I agree with Jaybird. The most research money is in the big pharmas, and they have never, and will never develop a cure. A cure would only cut into their profits. Their goal is to find expensive meds that prolong diseases.

And government is too inept to find a cure, which only leaves independent researchers and nonprofit associations to find the cure. And they have to contend with low budgets and with the big pharmas who mercilessly attack any potential cure.

So, I think we may have a very good treatment, but not in the near future. Maybe in 20 years or so. The increasing levels of research into gut bacteria and immunology is showing a lot of promise.

just doing a bit of light reading on custom drugs talor made for individuals, and i like the idea but the big pharmys prob dont agree with me...being it might up set the stock holders. Because lets face it, there very importent people and finding a cure does not cater to there greed....

you would prob find that in the long run common sense will prevail and they will let them find a cure for most problems with the human body but in current society profit allways wins...

sorry

At 54 years of age, I pray that the Lord comes and takes us all home and that will be the all time, big time cure.

The way stem cell and gene therapy and all sorts of other "genetic modification" type research is going I wouldn't mind betting that eventually someone comes up with a way to get rid of whatever it is in our bodies that causes AS to develop (though they have to figure that out first). However I'm not sure I would want that - I think there is too much of researchers playing god already - even with things like offering abortions when spina bifida or other disorders show on early scanning or amniocentesis. Used to be that nature decided who was going to survive and who wasn't, but instead we either get human decisions to terminate or medical interventions that dramatically prolong lives quite unnecessarily.

I'd personally like to know a lot more about risk factors, and early intervention and treatment. Its the consequences of badly treated AS that are a problem, not the fact that you have whatever predisposition for it. Its the same with coeliac disease. no way do I want to be provided with genetically modified food that my body can tolerate, or worse still have something in my own genes modified so I'm not coeliac. I just needed to know how to deal with it, and now it doesn't impact on my health any more. Would have been good to have been diagnosed 20 years earlier though - which I could have been if the significance of my (undiagnosed) family history had been taken into account.

No, to me a good future is not trying to eliminate it, but knowing very clearly what the risk and trigger factors are, and identifying it early, along with good treatment to stop negative consequences developing.

I would happily accept a cure regardless of whether it was done with genetic modification, stem cells etc. I think many others would too.

Of course none of this is ‘playing god’ because there is no god. It is frustrating that this is often used as an excuse to hold back this type of research… of course the people who are opposed to it are mostly able bodied and healthy.

These therapies also show some promise when it comes to thinks like repairing a broken spinal cord and stuff like that too… I think many people who are stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives would gladly accept a cure too if it was made possible through stem cell research. However there is still a long way to go.

Phil

I agree with Pea. :o)

I think they are making great strides in genetics. They will have to figure out what causes the gene to be activated. I think it is genetic and environmental.

I think there will always be pain from one of these diseases BUT as Pea said, "There is the ultimate healing" which I hold on to.

Blessings.
Possi

There is no evidence to support the notion of a Judeo Christian God - no more likely than Thor or some of the Gods that Hindus worship.

If there was a cure for this condition I would it so I can have a life that most have.

Thinking that being in constant pain is part of gods plan seems a little masochistic to me... pretty much everyone takes medications and the like to alleviate their symptoms so Isn't this getting in the way of god's plan.

I have no problem with theists unless they halt research which may help me and so many others improve our life quality. I'd prefer not to be a burden on welfare and lead a fulfilling life if possible. If stem cells can assist fantastic.

If your children or grandchildren were in excruciating agony and disability would you not want a stem cell based cure as it wasn't part of gods plan.

As for cynicism about big pharma - it's well placed. The best we can hope for is competing companies take each other on and one of them develops an expensive cure which and makes it worthwhile for their shareholders and executives.

There may be something akin to a cure in 10-20 years - I'll be an old man by then but I still wouldn't say no.

Travel Well All
Rippin

Rippin

I have psoriatic arthritis with spondalytis and like many with my condition we got extremely ill (I nearly died from the poisoning and my grandmother had a hysterectomy) and this turned the condition on. My hope is they can find something to turn it off as I'm sick of being in constant pain that other people can't see and think your bullshitting.

Rippin

Pea I didn't think they used mtx for AS as it only worked on peripheral joints instead of the axial ones?

Rippin

Man's perspiration far too infrequently gets him to where his aspirations aim him. Man is noble in the effort to weather the journey in any event. I don't think big pharma or any other nefarious obstacle will curtail those willing to endeavor their years to seek a cure. Since, however, we still are unable to even yet discern who does and does not have AS. Since the factors initiating AS's manifestation in each of us is unique to each of us, curing AS seems an onerous task.

Taming it and making it manageable without quite fully comprehending it, seems the goal at present. I suspect we in our medical science are still much like the healers of the Revolutionary War in the early US hacking of limbs and with medicine kits that are barbaric at best when coming to our battle with AS. We think ourselves sophisticated and flush with ingenuity, but I think we are just children dippin' our toes in a vast ocean of date to comprehend our own bodies.

I hate that all of you here have pains. I bear mine to the best of my meager abilities. I don't shake my fist at the medical profession, God or if you will the absence thereof, hope or the absence thereof not because I am wise but because I did and it was pointless. I smile now mostly. I look worse than I did the day before, but I battle better because I know its my battle and I know I have folks like you marchin' the same path as nobly as you can.