Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; Changes on NSD

I am considering a change from NSD to LSD and I’d like to know your opinion, maybe some of you have tried this before and can give me some ideas.

I have been diagnosed with spondyloarthropathy recently and I've been on NSD for two and a half months now. At the beginning everything was perfect: pain in bed disappeared, in the morning I was much better and my guts were much better too. But then improvement stopped and about five weeks ago I started to feel pain in my hand, which was swollen in the morning and sore all day. This was not new, but only occasionally had I had problems in my hands, I usually feel pain in my back, especially neck and shoulders. I tried one day fast and it almost disappeared for a couple of days, but when back on my NSD, pain came back again.
I know I could try a longer fast, but I have lost weight since I've been on NSD and I don't know if after fast pain would come again. So I was trying to find the culprit of my flare and making my diet more and more restrictive. One night I was so desperate and hungry and angry with the whole world that I got up and had a bowl of corn flakes and milk. Surprisingly, the following day my hand was better and the neck, more or less the same as the days before. What had happened?

Since I had to go to the doctor the following week I decided to forget about NSD for some days before the date, just in case it has some effect in the tests... and see the effect on my AS. I've been eating everything these four days (really starchy food) and I am clearly worse than when on NSD, with a deep pain in by back. I’ll have a blood test tomorrow and I want to go back to my healthy NSD but I’m still thinking of what happened with that bowl of cornflakes. Maybe when my klebs died of starvation another bug took over and my immune system reacted to this new bug too, but in a slightly different way (not with the classical pain in my back but in my fingers). Then, when the bowel Ph changed a bit this new bug had problems too. I don’t thing corn is the best food to find a balance in my gut, but may be some other food can do it instead to follow a more restrictive diet. I’ve heard some people can eat rice or some other things and it’s ok for them.

Please, tell my your ideas about this.

Hi Tuxa,

If I were *you*, I would NOT be thinking of loosening up dietary restrictions after such a short time on the NSD - and clearly there are still nasty things raging against your joints, so the MONSTER IS STILL LURKING!

I think when you have been strict NSD for a while, your overall Klebs populations can die off/ reduce to some extent, and you might get away with *one* bowl of cornflakes without too much drama, but don't push your luck, cos you will just be allowing the KPs to breed and multiply at a greater rate.

I have been doing the pretty strict NSD for nearly 18 months (with a few momentary lapses...) and I am much better than I was before I started, and only now, after this length of time am I considering moving to a VLSD under the cover of sulfasalzine. I have also done a few months of doxycycline... I am hesitant to loosen up my diet too much, cos I just don't wanna go back to that VERY DARK PLACE that I was in before I found this site and discovered the potential wonders of the NSD!

For me it will mean being a little freer to eat out in a restaurant and eat the odd bit of starch in a bit of stray carrot, tapioca starch in the occasional fish ball etc at home. I have NO intention of having bread, cake, pasta etc, as much as I would like to...

You need to read the archives in this section to find ways of keeping the weight on whilst getting used to the NSD, but I wouldn't look to providing that with ANY starches! Simple sugars, fats and oils, a bit more protein etc... Head over to the recipe section for suggestions too...

Good luck figuring this thing out - it seems it is a little different for all of us with what we can and can't eat - maybe I could be *even better* if I dropped ALL lactose, simple sugars etc, but I have to feed a family, some with other allergies, so it is difficult enough for this working mother to provide nutritious food suitable for all members of the family!

Well from personal experience going from strict NSD to eating whatever ... I've noticed mild addiction to junk food as well as bad skin, exzema under eyes and obviously pain..

Positives for me though is a healthy weight and I guess more social interacting, hanging out with friends, going to parties etc etc..

Sorry if this is totally irrelevent. haha

Thanks for your answers. Definitely, leaving NSD has had a terrible effect on my body. Today I could not even get upstairs. Now I'm back on strict NSD and I hope I'll be better. But the question is still, why while on NSD I started to feel pain in my fingers when that was something that had happended occasionally and never in the last year (or two years, I don't remember)?
And another question: Is there a way to combine food so that you can get some effect on your gut bugs without being so restrictive with the diet? NSD is ok for me in general but the problem is non-starchy food that is sometimes bad for some of us especially when it is so difficult to know what it is.

Hi, Inkyfingers. I'll read the tips to keep weights... when I have time. I also have a family to feed while learning how to cook non-starch and more things about AS. Difficult life.

Seb, the only problem is that sometimes you can be a bit hungry at parties but you can still go there and dance and be happy with less pain.

Coconut oil is antibacterial. Oregano is a herb that is not usually starchy and also antibacterial. Drinking plenty of water also helps the gut balance gut flora. Probiotics can also help your gut balance its flora

Love Joanne

How about asking your doc to give you a food sensitivity test, to make sure you're not intolerant to any of the foods on your NSD?

My doctor explained that the same gut problems that trigger spondylitis can also cause predispose you to food intolerances. Sure enough, when I took the IgG food test, plenty of foods showed up as problems, including some starch-free foods (e.g. egg whites, cow milk, swiss cheese...)

So now I've had to tune my diet further to avoid even more foods, which seems to be rather common actually. You'll see a number of people here mention having to skip dairy to do really well, which could be explained by food intolerances.

The good news is that if you manage to heal up your gut, then you'll likely be able to relax your diet to LSD without ruining yourself, AND many food intolerances should go away as well. The bad news is that it takes way longer than 2 months, the time period successful dieters usually quote is 1 to 2 years...

sjlc,
Who dod you do your testing through? I did a test last fall through alcat, but I still do not know how I feel about it. I avoided all the foods that they claimed I was sensitive to for 3-6 months, but they did not seem to match my food diary. The hardest for me initially was avoiding olive oil, but I am SOOOO glad that I did, as it forced me to try all types of new oils, which has become my mainstay of mixing up flavors. I use hazelnut, pumpkin, pecan, coconut and walnut oils to help bring new flavor to my food.

The lab was called NeuroScience

https://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=554

I took the 110-foods test and scored high, sensitive to many of the foods that commonly trouble people with leaky gut -- wheat, bananas, yeast, cow milk (but not in yogurt form!), sunflower seeds, egg whites (sigh) -- plus some I didn't expect, like cabbage, kale, honey (ouch!), and pineapple.

These results do fit with the leaky gut theories, because food sensitivities do not run in my family. For instance, my dad took the "INTESTINAL BARRIER ASSESSMENT (IBA) 22 FOODS" basic test to see if food sensitivities were significant contribution to has respiratory allergies, and he scored pretty low.

Do these foods you are sensitive to trigger your AS or just trouble your gut? I've had allergy test to milk / lactose and gluten and they were negative, but I have not taken Alcat or any other similar test, they are expensive here. Maybe I'll do it anyway.

How do you take this food sensitivity test? I realized not to long ago that I can't even drink lactose free milk or non-dairy creamer!