Charles Lakerman was a 78-year-old retired businessman who had had rhinitis for the past thirty years and mild intermittent arthritis of the hands for almost a decade. In the fall of 1967, he had developed acute arthritis of the hands, followed by involvement of the right elbow, shoulders, knees, and right hip. Aspirin was the only medication he had received.
At the time of his hospitalization for environmental testing, his hands were red, swollen, and inflamed, with very little motion in the joints. He was barely able to eat and refused to shake hands.
Under the program of comprehensive environmental control, Lakerman’s arthritis became progressively better, without his suffering any withdrawal effects. All of his joints were comfortable at the end of five days of fasting, although some residual swelling of the hands persisted.
Individual food ingestion tests resulted in the following reactions:
Corn: 3 hours, nausea and abdominal distress followed by spontaneous diarrhea; 6 hours, recurrence of arthritic pains of hands and left shoulder
Wheat: 31/2 hours, watery eyes and running nose; 12 hours, painful right knee upon awakening
Beets and beet sugar: 13 hours, slight aching of ankle upon awakening: a
new joint involvement
All other commonly eaten foods were test-negative, nor did he react to the commercial forms of such foods.
Mr. Lakerman remained symptom-free at the time of his hospital discharge and experienced no evidence of reaction upon returning home to follow his new diet. After eight months of freedom from arthritis, he tolerated wheat when it was returned to his diet once in five days for several months. However, he experienced a gradual recurrence of mild arthritis of the knees and hands as he increased his intake of wheat to twice daily, corn to three times per week, and began the regular use of beet sugar. All symptoms subsided when he returned to his former diet restrictions, and he has remained free of arthritic pains ever since then.
Many cases of rheumatoid arthritis also have a coexisting muscle involvement referred to as allergic myalgia. This may start either before or following the onset of joint involvement. Allergic myalgia may be acute or chronic, localized or generalized. It tends to be characterized by painful, tender muscles and sometimes presents as cramps or muscle spasms. I first described this condition in 1951.4 Myalgia of ecologic origin also occurs frequently in the absence of arthritis, in association with headache and fatigue. The postural muscles of the nape, back, chest, and legs are most commonly involved.
Although the causative roles of foods in individually studied cases of rheumatoid arthritis and myalgia have been documented for thirty years, there has been practically no recognition of these findings as taught by rheumatologists in most medical centers. The record shows clearly that of 1,000 cases of rheumatoid arthritis studied during the past three decades, specific foods have been demonstrated in most of them and environmental chemicals in many of them.
*77\110\2*
You must be logged in to post a comment.