Mary Duddy is 40 year old woman whose psoriatic arthritis reversed completely with the diet suggestions listed in newsletter #45. In October of 1996, she was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, which has similar symptoms as rheumatoid arthritis. By the time she went to her local doctor, it had spread from her feet to her knees and then to her wrists. She was referred to a rheumatologist, whose course of treatment started with taking prednisone, methotrexate, and Tolectin. In May 1997, she started developing mouth sores from the methotrexate.

Her husband was concerned about her taking methotrexate. He had learned from a friend how dangerous it was. The only information they had been given about it from the rheumatologist was that it could cause mouth sores and her liver function would have to be monitored. Her husband started looking for information about arthritis on the Internet. In June of 1997, he found some information that linked him to my web site. He gave it to her on June 28, 1997.

She was so overwhelmed with the suggested life style changes in the handout that she cried. She was used to being on a diet as she had a moderate weight problem all her life. It was still very overwhelming. She and her husband discussed that handout for 10 hours that weekend. Then she started implementing the lifestyle changes. She quit taking Tolectin and reduced her methotrexate dose on June 28th. She had an appointment with her rheumatologist the second week in July. She gave her a copy of my treatment and asked her to read it and called her a week later to get her opinion. The rheumatologist told her that changing the diet would have no effect on her condition. Mary didn't need the rheumatologist expertise to change her diet, and she had already implemented the changes in her lifestyle. It wasn't hurting her so she ignored the rheumatologist and went on with my suggestions.

The first couple of weeks of July she was really miserable, since she was no longer taking tolectin. In September 1997, Mary got a puppy and she suddenly realized that it was the puppy who was waking her up, not the morning stiffness. About a month later, Mary was out walking the dog and she wanted to run, so Mary ran with her. Mary found it exhilarating, considering just a few months before she was in pain with every step she took, much less be able to run. Mary stuck to my suggested lifestyle changes and most of the time feels as good or better than she did before she got the arthritis. She no longer takes any medication for her arthritis. In fact, she takes less over the counter pain medication (such as aspirin for a headache) than anyone she knows. She is an active person who works full time, goes to school part time and has two children in elementary school.

COMMENT: The interesting element of Mary's story is that she never even saw me to get these results. She just read the diet suggestions for arthritis on www. rheumatic.org. Mary did fly in to see me about two months ago from Missouri and I fine tuned her treatment a bit. But I am always amazed at how powerful these dietary treatments are.