05 Jul Reverse Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lessons From Forty Years of Helping Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis and Other Rheumatoid Disorders
Part I
Paul A. Goldberg, BA,BS,MPH,DC,DACBN,DCBCN
The Goldberg Tener Clinic
Chronic Disease Reversal
Click here to read Part II of this article.
Click here to read Part III of this article.
It has been over forty years since I became immersed in the study, teaching and clinical practice of helping patients afflicted with Rheumatoid Disorders.
I have taught Clinical Rheumatology to students and practitioners interested in not simply “treating” these disorders but wanting to know how to take an approach where causes are identified and addressed and the Rheumatoid Disease Patient undergoes a re-creative process to rebuild their bodies.
In this three part series I will share how I came to develop the clinical approach we employ and why it is so successful in restoring patients with Rheumatoid Disorders back to health.
Personal Experience
My initial interest in Rheumatic Diseases stems from personal experience (see picture to the right when I was hospitalized). In my early twenties I started becoming ill with fatigue, systemic complaints and extreme joint and muscle stiffness. As a formerly active person and athlete enrolled in a joint degree program in law and preventive medicine at Ohio State University, I was emotionally and physically crushed by my infirmity.
From 1975 to 1976 I was given an assortment of “diagnoses”, including Rheumatoid Arthritis “Ankylosing Spondylitis, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. The joint and muscle pains were accompanied by fatigue and later by gastrointestinal problems including Ulcerative Colitis. I consulted numerous allopathic practitioners only to find that none could offer more than symptomatic treatments and so my condition continued to deteriorate. It would be a number of years before I would understand how to reverse my condition and fully restore my health.
I researched the problem from different perspectives. After extensive formal education, clinical and academic research, and much trial and error, I began to experience what I had been told was impossible… my health began to return and my symptoms dissipated. This was not without ups and downs, frustrations, and disappointments. There was no quick fix. Once I started to improve, a return to old habits brought about a return of the disease.
At the University of Texas Medical Center Graduate School of Public Health, I wrote my Masters Thesis on Biological Approaches to the Rheumatic Diseases. After working for the State of Illinois and the Federal Government as a Public Health Professional I became both a Practitioner and a Professor of Clinical Nutrition, Rheumatology and Gastroenterology enabling me to employ what my training and experiences had revealed.
Since that time, I have had the opportunity to work with thousands of patients with Rheumatic Diseases with excellent results. My own experience has proven valuable in helping me work with others with similar afflictions. Only a person who has experienced serious Rheumatic Disease can truly understand the suffering patients experience. Every patient is different, however, and requires not only consideration of their physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects but also an understanding of the many causal factors that can play a role in each person.
Over the years I became increasingly aware that patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Rheumatic Diseases suffer from daily pain ranging from being uncomfortable to excruciating making life a continual sea of agony.
Most patients arriving at our office have tried innumerable types of conventional Rheumatoid Arthritis Specialists… alternative, holistic and so called functional medical professionals (see article “The Facade of Functional and Alternative Medicine”) along with laypersons who claim to have universal programs to “treat” patients with. Many of our patients have been to so-called Holistic Practitioners, Functional Medicine Doctors, Naturopathic Doctors and other types of practitioners employing a myriad of treatments all with disappointing results.
The widespread use of drugs, supplements and cookie cutter programs rarely provides anything more than very short-term symptomatic relief and often at great cost to the patient’s health. After a period of being under medical or alternative medical care, patients frequently fall into despair, losing hope of ever functioning normally and enjoying life again.
The interview below is a recent case with one of our patients who successfully recovered her health after years of medical treatments including NSAID’s, Prednisone, Hydroxychloroquine, Methotrexate, Arava, Humira, Cimzia and Rituxan (see article “The Dangers of Biological Drugs”) which failed to bring about improvement in her condition and resulted in a further decline in her health. She later saw an “Integrative” Medicine Physician who gave her numerous supplements to take in addition to her drugs which proved to be another disappointment. See the full case write up here: “Nora Reverses Rheumatoid Arthritis”.
Rheumatoid Disorders affect the entire body including the organs, glands and nervous system. They are systemic conditions that can be a tortuous hell bent road. Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferers are among the most neglected and abused segment of both the medical and alternative medical population. Rheumatoid Disease patients find physicians poorly prepared by their schooling to offer anything more than symptomatic relief of symptoms while the underlying disease process continues unimpeded. Many physicians can relate to the words of Sir William Osler, who commented in his Principles and Practice of Medicine that;
“When an arthritis (Rheumatoid) patient walked in the front door, I wanted to walk out the back one.” [1]
Today most Physicians prefer not to see patients with Rheumatoid Disorders and shuffle them off to Medical Rheumatologists for highly toxic symptom suppressing drugs.
See Article: Problems with Prednisone
See Article: The Dangers of Biological Drugs
A Short Look Backwards at “Modern” Rheumatology
In the last half century, despite a concerted effort by the pharmaceutical companies to develop and market an ongoing parade of new and increasingly toxic drugs, little has changed in terms of the medical approach to these issues.
“Modern” Rheumatology can be traced back only about seventy years to the late 1940’s/early 1950s and the employment of steroids (cortisone, prednisone and methylprednisolone) all of which arrived with much fanfare including a lead article in Life Magazine in 1948.[2] The initial excitement was soon met with abject disappointment as the many disabling side effects of steroids, still commonly employed by Rheumatologists today, came to light (see article Problems with Prednisone). Over the years increasingly toxic drugs have been developed and employed all aimed at the suppression of symptoms, generally through immune system suppression and all carrying enormous risks and side effects. None of the drugs, including those touted in magazines and television today address causes nor build health.
In 1978, I completed my Masters Thesis (University of Texas Medical Center, Graduate School of Public Health) on Rheumatoid Disorders, addressing the approaches employed by health care professions. I observed the following:
- None of the healing arts had developed any effective means of bringing about long-term improvements in the health of patients with Rheumatoid Disorders.
- Each patient with Rheumatoid Disease whether labeled with Rheumatoid Arthritis or other variety has different etiological (causal) factors at play and must be approached as an individual rather than as a uniform disease entity.
- Rheumatoid Diseases stem from multiple factors and therefore thorough investigation must be utilized with each patient, not merely to designate a name for symptoms but to uncover the causes behind their symptoms. This is then followed by creating the right conditions to reverse their disease and to literally Re-Create their health.™ [3]
The Need for A Deeper Understanding
The basic sciences, hygiene, gastroenterology, toxicology, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, endocrinology, public health, psychology and clinical nutrition all are worthy of study. None of these sciences or disciplines alone, however, are sufficient in understanding Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Rheumatoid Diseases and certainly not in understanding the individual patient.
When I completed my work at the University of Texas Medical Center, the health professions were floundering about looking for answers as they are today. There are many theories, but documented medical successes were absent then as they are now.
One Medical Rheumatologist who took classes with me, upon hearing that most of our patients actually recover their health adamantly proclaimed to me that it “was impossible” for that is what he had been taught and what he had experienced using a medical treatment approach.
Indeed it is impossible for patients with Rheumatoid Disorders under medical care to recover their health for they are heading in the wrong direction. Try to get north by going south and you will never get there. The same can be said with the plethora of “alternative, complimentary and functional medicine practitioners” who also employ treatments as opposed to understanding and addressing causal factors.
The situation in 2020 shows nothing has changed. Symptomatic, temporary, partial relief is still the best practitioners can offer. Increasingly dangerous Medical Treatments are administered that greatly compromise the patient’s health leaving them subject to horrendous, even fatal consequences. Ever more potent pharmaceuticals are employed by Medical Rheumatologists, including the newer “Biological Drugs” that came on the scene in the 1990’s posing great risks to a patient’s well being.
As more people in the U.S. and around the world develop Rheumatoid and other autoimmune disorders an increasing number of practitioners touting “natural products” to “cure” arthritis ranging from herbs to various “nutritional supplements” has emerged. While these rarely pose the same dangers of pharmaceutical agents they also fail to address the causes of Rheumatoid Disorders and the individual nature of each patient. Here too the patient is destined for disappointment.
R.A. and Other Rheumatoid Disorders Not A Single Entity
Rheumatoid Diseases are not a single entity. Each patient must be carefully evaluated as to the specific factors involved in their own case.
A review of the current literature on Rheumatoid Disorders explores a variety of factors including genetic predisposition, infection, endocrine factors, psychological stressors, allergy, injury, autoimmune processes and bio-mechanical/neurological dysfunction. In offices around the country, however, patients continue to be treated symptomatically allowing for their disease to become further ingrained with each passing day.
It is not enough to state that the patient’s problems stem from allergic, autoimmune, infectious, nutritional, or other factors unless we are prepared and competent to proceed in addressing those issues on an individual basis and actually rebuild the person’s total health picture. The following interview with one of our recent patients illustrates that recovery is possible if causes are identified and addressed and the right steps are taken to Re-Create the Body™. See before / after inflammatory markers (CRP and Sedimentation Rate) here.
A Look At The Past
Older writings, which I studied in depth while completing my Thesis at the University of Texas, reveal that many ancient physicians took a more optimistic outlook of the Rheumatoid ailments and addressed them with greater success. Paracelsus is quoted as saying:
“Who has filled you with such madness and despair as to believe that there is no remedy for arthritis?” [4]
There is indeed not only hope but a bright outlook for patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Rheumatoid Disorders if we are willing to look in a new direction (see over fifty patient interviews from our clinic). The path we must follow leaves symptomatic and fad “treatments” behind and takes an individual clinical approach that uncovers causes, addresses those causes and creates the right conditions to foster health.
Part II of this series explores some of the causes of Rheumatoid Disorders and reveals how employing the Bio-Hygienic Re-Creation Approach™ to addressing and resolving them allows patients with Rheumatoid Disorders to renew their health and their lives. Moving from Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment to Rheumatoid Arthritis Reversal.
[1] Osler, Sir William, The Principles and Practice of Medicine, (1892; 16th edition, 1947).
[2] Life Magazine June 6, 1949 Arthritis…Mayo Clinic Finds a Treatment For Man’s Most Crippling Disease
[3] Goldberg, P.A. Rheumatic Disease – A Biolistic Approach The University of Texas Health Science Center At Houston, 1979.
[4] Aschner, B., M.D. Arthritis Can Be Cured, Arco Publishing Co., 1975, p. 213
Related Articles
- Reverse Rheumatoid Arthritis Part II
- Reverse Rheumatoid Arthritis Part III
- Interview with Clint Paddison Part I and II: Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Ankylosing Spondylitis and Other Autoimmune Disorders
- Reversing Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Reverse Rheumatoid Disease and Other Autoimmune Issues
- Problems with Prednisone
- The Dangers of Biological Drugs (part I)
- The Dangers of Biological Drugs (part II)
No Comments