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How to Deal with the Pain from An Autoimmune Disease
How to Deal with the Pain from An Autoimmune Disease
By guest blogger, Patrick Bailey
In the wake of the technological revolution in the field of health, science, and technology, some things still remain unclear, such as the cause of autoimmunity. Through the years, scientists are trying to find cures for this debilitating set of diseases but until now it is still vague. While the search for its causes and cures are still ongoing, scientists have found ways to manage its symptoms.
There are approximately 50 million Americans nowadays suffering from an autoimmune disease. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association reveals that only a small part of this population can name at last one autoimmune disease. It is now the eighth main concern of women. It also shortens eight years from the normal lifespan. Autoimmune diseases cost the US health care $120 billion annually greater than the burden caused by cancer, which is only $70 billion in a year.
Dr. Elliot Rosenstein, one of the pioneers of the Institute for Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases at Atlantic Health System’s Overlook Medical Center, said that autoimmune diseases are infamously hard to diagnose and there is no cure for them even if they are recognized.
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Dr. Elliot Rosenstein further says that patients diagnosed with the similar autoimmune disease do not present a similar set of signs and symptoms. Most of the patients suffer from dizziness, low-grade fevers, nausea, fatigue, and weight loss. These symptoms are vague and can be caused by several medical conditions. Rosenstein adds that there is a tendency for these manifestations to overlap. To differentiate patients with lupus from patients with rheumatoid arthritis can be very hard.
What is an Autoimmune Disease?
Our body has an immune system that shields us from infections and diseases. However, if you have an autoimmune disease, this protection transforms as an enemy that assaults by mistake, the healthy cells in our body. This disease can upset various parts of our body. When the immune system becomes overactive, it harms its own tissues. When the immune system is suffering from a deficiency disease, the body becomes susceptible to infections because of its ability to combat invaders is reduced.
Usually, the immune system can differentiate between your own cells and foreign cells. However, when there is an autoimmune disease, it identifies other parts of the body like joints and other organs as foreign. When this happens, the immune system discharges proteins called auto-antibodies to attack the strong cells.
There are various examples of autoimmune diseases; this includes Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, and Multiple Sclerosis. Other types of autoimmune diseases are Psoriasis, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Vasculitis, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, to name a few.
Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases
If the disease is diagnosed, there are various treatments that are usually administered to patients. The treatment aims to regulate the autoimmune process, lessen the symptoms, and as much as possible help the body to continuously fight the illness. The treatment includes taking several supplements to fill in the lacking substance that the body needs. These are vitamin B12, hormones for thyroid, and insulin. There are times that treatment requires a blood transfusion and physical therapy.
Some patients take medicines to alleviate the abnormal response of the immune system. These are immunosuppressive pills like non-steroidal medicines and steroids. Some disease uses Interleukin suppressants and TNF blockers. However, the majority of the patients use pain relievers to ease their suffering. While these are effective medicines, most of the time, these medications are only used for suppressing the pain and not directly targeting the cause of the illness.
Painkillers and prescription opiates, in the course of time, can also affect the body. Physicians prescribe aspirins and other anti-inflammatory medicines to ease the pain. But stronger immune suppressing pills have grave side effects that could result in more serious problems in the future. The most effective way to combat and treat an autoimmune disease is to know its underlying causes. Knowing the sources can easily heal your body. Here are several ways on how to deal with the pain from autoimmune disease without the painkillers
- Eat Nutritious and Healthy Anti-Inflammatory Food
Change and include anti-inflammatory foods in your diet. This includes taking in food rich in Omega-3, green leafy vegetables, and turmeric. Aside from these, avoid consuming foods that are high in sugar. Include at least nine servings of vegetables and fruits every day. You should also limit saturated fats to at least 10 percent daily. It is also recommended that you eat fish three times a week. You should also avoid eating refined sugars and processed foods. Several studies discovered that eating anti-inflammatory rich food will not only protect you from certain illnesses but will also help you lose weight, stabilize your blood sugar, and increase your metabolism.
- Repair the Gut
The easiest way to start repairing your gut includes consuming anti-inflammatory diet, eradicating gluten, and eating whole food. This is because the majority of the immune system heavily relies on the gut or digestive system. If this gets damaged, your immune system will be left unprotected to foreign opportunistic elements like bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. Your body will trigger your immune response and will aggravate your enteric nervous system. This will result in a wide array of problems such as mood disorders, allergy, autoimmunity, arthritis, and many more.
- Increase Physical Movement
Regular exercise is a natural anti-inflammatory. You do not necessarily need to enroll in a fitness gym or buy a treadmill to do this. Start by moving around more frequently and use your body more often. Exercise also allows you to sweat out toxins from your body and relieves you of stress
- Practice Relaxation
One of the main factors that aggravate the immune response of the body is stress. It is very important that you include several calming and deep relaxation techniques in your lifestyle to lessen anxiety and stress in your body. There are many ways to relax nowadays; this includes practicing Yoga and getting a massage.
- Get Enough Sleep
Irregular sleep, poor sleeping pattern, and lack of sleep can harm your metabolism. When this happens, you will have cravings for carbohydrates and sugar, which push you to eat more. To reverse inflammation and to achieve good health, getting enough sleep is essential.
Autoimmune diseases, like any other illnesses, can be remedied by a healthy lifestyle. Healthy living is not a trend but rather a way of life. This is the proper way that our lives should be lived. These natural steps suggested above are just simple and practical truths that most of us forget amidst living this busy life.
Thank you for reading. We appreciate all your comments.
Terry Ryan
Read This: Books by Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain has died!
What a shock! Just after Kate Spade’s suicide the news reports today that Anthony Bourdain passed away from suicide. That lovable, deep voiced, tall, slender gray-hair man, who ate anything and everything, who could have you believing that eating goat testicles was a journey into culinary heaven, is gone. Not just gone but died by his own hands. 
Suicide has been on the rise. Since 1999, it has risen 30% in middle-aged men and women. Children’s suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in children. For goodness sake! What is going on!?
What was going on inside Bourdain mind that would cause him to hang himself? We witnessed a rather jovial personality displayed on TV. His first food and world-travel television show was A Cook’s Tour, which ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network from 2002 through 2003. In 2005 he began hosting the Travel Channel’s culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover(2011–2013). In 2013, he switched to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
Bourdain’s breakthrough writing piece that was in the New Yorker circa 1999, was Don’t Eat Before Reading, a funny take of behind the scenes at restaurants. After reading that story, I thought twice about eating out. It took me years to dine from a buffet again. Here are some books that Bourdain wrote.
- Kitchen Confidential
- Medium Raw: A bloody Valentine to the World of Food And The People Who Cook
- No Reservations: Around The World on an Empty Stomach
- A Cook’s tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
- Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
- The Booby Gold Stories
A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—now with all-new, never-before-published material.
Medium Raw marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of No Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,” and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more.
More than just a companion to the hugely popular Travel Channel show, No Reservations is Bourdain’s fully illustrated journal of his far-flung travels. The book traces his trips from New Zealand to New Jersey and everywhere in between, mixing beautiful, never-before-seen photos and mementos with Bourdain’s outrageous commentary on what really happens when you give a bad-boy chef an open ticket to the world. Want to know where to get good fatty crab in Rangoon? How to order your reindeer medium rare? How to tell a Frenchman that his baguette is invading your personal space?
This is your book. For any Bourdain fan, this is an indispensable opportunity to hit the road with the man himself.
The only thing “gonzo gastronome” and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, “What would be the perfect meal?,” Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of “perfection” inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks’ Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America’s boldest and bravest chef.
It is a shame for someone to give up on life, but you never know what is going on in other people’s minds. And we all know that all the money in the world cannot make you happy.
A toast to Anthony Bourdain. May is cooking in heaven now.
By Terry Ryan
Keto Almond Pancakes
Keto Almond Pancakes by Terry Ryan
I have been craving pancakes lately and what better pancakes to nosh on than Keto Almond Pancakes. Yummy! I created this recipe:
1 Cup of Blanched Almond Flour
1/2 Teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 Cup of Swerve Confectionery Sugar
3 Tablespoons of 1/2 n 1/2
1/3 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons of Sour Cream
2 Eggs
1 Carton of Fresh Blueberries
2 Tablespoons of unsalted-no GMO/Hormones butter
Mix all together EXCEPT for the BLUEBERRIES and butter. Put butter in a fry pan and melt on med high heat. Ladle a scoop of batter into the pan. I make mine small so I can fit 3 in at a time. This is when I add the blueberries. I place them on the batter right after I pour into fry pan. That way I can make sure they are evenly spaced out.
Fry until brown on one side and they flip over in one piece. Too soon and they will fall apart.
Serve with lots of butter. I cheat a little and add pure maple syrup. So good!
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Swerve (Sugar Substitute) Confectionery Sugar
Can substitute with COCONUT FLOUR
Love And Rheumatoid Arthritis
This story is true
This story is absolutely true. Annie is one of my best friends. I have known her since she was 20 years old. We met when her then boyfriend brought Annie over to my apartment for dinner. She was a shy and a quiet woman, but I have a way of bringing people out of their shells. Soon we were chatting, and found out that I had worked with Annie’s mom years before at a clothing store. It was funny to remember that her mom, a single mom, always complained about her 4 children who were driving her crazy. Now, here I was face to face with one of her children. Small world.
Annie broke up with that boyfirend she was with that night, and I too went through a few boyfriends as the years went by until I met my husband. Annie and I stayed friends through all our romances, financial woes, and jobs. I even reacquainted myself with Annie’s mother, Mary Ann. By now, she and Annie and her other 3 children, now adults, were all getting along. Mary Ann had remarried for the 3rd time, and Annie liked her new stepfather. All was going well until Annie met Charlie.
Annie meets Charlie
Annie was tending bar at a local pub and going to college when Charlie sat in a stool in front of her. Charlie was about 10 years older, married with 2 children, and a well-established contractor in the area. He flirted and swept Annie off her feet. He told her that he was separated from his wife and had rented a small apartment in town. It wasn’t long before Charlie asked Annie to move in with him.
If you are wondering what this has to do with rheumatoid arthritis this story takes a dramatic turn soon, sadly.
Happy times
Annie was the happiest I had ever seen her, and juggling her college classes and bartending job, well. Plus her new romance was blossoming. One day, Annie called me to tell me that she had a sore throat and fever. “Go to the doctor,” I said.
The sore throat and fever went on for a few days, and Annie was calling off work and missing classes. Charlie was coming home and bringing her soup and magazines to keep her occupied. She finally broke down and went to the local health clinic where she found out she had strep throat. An antibiotic was prescribed, and after a few days Annie was feeling much better again. Soon Annie was going back to classes and working her shifts at the pub. But then a mysterious new health issue happened. Annie told me that the bottom of her feet hurt when she walked on them. “Hmmmm,” I said. “I never heard of that.”
The next week, her finger and hands started aching. The pain was becoming so bad that she was taking ibuprofen several times a day. More joints were beginning to ache, and then she had wide spread pain throughout her body. It became so unbearable that she went to the doctor’s again. This time they ran some blood tests and found out that her Rheumatoid Factor and SED rate was high. Therefore Annie was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Annie was confused. After all, wasn’t this an old person’s disease? She was just 27 years old.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Her doctor sent her to a rheumatologist about an hour away (we lived in a small town), and he looked at her lab tests at her appointment, did a thorough physical examination, and then broke the dismal news that Annie’s future was grim. “You’ll eventually end up in a wheelchair,” he told her.
Annie was shocked. She was almost finished with college, and was in love with Charlie. She had just met his children the weekend before.
He gave her a prescription for methotrexate and told her to make an appointment at the front desk for next month. Annie slowly got up. Her joints were so stiff and the ibuprofen she took that morning was wearing off. Her head was spinning as she walked through the waiting room on the way out when she tripped on a chair leg and landed hard on the floor.
METHOTREXATE is a chemotherapy drug used to treat cancer including leukemia. This medicine can also be used to treat certain kinds of arthritis.
Waiting patients ran over to her to help her up. Now embarrassed she accepted the helping hands, got up, and limped through the office door to outside where she burst into tears. After a few minutes she composed herself and sat in her car and made a vow. I WILL BEAT THIS!
Love and heartbreak
I lived just a couple of blocks from Annie’s apartment that she shared with Charlie, so she dropped in regularly. Annie told me a week after the rheumatologist’s appointment, Charlie had gone away for a weekend trip to a hunting camp with the guys, which seemed harmless. Annie had started the methotrexate and was still taking ibuprofen to control the pain. Her fingers were already crooked from the disease, and she hobbled now instead of her normal smooth stride. We talked about the coincident that she just had gotten over strep throat when she came down with the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. We wondered if the strep had triggered her RA.
What is RA? It is an autoimmune disease. If you have been following my blog, you know that I too have an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. My autoimmune disease attacks my thyroid. Annie’s attacks her joints.
Charlie came back from his weekend with the guys, and Annie confided in me that something was different about the way Charlie was acting. He wasn’t as affectionate as he used to be, and he was going out at nights with the boys instead of staying home with Annie. She was worried. She not only was facing a debilitating disease, trying to keep her job and her studies; she now felt that Charlie’s support was slipping away just when she needed it most.
Weeks went by, and Charlie spent less and less time with Annie. He snapped at her when she questioned where he was spending his time or who was he with. Rumors started spreading around that Charlie was seeing another woman, and someone told Annie that a woman was showing up daily at Charlie’s construction site to have lunch with him. That was the last straw for Annie. Right when she needed Charlie the most, he was slipping away. Annie decided to give Charlie an ultimatum. “Either you stay with me in the evenings, or I’m moving out!”
“Goodbye,” said Charlie.
Annie decided to call his bluff and move in with her older sister, believing that he would miss her so much he would beg her to come back. After all, they had shared so many tender moments together, and he had told her that he loved her many times. Annie tried to go on with her normal life as much as she could. She didn’t have an appetite, and was losing a lot of weight. Money was always tight and now that she was calling off work so much, money was even tighter. The only thing she could eat was oatmeal. She ate it for breakfast and again for dinner. Just oatmeal plain with nothing on it. At night, she would soak in a hot tub trying to soothe her aching joints, and then she would cry quietly in bed so her sister wouldn’t hear her.
Panic time
Annie started to grow more concerned. Her plan of moving out was backfiring. Charlie didn’t come to her sister’s door with flowers in his hands begging Annie to come back. In fact, he never even bothered to call her to see how she was. Annie started to panic. Was she going to lose Charlie forever?
She was in a very vulnerable place in her mind. She had a chronic disease, could barely work, and was no longer going to classes. She was just too ill. When she was diagnosed, she found comfort knowing that she had Charlie to lean on for moral support and financial. Now both were being taken away from her.
She began to stalk Charlie. Knowing his favorite haunts, she would ride through the parking lots looking for him. I could go into more details here, and it got a lot worse and includes death, suicide, a clown named Pippy, more betrayal, but that is in the book coming out soon called, Annie. If you are interested in receiving an email when it is available on Amazon, please sign up below. Unfortunately for Annie, this is a true story. Annie’s name has been changed to protect her identity.
The worse of times then the best
I saw Annie at her worse and now I see her at her best. She beat RA! How did she do it? The same way I kicked Hashimoto’s to the curb. The medical community call it remission so okay, we’ll call it that, but Annie and I have little to no more symptoms. From Annie having a hard time walking and in constant pain, to now she is pain free, working at a fantastic job, married, and living in a beautiful home that she and her husband built, is amazing. Annie’s health improved by her own research, which she is good at, and clean eating. She first eliminated the oatmeal that she thinks was adding fuel to her RA. She switched to a diet of organic fruits and vegetables, grass fed meats, and chicken with no antibiotics. She also gave up sugar, alcohol, and gluten. Just like I have. We like to compare notes.
Annie and I now live many states apart, but I still visit her when I am in town. We shared a gluten-free beer that I told her upset my stomach, and she said she didn’t like the taste. It was just another experiment.
Annie is no longer on any medication much to the surprise of her doctor. He shakes his head and says, “I don’t know how you did it?” But we know, it’s all about what you put in your mouth.
Personal Care
Sadly, we had a mutual friend who also had RA, and the last time I saw her she was using a claw-foot cane to get around. She also had a zip lock gallon sized bag full of prescription. Annie had an “intervention” with her and shared how she healed herself. It was too late. The woman passed away six months later.
Here is a video on how to cure rheumatoid arthritis with clean eating. https://youtu.be/F5eJl6Ist9A
Note: Annie’s diet is full of vegetables, fruit, small portions of meat. She will not eat sugary treats no matter how many times I have tempted her. There are a lot of farmer’s markets with homemade goodies like gluten-free peanut butter cookies but full of sugar. I was surprised to see that she eats a lot of dairy and cheese, because I thought this was off the diet. After I started the keto diet, I now eat dairy products, too, without any ill effects.
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I would also like to add, that Annie looks great. Some of her fingers are permanently crooked, but that’s okay. She is tall, slim and her skin glows. Annie has proven herself proficient enough at her job as a cancer register specialist that she is allowed to work at home 4 days a week, and goes into the office on Friday. It’s so wonderful to see how far she has come since the “Charlie” days, and amazing to see how healthy she is now. There is hope for everyone suffering from an autoimmune disease. Annie is the proof.
Thanks for reading.
Terry Ryan
Health researcher, blogger, wife, good friend, mommy to 2 chihuahuas, pickleball enthusiast
Terry Ryan
You Are Not Crazy…It’s Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by Terry Ryan
I have Hashimoto’s thyroditis
Been there and will always be there. I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It is an autoimmune disease. Plain and simple. AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE! An autoimmune disease is a syndrome where the body senses an invader and goes on immune attack. In my case, it attacked my thyroid. My autoimmune disease is named after the doctor who discovered the disease. Hashimoto’s is diagnosed by a high TSH (thyroid thyroid-stimulating) lab test and high TPO, thyroid peroxidase . Hence, I am hypothyroid. My thyroid is not producing enough of the thyroid hormone, T4. When that happened, I felt extremely fatigued, suffered with hair loss, aches and pains, DEPRESSION, just to name a few. And what do your doctors, friends and family think after your complaints about symptoms month after month and year after year? That you are crazy. You are not crazy…it’s Hashimoto’s!
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It takes years to develop
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis disease. This happened slowly. My symptoms started showing up one by one. First, I noticed my energy reducing, I started dragging myself through the day. I went to the doctor. He ran lab tests, but everything looked “fine” including my TSH. If it is high…usually over 3, it means you are hypothyroid. The TSH lab test is the standard test that endocrinologists use to determine if you are either hyperthyroid (too much thyroid hormone) or hypothyroid (not enough thyroid). Sort of goes against reasoning. If you have a high TSH reading, this means you are HYPO (I have been as high as), and if you have a zero reading, it means you have too much thyroid hormone and you are HYPER. Why is this?
How it works
The pituitary gland itself is regulated by another gland, known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is part of the brain and produces TSH Releasing Hormone (TRH) which tells the pituitary gland to stimulate the thyroid gland (release TSH). The pituitary gland located in the back of your head regulates when the body needs thyroid hormone. When it needs more, it sends a message out to the thyroid that it needs more hormone. When this happens, your TSH goes up, When there is too much hormone, it will do the opposite. By the way, in the beginning I swung back and forth between hyper to hypo. I miss the hyperthyroid times when I had more energy and could lose weight easily. This happens as my thyroid gland was sputtering to a dead stop at producing hormones.
What happened next to me? I said this happened slowly; my decline in health did not happen overnight. It wasn’t one day I woke up and I had all the Hashimoto’s symptoms. No, it crept up on me like a monster stealing my life force. Horrible and insidious.
I lost count of the doctor visits where I plead my case of I DON’T FEEL WELL, only to be dismissed as, I would guess. a hypochondriac, or a overworked and stress out middle-aged woman.
As the days, months and years went on, I felt worse and worse until I was not able to do normal activities, and I even became antisocial. Sound familiar? You are not crazy…it’s Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
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Here are some symptoms associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis:
- Anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Weight gain
- Extreme fatigue
- Dry skin
- Headaches
- Sore throat
- Muscle aches and pains
- Temperature sensitivity
- Hair loss
The lost years…
I suffered for many years. I call them the lost years. No doctors helped me. They didn’t have the knowledge or if they couldn’t throw a pill at it, they didn’t know how to treat me. By the time I was diagnosed, my thyroid was a shriveled up gland with nodules. No worries, they weren’t cancerous. I have a ultrasound every year and they are getting smaller.
Yes, I will be on thyroid prescription for the rest of my life and I have tried them all. My greatest results are with the prescription Tirosint. It is expensive but I switched years ago when I learned that Synthroid used gluten as a filler, and I am anti-gluten. Gluten is a no-no if you have an autoimmune disease.
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The good news
The good news is that I no longer suffer with symptoms even though I still and always will have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I have figured out how to put my Hashimoto’s into remission. Some people call it that, but all I know is that I now have energy and no pain. How did I achieve that? By taking a lot of junk out of my diet. Clean living and eating. My entire life changed…and for the better.
Now I exercise for 3 hours per day, and then come home and run errands, clean house, make dinner, blog, write, read and all the things that go into a normal day. And I am so happy. So happy. I have my life back.
I have written one book on Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and it has a lot of medical information, and maybe too much medical mumbo jumbo. A lot of people have purchased it on Amazon, which surprises me because I do very little promoting. Right now, I am in the process of writing another book which will be available soon.
If you want to be on my mailing list, I send out healthful tips, recipes and updates on when my books will be available, you can sign up here.
I want you to know, that having a normal life is possible when you have Hashimoto’s. I am the proof.
Thanks for reading!
Terry Ryan, Health Blogger, Pickleball Competitor, Mom of 2 adorable chihuahuas, wife, good friend to many people, and Hashimoto’s recover-er.
Terry Ryan
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