WELCOME, coleridge:
Both You and your wife are young enough to benefit
considerably from starch restriction.
There is considerable evidence linking starch with arthritis and AS in particular. Clinical observations go back before the turn of the last century, even, and serious scientific data has mostly come from Ebringer and his over 500 patients in the course of his 20 years running the Middlesex AS Clinic. We have published some of Ebringer's papers on this site, so please check out the "Diet Centre" technical papers.
The guy who could best be credited with successfully treating AS is
Giraud Campbell, D.O., for in the early 1970s he was treating people with total starch restriction and finding a reversal of arthritic symptoms. Ebringer was not aware of his work, or that of 19th century Dr. Wm H. Hay who found that starch in combination with protein caused severe problems and he controlled his own Bright's disease by following a food combining technique (Jackie LeTissier has controlled her own AS using the Hay Method), and MANY other clinicians like Drs. Mercola, Seignalet, and Perricone have discovered the starch--inflammation connection. Carol Sinclair discovered the connection with IBS before she was aware of Ebringer's work and before she knew that she was antigen positive. Don't be fooled by the doctors; so many of them have been fooled--including the talented genius who finally diagnosed me; he also boomed "THERE IS NO ARTHRITIS DIET!" He was right about the diagnosis but VERY WRONG about diet. We still need doctors to evaluate the progression of this disease and to TELL THEM which drugs to prescribe and ask for referral to an ophthalmologist at the first sign of eye complications (when backsliding from the diet), but as far as diet information goes, the doctors are almost universally useless. Know that they might
want to help, but their poisons (NSAIDs, steroids, immune system killers) can do much more harm than good, long-term.
It is my opinion--and hope in this case--that if AS is caught early enough and NSAIDs are avoided, one can spend a
therapeutic amount of time on the NSD, then LSD and then 'experiment' with an almost normal diet, only being strict when told by your body that a flare is on the way. Drugs interfere with this feedback system, so the deal is to be off all drugs to be able to 'listen' to our bodies.
The foods which did me in were those fried--especially deep-fried, breaded stuff. I say that if you do not react to these you are either already in a full flare and the pain needle is pegged--OR you either don't have AS or are treating it with dulling drugs--like clipping the wire to the warning light on your car dashboard; something even worse can eventually go wrong.
Ebringer felt that for the diet to be long-term, it had to be manageable for most people, so he combined his starch-reducing regimen with DMARDs, however, Carol Sinclair managed to avoid all damage over many years by being much more strict than the London AS Diet and never took drugs. Most of us are somewhere in between. I use antibiotics in addition to near-total starch restriction, since I react slightly to dairy and the antibiotics prevent this (but they do not prevent a flare due to fried foods or those made with flour).
Soya milk is very starchy and I would stay away from all nutrient drinks--especially protein shakes and the like. I don't know about the artificial sweeteners; I use Sweet and Low without problems, but cannot eat too much cheese.
Glad to have You as a member, and we appreciate very much your efforts to support your wife; You have come to the right place!
John
