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Comment by bdickason | Hacker News Reader

Not sure if this helps but I had a similar issue with my joints (arm, shoulder, wrist) where I would scream in pain when lifting a small book or anything above 3 lbs.

The issue was caused by my immune system acting up which would cause my tendons to become inflamed. After a year of misdiagnosis, Doctors found some heavy medication (methotrexate balanced with plaquenil) to help regulate it. One of the medicines side effects was listed as ‘death’ on the label.

After a year of experimenting, I found that major diet changes (lots more hearty greens, way less sugar and carbs, no caffeine or alcohol), improved sleep, reduced stress (quit my stressful job) completely alleviated my symptoms. I would still have flare ups from time to time which I reduced via physical therapy / exercise (to strengthen muscles supporting my tendons).

Just sharing as I had a somewhat similar condition and was surprised that the fix didn’t have to be a pill.

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Drastically reducing “added” sugars (which includes alcohol), whether end-user added or added as part of the industrial food “manufacturing” process does wonders for one’s health.

Reducing sugar intake reduces inflammation (https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger...).

Can confirm. Cut out almost all sugar from my diet. I've seen dramatic improvements in my health with the most significant being the elimination of brain fog.

I had pain and weakness in my right wrist for years, and also had many rounds of misdiagnosis.

It turned out to be a benign tumour. Surgery was my answer, but it's only a partial one. It's a soft tissue tumour, the surgeon didn't expect to get all of it, and it's growing back now. It's been about seven years, and I expect I'll need surgery again within seven more years to be able to do simple tasks like lift objects with that hand still.

Sometimes it's not diet - but it's like the old climate change joke. What if I switched to a better diet and a healthier lifestyle, for no good reason?

Would this happen to be a schwannoma? If so, this was the case for me as well. Took a long time and a lot of sleepless nights before an mri found it.

Hemangioma in my case. I had an MRI but in the end it was a surgeon with the right experience looking at an earlier ultrasound that diagnosed it.

I had trouble believing he'd diagnosed it when he glanced at the ultrasound and calmly said what it was. Given I'd had medical practitioners send me for neurological studies to check it wasn't all in my head, suggest fusing my wrist to stop the pain, tell me there was nothing visible in X-ray, MRI, or the same ultrasound report the surgeon diagnosed me from... It seemed unlikely anyone could do an apparently simple diagnosis like that.

I was misdiagnosed inflamed tendons and it turned out to be something else, hah

HN Reader take this message: medicine can be a to and fro, go back if you're not convinced and get a second opinion if you think somethings still wrong :)

It sounds like I was in the same boat as you but I had multiple issues with my left leg.

Saw multiple specialists and had been prescribed multiple different medications all with the same result of nothing but with new issues thanks to some side effects.

One day I decided I wanted to lose some weight and cut down my carb intake down to a very low amount per day. Shortly after making this change to my diet I noticed the problems that I was experiencing with my leg slow started to go away.

I wouldn't say the problems with my legs have completely gone away due to my diet change but it has improved my quality of life significantly.

Is that "Ankylosing Spondylitis" ? I have a friend that has that...if it's the same thing I'll pass on your advice, and thank you!

Are you me?

Maybe we're the HN equivalent of Fight Club?! Am I Brad Pitt or Edward Norton

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