Hi I am new to kickas.org although I have been reading posts for about two months. I started the NSD 10 weeks ago and have been going really well. The pain in my neck and shoulders has gone almost completely. My lower back had improved but over the last 7 days it is getting worse again and I'm panicking the pain is coming back. I am taking salazopyrin but no other medication. Do I need to give up dairy and sugar? My coffee is my only vice at the moment. Does anyone know if soy milk is ok? I would appreciate any advice for someone new to the diet. Should I expect the pain to go completely or will there always be a low level of pain even if I don't eat starch?

Hi there,
Welcome to KickAS, glad to hear the NSD is helping you. I don't know the answer to your questions but for me, I cannot eat dairy without getting inflammtion in my knee, it swells right up the next day. Usually if I avoid it for a few days I notice a differece right away, but that is me and I was dxd with RA, not AS. But the NSD has helped me a lot, so I stick with it.

Take care!

It is possible for you to flare occasionally, even on NSD. If you are extremely sensitive to starch it is also possible that you accidentally are getting some in your diet. While some folk get excellent results on NSD, not everyone does, and it could be that while NSD works well for you normally, it isn't enough when you are actually flaring.

Hi there, I'm glad you have been doing well on the NSD. It will be up and down with your improvement over a period of months as you adjust to it. With my husband it was 2 steps forward 1 step back. Definitly very encouraging that you have already started to see results! So you are doing great!

Coffee is fine don't worry about it. Soy milk would depend on the brand as sometimes they add starchy thickeners to it. Do you test your food with iodine as you may be eating starch without realising it?

This link may help you: NSD Food Guide

Also, we have a whole separate forum here at KickAS dedicated solely to the NSD and diet related stuff so feel free to post any future diet questions in there and we'll do our best to help you out: NSD and diet related Forum


As for what to expect results wise well that's different for everyone. Some people achieve complete remission that stays as long as they stick to the diet. Others achieve a significant reduction in pain enough that they don't need meds anymore. Others still need some meds but are able to reduce them. And there have been others that have felt the diet hasn't worked for them or hasn't worked enough to be worth the changes required. So I guess I'm saying you'll have to wait and see! If you can it's best to be very strict no starch (don't cheat) for at least 3 months before deciding if you're going to stick with it or not. Some people do need to then eliminate dairy after a couple of months and make better progress without it - others are fine with dairy. Even fewer people need to come off sugar so I'd leave that one as a last resort to be considered several months down the track if you're not making the progress you would like.

Hope that helps & welcome!

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement. Although I think my AS is mild compared to what others experience, it is hard to stay positive when 7 days ago I could touch my toes and now I'm so stiff my hands can only reach my knees. I had eaten some starch when I was making my children's birthday cake - just couldn't resist and I sneakily ate some maltesers as well so it must be coming back to haunt me. How long does it usually take for the AS pain to subside if I am really strict again with NSD?

Oops, yep that would have done it! For my hubby it usually takes a week or 2 to get back where he was. If he wants to fast track his recovery then he'll usually do a short fast or semi fast. Like for about 24 hours he will just eat something he knows is super safe for him like green grapes and he drinks red bush tea. Sometimes if its a bad flare up he'll do that for a couple of days to nip it in the bud.

Please read the information on this website http://www.biblelife.org/autoimmune.htm . Soy is not a healthy food.

Hello, James_Malone:

Despite the name of the link You provided, I followed to read something about soy, as I consume a fair amount of it. And I know there are some people who think it interferes with our basic hormones (Dr. Mercola, for one) and I appreciate their concerns but studies have not backed up their hypotheses.

And I am interested in societies who consume soy in some large quantities--not just the Chinese, but especially Taiwan where they eat 'stinky tofu' by the carload. Little age-related dementia and people are quite healthy there, and also in places like Okinawa, where they consume a considerable amount of tofu and lead long, productive lives.

It is always good to be concerned about what we are eating, but I'll take tofu any day over daily bread! It is all a matter of risk factors and when we have AS we risk severe disease when eating the starches and we risk severe complications from the drug poisons the physicians get us to take. The very and extremely minor risks from tofu, compared with everything else in our AS experience, should not overly-concern us, but we each should make our own choices. Tofu is not a very appealing food, so we are not flocking in droves to consume it! But it would be much better for us than a baked potato any day.

Bon Appetit,
John

DragonSlayer, I do not think you are the best representative of someone struggling with "auto-immune" anymore, having already spent years working out gut problems. There should probably be a caveat that people who currently have a very leaky gut are prone to developing immune reactions to soy protein if they start using soy as a staple to replace the old starchy staples.

The key difference between someone like me and those healthy Taiwanese individuals with a tofu-based diet is that my gut is already leaky, after growing up on American food with all the gluten and chemicals that typically involves. For that reason I keep soy consumption to an occasional treat, and will continue to do so until I can join some of the more experienced KA members in "remission", meaning my gut has healed and I am able to eat a wider variety of foods (such as sticky white rice perhaps).

Good point SJLC...