Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Have you experienced improvement with diet change?

Hi,

I have AS and so did my dad, who died way too young. I always knew I had it, but never really wanted to accept it. About 1 year ago I found this forum and started reading and started to change my diet. It's a bit crazy how much I have changed this past year and I feel stronger and healthier than ever before. I do not feel depressed about the future anymore, actually I am very optimistic now. It has been a big help to read all of the Success Stories here on this site. When I first started my search I found nothing in my own country, nothing online in my own language. I am now beginning to share what I find on my blog, so others in Denmark can also find this information.

If you have experienced improvement by changing your diet or lifestyle, I would really like to hear from you and share your story with AS sufferers in Denmark.

Please contact me! Thanks.

Best Regards
Strang

Sorry if this disappoints you strag
but I have tried diet as a way to try and gain some control over my A.S. but without any success. Still if it works for you then good luck with it. There seem to be plenty on this Forum who have had success with some diet or other.

Regarding family medical history and A.S.
I had a half brother (same father) who suffered from A.S. and my daughter seems to be showing early signs of the disease. There is a hereditary factor in A.S. and most rheumatologists take it in to account when diagnosing A.S.

Hello, Strang:

I suppose because I had AS for such a long time before I began the proper diet in earnest, it took a long time to make the diet work for me. In fact, until I combined the strictest diet with antibiotics, the diet alone did not work for me very well. After a few cycles of my own AP (antibiotic protocol), I was able to sustain total remission for many months without using the antibiotics--that is, through diet alone.

It is shameful that the medical guilds have not yet caught up with the science and that we patients must work so hard to keep the word out for our fellow spondys, but it gives us a good opportunity to interact and learn much more than otherwise.

There is a FB group related to NSD, if You are interested: The Low/No Starch Diet for Spondylitis

Good books to have are Carol Sinclair's "The New IBS Low-Starch Diet," and Giraud Campbell's "A Doctor's PROVEN New Home Cure for Arthritis," in addition to all of Professor Ebringer's papers available right here. Note that all three of these authors came to the same conclusion independently, separated by space and time (for Bayesians these are astronomical odds when the topic is properly addressed). Additionally, there are many similar references, some not yet translated into English, but all indict the primary culprit of dietary starches.

There were, by the way, some AS vs Klebsiella studies done in Denmark, as the HLA B27 antigen is 20% more frequent there (and other Nordic countries) than in mixed European populations.

HEALTH,
John

Hi John,
Thanks for giving FB for NSD.

Jay

Hi, Jay--

This is Bill Hamilton's group and by invitation, so if You have trouble getting in, email one of us to provide access. Kind of where the action has gone, but it is inconvenient because there are no permanent resource links (or...I don't know how to do this) and I would like to migrate KA to FB but have not figured out that one yet, eight--if anyone has suggestions, please let me know. I guess I don't want to force our members to join FB, so will maintain KA in present incarnation for now.

HEALTH,
John

Hi John,
Thanks for your kindness. I hope i can access it.

Regarding migration to FB from KA, I feel KA has it's own identity and probably more information. Hence, I would suggest both can be accessed by people as per their choice. Also, I feel accessing any information is easier in this type of blog than FB?

Regards.

Jay

Humira gave me the biggest overall positive improvement, but diet did help some.

I went to a naturopath and had IgA/IgG blood work done against a slew of foods and dairy, specifically the Casein protein came back off the charts. I did a lot of research on Casein and discovered that Casein sensitivity seems to be as common as Gluten sensitivity. I also read that its common for some people to be sensitive to cow casein but not sheep or goat, thus I am cow dairy free, but do eat a little goat or sheep cheese when I want cheese. I use nut or coconut milk beverage as my milk, coconut milk yogurt, and if I want ice cream, coconut milk ice cream...Coconut milk has been a Godsend for me. I noticed that my gastritis got a lot better when I removed (cow) dairy from my diet. But I was still flaring, still had joint problems, etc. But dairy was definitely giving me GI inflammation and removing it from my diet helped that.

Several years later, my rheumatologist had me get blood work done for IgA/IgG testing against S. cerevisiae (bakers' yeast, found in bread and beer...pizza dough too!). That test came back borderline but I was already on a low carb diet for my diabetes and so was already eating practically no bread or other products containing yeast. I thought that was a strange thing to test for, but did a bunch of reading and discovered that it is very common for those with Crohn's disease to be sensitive to S. cerevisiae.

So I"m on a cow dairy free, low yeast diet, and that does help along with the Humira, but I found I just couldn't do it without the biologic.

Diet change and exercise has done more for me than any meds that I have taken.

Whatever works for you then best stick with it

Strang,
I'm afraid not in my case. I've found no improvement to my A.S pain levels with eradication diets. However I have found improvements to my overall health, whilst generally eating an healthy balanced diet. Including oil fish, fruit, vegetables, meat.
The best pain results were achieved during starting my first Anti Tnf medication (Infliximab).
Although others on here have found a low starch diet to help.