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CFS and Rheumatoid arthritis

Martial

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Location
Ventura, CA
Have you ever been tested for lyme disease?

That could cause symptoms indistinguishable from chronic fatigue syndrome especially with co infection. Obviously Lyme is notorious for athritis as well..

Did they find specific anti bodies in your blood for the arthritis or was it based on symptoms?

If I were you I would get a test through IgeneX labs and eliminate it as a possibility.. Here is a link to the site.. http://www.igenex.com/Website/

The reason you want to be sure is that the treatment of steroids and immune suppresent drugs fo auto immune disease is the last thing you want with a chronic body wide spread bacterial infection.
 

Cindi

Senior Member
Messages
229
Is your RA aggresive one?Mine was. All joints were effected and i was brought to hospital via wheel chair.Do you think RA has any relationship with your CFS. I am thinking leaky gut might have caused it.Which medications were you prescribed? I was prescribed cortisone,methotraxate and plequenil. I am already on natural adrenal cortex extracts and i did not start the remaining medication. trying to solve by natural means. I am sensitive to medications and scared to start them. Hope you get well soon.
 

Sherlock

Boswellia for lungs and MC stabllizing
Messages
1,287
Location
k8518704 USA
Is your RA aggresive one?Mine was. All joints were effected and i was brought to hospital via wheel chair.Do you think RA has any relationship with your CFS. I am thinking leaky gut might have caused it.Which medications were you prescribed? I was prescribed cortisone,methotraxate and plequenil. I am already on natural adrenal cortex extracts and i did not start the remaining medication. trying to solve by natural means. I am sensitive to medications and scared to start them. Hope you get well soon.
I've just had a month where I could hardly use my hands because of joint inflammation and tendon weakness (not RA though). After endless hours of wondering what was causing it, my (current) theory is also leaky gut - maybe from post-exercise sugar and then a candida flare.
 
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Aileen

Senior Member
Messages
615
Location
Canada
Those of you who are thinking your RA might have a connection to leaky gut should look into probiotics. I have just started this line of research, and have seen RA come up in the probiotics research. Don't have any links to articles I've read though.

Am trying out Align, a brand of bifido infantis at the moment. This strain has been used in a trial involving cfs patients and was shown to effect some inflammatory cytokine levels. A quick check on PubMed gives a list showing papers on arthritis and various probiotics (here) I didn't read them but some look interesting.
 

Sherlock

Boswellia for lungs and MC stabllizing
Messages
1,287
Location
k8518704 USA
Those of you who are thinking your RA might have a connection to leaky gut should look into probiotics. I have just started this line of research, and have seen RA come up in the probiotics research. Don't have any links to articles I've read though.

Am trying out Align, a brand of bifido infantis at the moment. This strain has been used in a trial involving cfs patients and was shown to effect some inflammatory cytokine levels. A quick check on PubMed gives a list showing papers on arthritis and various probiotics (here) I didn't read them but some look interesting.
Thank you, Aileen. At first look, I'd thought the aim of using probiotics was to repair leaky gut, but your links led me to an April 2014 review which says instead:
Results and Discussion: The recent literature is focusing its interest towards the immunologic properties of relatively harmless organisms, including lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, helminths and saprophytic mycobacteria that may skew immune responses towards immunoregulation by inducing Treg cells, rather than eliciting a pro-inflammatory immune response
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24256057
The immunomodulatory effect of probiotics beyond atopy: an update.
 

Sherlock

Boswellia for lungs and MC stabllizing
Messages
1,287
Location
k8518704 USA
From @Aileen's lead, I got to this:
The role of the microbiome in rheumatic diseases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23378145
Mechanisms through which the microbiota may be involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases include altered epithelial and mucosal permeability, loss of immune tolerance to components of the indigenous microbiota, and trafficking of both activated immune cells and antigenic material to the joints.
which seems to get back to leaky gut.

For the end "trafficking of both activated immune cells and antigenic material to the joints", that seems to (or could) refer to molecules that would not have gotten into the circulation except for increased gut permeability. I've read that papain and bromelain are recommended to break down the immune complexes (antibodies bound to antigens) that collect in the joints. Maybe that's worth a try one day.

In my own particular case, inflammatory problems include painful joints which are also easily injured and which become swollen if I keep using them, but also muscle effects: I get muscle tear injuries from very light stressing such as holding a phone (set on speaker phone) in front of me. Days later, the muscles are able to handle much much heavier weight and the joints are getting back to normal. Am I wrong in thinking that these rapid and dramatic changes are not characteristic of RA?
 
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Cindi

Senior Member
Messages
229
I have had CFS for 27 years and was also diagnosed with RA, I have started LDN which is supposed to help. I am on 5mg for the past 12 days. I will keep you posted if I find relief.
yes,Please do post. Thanks :)
 

Cindi

Senior Member
Messages
229
I've just had a month where I could hardly use my hands because of joint inflammation and tendon weakness (not RA though). After endless hours of wondering what was causing it, my (current) theory is also leaky gut - maybe from post-exercise sugar and then a candida flare.
have you been checked by rheumatologist?
 

Cindi

Senior Member
Messages
229
i need to go into more aggressive therapy. any experiences with various DMARDS?i am trying to find out which one would hurt me less. methotraxate? sulfasalazine? or biologics? any insights?