Helen Johnston, a 59-year-old former magazine editor from north London, has launched a health food company offering “superblends” of seeds and herbs that can be sprinkled on sweet and savoury dishes. She believes that improving her diet and eating more nutrient-dense foods have played a role in helping her live well with her condition, which she has managed without medication for about two years.
Shock Diagnosis and Career Change
Johnston was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in her 30s while cycling to work, when she first noticed pain in her hands and feet. “I didn't understand it,” she said. “I was healthy, full of energy. It was just was something completely out of the blue.” The pain was worse in the mornings, sometimes coming and going throughout the day.
After seeing a rheumatologist, she received what she called a “bombshell diagnosis” of the autoimmune condition. “I was in total disbelief. I can remember bursting into tears and the slightly unsympathetic doctor saying, ‘What's the matter?’ I was in my mid-30s. I had a two-year-old son and it just felt like total devastation.”
Dietary Changes and Training
Psoriatic arthritis is a chronic autoimmune and inflammatory condition that causes joint pain, swelling and stiffness. Other symptoms can include feeling drained of energy and changes in the nails. Johnston described the pain as a systemic ache: “There's a dull ache through your whole body. It's like flu, that's the best way to describe it I think.”
She started taking a combination of sulfasalazine and methotrexate, along with painkillers, and later had weekly injections of biologic drugs. While the medication was “like a miracle drug for me”, she felt it was “masking the symptoms, not getting to the root cause”. She added: “I just did not want to be medicated, I was desperate to find a way of helping myself. That's what led me on this journey of discovery, trying to find a way to become symptom-free and medication-free.”
Johnston stopped eating gluten and reduced her alcohol and sugar intake. With the support of her rheumatologist, she tried to reduce her reliance on the medications but found the pain always returned after around three months. She then spent three years training to become a registered nutritionist, which opened her eyes to more areas where her diet could be improved.
Launching SUCSEED
As her knowledge grew, Johnston discovered the “incredible properties of seeds and botanical herbs”. She began experimenting with growing seeds on her family farm in Norfolk and founded the health food brand SUCSEED, which offers mixes of seeds and herbs optimised for immunity, energy, focus or gut health. The blends are designed to be sprinkled on dishes including yoghurt, soup, smoothies, salads and pasta.
She said: “I work with other nutritionists, with herbalists, and everybody to try and just support people in getting this extra nutrient-dense food in their diet. Whatever they're eating, you can sprinkle some of these seeds and herbs on, so you're getting over 10 plants per sprinkle. We should all be aiming for 30 plants a week to give our gut the diversity it needs. So that's just a really easy way of topping it up.”
Although Johnston has been managing her condition without medication for two years, she stressed that there is no magic bullet and other factors are likely to have played a role. She added: “I wish I could say that having a daily dose of seeds, botanical herbs in the form of SUCSEED was the answer to everything. But of course, it's just one part of all the other things that I've done.”
