About 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). My doctor told me I could take medication to reduce the impact of RA, but once I started the medication, I would need to take it for the rest of my life. A friend convinced me to wait a month, to see if we […]
As a kid growing up in the ’70s, I typically had sugary cereal or bacon and eggs for breakfast. Lunch was usually something like ham and cheese or roast beef sandwiches, and dinner was more meat—steak, pork chops, chicken, etc. My mom was obese, and I was pudgy as a kid, so I was given […]
I hail from Kansas City, Missouri (a town known for its barbecue), and grew up on the standard American diet, with lots of meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, white bread, and sugary and high-fat processed foods. I struggled with being overweight from an early age. I joined my first weight-loss program at 12, setting off a […]
While the name might seem ominous and call to mind the contents of a sorcerer’s cauldron, nightshades are among the most common fruits and vegetables, and you likely already have some in your kitchen. So, what are nightshades, and are they good for you? What Are Nightshades? There are 2,500 species of flowering plants known […]
November 2010 was when my life began to change. I was 37 years old, and had just opened my own massage therapy studio, when I began experiencing mysterious aches and pains. I would wake up to find one of my arms felt completely numb. One day, in the middle of treating a client, my knees […]
I first learned about the whole-food, plant-based way of eating back in 2012. I’d been struggling with pain from arthritis and was looking for something to help with my symptoms, so I started looking into a vegan diet and the impact it can have on various health issues. And then I lost a family member […]
When I was just 13 years old, I developed pain in my elbow. The doctor diagnosed me with tennis elbow, though I hadn’t been engaging in the sort of repetitive motion that would cause the condition. That subsided, but aches and pains began flaring up in different joints. I was diagnosed with bursitis many times […]
I’ve always loved exercise, but after I began having meniscus tears in my knees that required surgery, I didn’t exercise much, if at all. My orthopedic surgeon told me that both knees were full of arthritis and that there was nothing I could do about it. Then, in December 2017, at a long-overdue physical exam, […]
Growing up, I ate a standard American diet. Fast food, French fries, steak, and pizza were the norm for me. When I was 17, I went on the Atkins diet in an attempt to get stronger, and I ended up developing gout, which is a form of arthritis. In the years following, I suffered many […]
In 2017 I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis concentrated in the spine. For months I had been experiencing a lot of night sweating, along with intense back pain that started in the neck and went all the way down the spine to my sacroiliac joints. My inflammation markers were unusually high. […]
What Is Arthritis? Arthritis refers to painful inflammation of joints. There are many types of arthritis: some acute and fleeting with no long-term consequences, some chronic and causing decades of crippling pain and immobility. Below is a discussion of three common types of arthritis and how diet may play a role in the disease process. […]
Positivity is contagious. That’s probably why Success Stories—first-hand accounts from people who have conquered diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, obesity, and other conditions by adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet—are some of the most-shared posts on our website. Read on for the 10 most-shared Success Stories we published in 2019, and prepare to be inspired. I […]
