How I Beat My Arthritis

This is my story about how I beat my arthritis. Mine was the type that seems to hit hard working, active people in their 20's but my simple methods have helped many others over the years. My success is based upon 40 years of research, experimentation, and always lady luck.

Hi, my name is Jim Fisk and this is my story.
I am 64 years old and I am finally, after a 30+ year struggle, rid of the painful swollen joints that I suffered from for so many years. Starting in my late 20's and even earlier, as I think back, I started noticing joint pain and swelling in nearly every joint in my body from my hands and back to my knees and hips. I was more than a little concerned as I had watched my mother (seen in her studio at right) waste away from this horrible disease and "nothing could be done about it." So said the doctors, after they had put her through all the usual and very expensive "conventional" treatments which seemed to help only for a very short time. Eventually she was restricted to a wheel chair and in the end had to be spoon fed by my father. A horrible way to go for someone who was always athletic and a world class painter, photographer and US Presidential Series of 1938 stamp design national contest winner. (Check out her great contest story here Elaine Rawlinson) I was in such pain and my back and knees were always "going out", that I practically lived in the Chiropractor's office. My joints were so shot that my back would often as not "pop out" as I painfully climbed back in my car to leave his office. Sound familiar? I am a redhead and have been told that we are even more prone to arthritis. Great!

So here I was living on Cape Cod in the 70's, growing lots of my own food, living the healthy farm lifestyle and getting worse. My knees would go out so badly on occasion that I could neither put weight on them or even pick them up without excruciating pain. I can remember getting stuck in the woods once in this condition like it was yesterday. Since I knew, thanks to what my Mom had gone through, that traditional medicine could do nothing more than pump the pain killers to me, (at that time the doctors were still insisting that nothing could rebuild joint cartilage) I started reading everything I could get my hands on with respect to arthritis. I tried every old time cure from raw goats milk (I learned the hard way that Nubian milk is way too high in fat content as opposed to Alpine goats which might have helped) to green beans and nothing seemed to help and very often made it worse (oh that rich Nubian milk sure did). Then one day I finally started getting lucky and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Meanwhile my arthritis got so bad that it was effecting my work as woodcarver and sign maker. I could no longer hold the chisels, routers or the Wagner sprayer due to the awful pain I experienced in my hands. I eventually had to sell the business and look for a new line of work.

Right about that time I was fortunate enough to read an article in Prevention Magazine (around 1977) written by a young athlete. I will never forget that article, although I cannot remember his name (and Prevention claim they cannot help me find the original article, a crying shame on their part) as it was the start of what turned out to be a 20 year quest for the (or at least my) truth. In his article the young man described how he, a triathlete and weight lifter, had destroyed the cartilage in all his major joints. The MDs finally told him that there was no other answer for him other than the systematic replacement of all his joints and that he could never run or lift weights again. So he proceeded out to California and there at a large clinic scheduled for his unavoidable and extremely costly, not to mention painful, series of joint replacement surgeries. This method was in it's infancy back then.

Accepting his fate, he boarded his plane back home to await his surgery. Well that was his lucky day. It so happened that a professor from I believe it was Yale, sat right beside him on the plane and as they began to chat, the young man told him about his plight, and the astonished professor announced that he had been studying arthritis for the previous 10 years and that he thought he could help. He proceeded to tell him that above all else he had noticed one very important link between arthritis and lifestyle. He had nicknamed arthritis "The Cooked Food Disease." He then proceeded to give the young man a regimen of what to eat and how to prepare his food with as little cooking as possible.

To make a long story short, the young fellow proceeded to get better, so much better in fact that eventually all his joints recovered and he was able to go back to doing what he lived for, triathlons and Olympic weight lifting. Well it didn't take me long to follow suit, relearn how to prepare my food and for many years I improved as well. At this point I would like to tell you that that was all there was to it and that my joints lived happily ever after, but that was not to be.

My thirties weren't too bad, but as I grew into my forties, although I was certainly doing better and learning about vitamins and minerals, my symptoms started coming back. I moved to Tennessee and started a folk art business around carving of detailed figurines. Much less stress on hands and sole than the sign business with all the schedules and other pressures. That seemed to help. Eventually after 4 years, with wife and new daughter in tow, I moved back to what was still my favorite place, Cape Cod. I started another business, went to school and got my Master Electrician's license, worked long hours, often all night for years, and the arthritis started coming back with a vengeance.

Now I was in so much pain that I literally could not sleep at night. If I so much as moved in my sleep I would jerk awake from the pain in my shoulders and back. Something had to be done. I quickly realized that it was time for phase II. I had beaten it back before and I was determined to beat it back again, to somehow get a handle on this rotten disease. I got lucky again. Call it karma or what ever, but I feel that if you are searching for answers hard enough and keep an open mind, you are bound to get lucky eventually and so I did. About that time a doctor by the name of Dr. Joel Wallach (you may remember him as the veterinarian on Wild Wild Kingdom) came to Cape Cod to lecture on alternative medicine and natural cures. I had been taking his liquid colloidal minerals for some time but although they helped in other ways, they weren't helping my arthritic pain. Well, as luck would have it, I ended up in the elevator (let's face it there aren't many elevators on Cape Cod) with Dr. Joel as we arrived at the motel for his lecture. I had just enough time to tell him about my plight and he told me to simply take an envelope of plain Knox gelatin in some juice every day. Simple for him, a godsend for me. I started that night taking it and the relief was unbelievable. Within 1 or 2 days I was sleeping well and out of pain. But wait, there is even more good news here for as luck would also have it, right about that same time my sister Robin came to spend a few weeks with us and while she was with us she introduced us to a few other things I was not familiar with. Among these were a substance I later learned NO ONE should be without and that is digestive enzymes.

Digestive enzymes are a vital substance that are present in just about all living things. Enzymes are energized protein molecules. They are the human body’s life force and are involved in every function of the body. Vitamins, minerals and hormones must have enzymes to work properly. Life cannot exist without enzymes. Individuals who are enzyme deficient are subject to physical problems, disease and degeneration. Studies indicate that decreased enzyme levels are found in a number of chronic ailments, such as arthritis, diabetes, allergies, skin diseases, cancer, immune deficiencies and much more.

Now for a very strange but telling coincidence. Are you ready for this. The common method for testing the viability of enzymes (to see if they are active or not) is to sprinkle them on Knox Gelatin. If the enzymes are good the gelatin WON'T GEL. This is where it all seemed to come together for me. What do we KILL when we COOK our food. You may have guessed it, ENZYMES. I don't recall the good professor (mentioned at the beginning of this article, you remember, the one on the plane describing the cooked food DISEASE?) ever mentioning the enzymes. He just knew, from his studies, that it had something to do with cooking the food. As an aside here I must mention that my Grandmother Madelaine Rawlinson lived till 2 weeks before her 100th birthday and never really had any form of serious arthritis. The reason I mention this is that she had a lifelong habit of taking Knox Gelatin for her nails (very common) and she had a glass of red wine every night as well, which is full of natural enzymes as we all know today.

So why am I so excited about these 2 items that are cheap to get and life changing? It's because they have given me my life back. At 61 years old I could jump off of an out of control snowmobile doing a witnessed 65 -70 mph (this was not planned I assure you) bounce 30 feet at a time before finally coming to a stop some 100 feet from my sled, jump back on like some crazy kid and keep right on going. (I have 2 witnesses who will attest to this foolish incident:-) I felt it was high time to let the world know about this simple truth. Gelatin (from joints, you know that jelly stuff that sets up in the pan when you cook a turkey or any other meat) purchased from the grocery store and digestive enzymes from the health food store can literally change your whole life. Pain is crippling and tends to take all the pleasure out of living. Get rid of it and you get your life back. Well at 64 I am still feeling great, working, farming and playing and I have added one more item worth mentioning to my daily regime and that is MSM which I have learned is also very good for many functions in the body, especially the joints and ligaments. MSM runs about 10.00 for 16oz. (sold in farm supply stores for horses as well I've noticed and for about the same price) I use it in granular form and just put a 1/8 to ¼ teaspoon on my tongue and down it with my morning juice. (A little bitter but hey!) I hardly ever have to take the gelatin any more but I do take the MSM and enzymes every day.

I recommend starting out with at least an envelope of gelatin every day (I've heard of Dr Joel recommending up to 3 envelopes a day for extreme cases as it is only good food after all), enzymes with every meal and once without a meal, and msm in the morning.

Please ask any questions and let me know how you make out. Can it really be this simple for you? I certainly hope so. It was for me I promise. (Well perhaps not all that simple) It is very inexpensive to try it out. No artificial joints for this guy. I have been telling this story for years to friends and customers and have had LOTS of good feedback and thanks. Nothing feels better than helping folks and teaching them the simple things that BIG PHARMA doesn't want to let you know about as there is no money in it for them. Don't even get me started! That's a whole nuther HubPage:-)