hi alison, i hope you can figure out a combination of treatments that work for you.
it is most likely there is only one mechanism for all AS. The same underlying disease for Crohn's, Reiter's, and perhaps even Behcet's
reiter's or reactive arthritis as it is now usually referred to is an interesting example. it is known that the disease can be caused by urinary tract infections by chlaymdia and ureaplasma, and gastrointestinal infections by salmonella, yersinia, shigella and campylobacter. in addition to these bacteria that are known to be causative agents in reactive arthritis there are also many that are listed as 'probable and potential' agents such as
Amebae
B-19 parvovirus
Bacillus cereus
Bartonella
Borrelia burgdorferi
Brucella abortus
Calmette-Guerin
Bacillus
Chlamydia pneumoniae
Clostridium difficile
Cryptosporidium
Escherichia coli
Gardnerella vaginalis
Giardia lamblia
Beta-hemolytic streptococci
Hafnia alvei
Helicobacter cinaedi
Helicobacter pylori
Hepatitis B vaccine
HIV
Lactobacillus spp.
Leptospira
Mycoplasma hominis and
M. fermentans
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B
Propioibacterium acnes
Pseudmonas migulae, P. fluorescens,
and P. putida
Rickettsia ricketsii
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphyloccus aureus
Staphylococcus epidermis
Streptococcus salivarius
Strongyloids
Tropheryma whippelii
(
http://cmr.asm.org/content/17/2/348.full)
so here we have a disease which is classified as a spondyloarthropathy, which shares many symptoms and also genetic predispositions with AS, that is known to be caused by infections in the urinary or gastrointestinal tract by at least 7 different bacteria, and is also suspected of being caused by over 30 other agents. it is highly unlikely that there is only one bacteria or one mechanism involved in AS. to suggest that this also applies to other diseases such as crohn's (in which mycobacterium paratuberculosis is currently considered the most likely bacteria) and reactive arthritis is a pretty big leap.
