Deborah

I'm glad you are going to give it a go Karen! Eliminating oil, excess salt & refined carbs like sugar & alcohol from the plant-based diet is a HUGELY important step. Eliminating wheat, citrus, chocolate etc may also make a big difference. Personally, I have to avoid gluten & corn to keep my...

I'm glad you are going to give it a go Karen! Eliminating oil, excess salt & refined carbs like sugar & alcohol from the plant-based diet is a HUGELY important step. Eliminating wheat, citrus, chocolate etc may also make a big difference. Personally, I have to avoid gluten & corn to keep my joints happy.

I'm glad the Elimination Diet Dr. McDougall provides is free. :-)

I had such bad pain in my hip joints by the time I was 30, I could barely walk up a short flight of stairs. I noticed an improvement in my overall well being almost immediately after removing the potential food triggers from my diet. Two weeks after eliminating my food triggers, I noticed a big improvement in how my joints felt. By 6 weeks, I was running up the stairs!

I never had it formally labelled by a clinician because what mattered to me was eliminating the pain. I figured that if the pain was eliminated, that probably meant the inflammation causing the damage was gone and that healing could then occur, to whatever degree was possible. I resumed an active life, running around after kids, dancing, hiking, biking, etc.

That was over 30 years ago for me and my hips are still completely functional & comfortable, which at my age, is rare. In my opinion, if "wear-and-tear" were the primary cause, I would be a prime candidate for it. I walk as much as 5 miles EVERY day, sometimes more. I care for a large garden & orchard, take fitness classes or roller skate, etc. In my opinion, the medical system is guessing that wear-and-tear is the cause, because they have not looked at the impact of diet.

Here is another study indicating that selective, low-fat (oil-free) whole foods vegan diet may help osteoarthritis.
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/arthritis/2015/708152/

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