My thoughts as someone who has cured myself of RSD on my own:

The Dutch have the best concept of actual treatment since they are closest to discerning the actual cause of RSD. Free radicals do cause inflammation, usually as a result of a specific trauma to a limb or area on the body. When obvious trauma is not present, it is simply built up imbalance in a body that has reached it's "boiling point." Regardless, the longer the body is stressed, the more imbalanced it becomes, and the less the immune system can handle.

Stress is the cause, period. It comes from only one thing: the environment we choose. Diet is a part of this. Healthy people do not randomly develop RSD.

I can speak to this personally as someone who wrongfully assumed I was healthy, prior to developing RSD. Normal weight, athletic, 33 years old, no prior history of health issues.

The body heals itself; it is our responsibility to put it in the best position to do so.

That is what I did and I no longer have RSD.

I had to challenge the common assumptions that both I and the medical field made about what IS healthy in order to determine my appropriate course of action. It is unique to the individual as to the best course of action and how long improvement will take, because we all take a different course to arrive where we do. BUT THERE ARE BASIC COMMONALITIES FOR EVERYONE.

To anyone reading this looking for the Answer: an understanding of the sources of your own stress is the gateway.

My heart goes out to everyone here because we are all here for the same reason.

Wow.

I've come back and read this three times, and I still can't quite believe the tone of it.

I'm hoping that you genuinely mean this and believe it, and that it's not a cruel joke. What you say makes some sense in terms of eliminating stress, junk food etc and trying to get healthy.

BUT. Oh it's such a big BUT. We do not choose our environment - it develops, we do not choose stress - it builds up. Stress comes to us in many ways, and I'm betting the majority of us aren't in a position to elimate it from our lives. We have lives, jobs, children, money worries, family who don't make things easy, housework to attempt, etc etc etc.

Also, by that reckoning and logic, people could cure themselves of most other health conditions.

As a starting post this is unbelievably tactless considering the condition we are living with. I have no doubt at all that healthy living is best for us all, it makes perfect sense, and of course we should be making every effort to live healthily. But life isn't that simple. Living without stress is a dream for most people in the world, those who are healthy and those who aren't. But for that to happen, we would need to live in a retreat somewhere and forget we have families, lives, jobs, etc.

Yes we can approach life in a calmer way, we can try not to let things get to us, we can buy organic vegetables and not smoke, drink or eat processed foods, too much red meat and sugars. I believe in those things. But on a difficult budget, when we can't stand and cook every night, with children who are growing up, husbands who work long hours, and all the other things that make up life, we would have to be so selfish to demand the kind of environment you describe.

I exercise, meditate, relax when I can. I am positive. I try to eat healthily, but I do have a few treats every now and then. I love my family, I listen to my kids, I love my husband who tries so hard to deal with this too. I work as much as i can despite not feeling like it most days.

We would ALL love to be free of this nightmare situation, but it's not as easy as you describe, and the people on these boards are living in unbearable pain with mobility issues and health problems piling up on each other, doctors with limited understanding and no bedside manner, money worries and stress around every corner. Just getting out of bed is a mammoth effort. Please don't tell them they could cure themselves if they only tried hard enough.

I hope you meant well and if you did then I'm sorry if I've upset or offended you. Advice and research findings are welcome and useful, telling us point blank that basically its our own fault and we could 'cure' ourselves if we chose just sounds like a telling-off. I'm glad you've left your health problem behind (although CRPS can go into remission for possibly years) and can enjoy life fully again, but plenty of other folk have tried doing what you describe in order to 'cure' themselves of health problems, and it doesn't seem to be a panacea.

(Breathes deeply for a few moments. Counts to ten.)

Sorry. Not my best day.

Bram.

*admin edit* I was and still am a very healthy person before I developed RSD. I had 2 very botched surgeries and that's what caused mine. It has nothing to do with me not being unhealthy or healthy, it happened from a horrific surgery. To "cure" it would be to undo all the damage that has been done and so far nobody has been able to figure that one out. So unless I can time travel back 6yrs and not have the surgeries I had done, well then im stuck where im at.

Bram,

I very much appreciate your candor and empathize with where you are coming from whether you believe that or not. I am definitely upset but do not take offense.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. I wish you nothing but the very best. I am sorry to have offended you.

I really appreciate your response and thank you for answering me. I'm sorry if I was blunt in my reply. I'm really glad you're doing well and I hope that continues for you. We all want the best for each other, and I'm sorry that I've upset you. I know that sounds a bit mad because clearly I was angry... but I'm glad you're a real person

Bram.

Bram,

Having reread my original post again several times within the context of your response, and tos8, I realize how incredibly arrogant I am coming across, not just within the context of your post, but also within the context of this forum. I am not a stranger here having been reading and researching and learning within this forum, and several others, for some time now. I could have been much much more cognizant of this but my enthusiasm very obviously dampened *edit* my humility.

This is my first post in any of them, and I am beginning to realize that this is not the right venue for what I want to say. I take full responsibility and apologize. Tos8: I am a real **person.

So can you share with us the Dutch concept? Is it a treatment center, is there a book on it, how did you find out about it and what can you share with other sufferers?
Mike

Sure Mike I'd be happy to -

I was doing searches for "I cured RSD" and "the cure for CRPS" and "RSD full healing" and any phrase I could think of along those lines. At that point I had already learned to stop reading about all the negative possibilities and only search for success stories in order to seek out commonalities. My logical thought process was that my own cure would lie within those commonalities. I am extremely passionate about learning about the human mind/body/soul connection and still do similar searches every day, not just for RSD but also MS, fibro, cancer, ALS, etc. It is what brought me here this morning. A recent thread here called "A Cure?!" to be exact.

Ironically, I actually first came across the Dutch research on this very site, in an old thread from back in 2003 started by a gentleman by the name of Sam. *admin edit*




DMSO and NAC aren't "cures" - but they are potent free radical scavengers so they can really assist your natural healing process. At risk of sounding like an arrogant *#% again, my "simple" contention is that the body heals on its own - we just put it in a position to do so. It is on US to do it - who else is going to? I'm not saying it's our FAULT, but I AM saying it's our responsibility. I'm also not saying to ditch our families and other responsibilities in the meantime - Lord knows we already feel guilty enough for what we've put our families through. For me that was as bad and sometimes worse than the excruciating pain.

Further apologies to Bram in making it appear as if this part is just a simple matter. There is much more to it beyond the Dutch research, but it is a great starting point in understanding the base nature of RSD.

Also - I bet everyone reading this is assuming I'm a guy

*admin edit*

Hi
I am sorry but you do not yet have linking privileges here. Your posts will be flagged and edited if you try to link or do any website redirects.

Also, you must be mistaken on where you first read about this theory as NeuroTalk has only been around since August 2006

10-4 Chemar. You are right; I was mistaken and the old link I attempted to include was from another site with a similar message board structure.