I have a very close friend who worked for the Pharmaceutical company and her job was to visit physicians and make sure they prescribed the new drugs to their patients. Big Pharma offers pretty hefty bonuses to the medical profession and I leave it at that. My friend quit her job after she got sick herself. She is now a big advocate for natural medicine and we both work together by helping our sick friends understand their auto immune disorders and cancers. We never tell people to stop taking their meds, but teach them to research it and change their nutritional habits so they can find out their own bio individuality.

Especially when I was first diagnosed, I had major cachexia, (or muscle wasting.) Unfortunately, I think it goes along with RA. I lost a substantial amount of weight, and much of it was muscle. I try very hard to lift light weights and do resistance training because it's dangerous. Here's a link about it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12163213

Initially, I couldn't even lift my hands to my head, my arms were so weak. It was frightening.

Are you taking prednisone, Hilary? I read that some of the meds we take, including prednisone, can cause cachexia, too...

I eat very healthy foods, and take supplements, etc, and I'm better than I was initially, but I still have not gained weight and have definitely lost muscle mass. But you need treatment to address that--it can be dangerous.

I know this is a very old post but just wondering if you ever found anything that worked for gaining weight back?

thanks - that is really useful info - great to know there is this really supportive site! I will up the Turmeric, and start simminmg again. Just as you say, the Medical profesion just tries to force toxic drugs on you = my Rhheumy wanted me on 3 - Sulsasalazine Leonafluoride, and Plaquenil, together with Prednisolone! I fought my corner and am only on Plaquenol as it sees the safest. can';t imagine what taking 3 wouod have done to me. Seems conventional doctors aren't taught nutrition = and a lot of research points to RA caused by leaky gut - but my Rheumy just laughed! I wonder how they would feel being bullied into taking these very toxic drugs themselves - I bet they wouldn't ! x

I take Plaquenil and stopped taking Prednisone. I also lost a lot of weight and really decided to take natural supplements which is helping me tremendously. I eliminated meat and dairy from my diet since it made my flares unbearable. I do super foods diets, raw vegan and use Chaga mushrooms with Fulvic acids. Read about it, it makes more sense than the meds forced down my throat. http://www.optimallyorganic.com/products
I make sure I exercise every day, Yoga and swimming at a heated pool. Add a lot of Turmeric to your diet and healthy fats, such as avocados, Brazil nuts, organic green olives, olive oil. This works for me. I am still doing more research on gaining muscle mass, and collagen seems to be the answer, yet I need to find this in organic form and without sugar additives. Push your doctor to do complete metabolic panel and tumor markers on your next blood work, because nowadays you got to be your own doctor because of the breakdown of our health care system.