Straddling the line: Facebook Group Balances Natural Healing and Medication
Group tries to thread the needle between antagonistic approaches to an individualistic disease.
When Matt Brennan was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an inflammatory autoimmune disorder, he had lots of questions. He asked his wife, a nurse, “Can diet heal or can diet put you in remission?” When he got little information from her or his rheumatologist, he started digging. “I didn’t know a single person with RA and I wanted to get more voices to understand what I was going to be up against and going through,” he said in a Zoom interview. That’s when he found the Facebook group Healing Rheumatoid Arthritis Naturally Support Group.
According to the Center for Disease Control, rheumatoid arthritis is “an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body.” It affects 1.3 million people and mainly attacks the joints, causing “long-lasting or chronic pain, unsteadiness (lack of balance), and deformity (misshapenness).” The effects and severity of rheumatoid arthritis vary extremely from person to person, and many often experience “flare-ups” after some form of remission.
Many doctors prescribe strong medications for RA, some of which are expensive or have significant side effects. In contrast, this group and dozens of others like it on Facebook advocate natural approaches. But unlike many “natural” groups, Healing Rheumatoid Arthritis Naturally Support Group isn’t militantly against medications. The group’s description states, “we are not an anti-med group, but a pro-healing group exploring many ways to ease the symptoms of RA.” Other groups like Rheumatoid Arthritis — Natural Approach To Healing with 2,200 members take a stronger anti-medication stance, including phrases like “toxic medication free” in its About section. Borax For Arthritis And Health with 21,000 members asks for “no talking about buying any big pharma drugs,” and Natural Remedies for Rheumatoid Arthritis asks its 6,100 members to “only talk about natural remedies,” stifling any talk of natural treatment in conjunction with medication.
Healing Rheumatoid Arthritis Naturally Support Group was established in 2014. When Brennan joined shortly after his diagnosis in 2018, the group had around 1,000 members. Brennan became an admin in August 2020 and today is one of two admins working with four moderators. The group now has over 22,000 members and grows by hundreds each week, making it the largest of multiple groups that aim to naturally heal rheumatoid arthritis. Members make ten to twelve posts a day, each getting an average of thirty comments.
The group defines itself as “for everyone who has been diagnosed or knows someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis and is looking at ways to heal their RA with medication and/or using natural alternatives through diet, juicing, elimination diets, stress management, and exercise.” According to Brennan, posts in the group range from “offering help, offering support, sharing what worked with you, but also realizing that this is an individualistic disease, and we need to just keep experimenting and finding our own path.”
Doctors often prescribe DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs) against rheumatoid arthritis. This category of drugs works by suppressing the immune system to reduce inflammation. However, although drugs like Methotrexate, Azulfidine, and Arava (all DMARDs) use these molecular mechanisms to reduce inflammation, many RA patients experience toxic side effects like gut bacteria imbalance, which can increase inflammation, gastric distress, and liver toxicity. Finding the right treatment for RA is further complicated by the fact that medications sometimes work for one patient and not another. For example, Humira, a common rheumatoid arthritis treatment, only alleviates the symptoms of one in four people. Because each individual often has a different response to drugs or combinations of these drugs, proactive patients seek an individualized treatment plan that considers all possible options.
To maximize information value for its members, Healing Rheumatoid Arthritis Naturally Support Group uses a “Files” section to keep information organized. The different files are filled with resources ranging from natural friendly rheumatologists to tips for traveling with RA to lists of diets to breathing methods that reduce inflammation. Says Brennan, “a lot of Western medicine is geared around taking this pill, and it’s a big deal to walk out of a doctor’s office and say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to do that.’ That’s a big decision…and you better know what you’re doing.”
The tolerant acceptance of everyone in the group allows those suffering from RA to forge their individual path, working with these natural elements… or medication. This group unique is because, unlike other natural healing groups, it aims to be a positive space that accepts all individuals, regardless of their views on various medications. Brennan describes some individuals who frequent the group as “either newly diagnosed or…going through a flare-up” who “have found something that works for them… and we do have some medical professionals, too…that get involved and kind of share their knowledge.” While group members advocate natural healing methods, the group does not shun medicine. Brennan says that while “there are people who…take that medication in conjunction with something natural, …if you join this group…you’re probably a certain type of person who understands that the picture might be bigger than just one modality.”
As an admin, Brennan says he strives to make the group a positive, accepting space by limiting any negative talk. Because Facebook has been a breeding ground for polarization and conspiracy, admins don’t allow posting about COVID-19 or vaccines. This was a difficult call for Brennan. He has his own concerns about how COVID and vaccines might interact with RA, but he thinks the decision has helped keep the group from being swamped by conspiracy theories or arguments. The admins and moderators also strive to keep any multilevel marketing products out of the group.
Brennan says that going forward, the group wants to continue to work towards a future where natural healing of rheumatoid arthritis is better known and accepted. Diet is a big focus. Brennan wishes that “there was a medical community that was more willing to say that, yes, if you change your diet, you know it can positively affect us.”
The idea that diet can help with a disease is not foreign to the medical community, notes Brennan. Diet change is often touted to help with diabetes, another well-known autoimmune disorder. In addition, even when doctors recommend healthy eating to help with RA flare-ups, they often don’t specify how specifically to change what to eat. For many, success lies in “finding the triggers and finding the toxins that are in your food or in your environment and eliminating those.” The group’s files can identify common triggers to avoid.
Brennan says it’s frustrating to talk with rheumatologists who only want to prescribe medication and reject all-natural approaches. “There’s 20,000 people that are living proof that that you can make a difference with some of the stuff.”
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