The Bestselling, Proven Self-Treatment Plan 

Written Dr. Giraud W. Campbell
Revised edition by Jeanette Ewin
Reviewed by Aileen Clarke

Description: This is a seven day action plan designed to provide relief from arthritic pain - and in the longer term to heal arthritis. Based on dietary change, the programme eliminates many processed foods, (including caffeine and alcohol) and replaces these with foods of special benefit to arthritis sufferers. Now fully revised in a new softback edition by Harvard nutritionist Jeannette Ewin.

Contents include:-

• How to reverse the cause of arthritis and begin the cure
• The seven day programme to end arthritic pain and regain normal use of joints
• How to break arthritis causing habits once and for all
• Easy exercises to regain lost mobility
• Selected recipes
• Keys to rapid joint repair
• Medications and treatments – those that help and those that hinder

Best features:- I know that this is not the usual kind of book that gets reviewed on Agilitynet, but it has helped me so much I thought I would share it with everyone, and I know that there are a lot of people doing agility that are suffering with arthritis, so this review is for the old and crumblies like me!

I have had a long standing (ha! ha!) problem with my knee. I injured it as a child, and it has never been quite right since. Then in 2001 it finally went on me, putting me out of action for a while. It went again last June, on the first day of my holiday in the Isle of Man – which was totally devastating, but I still hobbled round the agility courses with my dogs and crutches! Over the next few months, the pain just got worse, and before Christmas I went in to hospital for an arthroscopy, and to get the torn cartilage trimmed. The arthroscopy showed that the surface of my knee looked like the dogs had been chewing at it, and I was told that I was going to need a knee replacement, as it would just keep on deteriorating.

I have never been very good at accepting what I am told without question, and I certainly did not want to have a knee replacement, as that would have been the end of agility for me, so I started looking into alternative and complementary cures for arthritis. I cannot be doing with airy-fairy things; I like everything to have a firm grounding in basic common sense, so when I was told about this book, it seemed believable because it was such a sensible idea.

Dr Campbell’s theory is that the majority of our diet comes from refined and processed food that is full of additives, preservatives, e numbers, chemicals, pesticides and goodness knows what else. Our body has to put so much effort into trying to detox itself, it has very few resources left for self-healing. So Dr. Campbell’s theory is very simple - eat non-refined and wholesome foods, and let your body get on with the job of healing itself.

The first part of the cure is covered by a detox plan, fasting for the first day, then eating raw fruit and veg, and lightly cooked meat - all organic if possible - until the arthritic area stops hurting. He is so sure that this diet will work that he says that the pain, swelling and heat will disappear within 3-10 days. So I tried it, and the pain in my knee went in four days. This was incredible, considering that it had been hurting continuously for the previous nine months. My 90-year-old mother tried it too. It took seven days for her pain to go, and she has had arthritis in her hands for countless years.

Dr. Campbell says that the body will cure the arthritis totally within six months to a year, providing the diet is kept to. He lists the foods that you can eat, the foods you can’t eat, and the supplements you can take, and the importance of regular bowel movements, which I have no intention of going into in great detail!!

I have been on the diet for eight weeks now, and unless I do too much, I am totally pain free, and I can now walk without limping for the first time since I damaged it.

I went away for a couple of days to the Lake District, and ate everything I shouldn’t have, within a couple of days my knee was really painful again, but since going back on the diet I am pain free once more.

I have also started to train my dogs again. We have a long way to go, as they have not had any agility training since last June, but now I feel confident that we will be able to start competing again very soon, and that I can get my life back to normal again.

There is a significant factor in all this for our dogs too. If refined foods affect us to this extent, do they have the same effect on our dogs? If this is the case, how much can we help our dogs that have health and behaviour problems by putting them on a natural diet too?

Just a thought!   

Could be improved:- It holds some contradictions, the book was written several years ago, and medical thinking has moved on since Dr Campbell wrote it. For instance, he is very enthusiastic about the benefits of improving bodily elimination through enemas, but the reprint of the book has footnotes saying – not recommended now. This is a great relief!

Design & Format: Paperback (234pp, 130mm x 197mm)

Price: £6.99 (new) Discount on used books.

Value for Money: If it cures my arthritis, and gives me my life back, it would be priceless.

Overall rating: It is very difficult to rate such a potentially life-changing book. I am only two months into the programme but the difference for me is already amazing.

However, if like me you enjoy your food, it is hard giving up all the foods you love, not to mention alcohol, tea and coffee. So the rating of the book is a personal thing, if you follow it and it changes your life, then it has to be 10/10, but if you find it too difficult to stick too, then your personal rating of the book must fall.

About the author
Giraud W. Campbell's book is a bestseller worldwide. He lived and worked in the field of natural health in the USA.

About the reviewer
Aileen Clarke is a Canine Behavioural Consultant working in the North East of England. She has competed in agility for 13 years, with five dogs - all of which have won trophies in open competition.

She is the Flyball Instructor for a local club, but has her own Kennel Club Listed Club called Fellandale Dog Training, based at a farm in Teesdale. Here she takes Good Citizens Puppy and Pet Obedience, Agility, Flyball and Ringcraft classes, as well as working with families who have problems with their dogs.

Aileen tours the country with a friend who is a Tellington Touch Practitioner giving talks and Seminars on Canine Communication and Understanding, and a basic introduction to Tellington Touch.

To contact Agilitynet click here for full contact details.
Please do get in touch - we love hearing from you, even if it's only to tell us that one of the pages has gone wrong!