We discuss how:
– Lyn is reversing RA symptoms on the Paddison Program
– Prednisone is nasty “both the best and worst drug”
– Alkaline Water helps, but may be best done intermittently
– Nightshades can be bad for some people, although it’s not common
– Clint has so much free information on Youtube that has helped tremendously
– Turmeric in home-made capsules can be helpful
– Why we must have low pain levels to heal the gut
– Clint’s desire to speak in front of Rheumatologists
– The update on Clint’s clinical trial
– Lyn’s best advice to anyone with RA is: “do the Paddison Program“
Clint: Today on the Paddison Podcast, I have a guest called Lyn, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Lyn’s journey and how far she’s come on the Paddison Program. Welcome, Lyn.
Lyn: Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Clint: Yes. So this is gonna be really fun because we have communicated a little bit online, and I have received a wonderful short summary of your improvements through an email, and I thought, why don’t I reach out to you and have you share what you’ve been through and some of the ways in which you’ve improved, and also lots of tips that you might have for other people who are going through this process?
So before we get into your story and the tips you have for others, just tell us, what have you been able to achieve in a short period of time?
Lyn: It’s been absolutely amazing. I feel 110% better than I have in years. My doctor has reduced the methotrexate in half, and I’m hoping beyond hope it’ll be down to zero next time, which will be in August. And that would just be a dream come true.
Clint: Well, that is fabulous. Okay. Well, how long have you had rheumatoid arthritis?
Lyn: About nine years. Before that, my mother had it and my grandmother had it, so I know the end result if this isn’t conquered.
Clint: All right.
Lyn: I’ve seen it firsthand, for years.
Clint: Can you give us an example of like, how, you know, those family members were towards the end of their life, or even during some of their more later years?
Lyn: Yes. My grandmother came to live with us in her later years. And when she first arrived, I was just a kid, and I would hold her hands to walk her to try to get her, encourage her to walk. My mom… The pain was just so excruciating she just gave up. And before any time at all, she was bedridden, with all that entails. And then she started having strokes, and she was gone so fast, she really was.
Then my mother, when she got it, it wasn’t as rapid but she certainly suffered a lot. And her hands just became not only swollen, but then they froze, and she suffered for years. And of course, the medication at that time was a little better because my grandmother, the only thing she had was [inaudible 00:02:38]. If you’re familiar with that, it’s just, you know, a step above aspirin, and it was over-the-counter, had nothing other than that. And I can’t imagine her…the suffering she must have gone through, and my mother as well, because she had prescriptions but they were nothing like methotrexate or the things that we have today, which I feel very fortunate we do have those. They’re not good either, you know.
Clint: Absolutely.
Lyn: They’re good, but not good. So my goal has to…been no more medicine. That’s my goal.
Clint: Yeah. Well, it is…you raise an interesting point about the drugs because, you know, through, I guess, our era of dealing with the condition, we’ve taken particularly methotrexate for granted, and in fact kind of loathed it from the beginning. I certainly did. I went to great lengths to try and avoid it, and eventually my condition was so severe and I had…I was just still experimenting with foods and trying to work this whole thing out myself. I was making fundamental mistakes, now that I know more, looking back with my diaries, fundamental food mistakes, not exercising enough.
And so, for me, you know, I really wanted to avoid it, but it was a lifeline because it bought me a couple of years so that I could keep experimenting because my pain was just too high to try to bring under control.
Okay, so you’ve given us a great intro where you’ve said that, you know, you’ve been able to have your methotrexate and you’ve got great motivation because both your mother and grandmother have the condition, or had the condition.
Lyn: Mm-hmm.
Clint: And so what… So you’re going back 11 years, you said. What drug treatments did you evolve throughout that time, or has it just been the single monotherapy the whole time?
Lyn: Well, of course, initially they gave me prednisone as well, and a lot of shots, especially in my wrists and hands. But I discovered…because I’m not one to just take a doctor’s word for anything, so I discovered how horrible prednisone is for you, so I just refused it. And they tried to get me on biologics, they tried to get me on everything coming down the pike. And I just say no, and I’ve always told the doctors, “Look. I’m betting that I have years to deal with this, and I’m not doing that because I want my liver. I want my internal organs to be okay when I get there, and I’m going to get there,” and I just kept struggling and struggling.
And the food, I had sort of an idea because, of course, I’m a vegetarian. And so it hadn’t been hard for me to give up anything because I look at something and I think, “Well, I don’t really like it,” but the pain is a whole lot worse.
Clint: Exactly. That should be the catch [inaudible 00:05:46].
Lyn: So I had had started down the path, but I never got it right like you did because it has made the biggest difference in my life having no dairy, no sugar, and no nightshades. Those were my three things that were killing me with pain and I had no idea. I thought I was eating healthy, but I really wasn’t for the condition.
Clint: Yeah, and probably in the order that you’ve said them, probably in the order of dairy and then simple sugars. And then, you know, nightshades is a little bit less hard to quantify the effects of that. There’s not much sort of conclusive evidence on that in the scientific conversation.
Lyn: Well, there is with me because just the other day, I accidentally got a salad and it had bits dried…sun-dried tomato.
Clint: Uh-huh.
Lyn: That’s all it took. The next day I felt terrible, and it’s amazing how it affects you. And some people look at you like you’re crazy, but others are really interested, you know. And I’ve told everybody I could about you and your program, and go to YouTube and check it out for themselves, you know, that it’s true. It is so true, and it’s not just healthy foods, but these specific things that make a difference with us.
Clint: Yes, that is…
Lyn: I’m so grateful I found you. So grateful.
Clint: Oh. Thank you, Lyn. So I wanna touch upon a couple of things and expand on them. One is your intuition or your strong feelings about prednisone. I work with a lot of people in our support forum, and when people are on prednisone, it just makes me have to like take a deep breath and just think, “Okay, this is gonna be tough,” because there is something about prednisone…one of our famous members, Ellen, she’s been on a couple of podcasts, she’s one of our most loved members, and she calls it the devil drug.
Lyn: Yeah, I agree.
Clint: Yeah. Also, further to that, there was a big rheumatoid arthritis conference last year, and I followed all the tweets coming out about all of the speakers and the titles of their talks, and the summaries that were coming through. And one of the professors who was giving a talk at the arthritis convention, of which there were 20,000 rheumatologist delegates, right? Okay, so you’ve got this enormous convention. One of the titles was “Prednisone: Our Best and Worst Drug.” Okay. So it’s the best drug because it gives instant relief, all right? But it’s the worst drug because it’s addictive, it creates osteoporosis. I mean it really accelerates the porousness in the bones, but when it’s… And on its own, it causes leaky gut, right? I can flick the science to anyone who wants that, those research papers are in my inbox.
But when it’s combined with a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, like your over-the-counter painkillers, and you take that with prednisone, it’s something like three times the amount of gastrointestinal problems that are created. And people are popping the over-the-counter pain pills and taking the prednisone, and this is destroying the last bit of rainforest, the last bit of ecosystem that we need to fight against, or to uphold our gut integrity and our immune system.
Lyn: Absolutely.
Clint: But here’s the dilemma is that if we get off the drug, if we don’t take the prednisone that was prescribed, or the painkillers, the high levels of pain in our body actually themselves create more leaky gut, because inflammation in the joints is simultaneously presented as inflammation in the gut, which causes more leaky gut.
So we need to come up with a better way forward. We need to be able to reduce the pain naturally, and substitute…which is a really important word, “substitute” those kind of medications that we’ve just been discussing with non-harmful alternatives, not drop them, but find substitutions. And I always look towards exercise for substitutions of those drugs.
Now, fortunately, you didn’t go down that path. You were on the methotrexate which I, too, was on. So there’s a nice little parallel here. We just were on the one drug, that one disease-modifying drug, and I feel that, although there is science showing that methotrexate causes leaky gut, most of the science is on very high doses. And I think that what rheumatoid patients get put on is such a relatively low dose that it doesn’t impact the gut in a negative way to the extent that we can’t fix with our diet exercise, and so forth. So…
Lyn: Well, you know what I use for pain relief?
Clint: Yeah, what?
Lyn: Turmeric.
Clint: Uh-huh. Great.
Lyn: I put it in capsules. Now, you can buy it now, it’s become very popular, but I would put it myself. I’d make my own capsules with the turmeric. And that’s one of the best natural pain relievers, but you must take it with some food because it can be harsh on your stomach if you just take it, you know. But I don’t take Tylenol because the only thing I could take previously was acetaminophen, and that, with the prednisone, I just felt so much worse and I knew that it just wasn’t right. So I just quit taking any of it. And the prednisone…I even had diverticulitis, and that’s extremely painful.
Well, when I quit taking all that, I got better, but I didn’t get better, real better until I found you and your program, because the food that we eat makes such a difference. It really does, it really does.
Clint: Absolutely.
Lyn: [inaudible 00:12:10]
Clint: Yeah. It took me a long time to work out the right foods forward, though, and it was a big trial and error process. And I describe now that the finish line lies through a very, very narrow path around the mountain, and we take one step off, we have problems. We take another step off, we have problems. You’ve got to stay on a…there’s only a very narrow path forward.
Lyn: [inaudible 00:12:34]. Yeah.
Clint: Yeah. So tell me, what happened?
Lyn: For me, I had no problem with the greens and the salads, and raw vegetables. I had no problem with that. I had no problem giving up dairy, no problem with the nightshades because I knew that, for me, my Achilles heel is sugar.
Clint: Right. Okay.
Lyn: I really miss my chocolate, and things like that. But all I have to do is think pain. That equals pain and I’m not going there. I’m just not going there. So yeah, I think I told you I even painted my grandson’s room the other day. I mean it’s just amazing how much better I feel, and my family could tell you as well. They just are stunned at the difference, and it’s all your program.
Clint: Awesome. I’m thrilled. You know, this is why I do this, because it’s just so thrilling.
Lyn: Well, you should go to those conferences with the rheumatologists, because I swear it’s all about the money.
Clint: Absolutely. Well, I would…
Lyn: You may not want me to say that…
Clint: Oh, I’d love you to say that.
Lyn: …but it really is. It’s all about the money.
Clint: I’ve spoken…I’ve had doctors, general practitioners in the audience. I’ve had rooms full of naturopaths many times in my audiences. In fact, I’ve spoken to naturopaths frequently. I’ve spoken to pharmacists, groups of pharmacists, couple of hundred of those, but I’ve never had an audience of rheumatologists, and I welcome it. I would volunteer days just to stand for free and talk to rheumatologists in a room. I would talk to rheumatologists one-on-one.
Lyn: I’d come with you.
Clint: Yeah. Come with me, and we will stand on a stage and we’ll say, “This is what it’s all about.” And see, here’s the thing, is that it goes back to our discussion about the narrow mountain. But the reason that rheumatologists question the dietary relationship is because that’s where zero of the studies is being conducted. All the studies are being done on drugs, and fair enough, they need evidence-based, research-based ways of being able to run their practice. They basically take advice from other research and implement it into their practice. They’re not dreaming up their own protocols, because they could get sued if they make a mistake, right?
Lyn: Right.
Clint: But no one’s doing studies on food, because there’s no money in it, and so they can’t say, “Here’s the study,” because if they had, “Here’s the study,” they may take a small interest.
But you know, I spoke to Dr. McDougall about this when I met him over at TrueNorth Healthcare recently. I gave a talk with TrueNorth, and you know, it’s interesting. He’s…who knows if anyone will ever really pay attention to food, and whether or not it can change the way that it should? But I’m certainly on a mission to try and create enough data and evidence based on research that I’m doing in questionnaires and data analysis with people who go through our program to try and stimulate some kind of shift, and then later a clinical trial, which all takes a lot of money and a lot of time.
Lyn: It does, it really does. But I know myself that every doctor, every one since I was a child…and he was different, because he delivered me so he cared, but since then, not one doctor has ever asked me about my diet, about if I take supplements. In fact, they laugh because I do, and I’ve never had a single one MD, internal, RA, none, “What’s your diet? How are you? How do you feel?” No one ever asked that, not one time.
Clint: It’s nuts.
Lyn: And that’s nuts. That’s crazy.
Clint: Nuts.
Lyn: All they wanna do is write those prescriptions, and it’s just so frustrating. I know over in your beautiful country, they do things a little different, but here it’s very frustrating. So you do have to take control of your own medical experience, you really do. You can’t just go in there and go, “Ah, okay, okay.” You can’t do that, or you’re on a path that you’re not gonna like.
Clint: Yeah, that’s so true.
Lyn: I’m a fighter. I’m gonna fight it till the end, you know. And I want to feel good. I want to experience life for the rest of my life, you know. If it’s a minute or 20 years, I want to be there for it, you know.
Clint: That’s awesome.
Lyn: Thanks to you, I will be.
Clint: Oh, well, it takes… You know, there’s so many people who can be, as the metaphor goes, be led to water and then just not drink the water. If the onus is on people to actually adhere to the process and to be compliant, and as you say, to take control…it was when I realized that I’d been outsourcing my problem. My disease was being outsourced expensively to everyone that I would employ. I employed naturopaths, Chinese herbalists…sorry, Chinese medicine practitioners, herbalists. You know, I had a naturopath-run electric currents through my body trying to kill certain strains of microbes. I mean I outsourced it. It cost me $14,000 in one year, my condition. That included an out-of-pocket cost with my elbow surgery, but I mean I was running up just huge costs.
And then it just struck me that I’m a smart person. Why can I be really good at other parts of my life but a complete moron when it comes to my health? Why can’t I begin to understand this aspect of my life, and why do I have such a barrier with having to make better choices?
And you know, it was weird. I had that block that you often get when you’re in a certain religious group. You just can’t sort of imagine being any other way than the religion that you’re in. And the same applies for food. People think that…
Lyn: Yes, and medicine. We’re programmed like robots, you know. You don’t go to the doctor unless you hurt somewhere. And then when you do, you do what they say, and you’ll get better. No, not with RA, you won’t. I didn’t get better at all. I got worse, and worse, and worse. Two years ago, I spent most of my time in bed. I felt so bad. And you know that feeling. It’s like your body weighs 10 times what it does, and you just don’t want to move. And that’s dead, you know. That’s not living, that’s dead. And I don’t want…I didn’t want that.
Clint: Yes.
Lyn: But I didn’t get to the conclusions you did.
Clint: That’s okay. You also didn’t spend pretty much six years full-time studying it, looking at nothing else in your life except the internet, researching it. And that’s okay, too, because…
Lyn: Yeah, but I do try the medicine…I mean the herbs. You can’t believe all the things that I would try to do…
Clint: I can believe. Yeah.
Lyn: I mean I’ve tried everything natural, and all the different…oh, it’s just being…but nothing really worked until your program, because you did spend the time to research it and figure out what’s really going on in our bodies. And you’re probably smarter than the rest of us so you can understand it a lot better.
Clint: Certainly, the [inaudible 00:20:41].
Lyn: Medical jargon just doesn’t do it for me. Give me a good old “Murder and Mayhem” and I’m with you.
Clint: And if I wanted to learn about that, I’d be getting in contact with you. So tell me, what were the initial challenges for you? Let’s try and share some information so that people who are our audience for this episode, they can get an insight into maybe ways to overcome some of the challenges. You said it wasn’t hard for you to give up dairy, but what were some of the challenges going through this? They might have even been mindset challenges like trying not to eat the chocolate, or they might have been other things. What were particular challenges for you so far?
Lyn: Probably the sugar. I didn’t have any…and I love cheese, I love…I love food, everything, except meat. I don’t eat meat. If it’s been alive, I don’t want it, and that’s fish…no, I don’t want any of it. But everything else, yeah. And I love to bake, I love to cook, and I do cook for the family, and I still do it. I cook everything for them. I cook the meat. I cook everything that I don’t eat. But it’s not hard for me because, like I say, I look at that chocolate cake and I go, “Pain, suffering, swelling, you know, not being able to go out and do what I want to do.” So for me, I can push it away. I push it away. I don’t even think about it. And ice cream…oh, my gosh. I love ice cream. No more, you know. No more.
Now, one other thing, I think, that’s really helped me, we had always filtered our water. I have a big Berkey, and we always filter our water. But since I switched to the alkaline, what a difference.
Clint: Awesome.
Lyn: What a difference.
Clint: Mm-hmm. Now, tell me this. Tell me this because I’ve got some pre-existing views about alkaline water. I did alkaline water for probably a year and a half. We only drank alkaline water at our house for a year and a half. And throughout that whole period, I was running parallel, natural approaches like going to Bikram yoga every day, and changing my diet, and all sorts of things, right? So it’s very hard to often disassociate those things from each other and work out what’s helping and what’s not.
The challenge I had was once I started to notice that I was able to get some sort of digestive strength back again, some hydrochloric acid back again, I felt that it became very, very confusing as to when to drink my alkaline water because I didn’t want to drink it somewhat close to my meals, because I wanted the pH levels inside my stomach to be very low, which is the acidic state. But I also wanted to be able to consume it a lot away from mealtimes so that I was taking in liquids that were alkaline-forming for my body.
And so in the end, I became so sort of mind-occupied with when to drink my alkaline water or when to drink normal water that I eventually gave up on it and found that my situation didn’t change, and in fact, I continued to improve.
So I’m just curious with that sort of backstory, what’s been your experience? Have you just drank it all the time with your meals, the whole thing?
Lyn: I don’t drink anything but the alkaline water now.
Clint: Okay. And is it the famous Kangen Water, the expensive one, or is it more of a regular option?
Lyn: I get it on Amazon, believe it or not, or at another specialty store here called Trader Joe’s. But I get it on Amazon, and right here’s a bottle that I have right now. And it’s just alkaline water with electrolytes, and that’s what I drink all the time. I don’t drink any other water. We filter our water. I don’t know many people in America that drink tap water anymore.
Clint: Well, it’s funny you mention that, because in Australia, everyone drinks tap water. Okay, so…
Lyn: You couldn’t pay me to do it, even in Australia. I’m just…I can’t do it.
Clint: So I interviewed David Wolfe, who’s a real raw foodie guy. We went to his house and hung out for a couple of hours when we were in Hawaii. And when we were there, we spoke about water. He’s water-obsessed, and he said some of the eastern coastline of Australia has some of the purest and most unadulterated water on the planet. And certainly, my experience with water and Australia has been that. It’s completely tasteless, meaning good, without any aftertaste. It just feels completely synergistic with your body without a taste.
I mean that’s the thing, because I was in Orlando, and now currently as we’re recording this, I’m actually here in Jupiter in Florida.
Lyn: Oh, I used to live in Jupiter. I did.
Clint: Really?
Lyn: Yes, I lived in Jupiter for many years, but now we live at the Canadian border. We’re right at the Peace Arch at the border.
Clint: Wow. Okay, like sort of near Niagara Falls, up that way?
Lyn: No, no, no. On the West Coast.
Clint: West Coast, all right. Okay. [inaudible 00:26:11].
Lyn: Through Washington, at the top of Washington, and we’re at least 30 degrees cooler than you are.
Clint: Yeah. You’re up near sort of Vancouver direction, up that way?
Lyn: Yeah.
Clint: Yes. Okay.
Lyn: I go to Vancouver a lot, yeah.
Clint: Lovely. It’s a beautiful…
Lyn: In fact, there’s a new restaurant over in Surrey called The Chopped Leaf.
Clint: The Chopped Leaf, yeah.
Lyn: Just one of the few and first restaurants that has all-raw vegetables, and it’s just marvelous. So it’s about the only restaurant I’ll go to, and it’s great. But it’s in Canada.
Clint: It’s no problem just to pop over and pop back, though, for Americans, is it? No problem?
Lyn: Well, you just have to have patience to go through the border, you know. That’s the only thing.
Clint: Right. It’s weird for Australians to think that we could be actually connected to another country.
Lyn: I know.
Clint: But okay. So we’ve got the… But yeah, Jupiter…and oh, the water, that’s right. So I mean the water in Orlando is undrinkable. It is disgusting. And the water down here is drinkable but not nice. But…
Lyn: Don’t drink anything out of the faucets. Do not drink.
Clint: Right. Yes. It’s a shame. You know what? I’m such a…
Lyn: That’s only to brush my teeth with it down there.
Clint: Really? Wow. Okay, so I don’t go there. I mean I come from the Outback, Australia. Like we could…I’m happy to drink water down there.
Lyn: Yeah, you can handle it, but…
Clint: Yeah, I’ll drink by the creek.
Lyn: …remember what set you apart from all the other Australians without it is you have RA.
Clint: Sure.
Lyn: That’s the difference, and that’s what you have to think about. You have to think in terms of, “Okay, I’m not like you, and I have to do things just a little different.”
Clint: Well, that’s…
Lyn: “It doesn’t make me any different, you know.” And I respect everything you do, but with RA, we have to do things just a little different.
Clint: Oh, we certainly do. At our wedding…you know, talk about doing funny things differently. I sat at our cake-testing before our wedding in Hawaii. So we’re sitting down with the woman who’s prepared our vegan cake, and God bless the people who create the wedding cake. They create a…like that, they create the cake before they create the cake. They actually make two of them. And the first one that we got made, we’re sitting there, and my wife, and my sister-in-law, and my wife’s mom, they’re all sampling this cake. And during the whole discussion, I had a huge bag of baby spinach that I’d purchased pre-washed from the [inaudible 00:28:44]. And I just sat there like just ate the whole thing like corn chips, you know.
And the vegan chef, she was totally like omnivore at the time. Now, she’s hardcore vegan after she met us and saw the whole thing, and we were just like the final step for her. She couldn’t come to terms with it. She just kept staring like, “This guy’s a freak,” you know. “What’s he doing?”
Lyn: I know.
Clint: But you’ve gotta do what you gotta do.
Lyn: But the thing is you can tell other people, it’s not just people with RA, but any autoimmune disease, “If you want to be better, learn what you need to eat.” I mean you could be the guru of the world when it comes to fighting disease with food, you really could.
Clint: Yeah.
Lyn: I believe in you…
Clint: Oh, thank you.
Lyn: …so much.
Clint: Thank you. When you said “you” just then, I thought you were speaking to our audience, but you were saying about me? Well, it’s quite…you know, I believe that we have to reach more people, and stories like yourself is so powerful to encourage others to stop sitting on the fence and to take action.
And this is not so much about sort of like, “Hey, how good is this program?” It’s about how important it is to take control of our own situation and inspire others. So if anyone’s listening and thinking, “I should reach out to Clint and tell my story,” please do. It’s the lifeblood of our whole movement here, is hearing other people’s stories and also hearing about, you know, the little variations that you’ve made for yourself.
We’ve learned about the nightshades problem for you, guaranteed. We’ve learned that the alkaline water has been very helpful, and it’s helped me to recall my story about the use of alkaline water. And as long as it’s not drank around mealtimes, I am a big believer in alkaline water and I encourage people to investigate that, particularly the last thing before going to bed. So if everyone’s had their meal, “Must eat before 7:00” is one of my rules, because digestion shuts down with the sun. So once we’ve eaten an early meal and it’s gotten to sort of 10:00 at night or bedtime around about, that’s a great time for alkaline water. And first thing in the morning, about half an hour or so before breakfast is fine as well.
So you know, they’re the kind of little bit of, I guess, restrictions I would place on it if I was to get back into it myself.
Lyn: Exactly. Well, you’re very fortunate to live in a country that has good water, and we’ve pretty much ruined ours in America. And if you ever go visit any of the water treatment plants, you’ll never drink out of a faucet again.
Clint: It’s crazy, isn’t it?
Lyn: You just can’t trust… You have to learn to trust yourself and your instincts. It’s just like… I had had thyroid surgery. Well, that’s an autoimmune condition as well.
Clint: Yeah. Did you…were you diagnosed?
Lyn: And had I known back then, and could have started then, I may never have developed RA. And that’s why it’s so important that people understand how vital what you put in your mouth is to your health, you know.
Clint: So true.
Lyn: [Inaudible 00:32:12] America, we have a ton of unhealthy people.
Clint: There’s no doubt. You guys are the kings and queens. Just on that, so did you have a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s or hyperthyroidism?
Lyn: No, I had a nodule on my thyroid. One morning I could not wake up, and luckily there was a doctor that lived across the street. And my daughter was just little at the time, but she ran across, and he was already gone, but his wife called me. And he said, “Call the ambulance. Get her to the…” and sure enough, that’s what it was, a thyroid.
Clint: Wow. We do send a lot of…
Lyn: I had no idea. I had no idea that it was autoimmune. You know, they never explain these things to you. “Okay,” you know, “we did surgery. You’re done, you’re fine. You’ll recover, and go away,” and that’s about it.
Clint: Sure.
Lyn: It’s about a 20-plus-year struggle with keeping the dosage of my thyroid medication [inaudible 00:33:20].
Clint: Do you take thyroxine?
Lyn: No, I take the…
Clint: A natural version?
Lyn: Yes.
Clint: Yeah, okay.
Lyn: I take [inaudible 00:33:29].
Clint: Okay. So tell us…give us some more…give our audience some more personal thoughts or advice. Your experience…if you had someone now, you’re about to step off the plane, you won’t see them again, you’ve just been sitting next to them, they’re leaving, they say, “I have an autoimmune condition.” Obviously, you would encourage them to look in our direction. But what about your own personal experiences? What else would you say to that person?
Lyn: Well, that’d be the first thing I’d say, “Clint Paddison. You’ve got to remember that name. If you don’t remember anything else, go on YouTube, get the program, you know. You’ve got to do that,” because what you’ve done is really put the right things together. And that has made such a difference because, you know, I had all the ingredients. I just didn’t have them in the right sequence, and in the right proportion, and know what was good and what was bad. It didn’t dawn on me that I just thought if I ate healthy, and I was eating good organic food, that I was okay and I was doing the right thing, but I wasn’t any better. It wasn’t until I…until you came along and explained how, “No, no, no. It’s the right foods, not just the good foods. Avoid the GMOs.” Have you ever looked at the “Forks Over Knives?”
Clint: Yup, great film.
Lyn: That’s a good beginning for someone who’s not sick, you know…
Clint: Yeah, great.
Lyn: …that you have to buy into it. You have to understand that you’re doing this for your own self, for your own body, and you want to be well. You don’t want to be sick, and you don’t want to feel bad, and you don’t want to give up and feel tired, and wonder, you know, what have you done? It’s just…it’s all one thing: eat the foods that are best for you and your condition.
Clint: Yeah.
Lyn: [Inaudible 00:35:35], just according to you. That’s [inaudible 00:35:40].
Clint: Great. And how are your blood tests now? Are you measuring them regularly like I suggested?
Lyn: Yes. My doctor, she was [inaudible 00:35:49] and it was so funny because she is…she’s a younger doctor, and she was pregnant. And when I went in in May, oh, she came in and she said, “Oh, my gosh. I’m so tired.” I said, “You need to give up dairies.”
Clint: That’s fantastic.
Lyn: And she looked at me…
Clint: That’s the greatest…
Lyn: …and I said, “Girl, you look great.” I said, “You really need to eat better than you’re eating.” I said, “And you got a baby.” I said, “Oh, you can do better than this.” And she just cracked up and she said, “You know, you might be right.” I said, “I know I am.” I said, “You check my blood and then you let me know [inaudible 00:36:36] is wrong.” Sure enough, she called me personally and she said, “Oh, my gosh.” She said, “Your bloodwork is awesome.” And I said, “Fantastic. Are you gonna cut my medicine?” She said, “In half.”
Clint: Wow.
Lyn: I was stunned, yeah, but so was she. And I said, “Well, like I said, you better give up that dairy and get better health, girl. You’ve got a baby to do it for.” Of course, you don’t [inaudible 00:37:07] say stuff like that even to doctors.
Clint: No one says that.
Lyn: I just say what I think.
Clint: I know, and I love it, I love it. No one says those things.
Lyn: Whatever comes up comes out. I have to remember I don’t have any brakes.
Clint: That’s great. Okay, so…
Lyn: And I [inaudible 00:37:23] an accent. I’m not from out here, I’m from Virginia. That’s where I’m originally from, in case you’re wondering why I talk so funny.
Clint: You know, coming from so far away, it’s hard for me to distinguish a lot of the subtleties that you guys, as Americans, are all, you know, easily able to do. But I can tell that you’re from the South area. But beyond that is…
Lyn: We have an attitude, you know.
Clint: It’s a good one. I’m coming to like it a lot.
Lyn: I’m the original “Steel Magnolias.”
Clint: Right. Okay, so your bloods are awesome, you’re down to 50% of methotrexate. What strategies…
Lyn: Yeah, and nothing else, nothing else. I had not had one Tylenol, not one medication of any kind, nothing, nothing else. And I can’t wait to go back in August, because she told me she wouldn’t change it again till August, because I tried to get her to go lower. She said, “You come back in August.” I said, “Okay.” I said, “But you better be healthier yourself.” And I said, “I don’t like coming to a doctor that’s not healthy.”
Clint: That is fantastic. You ought to walk in with the scrubs, you know, your own white outfit, and you’re gonna say, “No, sit down. I’ve got a few things to teach you.”
Lyn: “I have my stethoscope, don’t know how to use it, but I’ll try.”
Clint: Yeah. When should you…
Lyn: And it’s true. You just need to take better care of yourself and eat right. But when you do this, and you feel so much better with RA, it’s like a miracle. It’s like a total miracle. It really is, and [inaudible 00:39:07] responsible.
Clint: You say such kind things. So you know, you’re very, very uplifted and motivated. Has a lot of this been part of your personality throughout the time with RA, or is it just kind of…has your energy levels responded as well?
Lyn: Oh, yeah. In fact, I have a son and a daughter, and they both…every now and then, my daughter especially, she’d say, “I want my mom back,” you know, because she’d wanna go somewhere and I just didn’t feel like it, and I just was tired, just that, “No, I don’t want to do anything” kind of attitude. And it didn’t matter what you did, you didn’t feel better, you know. I don’t care what you take or…no medicine out there that I know that’ll make you feel so much better.
Clint: Mm-hmm. And what about now?
Lyn: I feel great. I feel so great. It’s just amazing, amazing. Carrots instead of chocolate. I mean I love it, purple ones at that. I eat the purple organic carrots a lot, you know.
Clint: Really? I didn’t even know you could get purple ones.
Lyn: Oh, yeah. They come in a rainbow of colors, but the darker…you know, the more purple…like the purple yams, [inaudible 00:40:32] those last night, and the purple carrots and things, they’re so good for you. They’re so good for RA [inaudible 00:40:39]. They really are. And they taste delicious. So you know, I don’t understand why it’d be hard for anyone to do it.
Now, I will admit the hardest two days were the first two with the celery, with the cleanse. Oh, that was tough. Now, that was tough.
Clint: Yeah. You start to get a little bit off with the pixies by about midway through the second day. That’s why I tell people, “Don’t go to work. Whatever you do, just make sure it’s a weekend. Make sure you have someone who’s looking after you, someone who’s kind of just a buddy to go through the process even as an observer.”
Lyn: And say, “Yeah, you got to finish that. Keep drinking.”
Clint: You know, the benefits…
Lyn: After that, it was downhill all the way. I mean everything else after that’s been great.
Clint: Right, easy to find everything.
Lyn: It wasn’t that hard. It was just, “Okay, I gotta do this.” This is how we start to get better. And that’s what you have to keep telling yourself, “This is the beginning of me being well.”
Clint: The beginning of the rest of your life.
Lyn: “I’m going to be well.”
Clint: Yeah. And you will be. You will be. You’re on a tremendous path so far. And what’s cool is that, you know, you haven’t just come off all of the methotrexate immediately, and so if I can just put on a little bit of a coach cap for a second…
Lyn: Yeah. You can’t do that.
Clint: No, you don’t do that. Even if the rheumatologist says, “This is incredible, here you go,” you can’t come off all of it because they’re in a different state of mind. We…again, going back to taking control, we also need to know when to put the brakes on, not when to accelerate, but when to put the brakes on. Even if the doctors say, “Hey, you can come off it,” my recommendation would be to really slowly taper the last 50% of the drug that you’re on and use the blood tests to guide you, because…
Lyn: That’s true.
Clint: …you know, you have a strong personality, and you’re very likeable, and you’re very personable.
Lyn: Oh, thank you.
Clint: And to a young doctor who is kind of more preoccupied with having their child’s healthily…who walks in and says, “I’m so tired today,” I mean, you know, they might just say to someone like yourself who’s strong-minded, say, “Okay, fine.” You know, “Go ahead, you can drop it if you want,” but secretly in the back of their mind think that’s probably not the wisest thing or what they would normally recommend. And so I would just encourage you to use quantitative data, use the data from the blood test. Make sure you…
Lyn: Yes. Absolutely.
Clint: Yeah. And there’s no hurry. We have…
Lyn: No, there’s no hurry, and that’s the thing. You must taper off of methotrexate. That is one thing everyone needs to know, you must taper off. You know, she cut it in half, but that didn’t mean I’m not tapering.
Clint: Right, yeah, because…
Lyn: It’s tapering off. You can’t just stop methotrexate. You’ll be [inaudible 00:43:38] world of hurt. But I can’t wait till I’m off of it.
Clint: Absolutely. Let me give you a little bit of inspiration and also like a short story. So we have a lovely forum member who’s just very, very…just such a wonderful person. Her name’s Hannah. She’s from the Netherlands, and I definitely got to get her on to have a chat just like this, because she’s been not just lovely, you know, communicating about her health, but she also sent us gifts from the Netherlands in Australia. I mean she’s just lovely.
Lyn: Oh, nice.
Clint: Yeah. So she, in her first 12 to 18 months on our program, got from her highest dose of methotrexate down to sort of 5-milligram-a-week. And then she took like another six months to drop from five to two and a half, and she stayed at two and a half for over a year. And she just said, “I just wanted to feel perfect before I cut that last pill.” And sure enough…
Lyn: I understand that.
Clint: Yeah. So there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean…
Lyn: No.
Clint: No race. There’s no hurry. The side effects aren’t there.
Lyn: No, yeah. The only side effect I ever had, which I still do, is the nausea. I’ve dealt with the nausea from day one with the methotrexate.
Clint: Hey, did you get the nausea straight after taking it, or the next day, or was it a constant 24/7 kind of situation?
Lyn: In the beginning, it was 24/7.
Clint: Right.
Lyn: You know, I had the ginger, I had everything for nausea, other than prescription because I know there is a prescription, and I do have some of that in case of an absolute…I can’t get rid of it any other way and I need to rest, but I don’t take it because it’s a prescription. I don’t want prescription. But I use every natural thing I can to get rid of nausea, but yeah, sometimes it’s really wicked.
Clint: Has it been lower now that you’re on half the dose? Has it been less nausea?
Lyn: It’s less days. But initially, when…I take it every Saturday, and Sunday’s not good, you know, even now. So I’ll be so happy not to be on it.
Clint: Yeah. One of probably the last few questions before we wrap up: What does your exercise look like, and has it been part of this improvement process, or have you been fortunate not to have to go really, really extreme with exercise?
Lyn: Well, I can’t go extreme yet, and when you’re my age, you’ll understand that. But I do walk between one and a half and two miles every day, and that includes steps.
Clint: Good, good, good. We love steps.
Lyn: Yeah, lots of steps. So I do that, but now, if I go to two and a half, I feel it.
Clint: Yeah, a bit too much.
Lyn: I know my limits.
Clint: Yeah. Okay.
Lyn: And you don’t have them yet, but you will someday. You’ll understand what limits are. You can’t have them now, you’ve got small children, but you know, someday you’ll…when those grandchildren come along, you’ll be going, “Oh, yeah. I remember that lady telling me.”
Clint: Yeah. Okay. So you found a certain range where if you go at least this far, then it gives you relief, but if you go too far, it starts to complain. Okay.
Lyn: And that’s what you have to do. And then you love the hot yoga, but I cannot do that. I also have this Irish condition that I don’t sweat, but my body temperature goes [inaudible 00:47:42].
Clint: Oh, I see. Okay. Yup.
Lyn: I have that… It’s fine as long as I don’t try to make myself sweat or get out in the sun and go to the extremes. So I can’t do that, but I can do yoga, and just the…you know, what do they call it? This for seniors, you know, the silver boots, or something like. I have to do those things. But you can go 90 miles an hour and do it all. But isn’t it wonderful that you feel so great?
Clint: Oh, yeah.
Lyn: All you have to do is know what it feels not to feel good. Be so grateful when you feel so great.
Clint: Absolutely. Yeah, gratitude has gravity. The more we give thanks for it, we attract it.
Lyn: It absolutely does.
Clint: Yeah. I still pinch myself, and I just walk around as I’m doing things, and I have nothing in my body, and I’m just…you know, I still pinch myself and say, “Wow. I was that bad,” you know.
Lyn: Yeah. And the doctors are almost clueless. They really are. You can’t talk to them about feeling bad or, “I just don’t feel right,” or, “I’m so tired.” No, they wanna know, “Where does it hurt? I can fix where it hurts.” Or, “Are you bleeding? I can fix that. But I don’t know how to fix just tired and don’t feel right, and…” You know, they don’t. But you do.
Clint: Most definitely. Well, we’ve had a great conversation, Lyn.
Lyn: Oh, it’s been great. I’ve enjoyed it so much.
Clint: Yeah, we’ve clocked up at least 50 minutes. It’s been a really fast movement from [inaudible 00:49:38].
Lyn: You remind me of Rodger Corser. You know him?
Clint: I don’t know who you’re referring to, but I’m gonna jump on…
Lyn: He’s an Australian actor, Rodger Corser. Is that how you say it?
Clint: I don’t even know him. I’m gonna have to Google that right now. How do you spell his last name?
Lyn: He has a new show called “The Heart Doctor.”
Clint: Rodger…
Lyn: Or “The Heart Guy.” I just finished watching the whole first series of “The Heart Guy.”
Clint: I’m looking for him, I’m not… What’s his last name?
Lyn: Corser, C-O-R-S-E-R, I think. Corser.
Clint: Here we go, the moment before I see…well, he’s much better-looking than I am. I appreciate the…
Lyn: You remind me so much of him.
Clint: Oh, thank you. Oh, that’s nice. You say such nice things about me, Lyn.
Lyn: Well, you do. You remind me… From the minute that you came on screen, that’s who I thought of like, “Huh, I’m talking with a real Rodger Corser.” But you’re much better because he just entertains us and you make us well.
Clint: That’s nice. That’s really nice to feel that level of appreciation. It is very humbling, and you know, I certainly don’t take it for granted or anything. It’s very motivating for me to keep doing what I’m…
Lyn: My daughter actually discovered you. She found you and then she… “Mom, mon. You’ve got to…” So I credit her with finding you, but, oh, am I grateful to both of you. I really am.
Clint: Oh, thank you. Well, say hi to your daughter for me, and you enjoy the rest of the cool day that you’ve got going on there, and…
Lyn: Oh, we’re having a heat wave. It’s in the 60s.
Clint: Oh, that’s good. You can go and do your walk.
Lyn: Yeah. Well, you enjoy the rest of your time in Florida, and I hope you’ve had a wonderful time in America, but I know you’d be happy to get back home. Home is always best.
Clint: Thank you very much, Lyn. I’ll talk to you again soon.
Lyn: Okay. Thank you, Clint. It’s been wonderful. Bye-bye.