Common Questions About Arthritis

What Is the Most Effective Treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Question: What is the most effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, with the mildest or least side effects? It is affecting my hands and fingers.

Answer: Believe it or not, I have found that the best initial treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis is to really watch what they eat. In fact, I recommend that the patient go on an elimination, or cleansing, diet, which would include a sort of fasting. You may want to consider doing this after consultation with your own physician. That is to say, for three days in a row he or she would have healing teas--not black tea, but herbal teas--water with lemon, fresh vegetable juice, and perhaps vegetable soup at night. This will help detox the body and eliminate some of the inflammatory components of the arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease apparently caused by a malfunction in the immune system. The conventional therapy for rheumatoid arthritis is quite limited and in general has minimal therapeutic effects. When treating rheumatoid arthritis, I place special emphasis on improving the function of the immune system and on purifying the body to get rid of genuine, foreign invaders or any substances that are misidentified as foreign invaders and are therefore toxic. Elements of treatment could include nutritional therapy, mind-body exercise therapy, heat and cold therapy, acupuncture, and the judicious use of anti-inflammatory analgesic meditations along with the appropriate techniques for mental and spiritual control of arthritis pain.

Many patients can be helped with rheumatoid arthritis by adopting a holistic lifestyle that includes following a low-fat diet, getting as much exercise as is tolerable, and using meditation to increase the strength and energy of their central nervous system. These measures allow them to transcend the pain and stiffness of the arthritis. Remember that if you have arthritis, you can live with it by raising your spiritual energy. This again does require that you make a special effort to practice in the morning as best you can--perhaps even sitting on a chair--stretching, flexing, breathing, and meditative exercises, such as those found in my book The Pain Cure (Warner Books, 1999) and meditation handbooks.

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