Eat to live?

Over a year ago, I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both my hips, significantly worse on my right. Osteoarthritis (OA) is where the joint's cartilage breaks down and can even get spurs in the socket so when the ball rotates it literally scrapes bone against bone or bone against spur. Needless to say, it's rather painful and slows me down quite a lot when it flares up.

My question has always been, what causes that flare up and what can I do to prevent it? Like a good doctor, mine gave me a prescription for pain management but who wants to take meds for the rest of their life?

I'm sure someone, somewhere, at some point told me about the potential impact diet has on OA, but it wasn't until this past weekend a new friend re-introduced me to the concept. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis over a year ago and her doctor gave her the option of (1) pain management or (2) trying a specialized diet. She, like me, is not fond of meds for life so she eagerly tried what many refer to as the caveman diet. Basically, it's fruits, veggies, nuts, and meats, though not too much red meat. Obviously, there's a few major things missing: carbs, sugars. Oh, my. And night-shade veggies are known to inflame joints and aggravate arthritis so I'm avoiding tomatoes and peppers, too!

Now, today is only day 3 of this major lifestyle overhaul but I feel GREAT! No pain, plenty of energy, well focused. I don't know about my resolve long-term but I have the amazing opportunity to choose every day if I want to be in pain or not and I can't think of any better motivation!

In all my research online in the last few days, I came across some additional, intriguing information promoting eating according to your blood type. As crazy as this sounded at first, the more I read the more it made sense (at least for me and my blood type). And it is incredible how much one's blood type is credited with personality type. So far there's no published research supporting eating for your blood type but the recommendation for me, with type O, is practically the same diet I just started!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences as I explore and experiment with my diet to find if it does help my osteoarthritis or not.