Hi, fellow Spondylonians!
I just wanted to report that I learned a lot from trying restrictive diets, etc. While in some it may "cure," in others it only diminishes the pain. This is because we are all created differently, in both design and how our disease manifested. However, the end result is the same... we all have leaking guts. The diet will allow less bacterial offenders to leak into the bloodstream and, for some, this will be enough to heal and seal them guts back up. However, this is dependent on the number of genes you have that are pro-AS, since AS is a polygenetic disease.
Things like bone broth daily, or even multiple times a day, can really help heal the guts. Obviously removing complex starches can help...but in the long run that is really not good for the kind of microbiome that promotes health. I have made a post in the Spondylitis Association of America forums that came from hundreds of hours of research and experimentation on myself. I believe I have pretty much nailed the coffin on this disease and provide a nearly closed-loop explanation of how it gets started. I am currently treating myself after:
1) Change in dietHelped a little sometimes, a lot others.
2) Biolfilm protocolThink this was necessary to remove some colonies, but ended up causing me more pain in the long-run due to exposing sections that were highly irritated (guess)
3) Juice Cleanses + Water CleansesAlso allowed leakage that hurt me a lot (don't think a leaking intestine should have large amounts of liquid in it constantly pushing on these leaky loose junctions)
4) Supplements (such as butyrate + digestive enzymes)Like the biofilm disruption protocol, this initially helped a little, but then eroded what little lining I had left or just was too powerful and "overdid it."
and finally
5) Scrapping all of that I realized that none of it addressed the root cause. I am now on Rifaximin as it is one of very few drugs that is BOTH anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial in nature, as well as promotes tight-junction protein synthesis in the gut (sorely [pun-intended] needed for those with the damage in their guts that causes AS.) Please check out the post here.
(LINK) Cheers!