I was also sceptical to begin with as usually I am the sort of person who trusts the medical community and would consider any 'alternative' treatments to be a load of nonsense and based only on the placebo effect.

However I was in a world of pain before I started the diet and would be willing to try almost anything within reason to reduce the pain. And the diet certainly did that! I have been on a low/no starch diet for about a year now and I have never felt better! Not only have I had no pain, but also less fatigue and less problems with my gut which were also regular before.

I have done as you said actually and came off the low starch diet twice now. The first time was during a holiday in Turkey where it was very difficult to stick to the diet. A week into the holiday I was in a world of pain again in by back, neck and hips. I barely had enough flexibility to put my shoes on, just as it was before I started the diet.

The second time was when last week I decided to test the waters again and added a bit of potato to my diet (the starch I miss the most!). I am paying for that now. Although it is only a low level of pain right now, I do certainly feel it in my hip and it is not pleasant. I am being extra strict again now to try and get back on track.

The diet works.

I would encourage you to persevere but of course nobody can force you to do that and I wish you all the best with whichever path you decide to take. But if you want to say that the diet does not work, then speak for yourself, not everyone else on here.

My last words on the matter....sheesh!

We are all open minded!

Correct the diet may not work for all. But for those of us who have achieved success it has been through literally painstaking experimentation. Careful observation, meticulous record keeping and pain in the event of starch!

It worked like this for me...

1. 3 day fast to test diet hypothesis...on the 3rd day all sorts of "normalised pain" just disappeared.
2. LSD for a couple of weeks...weird all over pains disappeared, immediate reduction in chronic achilles swelling. However, SI joint still painful.
3. NSD...further improvements but SI joint still painful.
4. Paleo auto immune protocol (no eggs, seeds, nuts, sugar, alcohol etc...)...major break through.

I kept an open mind at all time. NSD wasn't enough for me. I kept experimenting with many many regressions. I can now eat eggs and mustard. However, my weakness for starch free dark chocolate and beer catches me out with iritis.

I am still learning. As we all are, well most of us!

Why are you so determined to prove those of us who experience success wrong? Why hypothesise random remission? Why not blame it on the cutlery? Or the moon? It is scientifically improbable that we have achieved temporary remission by chance, all at the same time and all excluding starch.

I repeat. The diet may not be a panacea. I accept that. But what you are proposing is some sort of symbolic register of reality that we all share, an illusion of remission divorced from sensory perception. Of course there are enormous limitations with the sensual register. After all the placebo effect is well known. But for many of us we have tested this effect by accident. Mysterious pain has led us to retest and investigate what we have consumed. The result? Starch has invariably crept in. At a conscious level we had no awareness of this incursion. However, at a sensory level we were notified. Pain, stiffness and general miserableness!

What is my take on the whole affair?

For what it is worth I believe that human beings share much commonality but display much difference. Illness and disease exist in a dialectic with genes and environment. Each auto immune disease is a perfect storm individual to the afflicted BUT with certain traces of commonality. So for me that means NSD was not enough in the early stages (the first 2 years). However, the guiding principles of the diet remain. I believe that my intestines display permeability. Lesions allow alien substances to pop up in all sorts of unwelcome places. The result is my body attacks the substance. Molecular mimicry, general all out attack on molecular invaders. Who knows! The result is last week I got irits because I ate too much starch free chocolate.

I could dismiss the NSD because of my iritis. Or I could draw on the experiences of others (KickAS, Robb Wolf, Loren Cordain, Kurt Harris and the growing myriad of evolutionary approaches to disease) and push on with further experimentation.

Or I could pursue other paths: medication, infusion, acupuncture etc...it the choice of the individual. However, I will not criticise or devalue the choices of others including yours. I chose herbs and diet based on research and self experimentation.

No hard feelings, but please try not to dismiss years of experience on this site.

All the best

Keith

The result is last week I got irits because I ate too much starch free chocolate.

I could dismiss the NSD because of my iritis.

3. My personal opinion is still, that there could be some in this forum who are in natural remission and that they are unnecessarily suffering starch restriction. If that is the case, then such persons are really making life unnecessarily tougher than it should be.

For them, my personal opinion is that they should try a starch challenge, and expect a flare soon after (within a week). Then they will know they are starch sensitive, and continue the diet. However,if after a week they remain flare free, then, perhaps they can quit the diet, and celebrate a natural remission of the disease.

Some of you , understandably , have suggested I run my own forum, so i can do whatever i want there instead of troubling you here. Can someone suggest , what is the easiest forum platform to install and run. I have some non forum websites that i have with inmotion hosting. What i am scared of, is that, if the forum becomes successful, i might let people down but not being able to run it smoothly (e.g. I do not know how to write scripts /code etc). So far I have only basic knowledge of Dreamweaver. Any advice would be welcome. Thank you.

I could draw on the experiences of others (KickAS, Robb Wolf, Loren Cordain, Kurt Harris and the growing myriad of evolutionary approaches to disease

Take the case of Wolf. Robb Wolf was not poisoned by wheat and saved by paleo. He was rather a victim of a particular disease of immune dysregulation- celiac disease - which was and is ameliorated BUT NOT CURED by a wheat free paleo diet. He must stay off gluten to stay in remission. He is not "cured". If he were he could eat wheat with impunity like I can (Yes, my tests for celiac were negative).

In the same way, someone with Crohn's disease or AS is not being poisoned by starch feeding particular bacteria in the gut, they are victims of an abnormal immune response to gut bacteria macromolecules that we are supposed to be able to - are actually evolved to - tolerate. The GAPS diet or similar, if it works for IBD, is palliative and not curative. The idea that starch or even gluten are per se NADS is wrong."