Customer Reviews

Conquering Arthritis: What Doctors Don't Tell You Because They Don't Know: 9 Secrets I Learned the Hard Way

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I cannot express what a blessing this book is in our lives. My husband's arthritis began at only 22 years of age and it was progressing fast. No one in my family has this disease and I did not know where to turn except a specialist. We saw a specialist for a few years, and I always asked was there nothing more we could do to cure the arthritis? I could not believe that he would have to be on medication for the rest of his life. Since he was in his early twenties, this would mean years and years of constant, daily medication. Of course this would eventually mean problems with other parts of his body due to medication intake. I still did not know where to go to find a cure rather than just an immune supressant. Then, he came home one day after an appointment with his doctor involving a new set of x-rays. He was now being told that his bones were starting to be eaten away and bones in his left hand had most likely fused together. He was still only 27 at this point! I could not imagine what permanent consequences would come over the next years and I could see him not being able to play with our little boy or do anything with his hands in the future. This pushed me to stop at nothing to find the cure. I knew it had to be out there, but where? After tons of research and reading, I found the cure!!! I cannot begin to express my thanks to the author and her research and her sharing with the world. I just can't understand why the medical community does not know, or if they know, why they don't share the knowledge. My husband is in college and this very night was studying Rheumatoid Arthritis in his anatomy class. They have NO information on how diet and food sensitivities can cause RA and they state they know of no cure or really good medications. It just blows me away that millions of people suffer when the cure is out there, available, and really not difficult. If you or someone you know has RA, please get a hold of this book! I was unsure about the cost, but boy am I glad I tried it out anyhow! We found that corn is his sensitivity, which makes cooking a little more tricky at first, but once we figured out what he can and cannot eat, we are doing great! It took a little effort in the beginning to find the ingredients that will work, and we had to adjust recipes, but he eats totally normal. In fact, we all eat more healthy now. And I don't mean bran and tasteless food. We eat everything we ate before, but now it is fresh and from scratch. He has been off ALL medication for almost 6 months now and we are on our way to complete recovery. His right hand is totally normal now, and we are soon going to try the recommended trigger point method to fix his "fusion". The info here WORKS!!!!!! It takes dedication and a short lifestyle adjustment, but what a blessing everything in this book has been. An answer to many prayers! THANK YOU!!!

Outstanding. If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis ...get this book. Practice it and your life will change. Barbara has done an excellent job of combining personal experience, reviewing the scientific literature and inspiring the reader, to produce a life-changing book. She goes through extraordinary lengths to find answers to the disease that once haunted her and comes up a winner. And you can get the benefit of her vast experiences and research for the cost of a book.

As a physician who treats Rheumtoid Arthritis I realized that modern medicine is very limited in what it can do for this disorder.This book will give you options beyond anything you dreamed possible ..and (from second hand experience) it works. I tell my RA patients - even if you do nothing else for now - just read this book!

I suffer from both RA and Ankylosing Spondolitis. I found out through this program that I cannot eat wheat, milk or dairy products, eggs, sugar or coffee. When I'm good at sticking to it, I'm almost in complete remission. When I cheat, I pay for it. Within 20 minutes of consuming one of the above items, my fingers begin to swell and get stiff, and by the next morning I'm in a lot of pain. I have been able to stop taking the Methatrexate and Lodin which were very hard on the liver and destroyed my immune system. This is a really great program and it works if you have the discipline and self motivation to go through it and stick it out. If you are completely lazy and looking for an easy fix, this may not be for you. It's hard! It has been hard for me to give up coffee, Lucky Charms for breakfast, hot chocolate, cookies and some other comfort foods. But in the end I have a lot of new favorites, my inflamation and pain have disappeared, I've lost weight and my skin looks fabulous to boot. God bless Barbara Allan! She's an angel.

I'd like to give a copy of this book to everyone I know with arthritis and all of my clients with chronic diseases. Food sensitivities are rampant, and most people ignore them, thinking that they have to feel really awful immediately after eating something or it couldn't be connected to their health problems. Allan's writing about this issue is very convincing as she narrates her own long ordeal with crippling arthritis and the detective work that it took to unravel the foods that continued to provoke disabling joint pain. She writes with an awareness and sensitivity to the average person who is attached to 'favorite foods,' letting the reader know just how difficult the process of uncovering sensitivites can be. She spells out in great detail, and with constant reminders of the benefits, how to embark upon this process of discovering without falling into the quagmire of confusion resulting from delayed reactions. Her recommendations include introducing one food at a time for 2-3 days, and after a reaction, waiting until one is asymptomatic before resuming the process of trying foods. She addresses all the challenges of maintaining some kind of social life in a culture filled with processed and fake foods, such as how to eat at restaurants, enjoy pot lucks and other gatherings with friends, and how to adjust recipes to avoid problem foods.

In addition, Allan discusses the benefits of meditation for pain relief, how to exercise with severe limitations, and gives a brief overview of various therapies that have been used successfully to reduce pain and reduce or eliminate allergies.

This book gets five stars as an inspiration to everyone to take charge of their own healing by looking at what they put into their bodies!

I wanted to tell everyone that this book is the genuine article! I have witnessed the author's illness and recovery. I met Barbara when she came to our lab as a graduate student to work on her PhD. I saw all the misery she went through when she was hit so hard with the pain of arthritis. I didn't know what to tell her when her doctor told her that her pain was all in her head and that she needed to get over it. I saw her getting so bad that she had to use a wheelchair. I was there when she had to leave graduate school short of her PhD because she couldn't even hold a pipet in her hand anymore. And then I saw her start to get better and better. I was totally amazed the day I saw her running in Tower Grove Park. It has been a hard but wonderous journey for her. I wish her all success with her book and hope that she can help others as well as she has helped herself.

This book is a comprehensive,exhaustively researched,beautifully organized,detailed, and clear presentation of a remarkable journey. The photo on the cover of the book says it all. And though Ms. Allan focuses on arthritis, she also gives information and practical techniques that help her readers cope with other illnesses. Her knowlegable and clear presentations of how the body works and what it does with the food ingested is culled both from personal experience and a scientifically trained mind; her years of research and writing were a product of necessity, determination, discipline and scientific rigor. She inspires and teaches us to find approaches that work. By trial and error, patience and self-observation, with the hard-won information she provides, we can heal ourselves.

The book is invaluable. To understate: In it are lists naming hidden allergens in the foods we buy--these lists alone are worth the price of the book!

I remember Barbara's intense pain, her grimacing, her cries of pain...her being carried up stairs...the big cushion donuts on her pens so she could hold them...the homemade port-a-potty on the first floor of the house...the electrical cart...taking apart the electrical cart and putting it in the trunk...putting together the electrical cart...the research papers she studied...quinoa grain.... Make no mistake but that Barbara was an invalid. She was in great pain. She was placed on what would have been a lifetime of pain management. But she didn't accept that. She didn't give up. She believed there was an answer, and she set out using her background as a scientist in molecular biology to investigate possible cures one by one. This did not happen overnight, but using her extreme strength of character and intelligence (simultaneously with her pain) Barbara persevered in her own healing.

The juice fast yielded dramatic results. IT WAS A MIRACLE. The pain was gone. Of course it reappeared as Barbara ate allergens (foods to which she was allergic, including corn and wheat products), but she gradually identified all of her food allergens and removed them from her diet. Then, in time, she discovered how to cure herself of the food allergies, and today she can eat anything. And she narrates the techniques on how she did all of this in her book.

But she did not stop there with her healing. When she was fully recovered and bicycling on those long trips with the St. Louis bike club, she thought of all the stuff she had learned. She could have just gone on with her life arthritis-free, but she thought of all the other people similarly suffering from arthritis, who were facing a lifetime filled with pain and pain management. If these techniques and knowledge helped her, they could help others. Others needed this same information and were not getting it. She wished she had had this information available to her when she needed it. Again, Barbara disciplined herself, and she put her research and experience down in book form so it could be accessible to help others.

For people with rheumatoid arthritis (and certain other autoimmune diseases), Barbara wrote this book for you. Barbara conquered her suffering and will not spend a lifetime "managing pain." You can do the same. Yes, it does take some effort to juice fast and follow her other techniques, but the results can be miraculous. The book is literally stuffed full of information, and Barbara uses easy-to-understand language in her book. It is a book of personal experience, and her care and concern for others comes through on the pages. Barbara dedicated the book to everyone suffering from arthritis. I repeat her words: "May it help others find their own way back to health."

There are a number of books about Food Intolerances that are invaluable to people who have chronic health problems without knowing the cause of their problems. Since physicians are often ignorant in the area of Type III or Delayed Onset Food Intolerance, these books are often the only hope for people to regain their good health and in many cases their lives. Barbara Allen in her book Conquering Arthritis contributes detailed information to the topic that I have not seen in any other book. Her own story is inspiring and her systematic approach to solving her personal health crisis mystery is a blueprint for others to find their personal way back to good health. To her credit she did not only fight and win her own battle with ignorance, pain and deteriorating health but had the drive and compassion to get the message out there to help all of us with her excellent research and conclusions. I was diagnosed with IBS and Fibromyalgia and Arthritis and Insomnia and Chronic Fatigue and CTS and was offered lots of prescription drugs, some of which I took for a while, but nothing helped like avoiding the foods to which I am allergic. Barbara Allen made me aware of hidden additives in foods and vitamins that I needed to stop eating but that I would not have suspected. Thanks for sharing, Barbara Allen!!!

I have Reactive Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondolitis, and am HLA B-27 positive. My mother also has an auto-immune disease and several known food allergies. We both decided to try the juice fast and food reintroduction techniques found in the book. In short, The fast has helped reduce a lot of my mother's pain, but none of mine.

Overall, I think the ideas presented in the book are worth a try. I have heard several people state that approximately 30% of arthritis cases are caused, or at least worsened, by food allergies and sensitivities. In those cases, the arthritis can be cured by performing a juice fast and food reintroduction. The fast includes completely eliminating all foods, avoiding all other inputs - medication, alcohol, and smoking for example, and using enemas to clean out any trace food particles.

The book was easy to read and consistently provided footnotes to Allan's research and suggested reading. My issue with the book is the following:
Allan repeats some information ad nauseum, often at the expense of providing more detailed information elsewhere. I would have liked the sections on the actual fast and food reintroduction to be greatly expanded. For example, it is not sufficient to just say 'begin self-administered enemas and continue until regular bowel movements occur after the test is done'.

Also I feel that Allan gave a far-too-simple explanation of food reintroduction, and in some cases even contradicted herself. For example she states that when reintroducing food only test one food a day, then later says to test one new food every 24-36 hours, then in her sample guide to reintroducing food she says to introduce 2 foods on the same day (apple and a lettuce salad). There is no explanation why this example breaks her previous reintroduction strategy. The final complaint that I have is that much of the stylistic writing and font choice is unprofessional at best, repetitive and gratuitous at worst. All of these problems could have been solved by using a mainstream publishing company and editor, but I am sure no mainstream company would have published this book! That said, I do think that this book is worth purchasing if you have an auto-immune disease and are willing to work hard to solve it! Even though it didn't work for me, it may work for you.

I have had ankylosing spondylitis (an auto-immune form of arthritis somewhat different than the author's) for 25 years and have spent the last 15 years exploring a variety of alternative healing modalities to deal with arthritis pain. Through my own exploration and dedication to healing, I have been able to manage my pain without prescription drugs for most of that time, yet the arthritis has continued to define much of the circumstances of my life. I read Allan's book 6 months ago at the suggestion of a friend and have been amazed to find how much I have learned despite my own extensive explorations in this arena. This book has helped me take my healing to a new level, assisting me with defining key triggers and inspiring me toward a new vision of health.

What impresses me most is that my own arthritis is different enough from Allan's that her techniques do not apply directly to my situation--and yet the example of her experience has provided me with crucial insights that have helped me discover my own answers. What Allan has discovered (and documented superbly) about food sensitivities is applicable to my own sensitivities to such factors as stress and relational dynamics. Furthermore, while the fasting process did not serve to identify food sensitivities in my case, it deepened my understanding of my body and the healing process in significant ways.

Chronic pain, by it's nature, becomes something we too often learn to adapt to and live with, something we begin to define as normal. After a bad bout with my arthritis, it is always amazing to me to rediscover the freedom of being pain free and the joy of moving my body with flexibility and grace. Allan's book provides the knowledge, approach, and vision to turn the tide so that such moments come ever more strongly into being. She takes the chronic out of pain, reminding us that it is the nature of life to change and it is the nature of humans to rise to the challenge.