My name is Cynthia, and I am 48 years old.  For the past five years I've noticed changes in my body.  I have yet to be diagnosed, but I am only guessing it's arthritis since it runs in my family.  Not only did my sleep change at the age of 44 (constant waking up throughout the night possibly from peri-menopause), but as of this year my small pinkies have started to change shape and hurt.  Also, for the past 8 years, I have had terrible lower back pain that comes and goes.  I went to the movie, Forks Over Knives, this past spring which is a documentary about eating a plant-based diet, and I immediately decided to stop eating or drinking any dairy.  I noticed that in about 3 days, my lower back stopped hurting.  My pinkies never returned to their normal shape and probably never will, but the pain in them is also gone.  I still have a terrible stiffness in my left knee so I need to continue trying to figure out what food it might be through elimination.  I cannot even sit down on my knees without being in awful pain.  I am a Type A Blood type so I am going to try giving up the nightshades for a while to see if I notice a difference.  I am pretty much vegetarian as it is and I do eat a lot of tomatoes, potatoes and chilli pepper sauce, but I am willing to take these out of my diet since I know in some it can cause a lot of pain.  I always tell my friends and family that I don't mind getting wrinkles and gray hair as I get older, but my biggest fear is being stiff.  My maternal grandmother could fold her legs every which way and run up and down the stairs into her 80's.  My father and mother on the other hand were very stiff in their joints.  I'm grateful for Barbara writing this book.  I really hope I don't continue down the "stiff and achy" path that I have been experiencing.  I just need to continue to prod on and only get better.  Wish me luck!

Hi Barbara.  I need to follow your book and begin fasting and then elimination.  Already I've eliminated all night shades and I'll see how that goes.  I haven't done dairy since April and I know that has helped my lower back pain.  I would love to do the ALCAT testing, but my husband's insurance is really lousy, and because of the economy we just can't afford $600 plus right now.  Eventually I'd like to do it.  I wanted to ask you Barbara a few questions if you don't mind.  I know you've been arthritic free since 1999, and I remember reading somewhere on this forum or in your book that you went back to eating some of the foods you had to stay away from.  How many years later did you feel comfortable to go back to those foods again?  Do you think you healed your leaky gut to be able to go back to such foods??  Do you think you'll have to stay away from them again just in case the arthritis returns?  Also, I'm trying to remember if you had nodules (bumps) in your finger joints.  I have them only in my pinkies and was wondering if my hands would ever return to normal or if they will permanently stay like that?  Thank you for your help.  I really appreciate it.