hello,
i am thinking about starting a low starch diet and i was wondering how long it took for you to start noticing a difference?

thanks!

kelly

Everyone responds differently. Some people see a dramatic improvement in a matter of a few weeks. For most people though it's a gradual improvement over a period of months. So be prepared to give it a proper try (no cheating or you might as well start over) for at least 3 months before expecting results. And by results I mean improvement not miracle cure! Just as the meds don't alleviate all symptoms neither does the diet for most people. Some achieve huge improvements like my husband (daily pain going from 8/10 down to 1 or 2) and others not as much.

It often takes people at least 3 months to figure out what they can and can't tolerate and exactly what is and isn't starchy.

Have a look at the success stories thread at the top of this forum as I think people often mention how long it took for them.

Hi, kelly:

It was really spotty results for me for first six months or so, but I cheated by adding antibiotics and, within four days, I knew I would never look back/on the right track.

Even still, it took nearly another six months for my costochondritis symptom to go away, and regret during some of the time I quite the antibiotics my hip bursitis returned with a vengeance and I had to fast for 11 days and begin antibiotic regimen once more. But I did notice some issues early on, once I was committed to eliminating NSAIDs totally, however, even after two years, I was continuing to improve; we often do not know what our limitations were until they drop off. The NSD has the potential of turning the clock back for up to two years; don't wait too long, as I did!

HEALTH,
John

Hello there,

As John and Chelsea posted... some respond quickly and others not as quick. It took me a week... but I was coming off azulfadine at the time that is said to have some antibiotic properties, so that may have helped me with quick response.

As others... in first several months, I had ups and downs with diet as learned what all had starch and did not and refined my menu.

Now it has been over 10 years on diet for me.

Tim

Kelly,

I have been on the diet for about 6 months. It took me a few weeks to get it right because of hidden starches. I remember thinking I would never find anything to eat. We are so used to having such a variety of foods in our diet, that when we need to eliminated so many food groups, it seems so overwhelming. I started with very few foods at first, then added a little at a time. Now that I've got the hang of it, I can modify most recipes to be starch-free. And if I can't, I don't stress and I find something else to eat. Even though it took me those months to figure it out, I felt some pain relief almost instantly. Now I have only a little pain now and then that I can treat with NSAIDS (about once a week). I am very active (cycling, rollerskating, gardening, and waitressing). Hope this helps.

I noticed improvement within a week, but I still had some pain due to so many hidden sources of starch in foods. As I got more fully starch-free, my symptoms improved greatly. Now, I am mostly pain free, except when I do things that exacerbate my back problems, such as bowling.

--Greg

Hi Kelly,

I am so excited for you to give the NSDiet a try!

I noticed a huge surge in energy and a lot less pain in the first week. But then it took many more months, like now I am on month 8, and I am fully painfree most of the time, and if I do get any pain it is very very minnimal. There was very slow gradual process there for a while, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

I am just so thankful for this diet! I don't know how I would enjoy my life without it!

I just got a call from the Doc today to confirm I am HLA-B27 positive. Until today, I was going on the diagnosis from the fusing shown on my x-rays, and all the pain I have lived with for far too long.

I also take "500mg of 95% curcumin" (natural turmeric extract) everyday instead of NSAIDS or any painpills. It works great, and really really helps reduce ALL in the inflammation in my body, as I also have colitis, and was all too familiar with inflammed intestines.

I can't recommend this diet enough. I personally barely eat any animal products. I just eat tons of fresh fruit, veggies, leafy greens, nuts & seeds. Just a little wild caught fish and grass fed beef. I personally don't worry much about the starch in most fruits & veggies, but I completely avoid all grains, rice, breads, potatoes, bananas, etc. I recommend being VERY strict at first and testing with iodine, then once things start to improve, you can always reintroduce borderline starchy things (like unripe fruit) and try it again.

Best of Luck & Health!!
Andrea

thanks so much everyone!
i have to be honest and say that i am very overwhelmed to start this diet, and how it seems like a concensus that i need to be super strict. my main concern is that i take medicine that i can not go off of i believe it has corn starch in it. it is thyroid medication and some other psychiatric meds. as for those of you who mentioned antibiotics, who prescribed those for you? and is it a certain kind? i am interested in that. how did you all start the diet? will these meds that i take defeat the purpose of the diet?
thanks again

kelly

Hello there,

If you are taking medications, you do not need to stop them. In theory they should be helping you as well.

A good goal is to begin diet and if you see improvements, you can work with doctor on cutting back on the medications potentially. Maybe you can eventually come off the medications.

I had to come off of azulfadine for my liver when I started diet, but I continued with naproxen.... after month or so on diet and doing well I started discontinuing naproxen.

Medications can be complementary... if have some modified starch, in theory if they help fight the inflamation should offset the small starch value.

Long term probably best if can come off of NSAIDs as they can be hard on the GI tract and cause a leaky gut (if you believe in leaky guts). Naturopaths believe in leaky gut, a lot of doctors do not necessarily.

Take care,

Tim

Hi, Kelly:



Well, nobody had to prescribe antibiotics for me; as a free adult I make my own choices in such matters--nobody controls my health but ME. Since I travel, once in India I was able to buy Cipro at the "chemist" (pharmacy) and in Mexico I was able to purchase all the antibiotics I wanted from their "farmacias," so I did.

If You think You need a physician or otherwise do not have access (albeit online there are many pharmacies that will sell antibiotics with a minor disclaimer about the foolishness of the FDA--there is nothing to prosecute; we can buy antibiotics for ourselves, pets, and farm animals too), the Road Back Foundation has a listing of physicians in Your area who are willing to use antibiotic therapy for rheumatic diseases, however, they may not always use the right one for AS as they more often treat RA.



ABSOLUTELY: Some antibiotics will not work at all, some are bactericidal (AS removal) and others are bacteristatic (AS control). Any agent that stops Klebsiella pneumoniae from 1) living or 2) reproducing will have some effect upon AS symptoms, however, these agents are two-edged swords; they can make things even worse on a temporary basis through tearing down the good bacteria that helps knit together the mucosa which sometimes covers lesions, making them active. I have developed my own protocol, that You are welcome to use especially in conjunction with a knowledgeable physician, as a basic guide: anzaltopo@yahoo.com



After another member on "Brian's AS Web" sent me the papers published by Professor Alan Ebringer, it was obvious that some level of "substrate modulation" would be required and I later added antibiotics to the stricter diet offered by Carol Sinclair--about 14 years ago still working (knock wood).



No, not really, but they can cause flares and make the diet less effective, but not ineffective: Professor Ebringer agreed that dietary control of AS is not a "Step function," but a "linear relationship," so any level of starch reduction is a step that will have benefits even if those benefits are not always perceptible.

There is a chart in the "Etiopathogenesis..." paper showing decreasing ESR over a nine month interval on his London AS Diet (LSD). Many of these people will not have noticed any improvement, since their internal "pain meter" was already pegged after ESR of 50 or so, but coming down from 82 to 55 is very beneficial, if not perceptible by the patient.

Diet alone is a very long road, but absolutely required to get this disease under proper long-term control.

HEALTH,
John