Exercise also improves any constipation. Natural unpasteurised aloe vera juice will detoxify and improve bowel function. A healthy bowel environment is essential to prevent arthritis and proteus infestations, so live acidophilus should be taken regularly.

• Skin - dry skin brushing daily with a loofah or natural fibre brush, until skin has a warm glow. Brush in circular motion all over the body. Shower for three minutes under very hot water and finish with thirty seconds of cold. Both these methods improve circulation and skin function.

• Kidneys - drink 4-6 glasses of allowed fluids daily (fruit and vegetables produce more liquid).

• Lungs - exercise and deep breathing to rid the body of acids.

Aside from stress acting as a trigger for the onset of the disease, attacks of pain often occur when an arthritic has been worrying or pushing himself too hard. This causes a release of inflammatory chemicals in the joints and must be treated as a warning to stop and reassess the effectiveness of stress-control methods. If this happens to you, stop and ponder over whether you have got it right. Are you still absorbing emotional pain and pressure instead of pushing them aside? Are you absorbing worry instead of dealing with it objectively? Does your daily life involve periods of anxiety, tension or undue pressure? Small stressful events have been found to be positively related to an increase in anti bodies and inflammatory chemicals, which is what occurs in an auto-immune disease. Major life events also have a profound effect on the ratio between the ‘helpers’ and ‘suppressors’, which control antibody formation.

Helper T-cells raise antibodies, and arthritics produce an excess of these along with an ex of inflammatory chemicals.

The anti-stress B vitamin known as pantothenic acid is very often significantly lowered in the blood of arthritics, and some studies indicate that the lower the level, the more severe the pain and inflammation.

• Dietary changes, improvements in elimination processes, supplements of vitamins and minerals, herbal and homeopathic treatment and dealing with stress. Heat, hydrotherapy, massage, poultices and exercise may also be necessary.

• The first step is to stop causing the diseases by attending to diet and elimination processes, as well as controlling stress.

• Acid-forming foods must be cut back and alkaline-forming ones must be increased until a ratio of 80:20 is achieved, in favour of alkaline-forming foods. Eating habits must be changed on a permanent basis, and the necessary supplements taken. Parallel treatment ensures the elimination of waste from the bowel every day so that poisons cannot be reabsorbed.

• Acidic blood needs to be cleansed of all debris so that a healthy blood-supply reaches all tissues. Any anaemia must be treated, and I exercise commenced to increase the supply of oxygen to the tissues.

• Stress must be dealt with, through the medium of yoga, meditation or relaxation techniques.

• A new approach involving total health is needed.

Many types of whole-grains, if properly combined, are fine in small amounts, and wheatgerm and kelp are necessary supplements. I know at least three crippled osteo-arthritics who did nothing more than correct their acid-alkali balance with diet, and now in their 70s, they mow the lawns and dig the garden.

• Other alkaline-forming foods are millet, buckwheat, yoghurt, whey, fresh coconut, soya products and egg-white.

• Grains – millet, rice, spelt, quinoa and corn are the best. Use oatmeal and rye in moderation. Wheat causes major problems for many arthritics, so a slice of bread is to be reserved for treats unless it really does not increase stiffness.

• Bananas, pineapples, apples and grapes.

• Fruits and vegetables of special value are: all the berry fruits, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and hawthorn berries. These are flavonoid fruits which are powerful antioxidants to joints.

• Carrots, cel beetroot, parsley, cress, alfalfa, asparagus, yams, garlic, endive, mushrooms, avocado.

• Spirulina and wheatgrass, as a potent source of vitamins, minerals, protein and plant pigments. .

• Sprouted grains, seeds and nuts.

• Nuts and seeds (raw and fresh), especially sunflower, sesame, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds and flaxseeds for the essential polyunsaturated oils.

• Oily fish, twice weekly if desired mackerel, herring, sardines, fresh salmon or trout. Some of this may be canned, but remove all surrounding oil.

• Dressings: use only extra-virgin olive oil or guaranteed cold-pressed polyunsaturated oils.

• Kelp and seaweeds, for rich sources of minerals.

• Goats’ milk or soya milk, eggs and cottage cheese (home-made) in moderation – twice weekly each.

• Cook with turmeric and ginger as often as possible.

• Herbal teas, freshly-pressed juices, mineral water, vegetable broth, rooibosch tea grain coffee and naturally-brewed miso. Add powdered barley greens to juice daily.

This herb is not absorbed, and acts as a cleansing agent which rids the bowel of infecting organisms like proteus. This demonstrates one of the reasons that naturopathic treatment works so well in arthritis. The diet cleanses the bowel of foreign bacteria and parasites, and increases the activity of healthy micro-flora. These prevent colormation by foreign microbes.

A study involving 500 R A patients in Britain found that almost every one of them had anti-bodies to proteus in their blood. Klebsiella is another bacteria which has been implicated in R A, and amoeba is also a well-known cause. The reason that bacteria are implicated in the destruction of joints is that many people have the same tissue-type as the invading organism.

When this occurs, the body mistakenly recognises its own tissue to be as foreign as the bacteria, and so sets up the destructive inflammatory process. Antibiotics may destroy the bacteria, but they will also destroy lactobacilli like acidophilus, which prevent the likes of proteus from making a home in the body. It is quite important to resist this line of treatment, and instead take acidophilus supplements, at the same time as a bowel cleanse, herbs, garlic, grapefruit seed extract and dietary change. Unless the bowel is detoxified and healthy habits instigated, arthritis will never be cured.