Experiences of reversing RA naturally

Seronegative RA for 6 years - what’s helped me recover from flares naturally

The Background
I was diagnosed with seronegative RA at 36. That was 6 years back. It runs in my family. My mom had it at my age. A female cousin on the maternal side has it too.
My mom went into complete remission (with Ayurvedic medicines and some basic lifestyle changes). It took 3 years - she had found a great doctor, and now at 68, she is still climbing trees.
So when I got RA in 2020, I was determined that I would figure out a way to heal naturally. I felt that if my mom could do it, it can be done.
Overwork leading to disturbed sleep and mild acidity for about 6 months after I changed my job led to it.
Out of the last 6 years, I have been symptom-free for 4.5 years. The other 1.5 years have been spent settling 3 flares, and I am still learning about my body and the disease.
Each flare was brought on by 6–7 month long periods of overwork

Here is what I have learnt so far. Some of this might help you.
Reversing RA is like solving a mathematical equation for me. The complexity comes from the fact that there are too many variables that need to be calibrated right for the reversal to start.
Chapter 1 - One silky smooth swift motion everyday
The goal is to get 1 smooth, swift, soft motion in the morning every day, max 2 in a day.
Why is this difficult when RA flares?
Because RA is a disease of the connecting tissues. And while we associate RA with joints (because connecting tissues are present in every joint connecting bone to muscle), the organs in our body (like the intestine) are also held in place by connecting tissues.
So when RA flares and the connecting tissues get inflamed, the intestine loses its motility (its ability to push food forward). So the body loses its ability to eliminate toxins.
This starts a vicious cycle of more toxin retention → more inflammation → more toxin retention.
And hence RA is a progressive disease because the intestines get involved.
So the first thing that happens for me when RA flares is that the motion starts feeling incomplete.
Because the intestine is inflamed, it cannot digest insoluble fibres or complex proteins, and this shift happens overnight. So it is hard to fathom that what one could digest yesterday, one cannot digest today.
So recalibrating the diet immediately is critical until the motion is fixed.
This is what works for me:
• Huge amounts of well-cooked gourds and cucumbers — I need to eat about 1.5 kgs of boiled cucumber throughout the day, distributed across each meal
• Isabgol or psyllium husk (pure, with no flavors or additives) with every meal
• Starch — well-cooked rice, almost porridge-like consistency. I also eat rice roti for breakfast (roti = Indian flatbread. It is not easy to roll because there is no gluten in rice flour, but in India help is affordable)
• Protein — only moong daal (yellow mung beans = green gram which is split and without the green skin), well cooked and fully melted
Pressure-cooked gourds, cucumbers, rice — these are the only safe things that work during a flare.
The deficiencies this restricted diet creates need to be addressed with easy-to-digest supplements until remission.

Chapter 2 - The period to period window of recovery
This is the 2nd most important variable for women during a flare.
The monthly menstrual cycle sets back the recovery made during a month by 60 - 70 percent.
I often think that if only I was a man, I would have settled this whole situation in about 40 - 50 days.
But because the periods break recovery and set it back, recovery takes about 3 - 4 period cycles.
So in 6 years, I have had 3 flares, and while I have gotten better at recovering from a flare, I have spent about 12 period cycles recovering - where I almost recover fully in about 20 days and then lose most of the recovery after the periods hit.
At the age of 43, the only one system in the body that does not need to work at all is working most enthusiastically and most accurately.
Every 28.5 days it arrives all guns blazing and wrecks havoc on my body.
So no mistake should be made in the 20-day period for recovery to move forward between one period cycle and the next.
What are these mistakes?
These are small things.
The assumption is that one is not making big deliberate mistakes like drinking alcohol, smoking, or partying late at night

Chapter 3 - Small mistakes have big impact
The small mistakes during a flare that have big impact: This is how small mistakes play out for me
• Boss gave work at 6:30 pm at night and you ended up working till 12 am because your self-image is that you are dependable. Then when you got up to go to bed, you peed your pants because you could not get out of the chair in time when your brain had already reached the WC. Then your brain is in overdrive, and you are overburdened by guilt, shame, and anger, and you are still making that god damn PPT in your head every time you close your eyes.
• You got tempted to watch something or kept scrolling for 2 hours and forgot to hydrate
• You have been eating gourds for 40 days and you thought, let’s add some bok choy to the porridge for flavor — you got gas at night and pain increased by 2–3 percent the next day
So:
Disturbed sleep → pain will go up
Change in roughage in diet → pain will go up
Changed brand of coconut water → pain will go up
Tried a new prebiotic or probiotic → pain will go up
Fought with husband, then made up, felt grateful for life, put emotional songs, imagined yourself to be the hero, cried, felt cathartic — pain will bloody go up.
Felt great one evening, felt like full recovery is just around the corner, put music and danced your heart out — guess what? Pain will go up.
Anything that causes:
• adrenaline rush
• slight elevation in acidity
• gas
• disturbed circadian cycle
…pain will go up.

Chapter 4 - Be a Greenland shark
Greenland sharks weigh around 1000 kgs, live for up to 400 years, and survive on just 60–100 grams of food a day. Which means some of the sharks alive today were probably around during the French Revolution. All sizable animals that live really long have a very slow metabolism - they burn slowly, and hence they burn longer.

During a flare, one has to embody the characteristics of a Greenland shark.

Think less. Do less. Stay awake but meditative. Experiment less.
Work without agitation.
Park husband or partner problems for later.
Stop reading the news as much as possible.
The brain has to be in a meditative state.
Metabolism needs to be slowed down.
Breathing needs to be deep and slow — and deep breathing hurts during a flare because your rib cage does not expand.
It is not the household chores that are the problem.
It is the always-on, always-emergency nature of work.
That feeling that if you do not make this PPT with this shit covered in gold foil proposal right this minute, our 2.5 lakh people company will instantly shut down.
That constant sense of emergency is the killer.

Chapter 5 - Supplements
The deficiencies this restricted diet creates need to be addressed with easy-to-digest supplements.
Everything has to be easy to digest.
Minerals
• Iron bisglycinate
• Magnesium glycinate
• Calcium citrate
These are the easiest to digest forms.
As opposed to: (iron sulfate, magnesium oxide, calcium carbonate)

Probiotics
This seems like the most harmless most obvious supplement but is the trickiest. Most probiotics tighten the stools and hence are counter productive because the cardinal rule for recovery is in the consistency of motions that can lead to swift and complete elimination.

I found one that has regular probiotcs and inulin as a pre biotic which doesn't make the motions tighter. It also has melatonin which may help with sleep. Its a Indian local brand called Pre pro IBS. After some trial and error with pro biotics I have found this one with Inulin most effective for rheumatism. Traditional great probiotic can be counter productive for RA. Its taken me many months to figure this out

Oils
• Olive oil for cooking
• Extra virgin olive oil — about 10 ml with every meal
• Omega 3 — I take algal

CoQ10
For energy support.

Vitamins
• B vitamins
• Double dose on B12
Because the body's ability to absorb B12 drops in flares.

Coconut Water

After trying several brands I have found one that has a mild laxative and diuretic effect. That small nudge has also proven critical to my recovery each time

Chapter 6 - The privilege of time to recover

I am acutely aware that I could experiment with all of this because I had the privilege of time.
While my work is a big contributor to my flares, the fact that I can work from home is a huge advantage. If I am able to type on a laptop or a phone, I can continue working. These days, I get a lot of work done without even opening the laptop - which means I can stay mobile while typing, researching, or reading on my phone.
That flexibility matters more than I realized.
When I was diagnosed with RA, Kim Kardashian had also spoken about having psoriatic arthritis. I remember having this strange thought - that in this one specific aspect, I was more privileged than her. Because my job did not require me to wear heels, show up somewhere physically, or look a certain way while dealing with pain.
Healing naturally needs time.
And time is a privilege.
For most people, that is simply not available.
Which is why conventional medicines are non-negotiable for many - and rightly so. But even within that, there might be some takeaways from my experience that can help reduce dependency, or at least make the journey slightly easier.

Conclusion
Settling RA naturally for long periods of time like 18–20 months, and even a lifetime (if one can remove all triggers), is possible.
But it is complex. Because it is systemic: gut, hormones, genetic predisposition - everything is involved.
Settling a flare needs extreme self-control and discipline.
Without thinking about the discipline or getting shocked by the pain.

“The trick, William Potter… is not minding that it hurts.”