Has changing diet and environment actually made anyone get remission?

[alwaysimproving]

They're is no one specific cause of autoimmunity ; it is a combination of genetic factors and environmental triggers that causes your immunity to lose tolerance.

We don't understand the mechanisms at a molecular standpoint, and there are very likely to be multiple pathways that trigger loss of tolerance. Once we understand the molecular pathways we could create better drugs and possibly cures.

By the way, a cure for sjogren's (that won't reverse damage done) already exists. But don't expect any physician to allow you to do it as it is beyond risky (threat to life and organ damage). It involves depleting your entire immune system through chemotherapy and replacing with when cells. It's been used for very serious manifestations of other autoimmune diseases like MS. In theory it will work for any AI disorder.

[Carolina]

I agree 100% with Irish.

AND if there were any treatment, diet, activity, that put any autoimmune condition into remission, there would be basic researchers at NIH all over it. 

Google your treatment, diet, activity and add pubmed to the search term.  That will show immediately if there is any research being done into the treatment, diet, activity.

There is research on helminth treatment at NIH for example, and on the use of the herbal medicine cistanche.

Check things out, draw your own conclusions.  Check with Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation as well as other Sjogren's organizations that fund research and advocate for us.

No one will keep good research and successful modalities from us.

Regards,  Elaine

[Carebear]

As my rheumatologist put it so well - "If we had a cure or a method to put this disease into remission, I would have no reason to hide it from you.  You would be the second person to know about it. "  HE would presumably be the first.

[SjoGirl]

Thought I would add to this thread. I cheated on my diet yesterday, big time, ate a bit of dairy, gluten, and sugar (fair food). Now it may be that it was very hot too (though I did hydrate like crazy), but I have been in extraordinary pain today. For me confirmation that diet does matter.

[Sharon]

Whenever I "cheat" on my diet even a little and add the smallest bit of gluten, dairy, sugar or even potato I pay dearly for it with increased inflammation just as SjoGirl has mentioned.
I get strong joint pain, gastro symptoms, my eyes become red and burn, fatigue hits, etc.
So I would say diet doesn't "cure" but it may help get the inflammation under some more control.
Same is true for environment- it can make symptoms worse or somewhat more tolerable.

[Nymph]

I think that I was in remission for about a year. I started Plaquenil and went gluten free at the same time. It took about nine months and then I went into remission (IMO). I believe that both helped in different ways. I definitely have a gluten intolerance because I get dysmennorhea when I consume gluten, and that has almost completely resolved.

However, my remission was not sustained. Why? Well, the immune system is a powerful things, as are our genetic predispositions. Epigenetics is fascinating and I do believe that we can turn our "switches" on and off by environmental forces, but that is also a very young area of science. However, it does make sense that diet would be an important part of that puzzle, although the specifics will probably take several more decades to understand.

At the time when I was doing so well, I also had very little stress in my life. Once I went back to grad school to become a teacher my flares returned. Now that I am teaching all bets are off and I hope to just be able to maintain until I can achieve a better work life balance.

In the end I think that progression, flares, remission are very complex and will vary for everyone, but that there are helpful things that may make a significant difference in disease progression for some.

[Sharon]

That's interesting Nymph.
I've heard other stories of remission that involved de-stressing as well.
The question is how to maintain the de-stressing for the long term.
I'm wondering if antidepressants which moderate mood or some other meds may aid with this.

[bluegardenia]

ive noticed how stress and depression affect my symptoms and im trying meditation and other such as accupuncture and pranotherapy.for me it works and i will not try other meds. strangely in these days my dryness is better and i did not change anything but my mental attitude. but i dont want to have any illusion....