I have been reading the posts on this site for many years but today I decided to tell my story and how I over came having Psoriatic Arthritis.
In 1997 I was 50 years old when I first saw my rheumatologist and he explained to me what I had and how he could treat it.
He also told me that within 5 years I would be in a wheel chair which I thought he was crazy but from 2000 to 2004 I was completed disabled.
I have been on Methotrexate ever since and towards the end of 2004 I started using Enbrel and within 2 weeks of taking first injections I was able to leave my home and start regaining my life again.
One day I met a doctor who asked me if any doctor ever explained to me what my PH level was and why it was important to know and I told him no.
The doctor then explained to me why you always want to have a PH level higher in alkalinity and not lower and acidic. He told me every morning and every night before getting into bed to take an 8 oz glass of water with a half a tea spoon of baking soda and I started doing that 8 years ago and my wife and children thought it was a crazy idea but I researched everything he told me and he was right!
It’s easy to check your own PH level with PH strips you purchase in any health store.
In 2018 in the April issue of the Journal of Immunology that did a blind study to see if using sodium bicarbonate could help people with different types of arthritis and their study provided once and for all that it did indeed help lower the inflammation which reduces the pain.
The sodium bicarbonate effects the spleen and the spleen as a lot to do with our immune system and that is how they think it works.
I showed this study to me rheumatologist and he read it and looked at me and said how long have you been doing this and told him at the time about 6 years and said keep doing it and thank for bringing this to my attention.
Please check everything I have said for yourself because this saved my life and today I live pain free and at 73 old old I still run my own company and go to work everyday.
Between using the Enbrel and taking my 8 oz. glass of water with baking soda I no longer worry about Psoratic Arthritis any longer.
Hi @Jim_H! That’s wonderful that you’ve seen so much improvement. I suspect that the majority of the improvement has been from the meds though, and not from the baking soda. I did take a look at the article. It certainly had some interesting ideas, and there was discussion of how the results from the experiment might be applicable.
That said, there was no suggestion in there that this is a research based treatment for psoriatic arthritis or other autoimmune conditions. We’ve had some interesting discussions in the past here, about the difference between correlation and causation. I suspect that the daily baking soda has been correlated with your improvements, which were actually caused by finding medications that properly control your disease process.
I won’t get into all of the details. Here’s a link to that earlier discussion.
I find that the baking soda played a larger role then I every realized and I will explain.
My Enbrel injections started out being once a week but I noticed something happening and that was that I tried going without taking the injections because of the high costs involved and I did not have any pain at all.
I only took the injections once ever 30 to 45 day’s apart with no side effects.
I believe the baking soda worked better then I ever thought it would.
This process of taking baking soda takes a period of months to build it up in your body.
I am only saying this is what worked for me if others want to try something else that’s up to them and I understand your position.
Firstly, the fact that you are pain free & able to get on with your life is worth celebrating! Very pleased to hear that.
However my story has some parallels with yours, minus the baking soda. There was initial disability for a couple of years followed by considerable improvement on biologics. This improvement has lasted for 6 years now.
As for pain, well sometimes I do complain about pain. Sometimes I just feel like having a moan 'cos the PsA does affect me randomly in a variety of ways, though generally I’m pretty able physically. But relatively speaking pain is not a big thing for me, compared to many I am pretty much pain free most of the time. PsA is not necessarily painful outside of flares and I have only ever had the one major flare all those years ago.
I don’t usually worry about PsA these days, if anything I worry more about other health issues that seem to be totting up. But despite lack of pain I do have occasional joint swelling and creeping PsA-related damage … a slow but definite increase in erosions over the last few years.
I only know about the erosions and the fact that they are very slowly worsening because of imaging. I would guess that I still have plenty of joints that haven’t been x-rayed that have their own nasty little secrets.
Having a chronic arthritic condition with severe onset, I reckon I’m doing pretty well, that my PsA has been slowed right down and that at this rate I may avoid the more serious forms of disability. And I have to say that the factor which is most likely to explain this good state of affairs is the biologic.
Hi Jim_Hill! I’m glad you posted…this is very interesting and I’m going to look further into it.
I have a few questions…
Do you still take Methotrexate?
Did you go back to your weekly dose of Enbrel or are you still taking it every 30-45 days?
Have you ever gone off the soda water to see if your inflammation got worse?
You said you’re pain-free. Do you not have any damage from the years of PsA causing you disability?
Ok, so I have constant pain in my feet. It waxes and wanes—today it’s bad—tomorrow it’ll be mild. It’s mostly because my feet are damaged from not treating my PsA right away. If you’re pain free but you had 4 years of being totally disabled, you are fortunate to not have damage. Or, I’m wondering if you did have damage, how did you fix it? My feet are so damaged it seems like every day they get a little worse. I’m thinking some of my foot pain is inflammation, and that’s where I hope the soda water would help! I’m also on Enbrel but not Methotrexate.
Anyway, thank you for posting. It’s worth a try. I’m certain I’ll be wheelchair-bound if I don’t get help for my feet soon.
Heres the problem with an isolated study that has a well defined control group and poorly designed cohort (ie what meds were the cohort taking) and trying to compare to dead rats… One of the effects of methotrexate is that it alkalizes the urine. (or in short does what NaHCO3 does.) One of the reasons bloodwork is monitored so regularly and especially the chem panel is to monitor those vital kidney numbers. (anionic gap among them) too high and the meds work too well and MTX toxicity can occur. Too low and the meds don’t metabolize well enough too have an effect. BTW it take 60 days for enbrel to leave the system. Not saying NaHCO3 doesn’t work, after all the filler in most NSAIDs is NaHCO3 just that this was a study to create studies.
I am still taking Methotrexate 5 pills every Saturday just as a maintenance drug which is what my Rheumatologist told me to do.
On orders for my Rheumatologist I take a 50mg. injection once a week. He does not want me experimenting on myself after I told him how far apart I was taking the shots.
There is a protocol for taking the baking soda and I would advice everyone to first read a book called Sodium Bicarbonate Nature’s Unique First Aid Remedy before starting to use baking soda so that you understand how and when to take it and also for how long before stopping for a week or two.
I have read this book many times over the years and it offers great advice and instructions on just how to do everything.
Today I am pain free and every 3 months I see the Rheumatologist and he examines my hands, feet, wrists and fingers and he really pushes on every joint very hard but I do not feel any pain. This is the exact same Rheumatologist I saw 22 years ago and he told me I was the worst case he had ever seen.
I do have damage that was done in my early years to me fingers which is what they call sausage fingers that are deformed but all of the damage happened before 2004
I also have had two operations one on my left hand to remove inflamed tissue and the second operation on my right foot was caused by a different Rheumatologist who been giving me cortisone injections in the foot because it was always swollen and I could not get a shoe or sneaker on it.
This doctors needle touched a bone and after an MRI they determined that I had Osteomylities of the bone. So the very morning they told me they might have to remove my foot or part of my leg.
I remember the day in late 2004 when the Rheumatologist told me about Enbrel and I looked at the list of side effects that could possiblly kill me and I told him I cannot go on living the way I was living with the pain and that I would try Enbrel. I could not make it through a day without taking Hydrocodone for the pain but it was the only way at that point in time to function.
I thought that by posting my story it might just help someone else because over the years there many people have offered me help and advice.
My Rheumatologist is a wonderful person who has really helped me over all these years.
Well it is an interesting discussion Jim. I’ve learned a few things.
I guess one key point to mention is that many of us think it is very important to differentiate between pain control and disease control.
When I first read your post, I missed the fact that you were taking Enbrel and thought you might be claiming that bicarb controls the disease, thereby slowing damage. I don’t think you are, I think your focus is on potential pain relief. And mod support (I think this must be our friend @tntlamb) states:
When I woke up after the operation I had all of my toes and a right foot so I asked my wife what they did and she told me the cut open the side of my foot from the toes to the heel and remove a section of bone that was turning black for the infection.
I had been told before the operation that they might need to remove the foot or a section of my leg depending on how far the infection had gone so I consider myself very lucky.
Wow, Jim, that’s a great success story—especially for the Enbrel! I’m sure your combined meds and the soda are keeping you well. It’s so good to hear you are pain free after all you’ve gone through!
I’ve been considering injections in my feet. They’ve been painful for a few years now, despite the Enbrel, and they keep getting worse. But after reading what happened to your foot, it’s just a little scary!
I do want to try the soda to see if that further helps my feet. Actually, Enbrel relieves the kind of pain I got from PsA, but it can’t do anything for the pain from eroded cartilage where there’s bone on bone. I’m not too confident soda will do much good for that, either, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
Your comment was the following, Not saying NaHCO3 doesn’t work, after all the filler in most NSAIDs is NaHCO3
I find this to be an very interesting fact and maybe it is the fillers that do more of the work then we realize in helping us!
Jim