About Me

Thanks for dropping by Learning to Live! My name is Stacie, and I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis(JRA) when I was 14 years old. I am now 21 and am continuing to see the effect of RA in my life.

Learning to Live is my journey and discovering on learning to live with RA without the aid of medication. There are several reasons I do not want to be medicated, and although many people disagree with my decision, I stand by it firmly. In the end, I am the one in control of my body.

A few of the main reasons I do not want to be on medication are:

- I do not believe in putting unnatural things in our bodies. Although many medications come from plants and natural sources, they have been altered with binding and chemicals. I believe that the "other" in the medications lead to negative effects on our bodies.

- Side effects. Need I say more? Anyone who has taken medication on a long term basis before understands what I mean. The more common side effects are hard enough to deal with(diarrhea, stomach issues and ulcers, nausea, dizziness, just to name a few common ones) not to mention the possible long term side effects like liver or kidney damage, hair loss, and heart issues.

- Not all medications have been tested long enough to determine what the long term effect is. I don't want to take a chance and end up with bigger problems due to medication that appeared to be safe. 

- The body is amazing and capable of healing itself if provided with the proper nutrients and surroundings. I believe that we are sick for a reason, whether it be that our diet is insufficient, our environment is cluttered with technology and EMF(electromagnetic field) and/or the amount of stresses in our lives are unbelievable.If we learn to adjust our lifestyles, we can learn to heal our bodies.

I am not sure where I am going with trying to figure out how to reduce the amount of pain or stiffness, but I do believe that there is a way to cure this. I am also not encouraging anyone in any way to come off their medications. All of this information is research that I have done, opinions and ideas. I am in no way a doctor, nor is any of this intended to be used for medical advice. I am simply trying to find a way for me to live without medication!