Can You Have Too Little Psoriatic Arthritis-Related Inflammation?

If you have psoriatic arthritis, you are no doubt familiar with the importance of reducing inflammation. After all, reducing inflammation can help ease pain, fatigue, and other symptoms. But with so much information out there on how to reduce inflammation - from diet and supplements to medications - it can be hard to know what's too low when it comes to decreasing inflammation levels. In this blog post, I'll share my experience with reducing inflammation in areas of my body that have been damaged by psoriatic arthritis for the past twenty years and why it may be too low for me.

How did decreasing inflammation impact my PsA pain?

My journey started several months ago when I began making changes in my diet in an effort to reduce abdominal inflammation from another health issue. Diet alone wasn’t enough, so I added natural supplements such as turmeric curcumin with black pepper, HydroCurc, and ginger. Unfortunately, during my quest to reduce abdominal inflammation, I inadvertently increased my psoriatic arthritis pain due to decreased inflammation in the areas of my body that were significantly damaged by it. The decreased inflammation revealed the damage caused by PsA more than ever before because it removed the cushioning that had been provided by a certain amount of inflammation. Now all I feel in my hips, lower back, and knees are bones scraping against each other.

Are there benefits to inflammation?

As counterintuitive as it seems, in my experience, I have actually benefited from having a certain level of inflammation. This is because a certain amount of swelling helps protect my joints from further damage while also providing cushioning between my bones so they don't rub together painfully. For the first time in my psoriatic arthritis life, it has become apparent that because I have already done significant damage to my joints, reducing my inflammation levels too much is causing even more pain, stiffness, and limited mobility than I experienced before.

Can I find balance in treating my chronic conditions?

Seeking the right balance of psoriatic arthritis inflammation and other symptoms is an arduous game of trial and error. As I continue to explore different diet and lifestyle changes, I cannot deny that finding the right solution to reduce my psoriatic arthritis symptoms without putting myself in danger of suppressing necessary inflammation levels is an arduous task. The most pressing issue is my need for knee and hip replacement surgeries, but these require more strength than I possess, with the inflammatory issues in my abdomen still causing numerous problems. It's a catch-22 situation: while something may help reduce one condition, it could unintentionally exacerbate psoriatic arthritis issues simultaneously, leaving me feeling frustrated and helpless. Despite this challenge, I am determined to find the perfect balance between psoriatic arthritis inflammation and managing all of my other chronic illnesses.

What does finding balance look like?

Psoriatic arthritis is a condition that requires careful management with regard to reducing inflammation levels in order to prevent further damage or discomfort. But what do you do when you’re not healthy enough to endure multiple surgeries? And doing things that helped my PsA-affected joints only worsens my abdominal issues? Finding balance is key, but what does that mean? Making more lifestyle modifications is one step. To what extent depends on how long it takes to eliminate the inflammation throughout my abdomen. I never thought I’d reach this low of an inflammation level throughout my joints. And never in my wildest dreams did I expect an increase in pain to be the result.

Have you ever experienced anything like this? How did you resolve it?