Psoriatic Arthritis – A Recovery Story

Psoriatic arthritis: Symptom free without medications

By Jens Krause, Scharbeutz (Schleswig-Holstein), Germany

I recently graduated from the three-week Life Transformation Program at Hippocrates Wellness (HHI) in West Palm Beach, Florida. My journey to health, however, started about one and a half years earlier. At that time I purchased a book entitled LifeForce (in German: WunderLebensMittel) by Brian Clement, PhD, LN. From among all my resources, this one turned out to be one of the most important readings.

For two decades I have been struggling with severe rheumatic symptoms (arthritis, inflammation, agonizing pain) at irregular intervals. One doctor after another was unable to find the cause for my disease and the only diagnosis I was ever given was some issue with a spine disc in my lower back. As a result, I underwent two surgeries in that region in the ‘90s. Unfortunately, these major invasive operations did not alleviate any symptoms. Subsequently, a specialist recommended an artificial disc replacement, a surgery I decided against.

Four years ago, I finally received a diagnosis: psoriatic arthritis. I was prescribed several rheumatic medications (MTX, Remicade and Prednisone), which for the first time in my life, eliminated my symptoms for an extended period. The cost for this relief, however, was high since the combination of drugs produced severe side effects (weak immune system, strong nausea, etc.) Thus, every time I visited my rheumatologist I asked him about lowering the various dosages. Due to a year and a half of repeated requests, the only medication I continued to take was Prednisone. Even with this, I felt something was still off, and my inner voice urged me to do something else. So I decided to go my own way without any help. I slowly reduced my remaining medication to zero and embarked on researching holistic solutions.

I love sports. After reading The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and watching videos on YouTube about Frank Medrano, a vegan and master of Calisthenics (exercises by using body weight only), I knew that becoming vegan was the first step in the right direction. I read stacks of books and articles to obtain comprehensive information to cover every possible avenue.

In other words, I left no stone unturned to improve my health and changed almost everything in my life. With these changes, my whole world changed as well. I became a vegan with a food intake of 70 – 80% raw. I grew my own sprouts and wheatgrass and started to exercise regularly (calisthenics, mostly outdoors). Additionally, I made sure to avoid any kind of negativity and trained myself to focus on the nicer things in life. Today I no longer watch TV, stopped reading newspapers and ended some toxic relationships. Now I am 43 years old, symptom free and no longer taking any medications. But I was still not satisfied. My inner voice piped up again to ratchet up my efforts. So I decided to go to Hippocrates Wellness (HHI) to learn anything I could about self-recovery.

Hippocrates is a very peaceful place full of incredible and powerful people. I had a wonderful time and received a thorough education about self-recovery. It will take me some time to understand and digest the whole value of my stay. However, what I know already is that this was one of the best decisions of my life. To paraphrase David Wolfe in the documentary The Healing Effect (you can watch it on FMTV); today you have the choice to go the “best” or the “worst” way (based on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens). If you choose the “best” way, you will encounter hope and love in the world and get optimal food, water and herbal medicine. This will accelerate you to a destination you could not have imagined before. After staying just three weeks at HHI, I can say with certainty that this place is choosing the “best” way.

PS Many thanks to Maya for editing my article.