knee, hip and ankle joints noted a significant reduction in pain already on the second day. This occurs due to the active influence of hormones on ligaments and cartilage. |
| Cascade | In this option, fasting for arthritis alternates with days of eating healthy foods of plant origin. Therapy has different options for combining food refusal (dry or wet type) and its consumption, which should be chosen based on the symptoms of the disease and the body’s capabilities. The diet on days when meals are required should consist of raw foods. During the process of cascade fasting, the patient gradually loses excess weight, waste is actively removed from the intestines and toxins from the blood and tissues, and health improves. |
| Periodic | It is practiced for arthritis by those patients who find it very difficult to withstand dietary restrictions. Here, after fasting and emerging from it, a stage begins that is called the “eating window.” During this period, you can eat your usual food (no need to eat raw food), without exceeding the permissible daily calorie intake. For beginners, the 12/12 or 14/10 schemes are recommended, where the first number is the days of refusal to eat, and the second is the days of fractional meals. If the patient likes this option, then the scheme can be further complicated: 16/8, 18/6 or 20/4. |
What kind of illness is this?
The cause of arthritis is a combination of several factors:
- hereditary tendency to inadequate reactions of the immune system;
- viral diseases that trigger this inadequate reaction (herpes, hepatitis, etc.);
- unfavorable conditions (stress, hypothermia, intoxication).
The mechanism of disease development is extremely complex. To put it briefly and clearly, it is based on a malfunction in the functioning of the protective cells of the human body. Normally, they identify danger that comes from outside: infections, viruses and eliminate it. In rheumatoid arthritis, these cells show aggression towards the tissues of our joints, which is manifested by their inflammation - arthritis.
General principles of therapy
Upon completion of therapy, it is forbidden to eat fatty foods
To ensure that treatment of arthritis by fasting does not cause harm to the body and is easier for the patient, you need to follow some general recommendations:
- Beginners should start with a short fasting period of 24-36 hours. During this period, you need to track the body's reaction to stress. These nuances will allow you to choose the right fasting mode and avoid breakdown.
- The day before starting a hunger strike, you need to eat exclusively raw food. In the evening or morning on the first day of fasting, you should do a cleansing enema. Refusal from food will be much easier to bear if there are no food residues in the intestines.
- To ease your physical and emotional condition, it is better to spend time outdoors and communicate with people. In the morning and evening, be sure to do the exercises recommended by the doctor.
- On the day you end your fast, dry or wet, you need to drink some water. It is forbidden to immediately load the stomach with fatty, spicy foods, and complex carbohydrates.
Arthrosis and fasting
"FiS", 2009, No. 3
“Dear Vitaly Demyanovich! I am very grateful to you for your articles about arthrosis and osteoporosis. Finally, I began to understand something about the causes of these diseases. But I still have questions. However, first about myself. I am 74 years old and have had knee pain for several years. Doctors explain this by saying that there is a lot of stress on the knee joints - our legs carry us all our lives, and even with heavy bags. As a result, calcium is deposited in the cartilage of the knee joints. However, judging by how my teeth have been actively decaying lately, my body, on the contrary, is experiencing a calcium deficiency. What I didn't do to help my knees. But, after reading your article in FiS, “Medicines cannot cure arthrosis,” I realized that all this was a waste of time. And these are the thoughts that came to my mind. Wouldn't fasting help with the resorption of cartilaginous growths in the knees? And do I need to take calcium supplements to compensate for its deficiency in the body? Please answer my questions." M.I., Lipetsk
This letter made me both happy and sad at the same time. I was pleased that my advice was trusted and listened to. And I was upset by some of the readers’ lack of understanding of the processes in the joints that occur during the development of arthrosis. I'll try to explain again.
The reasons for the development of arthrosis are not only excessive stress on the joints, but also all kinds of injuries and even prolonged immobility (for example, with broken limbs). There is no calcium in joint cartilage. Roughly speaking, cartilage is gelatin. During the development of arthrosis, the cartilage at the joints of bones wears out and becomes thinner, and in the outer areas of these joints, on the contrary, they grow. And only after many years can these growths become calcified. Any remedy aimed at restoring worn-out cartilage tissue leads to more intense growth and growth. And the means aimed at ensuring that these growths resolve, at the same time lead to the fact that the worn-out cartilage tissue becomes even thinner. It turns out that fasting will not help with arthrosis. And even vice versa. If cartilage begins to dissolve as a result of fasting, then this will happen more intensively precisely where their layer is already small. And the disease will only get worse. I never tire of repeating that all my many years of experience in treating arthrosis proves: only exercises of the “no-load” type, regular external work on the diseased joint and a special diet can cope with the disease. I described this technique in detail on the pages of the magazine, as well as in its appendix - the collection “New Healing Techniques” in the material “Humpty Dumpty, or the Support of Your Health.” As for taking calcium for the treatment of osteoporosis, this issue can only be resolved after a medical examination. Self-medication here is very dangerous: excess calcium in the body can seriously damage the kidneys.
How to fast properly with arthritis?
It is advisable to get your doctor's approval before starting a fast.
Periodic and cascade types of therapy do not require a special approach. But the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by fasting of a complex dry type or a moderately complex wet type is characterized by three main stages, the observance of which is mandatory.
Entrance
Preparation should begin a week or 5 days in advance (depending on your usual diet). You need to adjust your daily menu:
- Reduce meat consumption. The method of its preparation is also important - it is better to give preference to boiled or baked poultry meat. During the week of preparation you can eat it 1-2 times.
- This also applies to fish. It is forbidden to eat fried or smoked fish of fatty varieties. It should be present in the diet of a given week 1-2 times.
- You need to eat more fruits, vegetables, greens; drink natural juices; prepare watery porridge from any cereals except pearl barley.
- It is better to give up milk and butter, replacing it with cold-pressed vegetable oil. Cheese and dairy products are allowed.
- Completely eliminate sugar, flour products, potatoes in any form.
Over the course of a week, you need to gradually reduce the size of portions and adhere to a fractional nutrition system. Be sure to do an enema in the morning of the first day of the fast.
Hunger
Days of abstinence from food must necessarily include cleansing enemas according to a certain scheme (if we are talking about prolonged dry fasting), gymnastic and breathing exercises, morning and evening showers (toning, improves well-being, improves mood), daily walks. It is important to maintain a sleep-wake schedule. If the patient is on a wet fast, then he needs to drink 1.5-2 liters of clean water every day.
Exit
The result of fasting treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and human health depend on the correctness of the solution. The basic rules are as follows:
- You should start your exit day with a few large sips of water, then you can drink half a glass of vegetable or fruit juice, but not citrus juice.
- At first, you can eat only on a fractional nutrition system. The quantity and concentration of products are increased gradually.
- The duration of withdrawal is ideally equal to the period of fasting or not less than half of it.
- During this period, it is forbidden to consume salt and protein foods (meat, eggs, mushrooms, legumes, cheese). Vegetable fats are possible from day 4 (with prolonged fasting).
Therapeutic fasting - an alternative to chemistry
It is completely understandable why more and more people are resorting to the help of harmless traditional medicine. The most popular method is therapeutic fasting.
There are several schemes for such a diet.
- With a gradual transition to fasting. This gentle regimen is suitable for weak bodies, children, pregnant women and the elderly. You need to start by limiting meat products, increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet. In 3-4 days, completely switch to a vegetarian diet, then reduce the amount of plant foods until complete fasting (another 3 days). Fast completely for 2 days. During this time, the body will begin to cleanse itself of toxic products and prepare itself for recovery. After this time, return to a nutritious diet in order to replenish the reserves of biologically essential substances and repeat the cycle again every 3 weeks.
- Normal fasting. For a prepared body. Starts immediately, without gradual transitions. You are allowed to drink water. Duration: 5 days, week break.
- Dry fasting. For those who constantly practice this method. You are not allowed to eat or drink at all. Duration – 5 days.
Skeptics will ask what is the point, where are the guarantees that there will be more benefit than harm?
There is scientific evidence of the effectiveness of this method of treatment. Glucocorticoids, which relieve inflammation, are synthesized within us by the adrenal glands. But 70% of them circulate in the blood bound to proteins - albumins - and do not have their therapeutic effect. Only 30% are in free form, but they are not enough to overcome the disease and you have to take hormonal drugs. During fasting, the albumin-hormone complex breaks down, the protein goes to the body's needs, and the free hormone begins to fight inflammation.
It has also been proven that during fasting:
- the integrity of cell membranes is restored;
- the microcirculatory bed (capillaries) is strengthened;
- the activity of the immune system is stabilized;
- toxins accumulated over many years are eliminated;
- as a result, overall well-being and mood improve, and inflammation goes away.
In combination with physical therapy to restore movement in the joints, such treatment is in no way inferior to medication.
