John Arts - Natural health researcher John Arts is a natural health researcher and supplement formulator. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John on 0800 423 559 or join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz.

I have just finished speaking with someone who contacted me late 2009 about putting together a nutritional support programme for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR).
Like most people with PMR the symptoms came on suddenly and severely. His C Reactive Protein (CRP), which measures background inflammation, was very high.

After collecting background health information we put him on a highly anti-inflammatory nutrient regime and the differences have been very noticeable. Working with his doctor he has been able to steadily reduce prednisone levels while maintaining significant reductions in pain, stiffness and general discomfort.
Interestingly his last CRP test showed it was at an undetectable level. On a side note PMR is one problem where orthodox medical treatments and nutritional therapy work really well together. The prednisone blocks inflammation giving symptom relief while the nutrients are re-balancing the immune system to prevent unwanted inflammation.
A problem with any inflammatory disease is that the actual process of inflammation creates much higher levels of damaging free radicals which not only cause further damage but can severely restrict many healing processes. It is important to add the dietary antioxidants that are able to neutralise the massively increased levels of a range of free radicals.
What we were trying to achieve was a balancing of his body's inflammatory processes allowing healing to commence. In particular we are trying to lower the output of inflammatory cell signalling proteins called cytokines. In PMR we know that the cytokine IL-6 is greatly elevated. It makes sense then to look at nutrients including some fats and other compounds that tend to lower IL-6 and other inflammatory cytokines.
I often use the analogy of trying to heal a burn by it running under hot water and wondering why it will not heal. After a while you could end up with a new problem from the hot water worse than the original burn. Likewise cannot expect the body to heal an inflammatory condition like PMR in an inflammatory environment. Once again we see that introducing a personalised nutrient programme can help build the body's defences allowing healing to commence. Give the body what it needs and enough time and the results can be surprising.

John Arts is a natural health commentator and researcher. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John at john@johnarts.co.nz or phone 07 578 9051 or 0800 423 559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz