Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical and Laboratory Diagnostics

Dr. Patrick Lynch here, Lyme disease specialist, infectious disease specialist, autoimmune disease specialist. The reason why I'm a specialist is because I went through this myself, for starters. I went through this myself. I almost lost my life. I was debilitated. I got my health back.  I'm badass again.

 Okay. And so since then I did my doctorate thesis on how to identify root causes of autoimmune disease and how to effectively treat them and put them in sustained remission and how to prevent them from coming back. Basically, I wrote a book on it. It's a thesis. It's not in book form yet. It's not available to the public.

 I'm working on a book,  but it's just not there yet. Hmm.  So I'm doing a topic. I'm going to do a weekly topic.  This week I'm opening up with RA, Rheumatoid arthritis. So we're going to talk about the clinical presentation. We're going to talk about diagnostic procedures in terms of allopathic diagnostics.

 And we're going to talk about natural medicine diagnostics. We're going to, going to talk about Chinese medicine diagnostics and we are going to talk treatment. We'll talk about the allopathic approach, what allopathic approach does. Many of us already know, many of us are already there and we're looking for answers.

 I'm here to give you answers. I remember being in the hospital and they diagnosed me with MS and Crohn's disease. And I asked the doctors, the three authoritative doctors sitting in the, are standing in front of me in the hospital looking like authority figures. Government officials more like, and I asked them, I'm like, all right, docs, well, what's, what's the cause of MS and Crohn's disease?

 And they looked at me with their big tummies and their big Dr. White coats. And they said, Dr. Lynch or not Dr. Lynch, I wasn't a doctor at the time. They said, Mr. Lynch. I'm sorry to say, but there is no known cause for Crohn's disease and there is no known cause for MS. Really sorry to say that your life is going to be different for the rest of your life and you're going to be on hardcore medications for the rest of your life.

 You may need some further procedures to, you know, keep you stable, but your life as of now will  change.  And I looked at them, you know, like, I looked at them like, okay, doc,  okay, whatever, you know, okay, I'll go through the process, whatever I need to do, I was just trying to satisfy them so I can get released while what was really going on in my mind is like I don't think so.

I'm a guy who figures things out. You're not going to tell me. I know, you know. But for some reason, you're not telling me because I probably have dollar signs on my forehead and I ain't going there. So, at any rate, long story short, I went there.  I went into their clinic after I was released from the hospital.

 Barely made it into their clinic. I couldn't walk any more than 20 feet at a time and I get to the front counter of the clinic.  This is a GI clinic, mind you. These are GI surgeons, specialists. What's at the front counter of the freaking clinic?  a bowl of butterscotch candies.  I was beside myself. I looked at the receptionist.

 I'm like, yeah, I see you guys have butterscotch candies out here.  And she's like, yeah, please, please take one, take two. And I'm like, you guys are a GI clinic and you have butterscotch counties or butterscotch candies on the shelf.  At the reception, like right before you go to see the doctor.  I'm like, come on now, what are you guys doing?

 I turned around, I did an about face turned around and bailed out of that place so fast. I was like, you know, I didn't even look back. I was like, okay, I'm done here. These guys are freaks. And so at any rate. I got a call from them later on. Hey, you missed your appointment. I'm like, yeah, I found somebody else.

 I'm good. But you know, thanks for looking after me. And the reason why, you know, I looked at those butterscotch candies is because I knew that anything that I ate that metabolized is a polysaccharide. would increase symptoms. I had severe food sensitivities and I finally figured that out. And once I figured that out in regards to my severe food sensitivities  and I could stay away from them, I could keep my symptoms at bay.

 But as soon as I ate something that metabolized as a starch or a polysaccharide, then  I was in, I was in trouble. Like I was in serious trouble. So, and I didn't know why.  Duh, I figured it out later and I'll share with this with you later. Later this week, but you know, I was like,  what the, you know, what is wrong with me?

 And, and doctors just didn't want to share it with me. They know, and I know they know now because I know what they know.  So at any rate, what I'm here to say,  is I've been through it. I did my thesis on this and this is my specialty now. I help people get through it. I help people get through all the way to the end with Lyme disease, co infections, mycotoxins, mold, systemic parasitic infections and autoimmune disease.

 So if I'm an infectious disease specialist and an autoimmune disease specialist,

 is there crossover here?  We'll get to that here in a couple of days. But for now, we're going to talk about RA, rheumatoid arthritis. All right. So rheumatoid arthritis, we know what the clinical presentation is. We know that there's joint pain, there's joint inflammation, you know, basically it starts there a lot of times.

 And that's the red flag to get tested. Oh, you have joint pain. You have joint inflammation. Your knuckles are getting bigger. You have hip pain. Nothing seems to be working. PT doesn't work. Acupuncture doesn't work. It helps, but then the pain comes back. We don't know what's going on with you, but let's send you to a rheumatologist.

 Oh, you go to a rheumatologist and oh my goodness, Yes, you have elevated markers for inflammation, you have elevated markers for TNF alpha, anti nuclear antibodies, you have you have an elevated marker for your SED rate and CRP. So, yes, I think that we have enough to go on the fact that you have rheumatoid arthritis.

 Darn. You probably have reduced mobility.  You probably have neck pain in the back of the neck. You probably have some spine pain. You might get some headaches. You might have some dizziness, vertigo, some brain fog, some short term memory loss. You might have some intermittent episodes of tachycardia. You might have some calf cramping.

 You might have some chest cramping or some chest pain that intermittent. You might have some decreased urinary flow where when you go to urinate, the flow is slower than you think that it should.  And you're just like, what's going on here? What's this all about? Is it because I'm aging? Oh, I'm 50 now. It's because I'm aging.

 Yay. No you're 50. You can have a clean bill of health where you have nothing going on. Okay. I'm 54 years old. Almost. Probably in about the next five weeks or so. And I ain't got nothing going on. I'm a, I got a clean bill of health.  So you might have some pots, you might have, you know, some numbness and tingling in the extremities, some, you know, numbness and tingling in the fingers, the, you know, the limbs the, the toes, the, feet, the, you know, the legs, you might have some numbness and tingling in the face.

 You might have some numbness and tingling in the scalp. You might have some hair loss. You might have low iron, which is not necessarily a symptom, but it can be a symptom of fatigue. And there's a reason why you might have low iron. And in order to boost your iron levels, you might be taking full aid, but you take too much fully, and you have a reaction.

 Why would you have a reaction to excess fully? We'll talk about that too. And if I forget, remind me. And so what is folate doing when you take too much? Why do you have an increase of symptoms? Should you even be taking folate? You know, that's, that's a big thing. People with RA, they find out, Oh, I also have the MTHFR gene mutation, so I must have to take folate.

 Okay. We're going to have to revisit that topic because that's, that's a, that's a silly one where doctors have it. all wrong if they want to get cleaned up. Okay. All right. So at any rate, symptoms for RA, we went after it. Okay. Joint pain, inflammation, all the rest of the potential immune related symptoms, you know, Pick whatever one you have, you know, it's associated with the immune system or inflammatory cytokines, which is also associated with immune system.

We need to think about what does the immune system do.  Okay, we'll talk about that tomorrow.  We talked about the diagnosis, we talked about the clinical presentation, and  tomorrow  we're going to talk about causes. Ah, let's not talk about causes tomorrow, let's talk about causes right now. No, let's talk about it tomorrow. Alright, over and out.