Curing Arthritis The Drug-Free Way by Margaret Hills, SRN - New Eddition Revised by Christine Horner, ECNP, MRNT - A Sheldon Press Book

Margaret Hills was crippled by arthritis as a young woman, but was determined not to let it hold her back. When orthodox treatment could do nothing for her, she used her nurse's training to develop her simple, natural cure, and against all her doctors' predictions it was completely successful.

Since then her 'acid-free' approach has brought relief to thousands.

Her daughter, Christine Horner, who now runs the Margaret Hills Clinic, continues her work. Here, they share their unique drug-free method and inspire others with Margaret's hope and determination.

This new and fully revised edition offers updated information about diet and reveals the effects of the new arthritis drugs.

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Curing Arthritis The Drug-Free Way by Margaret Hills SRN - a Sheldon Press Book 

Contents

• Arthritis - the cause and effects
• Drugs and their side-effects
• The treatment of arthritis by natural means
• Vitamins and minerals - their uses in the body
• Recipes for arthritis sufferers
• New natural products
• The clinic

Curing Arthritis The Drug-Free Way by Margaret Hills SRN - a Sheldon Press Book 

Preface

In September, 1946, at the age of twenty-one, I started training as a nurse, at St Stephen's Hospital, Fulham Road, London. I was fun-loving and carefree, I loved to dance, cycle and swim, and my greatest ambition was to be a good nurse.

During that first year things went wonderfully well, and I began to love my chosen career. Discipline was very strict and the work was hard, but the rewards made it all worth while.

Early in April 1947, I began to feel unwell. The doctor diagnosed acute rheumatoid arthritis and I was confined to the nurse's sick bay. Here it was discovered that I had a very enlarged heart and I was ordered complete rest, unable to wash or feed myself. A Harley Street heart specialist was consulted and he came every other day to examine my heart, while my progress was noted daily by the Medical Superintendent.

At this time, I was suffering extreme pain and discomfort. I was being nursed between blankets and because I could not bear the weight of the bedclothes, I had a cradle to protect my painful limbs. For four months I lay in bed, totally helpless; then, gradually, I was allowed to sit out of bed, and to wash and feed myself. The only treatment I received, apart from complete rest, was aspirin. In those days, there were none of the drugs for arthritis that are available today.

After five months, I was allowed home to convalesce. Before leaving the hospital, the Medical Superintendent came to see me. 'Now my dear,' he said, 'You have been very ill, and your heart has been badly enlarged, so I must tell you that you must never dance or cycle again. You must not run uphill, or upstairs, and you must not come back to finish your nurse's training - the work is far too taxing. Also, if you ever marry, you must not have children. Last, but not least, be prepared for recurrences.'

As I walked Out of the hospital gates, I thought, 'If I am to live my life like this, I may as well be dead'. I resolved there and then to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and not to tell my parents of the advice that I had been given. I had put on weight, due to swelling of the tissues caused by my enlarged heart, and also due to the inactivity of lying in bed for four months. I had gone from a trim nine stone, six pounds, to eleven stone and three pounds, and took a size seven shoe instead of size six. Nevertheless, I adopted a 'don't care' attitude, and was determined to enjoy any time that I had left. So I danced, cycled and swam at every opportunity, soon losing the excess weight that I had gained. At the end of three months, I was quite surprised to find that I was still alive.

I still desperately wanted to become a nurse, so I wrote to the Matron at St Stephen's. I asked if I might resume my training, as I was now feeling quite well. Imagine my delight when she agreed - so back I went.

By this time, I had developed osteo-arthritis and from time to time suffered great pain. However, I managed to get through my training, and on passing my finals was placed in the operating theatre as Staff Nurse. This was the hardest job in the hospital, but I loved the work, and was determined to live each day at a time. I felt that at least I had realized my first ambition - to be a fully-trained nurse.

My second ambition, to get married, was to be realized the following year, when I met my husband. I left St Stephen's, moved to Coventry, where my husband worked, and obtained a job as an Industrial Nurse. However, it was not long before we started a family, and I left work.

Unfortunately, I was now suffering from chronic osteo-arthritis, which often caused me great pain. I had always hoped that some day, somehow, it would go away, but it gradually got worse and worse. Sixteen years and six children later, I had another bout of rheumatoid arthritis, which left me totally crippled - locked in every joint.

By then, arthritic drugs had invaded the market. I went to see a well-known specialist in the treatment of arthritis, who duly prescribed a 'wonder drug'. However, when my panel doctor heard of this, he informed me that two recent deaths had been attributed to it and advised me to take it only when the pain was very bad. I was already taking twelve aspirins a day for the pain, so I tried to manage with these, as I considered them to be less dangerous, with fewer side-effects.

By now I was forced to wear a surgical collar, with splints on my deformed fingers, a surgical corset, and built-up arches for my shoes. My consultant advised me to obtain a wheelchair. My experience in hospital had made me realize that the medical profession could do nothing for my arthritis. With six young children and a husband to look after, very little money to pay for a home-help, and with myself totally crippled, unable to move without excruciating pain, the future indeed looked bleak.

I have always believed in the saying, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves', so I prayed, then set out to research a cure for myself. I got hold of all the 'natural cure' books that I could lay my hands on, and eventually hit upon the treatment that was to rid me of all signs of arthritis in just twelve months and that has kept me totally pain-free since. Necessity really is the 'mother of invention', and the necessity was certainly there. My nurse's training, and the knowledge of the human body that I had acquired during that training, helped me to develop - from many combined ideas collected from the research that I had done - the treatment and diet with which I have had so much personal success over the years, and with which I am now having wider success in a busy Clinic.

I hope that passing on my knowledge to readers of this book will help to relieve some of the pain of arthritis that is so prevalent amongst young and old alike, in practically every country in the world today. Since this book was first published. It has been translated into several languages and is on sale in many countries throughout the world. I never thought for a moment that it would bring so much relief to so many. Day after day the letters arrive from people in various countries telling me how much they have benefited from following the treatment described within its pages and thanking me for writing it. I feel so humble and grateful when I learn that somebody, somewhere, whom I have never seen, feels better because of something I have done.

I opened the Margaret Hills Clinic in 1982 and it has gone from strength to strength. We now treat over eight hundred people at any given time. Consultations at the Clinic are held daily. Needless to say, there are not enough hours in a week to accommodate this number of patients at the Clinic, so approximately 95% are treated by post. The results have gone beyond my wildest dreams. Our postal patients write to us or ring us if they have any worries regarding their treatment. They know we will do everything in our power to give them the correct advice and, when necessary, liaise with their GPs on their behalf. The relationship between the Clinic and the medical profession gets better all the time, I am very happy to say; it is so satisfying when a doctor rings us and tells us how pleased he or she is with a patient's progress since beginning our treatment. Our patients also report to us how pleased their consultants and GPs are with their blood tests for things like erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and haemoglobin (Hb). Some of them are so well that the consultant does not want to see them again and they are discharged as fit after many years of useless, dangerous drug-taking. I say 'useless' because the drugs given for arthritis do not cure and the unfortunate patient ends up with his arthritis and the side effects of the drugs given for it. The side effects can be very dangerous, even those of the non-steroidal drugs. It is most disturbing to encounter from day to day the number of people with, not just one or two life-threatening side effects, but many.

One patient writes: I have swallowed enough prescribed drugs to keep a small pharmacy in business for a year: drugs to stop the stiffness, drugs to stop the pain, drugs to attack the disease and drugs to stop the side effects caused by the others. I have taken tablets every single day for over seven years, had numerous, painful injections into joints, plus frequent blood tests to check for side effects - and I've had enough!

This is a typical story told by the majority of the first appointments seen at the Clinic, and what a sad story it is. Drugs are toxic in themselves, and when given, the patient is called upon to cope with the illness and the toxicity of the drug given for the illness. No heed is paid to the cause of the illness and the drugs simply suppress the symptoms - they cure nothing.

There is continuous development and research into drugs, but yet again recent discoveries in drug therapy serve to emphasize my own belief that no drug is either safe or beneficial to the arthritis sufferer.

Understandably, people have great regard for their GPs and specialists, and find it daunting to consider questioning their advice. This is were close contact with us at the Clinic can help a patient to find the right way forward gradually. Once people share their fears, anxieties and worries with us, we can advise them carefully on how to cope. Such patients become as friends, confiding those aspects of their lives that have such a great impact on their health. Such a rapport helps a person to recover - and most people seem to do just that.

When a patient defeats arthritis and regains full mobility and health, there is a terrific interest from family members and friends and from the patient's GP and consultant. We then have more people asking for help, not necessarily for arthritis, so gradually other conditions have required our research and attention. Life has become very busy indeed, but very early on in the life of the Clinic, my daughter Christine had come to help.

Towards the end of 1998, it gradually became apparent that my breathing was not so good, especially when I was worried or had exerted myself in some way. I visited the GP who instigated some tests at the hospital and discovered that my heart was the problem. When I was initially diagnosed at the age of 21 with rheumatoid arthritis, I had rheumatic fever and a badly enlarged heart. Although I recovered, I had a heart attack in my forties and now the heart had decided to play up again. There was nothing to do except rest, so I found that I could not continue at my Clinic in Kenilworth; I had to give my heart a chance to recover once again.

Since 1981, Christine has been working alongside me, gradually developing her studies in Nutritional Medicine and gaining a firm understanding of the way in which I had been treating people with arthritis. I am so relieved that she is continuing the work that I started because there is such a thirst for knowledge among the people who contact us suffering with all kinds of arthritis, rheumatism, gout, polymyalgia rheumatica and so on. She has been able to continue where I have had to leave off and I am sure that arthritics will benefit enormously from her advice, care and attention. The Margaret Hills Clinic grew from my experiences and now Christine will continue with it, drawing upon her and her own family's health challenges to endorse and enhance our treatment for arthritis and allied diseases.

Postscript by Christine Horner - Margaret's daughter

Since this book was first published, my mother has given talks in a variety of venues to great crowds of people. They have been enjoyable to do and so rewarding. She has published several other books, some of which have been translated into other languages.

She has spoken on radio and television, and a film has been made and broadcast in the Middle East on the work of our Clinic.

My mother retired about five years ago; the enlarged heart slowed her down considerably. She had no arthritis, but her difficulties in walking and breathing had put a stop to her work at the Clinic, apart from occasionally writing an article for a newspaper or magazine. She coped admirably until January 2003 but then her heart condition deteriorated more and more until she died peacefully in May 2003.

Her family - and all her patients who came to know her so well - will of course, very sadly miss her. At the same time, we are very proud of all that she has achieved throughout her life. My mother had always attributed her knowledge, and successful results with her treatment, to God. It never ceased to amaze her that people showed such interest in her and cared so much for her. She felt that God had guided her throughout all aspects of her Clinic and developing her treatment to what it has become today.

I respect all that she has achieved and resist any attempts to change the treatment, regardless of up-and-coming research. I generally find the research confirms that the treatment outlined in this book is providing exactly what an arthritic needs - but in a relatively cheap, safe way, rather than by using expensive individual substances. The treatment that cured my mother has brought health and mobility back to thousands of people directly, or indirectly through the pages of this book. I keep up to date as much as possible and consider all new products coming on to the market to assess whether they will help our patients - after all, my mother used to say that she would have taken anything if she thought it would get rid of her pain. Arthritis sufferers are vulnerable to all new drugs and natural substances that might be of some help. I have added a new chapter in order to try and relate to the reader whether such substances could be useful to them. Such information is conveyed in the context of whether they would be a useful addition to the acid free diet, acid-removing treatment of cider vinegar and honey drinks, molasses, Epsom salt baths, vitamins, minerals and protein that comprises the holistic healing programme devised by my mother.

I have worked alongside Margaret Hills since the early 1980s and it was her wish and my privilege that I should continue her work, ensuring that the appropriate advice, guidance and support are given. I have already been asked to speak on local radio, and have taken part in a 'phone-in' on arthritis, which was very successful, running on way past the allotted time - luckily on a Bank Holiday when the schedules were not so rigid! I will do my utmost to continue the work that my mother started so that more and more people can regain control of their health and start to live life to the full again!

Christine Horner, ECNP, MRNT (Mrs)

About the author:

The late Margaret Hills, SRN, trained at St Stephen's Hospital, London. She developed osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis as a young woman, but went on to finish her nurse's training, marry, have eight children and pursue a long career as an industrial nurse. She developed her own method of natural treatment for arthritis and ran a clinic in Kenilworth. The clinic, now run by her daughter Christine Horner, attracts patients from far and wide and, following on from its success, Margaret wrote this book to impart her knowledge and help people with arthritis everywhere.

Christine Horner, ECNP, MRNT has worked at the clinic since the mid-1980s. Her early training was as a secretary and personal assistant. She is a nutritional medicine practitioner and Scenar therapist. She is married with two daughters.