Rheumatoid arthritis is a disabling and crippling inflammatory disease of the joints. It chiefly affects the synovial membrane (a thick tissue covering the joints) of the small joints of the body. Symptoms include joint stiffness—especially in the morning—tenderness, warmth, and pain, most often in the joints of the fingers, wrists, toes, ankles, and knees. Other symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, and depression. As the disease progresses, the joints thin out and become deformed. Cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons in and around the joints are weakened or destroyed, which can lead to muscle atrophy and imbalances of opposing groups of muscles.
While rheumatoid arthritis can occur anytime in life, 70 percent of the cases are diagnosed between the ages of thirty and seventy, with the peak incidence in the fourth decade. It is estimated that approximately 10 percent of all people age sixty-five or older suffer from this condition. Women with this disease outnumber men by a ratio of almost 3:1. Rheumatoid arthritis is a significant problem for people who work with their hands, such as computer programmers, physical therapists, people involved in assembly work, illustrators, and artists. Because these individuals are involved in precision work, this disease can significantly affect their ability to earn a living.
Many research studies have implicated diet as a major risk factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis. All of the foods that have been found to worsen the symptoms of this disease are either highly acidic or produce an acid response within the body. When volunteers with this disease were taken off these foods and either fasted for a period of time or were placed on more alkaline vegetarian diets, they experienced a notable improvement in their symptoms. Many of the patients I have treated over the years are on a very acidic diet and were unaware of the effect that their food choices were having on their disease. Most of these individuals improved significantly after modifying their eating habits and alkalinizing their bodies.