natural vs. medicine - share your experience, don't debate please!

I thought this topic deserved its own place, because of the questions Paul MH (maybe he can tell us what the MH stands for - homeopathy?) has raised in the thread following Sara Nash's post on fatigue  However, I'd like to state at the outset that the purpose of this is not to brainwash anyone (in either direction) but to share your experience - i.e., NOT  to tell others what to do, but to share what has worked for you for RA.  This is intended to be similar to a 12-step group where there is no critique of others, but each reader may find something to help him/her.  So a writer can state what natural/alternative treatment has helped him or her, but is not to preach to others or prescribe.  This is a support group, not a hunting ground for a naturopath to find new patients or proselytes.  Got it?  (If not, please don't participate.  If it turns that way, I will just stop writing.)

           Also, let's keep the topic focused on RA, not cancer or other diseases.  Otherwise, it will end up being a collection of tangents.  This is an RA focused website, after all!

     My RA diagnosis:   RF positive, anti-CCP positive, ESR elevated, wrist swollen halfway up to my elbow, MRI showed edema in the bone marrow and cysts in the carpal bones.   

     Just for the record - I do take meds (Enbrel & Celebrex) for RA and OA.  I find (as others here have said) both medical and alternative treatment helpful & essential.

     FOOD:  I'm anemic, but whether I eat meat or don't, I stay anemic.  I was anemic as a teen (borderline).  I'm still there.   However, I have been semi-vegetarian (still having a small amount of milk, yogurt often, eggs-yes, and fish once or twice a week.  Beef puts me in a bad mood within hours after eatin. Eating a lot of meat gives me more pain the next few days, so if I do find myself in a lot of pain, I cut out meat for a couple days to a week (still I get so hungry, I eat some chicken usually).  I started noticing a problem with meat several years before my diagnosis and tapered off.  The less I ate, the better I felt, until I just decided to go off entirely to see how it went. Late spring to early fall worked best, my stomach didn't tolerate as much heavy protein then.

     COMPLEMENTARY/ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT:  Acupuncture at different times has reduced pain and swelling for me, helped me sleep better, generally energized me when I'm tired, run down and fatigued.  I usually only get it a couple times of year when all else fails...

     VITAMINS ETC. I used to read Prevention magazine from cover to cover (before they glitzed it up with skinny models on the front cover - too bad!  From that, I found B vitamins helped level my up and down moods.  (Helps other things too...) I take a lot of B vitamins because I found even early in my 20s that I got depressed and mood swings, and that taking Brewer's Yeast really helped - I called it my "peace pill."  That was when I was taking contraceptives before it was known that they deplete your body of B6 - but B6 itself was not enough (all the B vitamins work together).  Brewers yeast was awesome...if I ran out and forgot to get more right away, I'd notice a difference in days.  After 2 weeks it got scary, one time I felt disoriented in my own office at work - wow!