How do you reduce inflammation when you have rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune condition? This is a crucial question that you must ask every day and you have to put a plan in place to improve.
What is your Plan to Reduce Inflammation?
The biggest question that you should be asking yourself is what is your plan today to reduce inflammation when you have rheumatoid arthritis?
This is a crucial question that you should be asking yourself every day. This is not related to just living with the condition, just putting up with it, ignoring it, or minimising it with painkillers. However, we are talking about having a plan on what you are going to do to reduce inflammation and the disease severity.
Despite concerns about physical movement, Rheumatoid arthritis and exercise can still go hand-in-hand. In fact, studies have shown that interval training can reduce inflammation [1][2]. Therefore, you need to have a clear plan for your exercise. When are you going to exercise today? How are you going to exercise? Also include specific goals, such as lifting a heavier weight or learning a new yoga position.
Begin your Plan Today
So, what you need to do is schedule what you want. And you also need to be specific. This plan can be minor or major lifestyle changes like:
- Changing your diet so you’re eating more of a plant-based diet.
- Doing more exercise.
- Drinking more Green Goodness Juice drinks.
- Cut back on alcohol.
Whatever your goal, you need to take action today and also create a schedule that allows you to make daily incremental improvements to your lifestyle habits. When these are completed you should be able to see a reduction in your inflammation.
You can start from where you are right now. Even if your physical abilities are low and your diet isn’t configured for healing, you can begin from where you are. Tiny improvements add up in a cumulative way, it’s about getting started and then maintaining the supportive habits.
Ellen’s Story: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Exercise
Ellen is one of the long-term members of the original Paddison Program and has now moved onto the Rheumatoid Support coaching program where she now helps others after building strength, regaining confidence, getting off prednisone and reducing her required dosage of Methotrexate. She had a plan for starting Bikram yoga to help her reduce inflammation and has now completed 800 classes!
Ellen has detailed her journey with the Paddison Program in previous podcast episodes (Part 1 Part 2) and is a perfect example of how if you schedule and plan, you can achieve your goals.
[1] Munk PS, Breland UM, Aukrust P, Ueland T, Kvaløy JT, Larsen AI. High intensity interval training reduces systemic inflammation in post-PCI patients. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil. 2011 Dec;18(6):850-7. doi: 10.1177/1741826710397600. Epub 2011 Feb 18. PMID: 21450602.
[2] Bartlett DB, Willis LH, Slentz CA, Hoselton A, Kelly L, Huebner JL, Kraus VB, Moss J, Muehlbauer MJ, Spielmann G, Kraus WE, Lord JM, Huffman KM. Ten weeks of high-intensity interval walk training is associated with reduced disease activity and improved innate immune function in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis: a pilot study. Arthritis Res Ther. 2018 Jun 14;20(1):127. doi: 10.1186/s13075-018-1624-x. PMID: 29898765; PMCID: PMC6001166.