Albin Vistrand, 60, a Swedish farmer from Bie, Sormland, suffered from agonizing arthritis for 12 years.
Actually it all started long ago. While in military service during his youth he hurt his right arm. The infection spread and developed into a bad blood poisoning. After the operation his arm didn’t heal completely and he was discharged as an invalid. For several years he was bothered with open, inflamed ulcers until the arm was finally healed. Then for many years he enjoyed seemingly perfect health.
But in 1953 the same arm was stricken with a severe attack of arthritis. Not only was he unable to perform his farm labors, but he could not write, not even peel his potatoes. After two years of suffering and pain he was finally ordered by doctors to use a prosthesis on his arm to enable him to bend it at all. He had this prosthesis on his arm every day for ten long years!
In 1957 arthritis started to spread to other parts of the body. His left leg became badly inflamed. Increasing stiffness accompanied the unbearable pain. He also received a bigger prosthesis for his leg, which limited his movements and made walking with crutches more bearable.
In addition to various drugs, one doctor gave instructions to wrap the leg in adhesive bandage.
“This treatment I’ll never forget,” said Mr. Vistrand.
The bandage was left on for several weeks and, finally, when the pain became so bad that he could not stand it anymore, he called the doctor. “Try to remove the bandage,” was the doctor’s advice.
“I did,” continued Mr. Vistrand. “I worked for two hours with a pair of scissors and a razor blade, and when I finished the whole leg looked like bloody flesh and pus.”
Now he started the long list of visits to various hospitals and arthritis clinics. Eight weeks in Kullbergska Hospital… Three weeks in Norrtuna Hospital… without any improvement in his condition. In Eskilstuna Hospital he received 12 x-ray treatments for his left knee. After this treatment the knee was so badly burned that they had to operate on it. In addition, he was stricken by double pneumonia. When he finally came back home, his arthritis was worse than ever.
“I had such frightful pains that it is impossible to describe them,” he said.
Now some friends recommended the well-known cure clinic for rheumatic diseases in Nynashamn. Mr. Vistrand went there in November, 1958 and stayed until the end of January, 1959. Treatments consisted of various forms of physiotherapy, baths, and massage, plus masses of different drugs. He felt a little better and the drugs killed the pain. When he returned home, however, his pain came back.
The next hospital visit was to Lot. Here the entire treatment consisted of various drugs—14 tablets each day. It was in this hospital that his leg prosthesis of steel and leather was made in an attempt to hold his leg in a straight position.
In spite of all these various treatments and drugs, his condition was getting progressively worse. Now both his legs were affected. A visit to a famous rheumatologist at St. Erik’s Hospital in Stockholm, revealed that he also was afflicted with a bad anemia due to an iron deficiency. He received 20 injections of iron in addition to several new drugs, including Butazolidin. They helped to relieve the pain, but now he was seized with cramps in the legs and his toenails turned black and fell off. But his blood quality improved and he started to gain weight
Then his heart started to bother him. A new visit to a doctor resulted in a new drug for his heart condition. He discovered, however, that when he took his heart medicine, it completely disrupted his stomach and digestion. And when he took his drugs for arthritis they affected his heart condition—the typical vicious cycle of drug therapy!
He began to realize that he was at the end of his rope. In his search for relief he had tried everything and nothing had helped. His arthritis was becoming worse with each week. He took 22 tablets of various drugs each day, but they didn’t give him any lasting relief. He felt desperate, helpless, and discouraged.
It was at that time that some friends showed him a copy of Tidskrift for Halsa which opened his eyes to an alternative to drugs and operations—a new biological approach to the treatment of arthritis. One cold and dark day in January, 1964 he was taken in an automobile to the Brandals Clinic.
“I was very skeptical when I arrived there,” he says. “After all, I went through so many different treatments before, without getting better. Also, I was instructed to get rid of all tablets and my program should start with an enema and potato broth—a water in which potatoes were boiled!”
Twenty-Five Days without Food
His program of treatments at Brandal started with a therapeutic fast which lasted 25 days. He received no solid foods, only vegetable and fruit juices, vegetable broths, and herb teas. His other treatments included alternating hot and cold showers each morning, an enema twice a day, colonic irrigation once a week, exercises, and lots of rest.
After 20 days of fasting he was able to leave his crutches and walk without them. On the 26th day he started eating again. His diet consisted of raw fruits and vegetables with homemade yogurt, wheat germ, crushed seeds and nuts, vegetable soup, and potatoes.
One week after completion of the fast he was able to climb the stairs to the second floor without help and without even holding onto the handrail. The pain had disappeared completely. He had full mobility of his arms and legs.
Mr. Vistrand wrapped his arm and leg prostheses in a package and presented them to Alma Nissen as a new addition to her “museum.” They are proudly exhibited in the sitting room of the Brandals Clinic for the inspiration of other arthritis sufferers who come there.
Happy and optimistic Albin Vistrand returned to his farm able to walk and work without crutches, without pain, and without drugs. As a pleasant bonus from the biological therapies at Brandal his heart and stomach problems disappeared as well.
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