Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group New Large AS Clinical Trial in China...

A new clinical trial to test the "Marshall Protocol" has been announced involving approximately 200 Ankylosing Spondylitis patients at the West China Hospital, the largest clinical center in the world...

See the official press release here: Study Press Release

NorCalJim

good luck to them. Good to see this actually getting a real study, instead of rare anecdotal stories from one or two AS patients, for a change. The results will be interesting to read. I also hope hope they report real data like CRP and ESR measurements, and well as using established AS measurement tools like the BASDI taken by a doctor.

Seems the earlier stuff I saw was patient reported and the slides only said feeling better. pretty vague research at best

Do you think people with osteoporosis will be excluded since almost eliminating Vit D for that period of time has to be extremely hard on people with already thinning bones?

Sorry but I couldn't tell you any specifics Drizzit, I only know what I've read on the net and in the press release.

I'm sure nothing will please the vitamin D zealots out there because they don't tend to be open minded, but I would imagine this will be a much more comprehensive study than they've had so far.

I think they've done pretty well so far considering they are a non-profit group made up mostly of volunteers and not backed by big pharma or the supplement industry...

NorCalJim

I look forward to the studies and results....

Does Marshall protocol involve eliminating sun light, vit D ? Kind of interesting to know the results .....


Iam in remission (or cured:) ) with the help of sunlight, milk and walking.

Yes Krishna there is a vitamin D restriction component to the treatment. I believe the theory behind it is that Vit. D interferes with one of the medicines used in the protocol.

The basic guidelines for the protocol can be found here if you want to read about exactly how it's implemented: Marshall Protocol Guide

It will be interesting to see the results, especially if they can determine somehow whether the scientific theory behind the treatment is really true or not.

NorCalJim

The interesting thing is that we now have 3 working theories on why we have AS that I know of. (maybe there are more)

1. Molecular Mimicry, leaky gut, and the kleb bacteria that is popular on this site.

2. The new genetic theories that are just coming out from the genetic studies from the blood of thousands of AS patients around the world. In a nutshell a variant of the ARTS1 gene presenting bad info to the immune system (HLAB27)

Both of the above theories explain why we see the issues we see in AS and why certain parts of the body are attacked.

3. Marshall protocol

All three point to a very different root cause of AS. They can't all be right. I have my money on #2 but other people bet on other horses in the race. I know the genetic research is pointing to AS being a TH 17 disease and not a TH 1 disease as per the marshall protocol.

http://acr.confex.com/acr/2008/webprogram/Paper2449.html

NorCalJim,

I've been reading on the MP boards that you've tried the Marshall Protocol and your last post I found was around 2008 or something...

Can you update us all on how the treatment is going for you or not? are you still on it? did you stop? ect..

Thanks very much.

NorCalJim,

I've been reading on the MP boards that you've tried the Marshall Protocol and your last post I found was around 2008 or something...

Can you update us all on how the treatment is going for you or not? are you still on it? did you stop? ect..

Note: Sorry for posting twice, not sure how these boards work, wanted the Reply to go to NorCalJim.

Uno, you can only see my posts at the MP site from early on because you have to be a member of the trial to see anything after someone leaves phase I.

I'm still on the protocol and doing well. It's gone pretty much as they said it would. Very tough at first. But after more than 2 years I haven't had any kind of flare for many months now and am enjoying action sports again and able to exercise hard without any pain afterward. I no longer take any kind of pain relievers or anti-inflamatories except for the occasional headache etc. I had a spine x-ray awhile back and it came back negative for arthritis but my doctor said AS can be hard to see sometimes so I don't know if that's anything significant.

It could be a coincidence, who knows but I'm definately feeling better than a couple of years ago so I'm going to continue for now and see what happens...

NorCalJim