…that’s what Mia emailed me. After asking her to elaborate, this is what she said next:
I have rheumatoid arthritis. I got diagnosed at the end of 2016, with a 4 months wait to see a rheumatologist, on state insurance because I wasn’t able to work from the pain and fatigue, and with Trump attacking the ACA I was terrorized over the idea of being dependent on the US medical system and then being denied coverage.
I decided to seek further education in proactive healthcare I could rely on. I spent that time doing AIP to see if anything besides gluten was triggering my flares and researching anything holistic or lifestyle-related that I could try to help my symptoms. I was terrified of pharma, and putting off trying it. My rheumatologist was hitting the scare tactics pretty hard, so I didn’t really trust him. But they were ok monitoring my attempts with the diet etc. And just checking in every 4 months. They had nothing to offer me except to take the meds and no real dialogue about the medications.
Note: For credible AIP information check out The Alternative Autoimmune Cookbook: Eating for All Phases of the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol by Angie Alt and the SAD to AIP in SIX online course which runs a few times a year.
I signed up dor anything autoimmune-related because I realized that was the better diagnosis. Sticking to RA focused information isolated me from a larger pool of information. So I signed up for the Crohns And Colitis Summit. And I saw you had an interview with Dr. Konijeti about medication. I trusted her input because she led that study on the AIP diet. Your interview questions were SO good and her answers were equally valuable. After that interview, all my questions about medication were touched on, and I felt better about trying pharma. I also noticed in the interviews with people who are controlling their AI without medication, there was a common pattern. They used pharma to break the inflammation cycles and get to a place where they could maintain their status quo without the medication.
I’m now 14 months pain-free. 20 months on medication. We’re planning to start trying to conceive my first child next month. Which was my dearest dream for getting my RA under control.
I’ve learned so much. A big one no one talks about is how autoimmune diseases are often catabolic that means recovery and ramping down the immune system includes expected weight gain as the metabolism adjusts. For a woman, that is terrifying in our society. Its a huge fear for us in everyday situations, and will stop a woman from continuing treatment.
Its been a wild 2 years. Your summit was a big turning point in my approach to treatment. By the time I started meds, I was a peace with it, and I think that absolutely contributed to how fast my first medication worked for me.
So. Thank you.
Mia Maria Siler
