The Center first started accepting patients/co-learners in 1975. Several years later we were asked to evaluate our first rheumatoid arthritis patient. The prevailing wisdom of conventional medicine at the time for treating arthritis was that a physician would prescribe a medication to relieve the pain and "teach the patient to live with their disease". In some situations, this is still the treatment. We approached our first patient presenting with rheumatoid arthritis in much the same way we approach all our patients: we want to discover the underlying factors that seem to be triggering the body's painful response to a disease. In this patient's case, a diagnostic chelation showed a high body burden of lead (a protoplasmic poison) and many adverse food reactions (especially to corn). Removing the lead burden through a series of intravenous chelation and having her avoid the reactive foods, her symptoms of arthritis (which had been present for many months), disappeared. The patient is an avid golfer and continues to play golf today. During a recent visit to The Center, she stated that she is now hitting the ball farther than she had ever hit it prior to the onset of the arthritis.