Arthritis

Stiff, Swollen and Painful Joints, Rheumatism, Fibromyalgia, Gout and Sciatica

Understanding the Condition

A Healthy Joint

Where two bones meet, the ends are capped with smooth, slippery cartilage. The joint is wrapped in a capsule whose lining makes a thick, clear fluid, the joint’s own oil, which keeps the cartilage gliding and feeds it. Cartilage has no blood vessels of its own. It is fed the way a sponge drinks: every time the joint moves and then rests, fluid is pressed out of the cartilage and drawn back in, carrying fresh nutrients in and waste out. Muscles, tendons and ligaments hold the joint steady, and the blood flowing through them brings what the whole area needs.

So a joint lives by circulation and by movement. When the blood is clean and flowing and the joint is used, it stays smooth and free.

Diagram comparing a healthy joint with an arthritic joint. — A healthy joint and an arthritic joint. Simplified diagram drawn for H.E.A.L.

How the Trouble Develops

Dr. Christopher taught that there are over forty kinds of arthritis, and that “they all stem back to a toxic condition of the body.” When the bowel is backed up, the liver is overloaded and the kidneys cannot keep up, acids and waste build up in the blood. Waste that cannot get out settles where the circulation is slowest, and the joints, with no blood vessels in the cartilage, are among the first places it lands. Over time it hardens. As the old sheets put it, arthritis is caused by acids and waste matter in the body, which eventually become solidified and lock the joint.

First, stiffness. Waste and acid in the joint fluid make it thick and sluggish. The joint is stiff in the morning and loosens as it moves.
Then inflammation. The lining of the joint becomes irritated. The joint swells, turns warm and hurts, and the swelling presses on the nerves and slows the flow even more.
Then deposits. Mineral the body could not use (hard water, processed food, rock-based calcium) and uric acid crystals settle in and around the joint as spurs and gravel. The cartilage wears rough and thin.
Finally, locking. In long-standing cases the joint enlarges, the muscles around it waste from disuse, and the body lays down scar tissue until the joint can fuse.

Dr. Christopher, quoting Thomas Deschauer, explained how the body turns worn-out tissue into urea and should pass about an ounce of it every day. When that process is left unfinished, or the urea is held in, it turns back into uric acid. Things that hold it in: stopping perspiration, cooling off too quickly, neglecting bathing and clean underclothing, and sleeping in a room with no fresh air. Avoid these if you want to get well.

Dr. Christopher noted that “when an arthritic is badly constipated, the stiffness and pain are worse.” The joint is where it hurts, but the bowel, liver, kidneys and blood are where it starts.

The Kinds of Arthritis

Wear-and-tear arthritis (osteoarthritis) is the most common. The cartilage wears rough and thin and spurs form, usually in the knees, hips, hands and spine.
Rheumatoid arthritis begins in the lining of the joint. The body’s own defenses inflame it, often in matching joints on both sides of the body, with fatigue, morning stiffness that lasts for hours, and flares that come and go. Physical or emotional stress can bring a flare on.
Rheumatism and fibromyalgia cover aching, stiffness and pain in the muscles, tendons and soft tissue around the joints. Dr. Christopher traced rheumatism to poor elimination: toxic matter stagnating in the body.
Gout is uric acid crystals in the joint. Attacks come suddenly, often at night, and usually in one joint, most often the big toe, which turns hot, red, tender and shiny. Left alone, it spreads into the foot, ankle and knees, with indigestion, constipation and scanty urine.
Sciatica is pain, numbness and tingling down the back of the thigh along the sciatic nerve. Dr. Christopher called it sciatic rheumatism and taught that it is not a nerve problem at all: toxic poisons from a congested lowest part of the bowel (the sigmoid colon) irritate the nerve and throw the sacroiliac out of place.
Bursitis is inflammation of the small fluid sacs that cushion a joint. See the Bursitis sheet.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.

Stiff joints often go with a stiff heart. Resentment held for years, criticism of ourselves and others, and refusing to bend all lock the flow the same way deposits lock the joint. Rheumatoid arthritis in particular is known to flare with emotional stress.

Dara has found that fibromyalgia can be one of the hardest conditions to clear, and the reason is often not in the body. After years of hurting without being believed, a diagnosis can feel like finally being understood: there is a reason for the pain. Once some people receive it, it becomes part of who they are, and letting go of it can feel like losing something, even though it is the pain. Healing asks for a willingness to be well, and to step out of the role of the one who suffers. That is the heart work, and it matters as much as the herbs.

Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:

Arthritis: feeling unloved; criticism and resentment. Turn it around: I am love. I choose to love and approve of myself, and I see others with love.
Arthritic fingers: a wish to punish; blame; feeling like a victim. Turn it around: I see with love and understanding. I hold every experience up to the light of love.
Rheumatoid arthritis: deep criticism of authority; feeling very put upon. Turn it around: I am my own authority. I love and approve of myself. Life is good.
Rheumatism: feeling like a victim; lack of love; long-held bitterness and resentment. Turn it around: I create my own experiences. As I love and approve of myself and others, my experiences get better and better.
Gout: the need to dominate; impatience and anger. Turn it around: I am safe and secure. I am at peace with myself and with others.
Sciatica: being two-faced; fear about money and the future. Turn it around: I move into my greater good. My good is everywhere, and I am secure and safe.

Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House). These are not faults to blame anyone for; they are a reminder of how much the heart is carrying.

Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing

Arthritis involves the joint itself: its cartilage, fluid and lining, and the muscles, tendons and ligaments around it. But the work starts with the bowel that must carry waste out, the liver and kidneys that filter it from the blood, and the blood that feeds the joint and carries the waste away. Clear the blockage, get fresh blood and nutrients into the joint, and keep it moving.

Opening the Way to Healing

1. Clear the blockage.

2. Get the healing nutrients into the area.

3. Let sunshine and fresh air cycle over and through the affected part.

4. Bathe regularly.

5. Move the area as much as you can.

6. Know which area is truly affected. Not where the symptoms show up, but the part causing the issue. That is the area that needs to be cleared. With arthritis the joint is where it hurts, but the bowel, liver and kidneys are where the waste comes from. Clear them, and the joint can let go of what it has been holding.

Quick Relief: Hot Apple Cider Vinegar

Over the years Dara has seen one natural aid act quickly and effectively every time for pain and swelling in the joints: apple cider vinegar.

The hot soak. Soak the inflamed joint in hot water with apple cider vinegar. The hot vinegar works to dissolve the uric acid in the joint, and relief often comes within a few hours or by the next morning. For a joint you can’t soak, wring a towel out of hot vinegar and lay it over the joint, as hot as can be borne without burning the skin.
The daily drink. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water, one to three times a day, with a little honey if you like. It cuts the toxic waste loose from the joints and supports the kidneys in filtering it out of the system.

Two Formulas That Work Together

Joint Support and BF&C (Bone, Flesh & Cartilage) work very differently, and together they knock down the inflammation and restore the damaged joint.

Joint Support (formerly the Arthritis Formula). Hydrangea root, which Dr. Christopher called the solvent of solvents for mineral deposits; yucca, Mormon tea, chaparral, burdock and sarsaparilla to purify the blood; wild lettuce, valerian and black cohosh to ease pain; black walnut, wormwood and cayenne to carry it all where it needs to go. It takes down the inflammation so healing can begin. Take ½ to 1 teaspoon in a cup of hot water, two to three times a day. Relief is gradual, because there is a long rebuilding job to do.
A&R Salve (Arthritis & Rheumatism), the same formula made as a salve. Spread it on flannel, lay it over the painful joint, and hold it in place with Press’n Seal. Dramatic results often appear when the pack is left on overnight. An arthritic flare can be handled in a few hours with the salve.
BF&C, extract and salve. BF&C knits the damaged joint back together. It works to remove mineral deposits and clears old injuries of adhesions while it rebuilds bone, flesh and cartilage. Take 1 teaspoon three times a day, and use the salve as an overnight pack over the joint. For extremely painful or crippled joints, use both salves as packs.

Using Chaparral and Comfrey With Care

Chaparral is one of the herbs in Joint Support. It has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use and has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing what has built up. Stay at the dose on this sheet. Avoid it with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.

Comfrey root is one of the nine herbs in BF&C, where it feeds and rebuilds tissue as part of a traditional blend. Take the extract at 1 teaspoon three times a day. Use the salve as an overnight pack, and leave the area open and clear of salves for at least 6 hours each day. More is not faster.

Gout

Ease the attack. Bathe the joint in hot apple cider vinegar; relief often comes within a few hours or by the next morning. A few drops of Lobelia tincture added to the vinegar bath helps relax the joint.
Free the waste. Apple cider vinegar and honey in water three times a day, and a tea of equal parts skullcap, valerian and yarrow to help free the toxic waste from the tissues and carry it out.
Clear the cause. Gout comes from overloading the system with the wrong foods. Improve the eliminative organs (bowel, kidneys and skin) and change the diet, or it will keep coming back and spreading.

Sciatica

Clear the bowel first. No lasting relief will come while the bowel is backed up. Empty and cleanse the lowest part of the bowel with LBF.
The foot soak. Soak the feet in hot water with apple cider vinegar. For faster action, rest the right foot on a plate of freshly chopped garlic while the left foot soaks. Add hot water and more vinegar as it cools. This starts a circulatory movement that brings quick relief.
Burdock and lobelia. Drink burdock root tea, and lay a fomentation of burdock root (or crushed burdock leaves) with one-fourth part lobelia, or a hot apple cider vinegar fomentation, over the hip and down the leg.

Hots and Colds: Getting the Blood Into the Joint

Anytime there is disease or injury there is blockage. Alternating hot and cold water over the joint blasts through the blockage and lets the body flood the area with fresh, nutrient-rich blood. It does no good taking in all the great healing herbs and juices if the nutrition is blocked from the joint.

Think of firing a blood bullet through the blockage. The hot water loads the gun: run the shower or a hand wand as hot as you can tolerate without scalding, over the joint, until the skin is pink with fresh blood. Then switch to cold, which drives the blood out so fresh blood rushes back in. Go back and forth several times, ending on cold. When healing any major disease or injury, do the hots and colds three times a day.

Clearing the Source

The bowel. LBF, building up one capsule a day until the bowels move two or three times a day. A backed-up bowel makes the stiffness and pain worse.
The liver and kidneys. A week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing, repeated at least every six weeks while clearing and repairing the joints, more often if needed.
Kidney bean pod tea. Dr. Christopher called it a Godsend: one or two quarts a day. He told of a woman of 91 who drank only a few cups a day and could walk without her cane or walker; when she stopped the tea, the trouble came back.
Burdock root tea. One of the best blood purifiers in nature; it increases the flow of urine and relieves congestion in the lymph. Drink it over a period of time.
Kelp. Dr. Christopher found kelp a great help in arthritis and rheumatism, which he tied to faulty kidney function and a lack of the sodium salts.
Water. Plenty of clean, soft or distilled water every day to flush the waste out. Hard water adds to the mineral load.

Feeding the Joint

Live food. Fresh fruits and vegetables and their juices, much of it raw. Celery, cucumber, carrot and apple juices are old favorites for the joints.
Cut the acid-forming foods. Dr. Christopher named eggs, bread, milk, meat, salt and sugar among the worst for arthritic calcification. Processed and overcooked foods add to the load.
Plant calcium the body can use. Superfood and Dr. Christopher’s Calcium formula feed the bones and cartilage without the mineral residue of rock-based calcium.
Cayenne, worked up gradually, keeps the blood moving to the joints.

Sun, Air, Movement and Bathing

Move the joint every day, gently and within comfort. Movement is how cartilage is fed. Walking, stretching and warm water exercise all count.
Sun and air bath for 10 to 15 minutes a day, and walk barefoot in the grass or dirt when you can. Breathe deeply while you’re outside.
Bathe regularly to keep the skin open, and use the Detox Bath to draw waste out through the skin.
Massage helps encourage toxins out of the tissues. M&L Salve softens and relaxes tight muscles around a stiff joint.

When to Get Medical Care

Herbs are support alongside medical care, not a replacement for it. See a doctor for a joint that is suddenly hot, red and very swollen, especially with fever (it can be an infected joint); a joint that may be broken or torn after a fall; new swelling with fatigue, rash or fever, which can be the start of rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory disease; or a first gout attack with fever. Sciatica is an emergency when it comes with loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, or a leg that grows weak: go to the emergency room right away. Don’t stop a prescribed medication without the doctor.

Level of Commitment

How much is needed depends on how long the trouble has been building:

Gentle support. For occasional stiffness and the first aches. The hot vinegar soak and daily drink, Joint Support, BF&C, daily movement, plenty of water and the Foundational Programs: bowel cleansing, Echinacea and good nutrition.
Focused cleansing. For joints that ache every day, swell, or have begun to change shape. All of the above, plus A&R Salve and BF&C packs overnight, hots and colds three times a day, and a week of liver flushing followed by a week of kidney flushing at least every six weeks. Give it about three months, then keep going: this is a long rebuilding job.
Incurables Program. For crippling or long-standing arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The full Incurables Program, with fresh juices, the mucusless diet, cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula, and the BF&C fomentations every night. Blood Purifying also contains chaparral: take it in courses, not continuously, two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day, with the same liver cautions as above.

More Is Not Faster

These doses are set to what the body can clear. Taking more stirs up more than the bowels, liver and kidneys can carry out, and that is when cleansing starts to feel like poisoning. Healing the body requires steady, consistent nutrition and action, not a bigger dose.

People are different, and now and then someone reacts poorly to a particular herb. If that happens, stop it. What I offer here is a guideline. You are the one living in your body, so work with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom the Lord has given you to apply these supports in the best way for your life.

A Loose Healing Plan

Day 1: ease the pain. Hot apple cider vinegar soak or fomentation, and a salve pack on the worst joint overnight.
Week 1: start the formulas. Joint Support and BF&C, the daily vinegar drink, LBF to get the bowels moving, and plenty of water.
Week 1 onward: hots and colds over the joints, up to three times a day, and gentle movement every day.
Week 2: clear the source. A week of liver flushing, then a week of kidney flushing. Repeat at least every six weeks.
All along: feed the joint. Live food and juices, cut the acid-forming foods, Superfood and plant calcium, kidney bean pod tea.
All along: sun, air, bathing and the heart work. Let go of what you have been holding.
About 3 months: take stock. Relief often comes in weeks; rebuilding a joint takes months. Keep going with what is working.

Stories from the Work

Dara’s Story: A Finger Shooting Bullets

I do a lot of work with my hands: embroidering, painting and all types of crafts to keep myself occupied. I woke up one morning and my index finger was shooting bullets of pain I did not know it had the gun to shoot. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was well into the 9 range. I could hardly stand to touch it, and I could not bend it or move it at all without a lot of pain. I laid a thick layer of the A&R Salve over the entire finger, wrapped it with a roll of gauze and tried to ignore it. By lunchtime the pain was gone, and it did not come back. That was about four hours.

A Member’s Story: A BF&C Pack on an Arthritic Spine

A woman in her 80s was in bed and in pain with an arthritic spine. Her son applied a BF&C pack over her spine at bedtime. The next morning he reported she bounced out of bed feeling “right as rain.” She was not healed overnight. The BF&C had greatly reduced the inflammation around the arthritic areas in her spine, which contributed in a large part to her pain. Her improvement has continued, as it has for everyone who keeps using the formula over an extended period.

From Dr. Christopher: Out of the Wheelchair

In Mesa, Arizona, a young man in his middle twenties, badly crippled with polio and arthritis, was brought into Dr. Christopher’s lecture in a wheelchair and laid on a pile of pillows. He had been told he would never be out of the wheelchair unless it was into a hospital bed. A practical nurse took him into her home and helped him follow the program faithfully. A year later, in the same hall, he walked down the aisle to the front and asked to speak. He was traveling on foot, house to house, selling, to pay off his hospital bills, and he urged everyone to listen and put the program to use.

Watch

Arthritis: Natural Support and Herbal Healing Suggestions.

Arthritis: The Programs Class.

Clearing Calcium Deposits Naturally.

More on Arthritis

This information is for education only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or replace care from a qualified health professional.