I completely agree with you john.
I think we all agree that KA community is a place for A.S. patients to share their experience regarding the disease, its impact on their lives and available, effective treatment options including conventional and alternative medicine, diet as well as medication side effects etc. New members should be welcomed and
feel at home here, they should be given hope and assurance that they are not alone and there are many ways to fight this disease, but at the same time they shouldn’t be give false hopes.
It is no doubt a blessing to have access to a wealth of information detailing individual experiences with A.S. why? because it is a proven fact that A.S. is a highly individual disease and so are effective treatment options, that is exactly the reason why we share our experiences with other members.
with respect to pharmaceutical companies and conventional vs. alternative medicine, I think anyone is entitled to share his/her own experience and opinion as well, it is part of individual experience with A.S. that might help other members. I am highly skeptical about pharmaceutical companies but I don't think anyone should be offended by that (except maybe the companies) (call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, any opinion going against the mainstream propaganda is branded as conspiracy theory these days:
“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”
George Orwell)
I certainly don’t believe that all doctors are bad and can not be trusted; rather I believe that most of them follow their guidelines blindly but honestly in their treatment plans without putting any trust in their patients’ experience. The fact that NSD has never been funded and explored to give it an official face shouldn’t be enough for them to dismiss it.
In a perfect world medical community would be pushing for a study on NSD on behalf of the patients.
When I discovered Kickas community, I was desperate to get information, to hear from people who were on the same boat as me. I am thankful to all the members who share their experience and I am not offended by anyone including those who have opposing views or express an opinion I dont like. I am sure that If it wasn’t for the information posted by the members about NSAID’s side effects and NSD, I would have been in a much worse shape.




Cheers
Alex