Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; I Wish the Diet Section Was Closer to the Top

I have a small gripe, and I don't know if it can be fixed. You see, I am on a crusade to help newbies learn about the diet. Every once in a while I travel to the "dark" side of the forum (General Forum) that is first in line of all the forums. And usually I see a newbie here and there drop a line about diet. I feel that they get bogged down by non-dieters talks and encouragement of biologics, etc. and don't get all the info they need to have a fair chance of the diet and their question on it usually falls by the way side.

I just wish this could be more visible instead of having to scroll down the page before you even see the Diets & Alternatives section.

Umm... I don't think the general discussion board is anti-diet at all. You are projecting a conflict that doesn't really exist. Kickas is overall a VERY pro-diet site.

That forum is just for general discussion of AS, where as this one is for diet-specific discussion, and there is another one for biologic-specific discussion.

I my humble opinion, kickas should neither be pro or against the diet. More important is to be objective as much as possible. In fact I feel the topic header "No/Low Starch Diet Success Stories" is wrong. I wish it was simply "No/Low Starch Diet Stories", that way we could hear all aspects of the stories, successes and failures.

That is a fair idea, but I believe the point of that thread specifically was to show that there are people out there having success with the diet, not to try and accurately portray the diets success rate, which would be impossible.

NSD and Diet Related is first in Treaments, Drugs and Alternatives. That says a lot to me. I understand what you are saying, but I think the first forum needs to be as broad as possible.

One gripe I have, not necessarily specific to this site, is the term alternative. Alternative in whose world? Why is it, somehow falsely perhaps, acceptable that drugs/pharmaceuticals are the primary form of treatment for ills? Perhaps natural would be a better term. Perhaps synthetic would be a better term for pharmaceuticals. Just a gripe.

The treatments are alternative because they are alternative to scientifically proven medicine. That's an important distinction, and it should be clear that the advice given here is anecdotal and not endorsed by doctors.

Whether or not that means the ideas presented here are valuable is up for people to decide themselves IMO.

I agree with your point. there are plenty of examples where 'alternative' treatments are clinically trialled and found to be effective and then just forgotten about because they are not patentable or profitable. a few examples that spring to mind - magnesium for fibromyalgia, bile acid for psoriasis, fecal transplants for c.diff, low starch diet for AS, probiotics for UC, boswellia as an anti-inflammatory etc etc. in many cases they actually exceed the efficacy of the standard pharmaceutical treatments and with fewer side effects.

they're trying to change that:

http://nccam.nih.gov/

i'm fortunate that my rheumatologist and gastroenterologist in addition to my naturpath are very much for the "alternative" things as well as the western "drugs". my gastroenterologist has given me a month's worth of two different probiotics for free. for years, he's pushed the psyllium. yes, he agrees with the prilosec too, but also with the diet, ginger and mint, supplements, whatever it takes to feel better.

same for the rheumy. he's the one that said let's continue with the things the naturpath is trying: fish oil, probiotics and add in vit C and coQ. he's also prescribed pred for flares so long as they're only a few a year at most. but he also supports my success with the chiro and was encouraging when i mentioned acupuncture.

but its also why i go to these doctors. we have similar philosophies when it comes to feeling better. its good to know there are doctors like this out there. just gotta find them.

I don't think it's the doctors who are labeling treatments as alternative or standard, but it's big pharma and the FDA who are making such distinctions. If it's not from the big pharmas, then it "alternative." As such, doctors are mostly tied to treatments that produce more profit for the big pharmas.