Part I 

Is arthritis a deficiency disease? The answer to this question is becoming clearer every day. All the evidence so far accumulated points to an affirmative answer.

High Points

Let us list a few high points in this array of facts:

FACT NO. 1: Cats fed pasteurized milk and cooked meat invariably developed arthritis, if not in the first generation, always in the second.¹ They first became constipated, then developed ballooned colons and soon lost their teeth from pyorrhea. (Pyorrhea has been defined as arthritis of the articulations of the teeth.)

FACT NO. 2: “X-ray studies disclose that 80 per cent of arthritics, regardless of age or type of arthritis, have dilated atonic colons.”²

FACT NO. 3: In a 10 year appraisal of arthritic patients to determine the relationship of arthritis to disease of the liver and gall bladder, the conclusion was: “Our studies showed a definite dysfunction of the hepatic system….There was definite evidence of liver damage in over 50 per cent of patients with. rheumatoid arthritis in this series.”³

FACT NO. 4: Arthritis is so closely associated with scurvy that some cases may be cured with orange juice.⁴

FACT NO. 5: An excess of anterior pituitary growth hormone injected into vitamin A-deficient test animals invariably caused a prompt appearance of arthritic lesions in their joints.5 Army horses at Panamá, fed timothy hay, poor in vitamin A, always developed arthritis in a few months. The change to a hay carrying a higher vitamin A content eliminated the disease.

FACT NO. 6: Intravenous injections of bile cures tetany (muscle spasms) secondary to high blood guanidine (a poisonous base waste product of intermediate metabolism). Bile salts are known to absorb or neutralize guanidine.

How does this theory fit with the rest of the facts we have listed?

FACT NO. 1 & 2: A ballooned colon will certainly let poisons pass into the circulating blood that an intact colon will stop. Guanidine is one of the most potent of the bowel poisons.

FACT NO. 3: Robertson, in his Biochemistry, tells us that nucleoproteins can afford guanidine as an end product. Since nucleoproteins are normally eliminated by the liver through the bile, it is clear that any impairment of liver function could result in a higher threshold of guanidine in the body fluids.

Why Vitamin A?

Vitamin A normally acts to insulate nucleoprotein element; in the structures of the cell, and prevent their degradation into toxic waste products including guanidine.⁵ That is why vitamin A is vital to both liver and kidney activities, and its deficiency is undoubtedly contributory to a rise in the guanidine levels of the body fluid.

Acidosis and Uric Acid

Acidosis, of course, is a definite aggravating influence since many enzymes tend to reverse their constructive action and become proteolytic (break down tissue proteins) when blood or lymph drops toward the acid phase, and starts to tear clown tissue instead of building it up, releasing uric acid and guanidine.⁶

Citrus Juices

Citrus juices high in citric acid can cause acidosis where the patient is unable to burn up or oxidize the acid. Citric acid is as hard to get rid of in excess as sugar. Both must be consumed as fuel by oxidation. Sedentary habits are not conducive to their tolerance. If not burned, citric acid takes out of the body great amounts of calcium. Sorne X-ray experts have said that they can look at a patient’s bones and tell whether or not he uses grapefruit juice by their relative density.

Acidosis and Cooked Foods

The cooking of food destroys our most valuable weapon against acidosis, that buffer substance, glutamine, which is responsible for two-thirds the acid neutralization accomplished by the normal kidney.6 The richest natural source of glutamine is in raw meat juice and celery roots.

Basic Elements

The general picture now begins to crystallize. There are many ramifications, many variations, but the basic elements in the malnutrition pattern that precedes arthritis are appearing from the haze. The degenerated and damaged organs of the long suffering victims need careful watching as well as careful analysis of their condition to enable a constructive regime of nutrition to be established for encouragement of the natural forces to rebuild where starvation has operated to promote most drastic destruction.

What are the requirements for success?

 

References Cited:

1. Pottenger, F. M. Jr.: “Effect of Heat-Processed Food and Metabolized Vitamin D Milk on the Dentofacial Structures of Experimental Animals.” Am. J. Orth. & Surg. 32,467, 1946.
2. Pemberton, R.: “The Relation of the Gastrointestinal Tract to the Syndrome of Arthritis.” The Review of Gastroenterology, April, 1942.
3. Comment by Samuel Weiss on Pemberton’s article, above.
4. Rinehart, J. F.: “Studies Relating Vitamin C Deficiency to Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatoid Arthritis; Experimental, Clinical, and General Considerations; Rheumatic Fever.” Ann. Int. Med. 9:586-599, November, 1935.
5. Lee, R. and W. A. Hanson: Protomorphology, Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1947.
6. J.A.M.A., Editorial, page 775, November 22, 1947.

 

Part II

There are many ramifications, many variations, in the arthritic syndrome, but the basic elements in the malnutrition pattern that precedes arthritis are appearing from the haze. The degenerated and damaged organs of the long suffering patient need careful watching as well as careful analysis of their condition to enable a constructive regime of nutrition to be established for encouraging the natural forces to rebuild where starvation has operated to promote most drastic destruction.

Success Requirements

What are the requirements for success? First we must consider a loss of digestive and assimilative tissues as a common finding. Denuded stomach walls, deficiency of hydrochloric acid (gastric juice) preceded by its excess (either situation may be present), and pancreatic enzymes lacking so proteins are not digested or are so partially broken down as to act as antigens after absorption with various forms of allergy as a result.

Enzyme Activators

To correct this, the vitamin G complex is essential to insure both pancreatic and liver support. The trace minerals and potassium as found in the natural complex of alfalfa are usually valuable in bringing about the normal secretion of gastric juices. These minerals are enzyme activators. This probably explains their action (manganese and cobalt especially).⁷

New Nutritional Factors

New nutritional factors have been found in sugar cane and beet molasses that seem specifically involved in arthritis.⁷ These affect the calcium-phosphorus balances⁷ and promote the liver detoxification of protein poisons (action of betaine and its synergists).⁸ The associated potassium in organic combinations seems to be also definitely beneficial, perhaps because potassium is the element that maintains alkalinity within the cell, while sodium does this job outside the cell. One operates in the cytoplasm, the other in the blood and lymph. That is why sodium bicarbonate fails to do much to correct acidity that is basically within the cell (intracellular).⁹

Diet for Arthritis

The best diet is raw foods, as far as conveniently possible–eggnogs containing raw meat juice; carrot juice; raw certified milk; well-shredded vegetable salads with homemade French or other dressing made from the best ingredients.

Remember, commercial salad dressings are wonderful examples of Ruskin’s comment, “There is no product so bad but that somebody can make it worse and. sell it for less.” The cheap oils and stale egg powders in these products are often unfit for food, but still there is another depth for the maker to descend to. He may use petroleum oils and sell it as a “reducing” salad dressing, or say nothing, and let the buyer think it is wholesome. Mineral oil robs the body of fat soluble vitamins, and certainly aggravates arthritis.

Refined Foods

Refined sugar, white flour, all packaged cereals should be rigidly excluded. Honey, natural syrup of cane or sorghum, or blackstrap in cooking are used exclusively. The cereals sold in packages are all treated with preservatives to kill insect life, and are unfit for food, in fact, incompetent to serve as such. Most processed whole wheat bread is a cheat, for it has had its vitamin content and flavor well exterminated by the chemical preservative, otherwise called “bleach.”

The only source of good cereals is a local mill or a health food store. They can also be ground in an electric coffee grinder or with a hand mill available from most department or mail order stores. Cracked or whole wheat may be used as a breakfast food cooked like oatmeal. Oatmeal must be steel cut fresh and without insecticide preservatives. This kind is available only at health food stores. Rolled oats has been overcooked at the mill and its flavor alone proves its worthlessness.

Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits, being of a highly alkaline ash with a high content of organic acid (citric), need special attention. The first and immediate effect of ingestion of a few ounces of grapefruit or lemon juice is to lower (acidify) the blood pH (acid-alkaline scale). The patient with alkalosis feels temporarily better. Later in the day, after the citric acid has been destroyed by oxidation as a fuel (it is classified as a carbohydrate), the aggravation of the alkaline state becomes apparent. The temporary effect of the citric acid is to cause calcium to be picked up–no doubt from some bone reserves–and later after the pH change this calcium is deposited elsewhere–in all probability in undesirable spots.

Honey, Vinegar and Molasses

The value of vinegar is more or less well known as an alternative of merit, cider vinegar being the preferred form; no doubt the malic acid of the apple is a factor, and calcium malate being a catalyzer of detoxification of polyphenol (Robertson, Principles of Biochemistry, p. 466). A favorable formula for the arthritic’s use would be honey, vinegar and blackstrap molasses (mixed in equal proportions of ⅓ each). This blend makes a pleasant drink when added to water and is favorably received by most persons as a salad dressing. It is rich in potassium and other factors which help promote normal bodily functions and is a definite add in combating demineralization.

 

References Cited:

7. Van Wagtendonk and Wulzen, J. Biol. Chem., July, 1946.
8. Ann. Rev. Biochem., page 138, 1941.
9. Best and Taylor: Physiological Basis of Medical Practice. Page 961, Wm. Wood & Co., 1947.