We discuss how:
– Jo’s son was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis when he was 13
– His knees were so heavily swollen he couldn’t straighten his legs
– After the diagnosis, Jo found that really heavy drug doses were the only official treatment
– She then researched the internet and got to know the diet approach to arthritis
– Jo and his son began trying many different plant-based diets but after months the symptoms got worse
– She then found the Paddison Program and all the information made perfect sense
– They began the Program and after 10 days the improvement was definitely noticeable.
– After 5 months his CRP levels dropped phenomenally, and now he is engaging in physical activities like other boys his age
Clint Thanks for joining us today. We’ve got a fascinating story to tell. Today we’re talking about juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and how Luke a 13-year-old boy was able to bypass the medical, and pharmaceutical route and be able to get rid of his inflammation naturally. Using a low fat, plant-based diet specifically the Paddison Program for Rheumatoid Arthritis. And his mum is going to tell this story, it’s a very very interesting story. I’ve worked with her closely through Paddison Program Support, and I have seen the transformation in her son, and now we’re going to share it. So thanks for joining us. And Jo what a story you’ve got to tell us.
Jo It’s great to be here. I can remember watching these foro at podcast, non stop last year and thinking next year this will be me, I am convinced it will be me. And here I am.
Clint And you were inspired by Christine who told her story about her son Cole. And I think this is the power of sharing these stories and having a family like we have that watch these podcasts and are on their own journey either just getting started or close to sharing their own success story. And I know that Christine’s story about her son inspired you, and it’s that knock on effect that makes it all so powerful. So let’s get the snapshot give us the 30 second summary on Luke. How bad was he? How is he now?
Jo At his worse 8 months ago, it was (inaudible) joints of his body, his knees, and his ankles were by far the worst effect is his knees especially. His knees were so swollen he could not even straighten his legs any longer they were in a fixed bent position. He couldn’t run, he couldn’t cycle, just even getting out a chair was really difficult for him. And so, that was him is worse. Now, and then last month he’s run a mile-high school and came 10th of 25 children. He told me last week he can now (inaudible), he runs up and down the stairs. Yes he’s got rehabilitation to do with his joints, but he just lives normally, he is just amazing full of energy. He’s just like, I’ve got my son back again.
Clint When I did the interview with Christina she told her story about Cole, and I encourage anyone to go and watch that. Christine really pioneered putting the Paddison Program, and adjusting it, and modifying it for children in a way that’s very kind of bespoke depending on the child’s age, and depending on the parental guidance as well. And so when she told her story like tears came to my eyes because it’s such a different scenario when it’s a child, and hearing Luke’s transformation just then gave me that same feeling of emotion. Because as now a parent, and we see the vulnerability of our children, and the responsibility as adults to give them an opportunity to have the best life possible. When we see them even slightly sick we go into great concern let alone something like an autoimmune disease. So what a great amazing turnaround. Now tell us when did it start? What do you think triggered it? And let’s get into that the long form of the story.
Jo Yeah I think I think it’s become very clear what was the trigger with this. I’d had digestive problems since my 20’s from being on antibiotics for 2 years. So this was quite chronic, and so this was going on even during my pregnancy. Unfortunately I had a pretty horrendous birth, 36 1/2 hours labor, and he was brought out by Von Teese and thought she had an infection in his head and he was put on antibiotics. Straight away in an incubator, and I was so unwell after the birth I was not able to breastfeed. So everything (inaudible).
Clint The perfect storm for creating a digestive imbalance for Little Luke. I see, well, and then did he have digestive issues and food intolerances throughout his sort of 0 to 10 years?
Jo Well I actually nothing we noticed particularly digestive wise, as a baby he was quite healthy. When he started to go to pre-school he picked up a lot of infections, he had a lot of pasty cough, ear infections, skin rashes. But since that he’s never had any of had one day of school since he was 4 so that’s you know that’s 10 years with no time off school not from one day. And the only issue he’s had and I’ve mentioned this in the past he was constantly sniffing, and clearing mucus you know from his throat. And I never could get to the bottom, doctors didn’t know what it was but I just knew there was something underlying to cause that. But yet apart form that he’s incredibly healthy, happy, full of life child. No obvious digestive issues.
Clint Okay, interesting. And was there anything unusual in the lead up to when he got symptoms at age 13?
Jo Yeah absolutely. He got a cough which again he wasn’t off school with but it went on for about 6 weeks. Normally as a small child if he got cold he’d be over it within two days, and this was so bad he’s almost to the point of vomiting where he was coughing. So yeah that was right, you know the lead up to it.
Clint And was he put on antibiotics at that time?
Jo Never had (inaudible) when he was first born.
Clint Yeah okay. And then where did it begin for him in the knees?
Yeah it started in October 2017, we were just sitting there watching telly one night and he just said Mommy look at my knee and it’s swollen. Not badly, it was slightly swollen. Now that’s strange, but he had come off his bike about 5 days previously and got his knee caught up in the spokes of his bike. He hadn’t even told us that until that, it hadn’t bothered him, there was no obvious injury but we just thought it had to be that. Left it for a couple of days, then took him to the doctors and say I just want to get this checked out and I said oh yeah it’s a ligament injury leave it, in a week’s time you’ll be fine. After a week still wasn’t, took him back they still said you know it’s a sport injury but we’ll get some blood tests. Came back the CRP was slightly elevated, just a 6 but they didn’t seem to worry about that they said it’s probably all the inflammation going on to do the healing. They said we will refer you to a pediatric doctor. So this all started happening in about December, then what happened was Luke’s friend at school his father is a surgeon whose friend at the hospital was a knee specialist so he fast tracked tests which actually ends up a little bit (inaudible) to him he examined him, gave him an MRI, and said yeah there’s a little bit tiny bits of damage you said you know but nothing untoward, I’ll send you (inaudible) it all sort itself out.
Jo So the beginning of January, he went to no other changes his knee got slightly worse. And went to the physio, and she told him to rest completely for two weeks, to do nothing and ice is me 4 times a day. So that’s what we did for to 2 solid weeks, went back, it was no obviously no better. Then she noticed, have you noticed the left knee has got a little bit warm and slightly swollen. I said no I have noticed, but when she pointed out I could see very slightly. She said, I’m actually suspecting this is not something you know an injury she said I think it’s something more systemic. So straight away I thought the worst, Oh my God he’s got cancer or something really awful. I didn’t even know what rheumatoid arthritis was (inaudible), came into my head and she never said anything. So she referred me back to the GP, went to the GP and he took one look at his symptoms and he said he’s got juvenile idiopathic arthritis. I’m like What is that? I don’t know what it is. And so he started explaining, and he says I’m going to have to refer you to a rheumatologist. So I went out of that and I just started researching straightaway, and I was horrified by what I read. I just had no idea what it was, what it entails. Yes some children can grow out of it but most the majority vast majority don’t. And they said the only way to treat it is by this chemotherapy type drug, and only I was just devastated.
Jo So anyway, I had been a vegan myself for three years. So started looking straight away at the diet I knew so much dietary had a huge part to play. He was already a very healthy eater but most certainly wasn’t vegan. And so I went on to John McDougal’s website and there was lots of information about rheumatoid arthritis, and you know low fat not low fat but plant based diet and lots of people talking about their experiences. So I thought, right that’s it, that’s the answer. So I’ve got him on every plant based anti-inflammatory. Food I could think of and he did this for a month, he agreed to it, my husband was incredibly supportive. We decided to go down that route, but it was still very high fats, a lot of plant oils, loads of nuts, and at that point I did but the low fat. After months, his symptoms were getting worse not better, and then it all came to a head in the, I think it was the beginning of February. His symptoms got so bad his legs has gone into this fixed bent position he was limping, and one morning I got up and I watched him go off to school down on path he was limping so badly trying to struggle with all his bags and it just utterly broke me. I was devastated, I’ve never known a pain like that, I just broke down completely. And that was the day I found the Paddison Program. It was just like the worst day, and the best day.
Jo And as soon as I read the information on the Paddison Program, it was just like this huge light bulb and this in the feeling, yeah this is it, this is absolutely the route I need to go. And I spent days and days just watching everything, reading everything I could hardly slept I just saturated myself in it. Once I’ve done that, I spoke to my husband, he thought yeah let’s do this. The only alternative is methotrexate or some other drug, so that’s when we decided to make the commitment. And we started it in February we went on the forum then, so I was doing it all by you know just from what I’d read and on the first 10 days that’s when I noticed an improvement. There was a definite lessening in the swelling, you know he just seemed better in himself. I just wanted one sign that this was right, then that was there, I never deviated or diverted or lost faith in it ever since that moment. And you know, it was I’m not going to paint a rosy picture, it is challenging, it’s a challenging program for an Adult. But the alternative is you know it can be you know, the future you know can be devastating. So we were, you know we started the program, then we finally got referred to a rheumatologist. Saw of rheumatologist, explained the Paddison Program to him. He wasn’t that interested but he did, he said okay that’s fine as long as he’s getting lots of calories and stuff. He says I definitely want to put more methotrexate, and I want to give him cortisone injections in his knees. So he said Right we’ll go away and think about it. We decided the cortisone injections could really help, it wasn’t so much he said from the damaged because it was very early days. It was more from the (inaudible) he was worried about his ligaments and muscles. So but we said no to methotrexate, we said we really want to give this program a fair chance, I said. So we had the injections, the results overnight were utterly transformative. His knees went down, you know he ran down the stairs and it lasted for four days. Then he came back, the swelling came back you know worse than ever. Do you want me to stop?
Clint No, please. you really great pace on the story too. It’s moving along really interestingly.
Jo Okay. So, then we came off the initial 10 days of the program, and then we started introducing things maybe a little bit too quickly because he really wanted to get back to some yummy food as he called it. So we did like toast black beans sort things or maybe a little bit too heavy. Then it was sorted go round all his joints, his jaw was affected, his neck, his elbow. But because I’d read so much I understood in the early stages of rheumatoid arthritis as a real force behind it, and his CRP was up near 50. The doctors said unfortunately he has this really badly, you know this is not a mild dose, he’s got extremely high CRP. It’s now affecting eight joints, so I knew that was an incredible force. But despite that, his energy levels was really good. His pain levels were low, no pain killers nothing, and he was handling it amazingly so I just felt so inspired not to go. I knew that was probably quite a strong chance we may have to go methotrexate because I know too often worked very well together especially when it’s that, you know it’s that fast. So we carried on with the program obviously we just kept, we backed off went back much to the 10 day stage for a while for another three weeks until Luke really couldn’t bear any longer. And then we slowly started adding things back in, all the meantime the CRP was still really high. The doctors by that point was really starting to put pressure on us to start methotrexate. And I’ve just kept stalling him, I just felt so instinctive about it was so like a really (inaudible). I just say no not yet, not yet I don’t want to. I want to give this a chance. By this time we joined the forum, I had a personal one to one with you, and we really fine tuning things got him on the some amazing probiotics (inaudible) 3. So his whole general health was really good.
Jo Then the Rheumatologist we saw, we finally got the point where we’d both decide okay maybe we do need the extra supportive methotrexate alongside the program so I thought, okay fair enough we’ve given it a five months. So I was disappointing but I thought no, this is actually another step towards him getting well so I kind of turned it into a positive. We went see the rheumatologists nurse, we picked up our methotrexate. And she said to me well he finishes school 4 weeks she said, he’s got a really busy term at school. It was his first day, all sorts of things are happening. She said, why don’t you put them methotrexate, don’t start it today, put it off for another few weeks. And then start it in school holiday, so then any side effects, well you know give 6 weeks to get used to it so that was a whole plan. Anyway, she told me to get his CRP done the week before he started to methotrexate wich I did. I picked up the result, he was due to start Methotrexate I think it was the 21st of July or something. I picked up his results on a Wednesday, and they told me I went to the Dr surgery to pick it up in person. So I said, can I just pick his CRP waiting for him to say 49 or whatever, She said it was 15, I almost fell over. I was absolutely gob smacked, I asked doublecheck, I asked to printout the reports I just couldn’t believe her. So that’s 48 hours before your was due to start methotrexate. So that nurse had given as a life line because if we start at methotrexate the day with we were due to, we would have thought the results down to methotrexate not his body fighting this disease itself. So it was actually incredible. I contacted the rheumatologist, he said well yes it is good but I still want him to go methotrexate. And I said no, I’m not, I’m absolutely not. I said give me a month, so he gave me a month unfortunately he retired so we never actually got to see him again.
Clint So disappointing you didn’t get to close this loop. It be great if you could send him this podcast.
Jo I know it would have been anyway, it didn’t happen so then we had an interim then while we were finding a new doctor. And probably about to 2 months I think it was, but in the meantime his CRP came down to zero. Well you know right down to normal, and by this time all his joints had started to get better, his legs straightened out, you know he was walking normally. It was just like this huge knock on effect then of everything turning itself around. So he had an incredible improvement in that 2 month period. Then we went to see a new rheumatologist who actually was only going to see Luke once, she was training a pediatric doctor to take over the patients because they don’t have many rheumatologists here in Cornwall. So we walked into this appointment, I was as high as a kite I thought my God we’ve cracked it they are going to be so impressed with this program. I walked in there was five people in this room, we were totally unprepared for that. And this female rheumatologist she examined him, and she sat there Clint, and she looked at Luke she said I am so sorry but she said you’re in a really bad way, she said those words to him. And she said it is really access (inaudible) of his joints and she said. I interrupted and said, no he is not in a bad way, I was furious with her, I said he’s not in a bad way. (inaudible) the incredible improvement he’s made CRP (inaudible). She says I don’t even look at the CRP levels. I just do not.
Clint She’s definitely an outlier then if she doesn’t look at CRP levels.
Jo She was just a she just said he’s in a really bad way she says, my absolute highest recommendation she is I want to bring him into hospital immediately and put him on a prednisone drip for three days then she says he needs to start Methotrexate straight away. I was absolutely.
Clint It’s almost like she’s brainwashed into some kind of wierd person that doesn’t even see reality. I mean that doesn’t even makes sense I mean not even from a point of view of someone who’s not a doctor too. I mean if my rheumatologist was listening this, because keep in mind how many sessions I had with my rheumatologist. I mean my rheumatologist I know how he thinks very very well because I spent a lot of time many many many many many half hour sessions with my rheumatologist, and just sucking the information away thinking about these situations. There’s no way that he would look at, because I know he went Luke went from c reactive protein of 49 milligrams per liter, down to 0.47. And you’re saying that he all of his limping went away, his pain went away, and she’s panicking to put him in hospital. I mean the person’s not quite, not quite there.
Jo No, I was absolutely horrified but she was throwing all these statistics at me and she really threw me. She said You don’t realize what’s going on the damage is happening, I was I sad.
Clint You know what it is Jo? She was putting on a performance so she felt a way to basically try and influence those other four people in the room. That’s what had to be happening because, there is no other explanation. There’s no other explanation, because she was doing something but she basically decided how to treat him before she saw him I think. And then felt like she was trapped and had to proceed with whatever she was prepared to say originally. Weird.
Jo Yeah it was weird. It just threw me and I was so upset, I came out of there. But you know what Clint, within half and hour coming out that all my resilience was but even stronger. I thought no, I said no way are you telling me that my child’s needs all treatment and he is in a bad way. It’s just not the truth.
Clint As quickly as possible, get a second opinion. That’s the most softest way I can say that.
Jo Unfortunately we didn’t get the option of a second opinion because there’s no rheumatologists unless you wanted to do a 6 hour car trip, and there was no guarantee we’d get a better one. So we just thought, we’re doing this our way you know I don’t want rub their backs (inaudible) finished you know. So we just came home we thought, no we know he’s improving and you know they did want a whole series of MRI’s, ultrasounds, x rays, and I thought well sure let’s go ahead and do that. And he’s had nothing but tests done on him in the last couple of months, he’s had everything MRI, everything ultrasound, and that’s why should be very beneficial knowing what damages (inaudible) that was okay.
Clint Yeah. If you can get tests done, lots and lots of data is good, you can’t have too much data. If you’ve got lots and lots of MRI, I mean I just had an MRI on my knee the other week because I wanted to find out how my knee was, and it had been nine years since I had had an MRI on my left knee. And so you know data is great, we want that. So great you know no problem with that. But drugs when it’s considered overkill that’s dangerous, MRI is not dangerous. X rays got only such a small tiny danger it’s insignificant. So you know yeah non harmful information is great. So how have all these MRI results come back? So you’ve really stirred up, we got really stirred up by this person who was on display to some colleagues and trying to show how it should be done to all JIA cases and made some ridiculous claims. But how has his joints all shown up with these MRI’s?
Jo Actually to (inaudible) overall really well. The reports are so vague, maybe it could be this or maybe there was a part from on the ultrasound I think it was on his right ankle where they said there was significant synovial sickening. But even then the guy that did the ultrasound he said, you know this is still part of his body getting better. But the doctor seem turn it into something in that report seems (inaudible). But overall, it shows a few little things but nothing significant at all.
Clint He has also been doing some some sessions with exercise physiologist Carl who I had on the show several months ago. He’s kind of the official exercise physiologist for our program, and he helps a lot of people with debilitating joint conditions to get mobile again particularly with the lower body the knees and stuff. Now I recommended him to you, Luke started doing sessions over Skype with him. Carl’s based in South Africa you’re obviously based in the UK. How were those sessions and tell us how they look?
Jo Oh they’ve been absolutely amazed, I can’t thank you enough for pushing in touch with him. I cannot recommend him enough to anybody he is amazing, he’s such a nice guy. I just couldn’t understand how it was going to work over Skype, but it’s been effortless. It’s just worked really really well. And what has been helpful about this only happened recently to have a report from the physiotherapist, because he wasn’t able to examine Luke completely himself, having a physio report that’s fine tuned it even more. But it’s just he’s just (inaudible) of this program very specific to Luke, to get his core strength, build up his muscles slowly but surely. And it was interesting with these psychedelics got an indoor and bike that he’s been using we’ve had that set up completely wrong which would have only be aggravating his knees. So he set all upright (inaudible) that really actually made a difference with his knees. We had weekly sessions for a little bit, then every other week, and now it’s once a month we go back and fine tune it. And that has been absolutely phenomenal, really recommend him, he’s love me guy.
Clint And what improvements has he seen by following the recommendations?
Jo Oh he’s just gradually getting fitter, and stronger, he’s able to use his joints more. I’d say he’s just living pretty much a normal life now in a normal you know teenage boy life. You know he can rock (inaudible) can claim you know that I can’t think of anything he can’t really do anymore. And so it’s just gradually getting his joints stronger and stronger, and his core health because he was in that fixed bent position for 5 solid months. That obviously took quite a toll on his whole body. So it’s all about getting his posture right, and you know it’s been a really powerful part of you know that with the Paddison Program has been amazing.
Clint How does he wake up in the morning these days? Does he struggle out of bed or is he getting out of bed quite comfortable?
Jo As any teenager he draw the net (inaudible) bed but no pain, no stiffness. He runs down the stairs you know he’s just, absolutely you know he never mentions any stiffness anymore or anything at all. He’s just amazing. If you see him you would think there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. He just looks like a normal healthy teenager.
Clint Isn’t it absolutely sensational?
Jo Amazing, yeah a miracle.
Clint Let’s share some tips for some other people who are either adult, rheumatoid arthritis folks or maybe parents with a child with JIA who are watching this and wondering about some more specifics. And before we do this, I just want to make clear that the program was never designed for anyone who is pregnant, who is breastfeeding or who is under the age of 18 or who is elderly and frail. So what we’re doing here is we’re taking a program that’s clearly for 18 year old’s and over, an adult program. And using common sense, and discretion, and taking personal responsibility as a parent applying that to our child knowing that the program is not designed for children. And why is it not designed to children? Why haven’t I created one specifically for kids? Is because there are too many variables. Do we create one for a child who’s four year old or and for one who is 10 and for one who is 13? And do we create that for a fussy eater for one that can exercise one that cannot? And just the growth of the children at different ages and their ability to exercise and so forth, all of these variables make it too complicated for a single program. And so that’s why I make it clear with disclaimers and so forth this is not created for under 18’s, and that parents need to take their own responsibility with this and make modifications. And what Cole and Christine did was fast track the reintroductions of the foods, and I’ll ask you about if you did that in a moment as well.
Clint And so that’s one way to kind of ensure that no kind of a nutrient set of deficiencies can creep in or I don’t know. Also a boredom for the food can creep in, because children they want to kind to have more tastier foods. We can put up with simpler foods as an adult because we know the big picture of what we’re trying to achieve. But as a child that sort of delayed gratification or that a goal at the end of the rainbow, it’s harder to picture, it’s harder to see, we just want to eat fun food we want to eat tasty food. So tell us how you made these modifications for Luke, and things that he enjoyed, and ways that he was able to incorporate these healing foods so that it worked.
Jo Yeah I think I have been very lucky with Luke, he took it on board really well and he wasn’t overly fussy about the food. He’s never been a fussy eater, so I had that in my favour. Also I think it helped that he did not have brother’s and sisters around him, he’s an only child eating lots of different foods. I think that may have been a little bit more, not impossible but more challenging so we were able to really focus on it. In the first 10 days he didn’t do the 2 days juicing because of his age, he’s also very slim build. I was really worried he was going to lose weight, which he’s never has done he’s never done and he put weight on since he’s been on the program, even in the early days. So the first 10 days we really did it 100% how is it except for 2 things. One, he just couldn’t tolerate the miso, so he wanted tomari soya sauce on his grains, that was the only difference we did. Also he said he really had to have something crispy, so I found these 100% buckwheat crackers online somewhere. So he had those so we had a few of those each day. So that got us through the first 10 days. At first he said he would never eat sweet potatoes, and then after about 3 days he (inaudible) them for like two months, he was obsessed with them he hasn’t eaten one since that 2- month period (inaudible) he would have them like 3 times a day he just love them in every variation. So it was it was actually relatively easy. Then after the 10 day period we started, I can’t remember the exact I think we added tomatoes. The first few days and then I think it was black beans because I was really I felt he needed maybe more protein or something but it was substantial to fill him up. During the 10 days he has lots of white basmati rice, and lots of fresh orange juice in it for the extra calories. And he loved that, that worked well.
Yeah that’s an interesting combination orange juice and basmati rice in terms of weight gain, because I use that with great effectiveness to put on muscle for a period of time when I was transitioning away from only doing Buckwheat, quinoa, sweet potatoes. When I could do basmati rice, I was thrilled, I had orange juice, and then I noticed my weight really being responsive to workouts. I noticed that I was able to really gain muscle quite quickly. It’s just quite simple calories isn’t it? I mean you got really simple calories with the orange juice, that’s just a whole bunch of fructose. And then you’ve got really simple calories coming out of a what is pretty much a processed carbohydrate in basmati rice. And so, it’s amazing what the body can transform into quality tissue, and to add to usable energy. Because I’m not suggesting that he was only having orange juice and basmati. I’m just saying that those are useful foods for weight maintenance and for strength and so forth.
Jo Yeah no he was having the three grains, Oh my goodness tons of salad leaves. We didn’t have a juicer then but after about 2 weeks we got a juicer then. So then, every day he was having his cucumber and celery juice as well as everything else. So we were just like building his body with alkaline things, and then we started the VSL 3 so that all started then. So then we did the whole meal toast that was something he really wanted to fill himself up with, so that any changes we make. But I noticed he just didn’t seem to be doing quite well so we decided to go back to the very basics again for another 10 days, he said he manage it. And we actually stuck at that front all the three weeks, and but then he made it very obvious that’s enough, I can’t do this any longer. So then we added the tomatoes, the black beans, the toast back in, and then he’s been fine. We just gradually expand it, eventually adding his absolute favorite which is almond butter, that’s his go to for filling up.
Jo And we’ve actually still kept the diet incredibly simple even now a year on, because he is just quite enjoying it. He still has 2 big meals a grain a day, and he adds tomatoes, onion, garlic, black beans, and some Tomari soy sauce, (inaudible) sauerkraut, great big bowl of salad greens, and toast almond butter. Luckily he has no problems with really good quality wholemeal bread. So I mean there are some days he just eats a loaf of it just to you know to fill himself up. So yeah we still kept it, and I still feel as long as he’s happy to keep his diet incredibly simple. He does (inaudible) every couple of months he demands some (inaudible), and I know he needs that mentally. So he just keep occasionally asking, I spoke to him a few days ago he wants a cup of coffee. And you know he says can I have a packet of crisps, and I’m just so wary of getting into any bad habits when he’s doing so well. I don’t want things to slip back so maybe I’m being too cautious, I don’t know, I don’t know. But he’s doing fantastically well on this.
Clint Given that he could tolerate black beans, see how he goes with some Mung daal’s, some split yellow peas that are basically cooked and made into a nice Indian dish. Melissa has a recipe on that inside the forum, so I just go in there and I’d imagine that he would like that. The spices are everything when it comes to the Indian dishes and if you can get the spices right, goodness me. The daal’s can be incredibly tasty. The black beans can become a little mundane after a while, even if we have them too often in our family I get a little bit too familiar with the taste. So I would suggest that as another main meal option for him.
Jo I actually meant to say, he has that diet Monday to Friday when is off at the weekends for lunch, I make him homemade baked beans so he has those for lunch. And in the evening he has like a bean chilly, a homemade bean chilli with lots of vegetables and lots of different beans and he has on basmati rice. So sorry weekends are slightly different.
Clint Sounds great. Sounds like you’ve got a wonderful routine going on. As a parent how much have you changed your diet, and the family’s diet to match what Luke’s been doing?
Jo My husband has been incredibly supportive, he’s not interested in nutrition or anything like that (inaudible) are all meat eating, beer swilling guy. But he was incredibly supportive right from day one, he’s never wavered. Well he always said he was not going to change his diet. So I mean you know that was it, often he is not here anyway because of shift work so it was never really an issue. My diet was vegan through finally finding out the real problem with my digestive. I haven’t been able to stay as long story but I wasn’t able to stay 100% vegan, but still 95%. So certainly in the early days I stayed with Luke 100%, We ate the same things you know, I never wanted him to be seeing he was doing this on his own. So yeah that’s what we did.
Clint What is your current plan for him in terms of ongoing tests? Are you going to keep an eye on him every couple of months? Have his c reactive protein tested just so that you guys can.
Jo I got it down to about every couple of months now. I mean, his knees are cold nearly all the time now. You can see something slightly changed and he’s very good to tell me if there’s any issues, so I don’t see the point of keeping on giving him you know blood test. He’s had so many tests over his last couple of months I just want to leave him alone a little bit.
Clint Yeah absolutely.
Jo Where the doctor is concerned they’re still not giving us any support whatsoever. You know it’s we were now seeing a pediatric doctor, very nice guy but not interested in the Paddison Program whatsoever. And he actually said to me on last week, he said you have got no doubts whatsoever about this program have you? I said no not one. I said, I know it works, and I know it will carry on working. I have not one doubt, and he’s like okay well I can’t say anything against it. And he says, you know rheumatoid arthritis it does go up and down, has peaks and drops. I said yeah for 5 months he’s done nothing but get better. I thought, oh I’m just done with them honestly they just give us no support. In the last letter we got from the hospital it said, it does appear that the Paddison Program has helped a little and that is the only thing they’ve ever acknowledged. So, what can you do? You just have to say, stay strong and you know so determined and just have so much belief and trust and patience. Discovery resilience and say no I am not going down that route. (inaudible) it’s different, but when your child you know the alternatives.
Jo I recently read a report in a newspaper 2 weeks ago about a little boy. An 11 year old boy in Cornwall that was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis 3 years ago. He has been medicated since that point, and he is in a really bad way. It was heartbreaking reading this report, he is now has to use a wheelchair a lot of the time. He has a stair lift in his house because he can’t even walk up the stairs. And his mom says she’s just you know in despair, I actually contacted her but she hasn’t got back to me. I don’t know what, for what reason. But yeah I mean this would have been, I showed Luke the article I said this could well have been you because you’ve had it so badly. And this is what the Paddison Program has given given you a life. You know the alternative were horrendous for him.
Clint Yeah that’s what’s mystifying is that the medications that are pushed so aggressively towards the children via the parents are sometimes not effective number 1. And sometimes extremely poor in terms of the side effects that can be created. I think what it is and I think this is what it all comes down to is that, it is still outside of our community everyone watching this and you and I and now forum and now you know mailing list and the way that we all communicate with each other. In sharing information that we all take now as sort of almost common sense and what works and what we should do. Outside of our community, this stuff is still quackery, this stuff is still impossible, it’s still medically impossible to not be on medications when you have juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It’s considered medically impossible to get your blood inflammation back to normal without using drugs. I mean all the things that we share on podcasts on regular basis are considered medically impossible by everyone else. And so we bang our heads against the wall when medical professionals are so naive to what’s possible, and yet it’s still the case I mean it with so much work to be done. There’s so many stories like yours that I want to get out, and there’s so much more work to be done. It’s just, it motivates me when I hear such head in the sand the kind of stuff going on all around the world. There’s nowhere that’s really transforming the way that it should at this point.
Jo No, not at all.
Clint Anyway. Look we can only influence the people that we that we love and care for. And in your case you’ve been able to do that with your family and most dramatically with Luke. Wow he’s powerful almost adult thinking young boy to be able to take this on and to push through all this because I don’t know if I could have done that at 13. And you are the mother of the year for being able to guide him through this, and to hold his hand and eat the way that you’ve been encouraging him to do. And to keeping the faith and to just driving it, and being cautious to. Every time you’d reach out to me with another question, it was a cautionary question, it was should we do this, should we not. Should we stop this? Should we start this? You know should be discontinue this should we pick up on this. Should we stay on these simple foods for longer? You know the care that you’ve had as a parent comes through tremendously not just in this conversation but in our private conversations as well.
Clint So congratulations on all you’ve done. This is something that’s going to be on your minds for the rest of your lives, once something like this comes to fruition we then need to carefully, very delicately manage it for the rest of our lives. And so, what a great great initial beginning. Like you say sometimes with JIA it can completely go away unlike an adult rheumatoid arthritis which I believe personally, needs to be carefully monitored for life. But I know that the studies show and I’ve got other examples where JIA has totally gone in and now adults, not my clients but people I know who have had JIA as children have been adults for decades without any symptoms. And so, this is also a chance and the way that he’s eating now gives him the best chance of that being the case.
Jo Yeah absolutely. I mean to this have said that he is unlikely to outgrow it because he’s had it so badly.
Clint Well, we know that rheumatologists can be surprised, and can be shocked, and can be always learning something new. So congratulations on this wonderful progress so far. 12 months, what a transformation in 12 months. Make sure he keeps up the leafy greens. They are by far and away the most important aspect of what he’s doing and continue to make sure that junk food don’t start to come in. Keep a close eye on his maybe quarterly blood tests, and you’ll be steering this like a puppeteer and keeping everything going just nicely, so fantastic. And make sure you tell him congratulations on all he’s achieved from me and hopefully I’ll make it to the UK over the next year or two and be able to meet you guys in person.
Jo Wow that would be amazing. Yeah it would be fantastic.
Clint All right. Well thanks so much it’s been wonderful to be able to share such good news and I appreciate you doing so.
Jo Well I mean I just you know from me Clint, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving Luke a future, because I know without this program his future would have been totally different. So unless you had done what you do you know it’s just been a miracle. I cannot thank you enough from the bottom of my heart, and from Luke.
Clint Thank you Jo. That is lovely I really appreciate that, but all the thanks is just hearing this story. There’s a children’s book series and it’s about filling buckets I don’t know if you read this to Luke when he was little. But this concept of bucket filling and when you say something nice to someone you fill up their invisible bucket. And when you are mean to someone the metaphor is that you’re taking away from their bucket and they have an empty bucket and they feel sad. So when I hear stories like this, my bucket is so full that it’s overflowing and that’s just such a wonderful gift to receive. So thank you so much.
Jo And one thing I want to say to people is, please have patience, please trust this program, and trust you. Just load yourself with focus and everything. This program works.
Clint Thank you. Okay I’ll let you enjoy the rest of the day, I know it’s very early for you in the UK thanks for setting up a time that was a little bit early in the morning and we’ll continue to chat online.
Jo Thank you, bye.