The funny thing about having rheumatoid arthritis (and many other autoimmune diseases, I assume) is that I have to be extra careful when I run into stressful situations. Stress affects everyone’s health, but it seems like it affects mine to the nth degree.

(Btw, you can check out Achieve’s Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trial now taking place in Birmingham)

Always, always, the one of the first things my mother says to me when I’m super stressed is “don’t stress out, you’ll get sick.” Or, “try to calm down, you need to take care of yourself.” Or something along those lines.

She says this from years of proof that my body seems to attack itself when I get overly emotional. That’s a fun one since I’m an extremely emotional person, but specifically when I am stressed out, my body seems to shut down.

There is the stress you get when you have a test coming up, or the stress of having your in-laws coming to visit, and that’s normal. Your body reacts the way it needs to. But when my stress is highly elevated, that’s when things go down hill.

For example, recently I’ve been making back and forth trips to my cat’s veterinary office because he may be having seizures. Seizures! Ack. While my husband is away on business, nonetheless. The stress of having to deal with all of this drove me mad and after days of freaking out, my body decided enough was enough.

I woke up in the morning and could hardly move. Every joint in my body ached. Nothing appeared to be swollen, but it felt like someone had cranked each joint as tight as it could be and left me stiff as a board on my bed. A headache and a stomach ache later, I realized that the stress was taking over, and I needed to calm down.

It happens every time. Every time something in my life goes way off kilter, my joints react by battling it out for the most attention. I’ve learned the importance of taking a deep breath, trying my best to stay calm, and not letting the stress take over my health.

Because getting sick over stress is a very possible outcome and it’s a point that I don’t want to get to. What some people’s bodies can handle, mine really can’t. It’s times like these you have to try to not worry about whatever else is going on and simply take care of yourself.

Now where can I find a good masseuse?

But some things make me very different and I just gotta learn to live with them. Most notably and unfortunately, my energy levels.

I know you can relate.

How many times have you been invited to go out to do something and even though it sounds fun and you want to be with your friends, just the thought of getting yourself ready to go makes you tired. And it’s a difficult one to explain.

Most of the time I just say I’m lazy.

But really, that’s not 100% true. My laziness has little to do with a lack of interest, it’s a lack of energy. And it’s a bummer, but every now and then my energy is zapped and you’re gonna have a hard time getting me up and running.

A lot of things take a lot of energy out of you. Things that most people take for granted. Here’s an example:

The other day I was having lunch with a friend who also had Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and we were talking about this lack of energy and how frustrating it is. (Let me tell ya, it’s a wonderful thing having someone who can relate!) She was telling me about how achey and exhausted she was after one night where she hosted just about her entire extended family for the holidays.

Now that’s a lot of people and a lot of hosting and mouths to feed. But even in a smaller version of the same event, it’s still tiring. It got me thinking about how much energy it really takes to do something that might not seem all that consuming.

Like being around a ton of people.

I’m not joking.

Hear me out. You could be in a room lounging with 15 of your good friends, simply gabbing away and laughing about the latest gossip, but keeping up with so many people is going to take some energy. And when you’re working on a lack of energy as it is, that can be difficult at the end of the day.

I started thinking about my days in school, going out with friends, crowded bars and house-parties, and then spending the rest of the weekend recuperating. No, it wasn’t drinking myself under the table that caused the need to rest, it was the fact that it literally takes all the energy I have to handle a large crowd of people.

I had 30-odd people at my wedding reception – perfect and relaxing. Downton Waikiki on New Years Eve? Nut-house and I gotta go home and rest.

Now I’ve found that with exercise I’m able to bump up the amount of energy I have in the day, which is great. And sometimes I’ll push myself to go out and about even when I think I can’t possibly do so. Sometimes I’ll come back and want to curl into a ball, but a lot of the time I’m grateful that I went.

But these little things help me understand how my body works and how to find that balance. Sometimes I get down on myself about my lack of energy, but when you put things into perspective it makes it easier to live with. Perhaps that “spoon theory” is on to something.

(Also, check out Achieve’s new Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trial in Birmingham)

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How long have you been diagnosed with RA and what treatments have you been on?

I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis 13 years ago and have since been on my fair share of arthritis drugs. I was young so my treatment first started with simple steroid injections at the site of the swelling, sometimes associated with draining the fluid from the joint. That was a fun time. After months and months of those exciting needles, my then rheumatologist turned to weekly injections of Methotrexate, a drug that I am currently on in pill form, but that took me a while to find the right dosage. I had some unfriendly reactions to it at first, but eventually we came to find a dose that worked and kept me feeling well.

Later we added twice weekly Enbrel injections. As a teenager I was giving myself three shots a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At this time I was such a baby about needles still that we had to enlist the help of family friends who happened to be nurses and neighbors that were doctors. Once I even had to get my older brother with Diabetes to give me a shot. What a wimp.

Eventually I needed more, and we turned to Remicade. I was getting an IV once every four weeks for a few years, which carried into my college years. Later on my new rheumatologist would decrease how often I came in for treatment, but I was on Remicade for a total of 5 years.

I chose to go off Remicade and back on Enbrel, though at a once-a-week dose. It’s currently a love-hate relationship. I love how it works to give me no swelling and little joint pain . . . But I hate those damned shots.

A little lighter now, what hobbies do you have and how has RA affected them?

Growing up I didn’t have a lot of very “active” hobbies, I think mostly because I didn’t think I could do much physically with my RA. When I met my husband, a very active person himself, I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and found that I am able to enjoy quite a few very active hobbies. I love skiing. I’m not a great skier, but I love putting some music on an iPod (oddly, the only time I‘m a hip-hop fan is while skiing), cruising on some “blue” runs and carrying on conversation while skiing side-by-side with friends. I found that keeping up with exercise and building my leg muscles helps with keeping my joints happy while skiing.

A couple years ago I started golfing by taking a ladies golfing class through a local driving range. Again, I’m not the best golfer, but it’s a fun thing to do, and also easy on my joints. Recently I started paddle-boarding, which I LOVE. It would be nice to take up surfing while living in Hawaii, but I like the calmness of paddle-boarding for now.

On the less-active side, I love to cook and bake. I’ve been teaching myself how to cook over the last couple of years, and trying to create new Paleo baked-goods recipes is both challenging and fun! I’m also an avid movie and TV watcher. I like to place my laziness and watching shows in the category of hobbies.

How do your friends and family deal with your arthritis troubles?

Most of my family members are very understanding about my health, and probably a little too inquisitive, but it’s a good thing. My parents went through the whole diagnosis and beginning of my life with arthritis while I was growing up, so they take my ups and downs very personally. If I ever need to talk about my pain I go to them, but I also like to keep them from the hurt of knowing my worst moments (if that makes sense).

My husband is the person I am the closest to, and he tries his best to understand what I’m going through, but is aware that he won’t ever really be able to understand the pain. He is extremely supportive, though, and will always accompany me to any doctor appointments I have, which I find incredibly helpful! Love that man!

Only a few of my closest friends know much about my arthritis. I pick and choose who to tell, and those that know understand that I sometimes have limitations . . . For the most part!

How do you stay positive on your worst days?

We’ve all had our bad RA days. Days where we can’t get out of bed or off the couch. When we’re embarrassed to be seen with swollen joints. I try to relax as much as I can on those days and treat myself to things I might not normally do very often, like getting a pedicure or splurging on some online shopping. But even on days when there isn’t obvious swelling, things can still be hard on me. I try to preoccupy myself with things I love, like being with my family, beautifying my little home and playing with my pets. Often just taking some time to talk it out with my husband and then laugh about things makes me feel so much better.

We all have our tough days. Sometimes I’ll give myself 30 minutes to stress or feel bad about things, and then after the time is up I gotta move on and get working toward making things better.

More questions and answers to come!

But no one really talks about what I spent a majority of my life with RA doing . . . pretending I didn’t have it.

When I was diagnosed I was 12 years old, in middle school, going through the tumultuous, chaotic world of an adolescent. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with something that would make me more of an outsider, different from all my friends, less “cool”.

So I went on as if nothing was wrong. I’m not sure how many of my friends at the time knew what I had and what I was going through. I didn’t get into the details much, because at the time I really didn’t know much myself. And I really could care less.

This attitude continued on through high school, and it didn’t help that boys started to become a bigger part of my life. Let me tell you, nothing makes a teenage girl sexier than swollen knees and little to no energy. I had 2-3 girl friends that I’m pretty sure I told. It seems so long ago, and I cared so little about it that it’s hard to remember.

I got really good at covering it up. I might miss a few days of school in order to see my rheumatologist, have a minor arthroscopic surgery, or I just couldn’t get myself moving much that day. But those were things that were kept hidden. You wouldn’t know it from looking at me that I had more of a burden than your average teenager. And I lived that way for my entire adolescence.

Even through college I rarely told anyone. I had to tell a few professors about it, mainly because I was having Remicade infusions throughout college and I needed to be excused from a day or two off every month. That was a weird thing for me to get used to – being open about my arthritis to people who actually had a need to know. I was a theatre major and took movement and dance classes often, so I had to keep those teachers up to date on my body, but there was no need to share the details of these conversations with any of my classmates.

It wasn’t until years later that I started writing about my life and opening up about my arthritis. I’m pretty sure it surprised a number of people who have known me growing up.

In some ways it’s therapeutic to be able to talk openly about my health, but I still find myself keeping quiet about it unless somehow the topic comes up. There is no real need for me to gab about my achey joints to my neighbors, or bring up how swollen I am when we’re out at dinner with friends. I prefer people to see me as I am, not labeled as the poor girl with arthritis . . . (and why does she have arthritis if she’s in her 20s? weird!)

Like I said, you can search the internet for a number of people teaching you how to explain to others what life is like for you. I think it’s important to be open with the ones you love, and to not keep your troubles inside as it can prove to be unhealthy to hold those things in. But you should also be able to live how you want to live. If that means keeping the details of your health to yourself, so be it.

And hopefully those parents out there with kids who have arthritis read this and understand – when you are growing up and dealing with RA, there’s nothing you want more than for it to go away. Some of us cope by keeping it a secret and that’s fine.

Eventually we all learn to embrace it and understand it . . . but for now, let’s fool everyone.

Nourishing meals
Whole Life Nutrition

As helpful as these sites were to me, they still left me a bit confused. I needed to break the plan up into weeks and lists of “OK foods” that I was allowed to eat each week. It’s easier for me to see a list of foods that I can eat rather than a list of foods I can’t have . . . seeing that list of not-allowed-foods just made me want those things even more.

Nope. Not on the list.

I also needed more protein in the first couple of weeks, so I added meat earlier on than normally recommended. Other than that I stayed true to the original food lists. On my blog I gave an explanation of each phase of the elimination that I did.

Beginning this elimination is hard. It’s really hard. You have to be in the right mindset to do it because it takes a lot of self-control and determination in order to keep up with it. You have to be strict or else it doesn’t work very well. It also helped that my husband did the diet along with me. It helped a lot to have someone to motivate you to keep it up.

Want it. . . can’t have it.

Let me also note that going on this diet can seem very extreme to some people. I had to explain over and over again why I was doing this “crazy diet”, that it wasn’t for weight loss, it was to find out if my body had any specific reactions to food so that  can better cope with my rheumatoid arthritis. My mother-in-law was especially concerned with this kooky diet her son was doing with me. Be prepared to be approached with negative reactions.Alright, let’s get right down to it . . .

Phase 1 (Week 1)

Some people like to do a cleanse of some sort before starting this diet. I’m not a fan of cleanses so I skipped that step. The first portion of the elimination is it’s own cleanse in a way. Here is the list of foods I allowed myself to eat:

• Brown rice
• Wild rice
• Quinoa
• Lentils
• Adzuki Beans
• Apples
• Pears
• Grapes
• Mangos
• Kale
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Brussels Sprouts
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Winter Squash
• Sweet Potatoes
• Avocados
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Coconut Milk
• Coconut Oil
• Olive Oil
• Agave Nectar
• Maple Syrup

There are other items on the original list, but I kept on the items that I knew I would eat. It seems like there’s not much on here, but trust me, it can be done! Mainly our meals for the first week consisted of rice, adzuki beans, and lots and lots of veggies. We learned to make and enjoy quinoa and this is where my love for sweet potatoes really began.

Phase 2 (Week 2)

Normally, the elimination diet keeps you from eating meat for a while, but for my needs at the time, we chose to add a little bit of meat early on. Week two I allowed myself to include grass-fed chicken and wild salmon to the list.

This was awesome because it gave me that little extra protein that I was needing, and it tasted AH-MAZING after a week without any meat. I’m a meat-eater gosh darnit! If you are doing this diet and choose to put off adding these two items, more power to ya!

Phase 3 (Week 3)

Phase 3 additions are simple but exciting. In the third phase you add in . . .

Lemon
Lime
Tamari Sauce

I’m pretty sure this was the first time in my life that I was extremely excited for citrus. Adding lemons and limes gives your veggies a whole new flavor (your meat too, if you add it like I did)! Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce so really, this is a wonderful week of flavors.

Kale Chips

Ingredients:
Kale
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with foil and grease with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Wash the kale and tear into chunks.

In a bowl, mix the kale with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil – enough to coat. Sprinkle a little salt to taste.

Lay the kale on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes – until they are crispy. Keep a close watch on them as the last few minutes they can crisp up very quickly.

Put the kale chips in a bowl, top with a pinch of salt if needed. Also great toppings: lemon, brewer’s yeast, garlic salt.

Enjoy!

Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients
Brussels Sprouts
1 Lime
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cut the stems of the Brussels sprouts and take off the outer layer. Cut each Brussels sprout in half.

In a bowl, combine Brussels sprouts with salt, pepper and enough olive oil to lightly coat.

Cover a baking sheet with foil and a bit of olive oil and spread the sprouts evenly.

Bake for about 30 minutes. You want the sprouts to be a bit crispy on the edges.

After they are done baking, squirt lime juice over the top.

Serve and devour!

If you want to learn more about Rheumatoid Arthritis clinical trials being conducted at Achieve Clinical, check out these two:

Rheumatoid Arthritis – Vestavia Hills, AL – #35216 (Age 18-75)
Rheumatoid Arthritis – Vestavia Hills, AL – #35216 (Age 75+)

When I first did that pesky elimination diet I was met with so much aggressive questioning I almost didn’t want to do it. The point of doing an elimination diet is it’s a way to find out what foods you might possibly have allergies to. Allergies for me meaning what foods might be associated with my joint pain. Though there are certain aspects of the meal plan that are questionable (the fact that throughout you mainly eat beans and rice – foods that could cause negative reactions themselves) I found it extremely effective.

I’m not gonna lie, it was ridiculously hard to do. There is an easier way to go about finding food issues – going to a special doctor who can run tests and find reactions through that fancy thing called modern technology – but this is a cheaper way. It takes a long time but through the process I found serious results: I have a definite correlation between joint pain and dairy products.

The sad thing is, all the best foods are made with dairy. What is wine without good cheese and bread? How can I enjoy my morning coffee without a splash of delicious, sweet vanilla creamer? How can I beat the heat without my favorite ice cream straight out of the carton?

All the best desserts are made with dairy. Sad face.

With the knowledge gained from doing this elimination I now look at food differently. I’m more aware of what I’m putting into my body and how it’s going to affect me. I don’t completely deprive myself of dairy, but now I know that if I finish this cake with frosting my knees aren’t going to be happy for the next few days. I know to be prepared. It’s another tool I can use to handle living with rheumatoid arthritis.

Through the next few posts I’ll take you through each stage of the elimination – or how I went through it anyway. There are a ton of other resources out there on how to do this. I recommend checking out what other people have to say about it ahead of time. What I write is based on my own experience and how I altered the already set stages to fit my lifestyle and make it easier for me. I am in no way a doctor or a nutritionist or anything fancy – just a girl with RA trying to find triggers and sharing my journey along the way. Booya!

Have you or a family member been diagnosed with a serious illness? If yes, then participating in a clinical trial in Birmingham can provide you with access to state of the art treatment that you could not find anywhere else. The range of different conditions that Achieve Clinical Research focuses on is truly immense. There are upcoming clinical trials for gout, chronic pain, high blood pressure (hypertension), influenza, psoriasis, migraine headaches, and shingles just to name a few. Their highly qualified staff has expertise in a very diverse range of medical fields, so they can certainly handle a lot.

The Achieve staff assigns a team of clinical research coordinators assigned to every trial they conduct. Their physicians are all board certified and they act as the primary investigators with oversight on all trials. Achieve employs a laboratory staff, their own recruiting call center, a receptionist, and pharmacist. Achieve Clinical Research’s goal is to conduct thorough phase II-IV clinical trials in Birmingham. To do this they need dedicated staff, which can handle a large number of clinical trial participants effectively. They are very well trained and committed to bringing people the best medical care possible.

Achieve Clinical Research is primarily focused on conducting phase II-IV clinical research trials. Their sister site focuses on phase I clinical trials in Orlando, FL , and this cooperative system benefits both sites very well. Their research facility is state of the art and fully equipped to handle the wide array of clinical research trials that are being conducted here. They have the latest medical equipment on hand, and their staff is fully trained in utilizing these tools effectively. If that isn’t impressive enough, the facility’s location could not be better. Located right in the heart of Birmingham’s medical district, there are fully functioning hospitals nearby for any outpatient procedures.

One of the most important aspects of running a successful clinical research facility is having the ability to effectively recruit the necessary numbers of people for your clinical research studies. Fortunately, Achieve Clinical Research maintains a great recruiting call center team, which is fully capable of enrolling clinical trial volunteers on a continual basis. Potential volunteers include not only special patient populations but also healthy volunteers. Birmingham is home to more than 20 colleges and universities. This provides with a hugely diverse potential patient population which is continually growing. With its dedicated and well-trained staff, Achieve Clinical Research will always be able to meet its recruitment goals and help to continue furthering modern medicine.

Avail Clinical Research is currently conducting a wide array of clinical studies targeted towards Type I & Type II Diabetes. You may be eligible to participate in one of our diabetes clinical trials near Birmingham and contribute to the development and approval of a new drug or treatment. As a participant, there is no cost to you at any point during the study and health insurance is not required.

Browse our clinical trials being conducted now to find the study best suited for you: Outpatient diabetes study currently enrolling patients ages 18-75.

Not all diabetes patients experience any symptoms before their diagnoses. The test for diabetes involves a simple blood test to assess glucose levels, and the test will detect diabetes whether or not a patient experiences symptoms. If a person experiences any of the following symptoms, he should consult his healthcare professional: severe thirst, frequent urination, severe hunger, exhaustion, unintentional weight loss, dry or itchy skin, slowly healing sores, tingling or numbness in the feet and/or blurred vision.

When the immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells of the pancreas, the beta cells stop producing insulin. This leads to Type I diabetes. Type I diabetes (formerly known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes) is usually diagnosed in children, teenagers and young adults.

Upon insulin resistance, a disorder in which fat, muscle and liver cells are not properly using insulin, Type II diabetes (formerly known as adult-onset diabetes or noninsulin-dependent diabetes) results. The pancreas is forced to produce enough insulin to keep up with the increased insulin demand. However, over time the pancreas becomes incapable of secreting enough insulin after a person has eaten a meal and fills the blood stream with glucose. Lack of physical activity and being overweight increases a person’s risk of developing this type of diabetes.

Sticking to a healthy diet and engaging in physical activity are ways that all people can help prevent or treat diabetes. Also, keeping high blood pressure and cholesterol in check are advisable preventative and curative courses of treatment. A daily dose of aspirin and/or injecting medicine are ways to treat diabetes for those already diagnosed with the disease.

Although RA can afflict people of all ages, most patients diagnosed with RA are between the ages of 40 and 50. Women worldwide are diagnosed with RA three times as often as are men. 1% of the world’s population is estimated to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.
While there may be no cure for RA, there is a wide range of rheumatoid arthritis treatments and therapies that successfully alleviate the pain associated with the disease and help to slow its progression. RA is usually treated with a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) and any other needed medications are prescribed in addition. In addition to taking a DMARD, many RA patients take daily doses of cortisone through injection or lower dose pills. Treatment of RA also includes physical exercise and rest.

Check out some of our Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Clinical Trials near Birmingham.

Osteoarthritis (OA), also known by the names “degenerative joint disease”, “degenerative arthritis” and “arthrosis”, is an autoimmune disease in which low-grade inflammation results in joint pain and degradation of joints, articular cartilage and subchondrial bone. The pain and inflammation in OA result from arthrosis (wear and tear) of the protective cartilage inside joints. As the cartilage is worn down, it becomes painful for any weight to bear upon the unprotected (and in more severe cases of OA, exposed and degraded) bone. Patients with OA may suffer joint tenderness, stiffness, effusion and locking. Due to the experienced pain associated with moving, OA patients refrain from moving very much, and the lack of movement leads to muscle atrophy. The most common form of arthritis, OA most commonly affects the large weight bearing joints (such as knees and hips), hands, feet and spine. Cold weather and humidity increases symptoms in many OA patients. Check out some of our Osteoarthritis (OA) Clinical Research Trials near Birmingham.

The treatment for mild to moderate cases of osteoarthritis usually involves acetaminophen. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are generally prescribed for more severe cases of OA. NSAIDs are more effective in relieving the symptoms of OA but they offer more dangerous side effects than does acetaminophen.