Psoriatic Arthritis and Cardiovascular Disease

[Donal]

Hello,
I have regained my health after a radical overhaul of my diet and lifestyle and following a plant based diet. Thanks everyone!
I am back running and playing sports having been unable to walk with the pain 14 months ago.
I can play guitar again and change nappies (was very difficult when our now 3 year old was a baby)
I have been pain free for 7 months and off of all medication. I do get the occasional feeling in a joint or morning stiffness but never lasts.
I thought my rheumatologist would be delighted when i said I was off my drugs and pain free (didn't ask because knew the reaction) and their attitude was i really need to be on medication because of the strong link between PsA and cardiovascular disease. This has set me back mentally. Surely inflammation is inflammation and if my known inflammation areas seem to have resolved my heart is ok? I might add that I am a healthy weight and my BP and cholesterol are all very good....I'm confused to say the least, why take these drugs when i dont feel i need to. I haven't had a moment since Christmas where I needed pain relief! But when i look at the kids i'm thinking i cannot risk cardiovascular disease. arthritis.org stated

people with PsA were 43 percent more likely to have or develop heart disease compared with the general population. PsA patients also had a 22 percent increased risk of cerebrovascular disease

Any thoughts you all might have on this would be greatly appreciated..Should i let go of the fear and trust what my body is telling me or should i really consider going back on drugs due to the whole body affect of inflammation ???
Thanks for reading.
Kind Regards
Donal (Irish for Daniel not to be confused with Donald)
Ireland

[debknott]

I have no medical knowledge about either of these conditions, but common sense would seem to say that if the pain is gone, the inflammation is also gone. If so, what is there to treat?

I hope that Dr. McDougall will respond to your question. I did a quick search for "psoriatic arthritis" on the main site, and lots of hits came up. Just at a very quick glance I saw some where people had conquered the illness by following this way of eating. I think you are on the right track. Don't be discouraged by what your doctor said. Many of them don't believe you can cure anything by just changing your diet. But we know better, don't we?

[michaelswarm]

The short answer is both heart disease and arthritis are caused by the same bad eating habits. That’s why there is a statistical association between them. But don’t expect your doctor to know this, because doctors receive almost no nutritional education during and after medical school.

When you change eating habits to reverse your arthritis, you also start to heal cardiovascular disease, so biomarkers like blood pressure and cholesterol also improve.

From Dr Dean Ornish
In my newest book, "UnDo It," I present a new unifying theory that the reason why these same lifestyle changes are beneficial in reversing the progression of so many chronic diseases is that they each affect and share so many common underlying biological causes, mechanisms, and pathways. Each of these mechanisms, in turn, is affected by what we eat, how much we exercise, how we respond to emotional stress, and how much social support we have. That is why the effects of lifestyle changes are not disease-specific-because they affect all of these mechanisms.

...shared underlying causes, mechanisms and pathways...

Your doctors are there to make educated recommendations. It’s your body and your decision. Keep in mind when evaluating those recommendations that the most common cause of death among cardiologists is heart disease! (There are also plant based cardiologists who know better.)

[Donal]

Thanks ever so much for both your comments.
Yes I think I will relax a bit about the situation and keep on with my diet and feeling good naturally.
Apart from emergency medicine a complete overhaul is needed.
People diagnosed with Chronic disease and especially autoimmune are given little hope.
Will the importance of the gut ever be mainstream