Ankylosing Spondylitis in remission in 3 weeks

General health and lifestyle
1

Long story short I have been fighting AS for more than a decade. I couldnt walk without the feeling of pins and needle, I couldn't sleep because I was sleeping on pins and needles, my stomach hurt constantly, heart burn all the time, my neck felt like one piece, lock jaw all the time and if I layed down for a while I would get stuck in that position.

after years on embrel and indomethacin I stopped taking all medication two months ago and changed my diet to one that fit me. I can confidently say my AS is in remission and I just had my first burger since starting he diet 30 days ago and had no effect from the burger

i will still continue to stay on the diet becuase I just feel better

i lost 15 lbs in the last three weeks. 138 to 123 and now I'm slowly gaining it back as muscle mass because I can finally work out. 

I spring out of Bed,sleep throug the nite, starting to become more flexible everyday.  I will update every month to keep you guys up to date on how long I can go cured and what limits I can push on food

believe it or not week one two and three of my diet was a rotation or beef bone soup and chicken feet bone soup.  I will continue to update as I go. Cheers

2

Hi Elias

I have been gluten / corn and restrict cows milk much of time.

I went from bent double in pain, limping with sore hips, lethargy, headaches, stiff neck / sore shoulder blades and rotator cuff.  By 30 I was running half marathons - and still beat my 14 year old in a sprint today at 48

I started my diet changes 22 years ago at age 26 - I am now 48.

I am so glad that you too have found that diet change has helped you!  Keep us updated and happy to discuss more - as I am a real bore on the subject!

Best wishes

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Hi Lynn

My temporary remission is now 22 years.  I'm not 100% cured but I don't need drugs.

Dr. Gail Darlington (a rheumatologist) that used an elimination diet to treat successfully many people - was challenged by her colleagues that her patients were experiencing a placebo effect.  Her reply was a classic "to suggest that all these patients happened to go in to spontaneous and sustained remission at the same time as they started the elimination diet, is stretching coincidence to the point of incredulity".

She goes on to say in her book.. Some patients treated with elimination diets in the early 1980s where still drug free after 12 years (when her book was written) - but others  relapsed because they did not sustain their commitment to the diet.

It is my assertion that autoimmune diseases are rarely just the body attacking oneself - but is a misdirected attack on self based on the presence of something that the immune system has decided to create antibodies to - it is not an over reactive immune system - it is a week immune system that is unable to remove the "self" antibodies that are always created when the body is under attack from something (this happens in healthy people too)

- bacteria (klebsiella, proteus / mycoplasma)

- viruses (Epstein Barr implicated in MS)

- Foods

Google "Dr. Allesio Fasano, gluten" on YouTube and watch the 57 minutes talk that he gave just last year and you will see the the interplay between intestinal permeability caused by bacteria and foods is not the main research area for so called "autoimmune" diseases  

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My treatment for my AS was also to treat my Leaky gut and hence the diet helped a ton.  It's funny that sometimes everything clicks and you understand.  12 years ago I had a hurrible tooth ache. I didn't want to go the dentist so instead I ate 4 to 5 ibuprofen a day for 2 years until I finally had it fixed. I'm convinced this is what triggered my AS and cause my body to feel like a fused bamboo stick.  I have been deathly afraid of my bones fusing because I didn't want to be like that the rest of my life. Apperently it wasn't fused because my mobility is returning every morning I have woke up the last 10 days saying the same thing "wow I feel way better than yesterday morning"I documented everyday how I felt and what I ate.  Before starting up my morning I would grade myself on how I felt. With AS it does get better as you move so waking up with little or no pain/inflammation is all new to be.  

I started with a grade 0 now I'm up to a 9 out of 10.. My new diet I started 4 weeks ago consisted in beef knuckle Bone broth only for two weeks. I'm no scientist but I know what my body feels.  All sorts of stuff came out of me and I later learned that it's a strong detox soup. Week 3 and four I added rice but in between meals I'm drinking chicken feet broth. There is a difference in soups.  Beef soup or knuckle soup seems to detoxify my system extremely fast while chicken feet soup seems to relief my arthritis type symptoms. For me I can care less about a cure for AS. I just want two things.  No stiffness and no pain. I keep this diet up and just recently added wheat and starch back. Before the diet any starch and I would paralyzed for the rest of the day and the same went with dairy. I would instantly flare up. I can now drink milk with no diarhea but can also eat white bread without flare ups. I've never had full relief in the past decade like I do today.  Don't listen to people like CA-Lynn is how I get better everyday. People that think they know without asking question or people who are too stubborn to take other peoples experiences and opinions. I do think the gaps diet is right though or at least the concept. I don't think they are right in every way but one thing is for sure. "All disease begins in the gut" that's one of the greats "Hippocrates".  

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Hi Elias

Great stuff...

i completely agree that you are not in a temporary remission.

How can we prove anything on these forums - diet doubters may be representatives from drug companies for all we know smile 

Please be really wary of new foods - especially starches - it sounds as though you are aware of the work of Professor Ebringer and the role of Klebsiella bacteria in AS.

It has become cliched but my particular success is underpinned by gluten free - and as per the link I suggested to Lynn - I strongly recommend that anyone with an autoimmune disease looks at the youtube presentation.

Without sounding as entrenched in my views as Lynn - it is great that you are getting success at the moment - but if you do relapse then I am sure that you will know to roll back to the start point that has provided you this start.

Btw - I thrived on Rye bread and oatcakes for many years but now cut these - as I began reacting to these too!

i might try your broth approach....

Best wishes

 

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Hi Elias - just out of interest - what did your leaky gut treatment consist of?

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Bone broth was the answer for my AS and leaky Gut. Bone broth is rich in collagen and glucosamine and is well documented to help with leaky gut and lower inflammation and treating arthritis! I read that there was a case of a knee injury and bone broth ended up healing and building cartilage and bone.

I prefer chicken feet for the arthritis and beef knuckle soup for detox and leaky gut. The broth is cooked on a pressure cooker for 48 hours and pretty much after freezing and taking the fat layer out its nearly an all protein drink and a much safer way to detox than juicing.  for the chicken feet I only use chicken feet,lots of fresh garlic and green onion.  This sounds weird and I can't explain why but the soup seems to be extremely potent if you don't put carrots and celery. it still helps with it but I noticed like instant body relief without the adds of vegetables.  So I jus stopped using those things and yea it doesn't taste better without it. 

i guess three weeks of constant collagen and glucosamine must have been enough to seal it for now.  One of the reason I know its the diet is because the more soup or better soup I made the faster my condition was going away.  Today at noon I tested a chocolate cookie, chocolate cup cake,dairy cake with filling, fried crab in canola oil, and white break amd the usual rice and side dishes.  It's been 8 hours so far and no side effects or any flare ups.  Well have to see how iam tomorrow but I feel good at the moment. 

Tomorrow will be sushi with vinager.  

You know I thought a lot about what CA Lynn said and the more I think about it the more it makes sense.  It was more than just a diet, the diet was I think the single most important thing but I think the way I went about handling my diet helped tons.  At the end of the day Iam cured for the time being. We'll see if it comes back. 

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So here's my experience with your so called spontaneous remission. 

I know what it feels like when AS is shutdown mainly because every time I took embrel in a matter of 30 minutes I could feet it gone. For me embrel was a miracle drug specially the indomethacin on top of it. After tons of different combos that was the best results with the least amount of side effect.  With the diet though it's hard to explain but I felt my body fixing and repairing and it wasn't instant relief with was steps dy by day.  I agree with you that people new to AS need to go through standard treatment.  There's a stat out there I forgot where I read it but Apperently 30% of patients that under go treatment go into remission. However this is the part you don't understand is that the remaining 70 Those different meds and combinations does a number on your body. While on them I was good but off them I could not survive.  Let me tell you that's horrible way to live. At the same time I'm a firm believer that what works for me doesn't work for everyone. But here's thing there are people it will work for and that is good enough for me. 

I like your last response because there was something to talk about and I enjoy going back and forth as long as it's not negative. I will answer any question you want. I'm convinced that I got leaky gut from all the meds like sulfasalazine, indomethacin, naproxen, ibuprofen and pretty much killed tons of good bacteria at the same time. <<<<< now that is not treatment. 

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Update on my treatment and status with AS.  

So far doing really good. Here's a list of things I introduced back in.

All starch, fried food, dairy, fruits and sugars. Pretty much everything back to normal.

So far no side effects yet. 

I guess I ran into this by mistake but I read an article yesterday about the effects of rheumatoid arthritis and collagen type 2 and explains why chicken feet broth makes me feel so dam good. Turns out it's prescribed by some doctors to their patients for AS relief. There was a study done in the early 2000s about a group of 60 patients.  Half were given type two collage And the other half were given placebo.

Of the half given placebo nothing changed.  But more than 40% of patients given type two collagen had relief from AS. 14% of those patients went I to full remission. The study was carried for 3 months. Don't take my word for it and look up rheumatoid arthritis and type two collagen.  

I'm no doctor but I think I'm beginning to understand. 

In order to repair anything broken you have to be able to do three things.

1 find the problem

2 stop the bleeding

3 start repairing

This is why I think chicken broth covers all of that.

Collagen and glucosamine in chicken broth specially chicken feet not only relieves Pain from rheumatoid arthritis but also will begin to repair your cartilage and joints.

It will also begin to seal your gut from lbs after few year of taking so much NSAIDs. 

This is why I'm getting better so fast. 

So I pretty much dropped my diet and I'm back to regular food except 

Sugar in moderation no soda and no alcohol. 

I will continue to update this page as I go but so far so good

My mobility is coming back everyday and my joints feel like they have been lubricated. 

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Hi Elias

What ingredients (what bones) and where do you source your ingredients for your broths (especially the chicken feet) ? confused

As I said before I am drug free with my own regime - but your leaky gut treatment is of interest to me also. 

It is worth considering though that intestinal permeability can occur as a natural reaction to stress or infection (it has also been proven that intestinal permeability occurs to gliadin / gluten proteins in wheat).  It isn't just about the leakage it is about the way our immune system deals with the leakage - and selects proteins as self or non-self (this is all about mineral, vitamins, hormone status and the success of our Thymes training and selecting antibodies).

Also the addition glucosamine in your diet is binding to food lectins that you have reintroduced and making them less reactive rather than binding to your joints and other tissues. Food lectins bind to N-Acetyl Glucosamine.

Keep this in mind if you have a relapse - as ommision of dietary lectins may be a requirment to keep you on track at so later date.

Stay in touch as yours in a very interesting story!

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Hi Elias

My longer comment / question is sitting in moderation.

Quick question - can you please post your recipe and where you source your chicken feet from.  What other bones do you use?

Thanks!

 

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Hi Elias - also you might want to also check this out

Google this -

glucosamine-may-prevent-inflammation-caused-by-wheat-lecti-consumption

The extra glucosamine you are getting will be binding to plant lectins - which are part of the cause of immune system repsonse for some autoimmune diseases.

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I have deleted several argumentative comments from this discussion and moved it to the Alternative Medicines group. If users are not interested in these type of discussions then simply do not post in them.

If users wish to discuss this type of subject then please use the Alternative Medicine group, see links below. Please do not respond that you want this discussion in the specific condition group to advise users of different therapies or theories for the condition. I have been allowing this but users start "campaigning" and posting in all discussions that leaky gut, candida etc are to blame for all diseases and these are overtaking the discussions and also putting users off posting. While this may be some users' belief the majority of users do not want to be told this over and over again hence the Alt Meds group. If any user replies with an interest in reading about the subject in the condition group you can add a link guiding the user to the discussion in the Alt Med group. See second link below.

http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398318-alternative-medicines-opinions-etc

http://patient.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/398316-adding-links-to-posts

Regards,

Alan

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I just won't post here anymore. I been talking based on experience and the chance that it could help someone else. I never rec medication just plan in chicken soup. I guess I mistook your site for trying to help people.  I'm not trying to sell anything or claim I found a cure. Sad that this is what your site really is. 

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fantastic....u give me hope....I also have AS and have started this diet...but tell me...where you eating the meat also or just taking the broth??? I am not sure weather I should go on to eat the meat but the broth is fantastic...Please let us know how u are getting on.....

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I would love to know about this diet! I have AS and is in full attack mode! Please share diet information/how to find ingredients/how to cook. Did you get this from a book? If so which one?.

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Hey Sddsxxs, 

Can you share your recipes with me? I have been suffering from AS for the last two years. I find a hard time sleeping at night which makes me groggy and forgetful during the day.

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This post is brilliant!  It ties in with everything I've been trying to tell my doctors for the past thirty years or so.  Like TreatMeGently, I have taken on board the research of Alessio Fassano, Prof Ebringer, Dr Darlington and also Prof J Hunter, Dr E Grant and Dr J Mansfield.  

I have been able to manage the symptoms of IBS and flares of severe joint pain by cutting out gluten, dairy products, yeast, refined carbohydrates and sugar from my diet.  I can go for quite a while feeling OK but if I stray off the diet, it doesn't take long for all the symptoms to come back.

I had a major flare a couple of years ago and managed to stop it in its tracks by fasting for several days.  However, the re-introduction of foods needed to be carefully monitored as some of the reactions were severe. The GAPs diet is a good way to start eating again and I found that I recovered quite well by keeping to broths, vegetables and fish for several months. I excluded fruit because it made my gut problems worse. I also take vitamins/minerals (hypoallergenic), fish oils and EPO and turmeric if I have a flare.  The flares are nearly always because I've fallen off the diet, thinking I can get away with it but others may find they can tolerate more foods and take more chances without becoming ill again.

Thanks for sharing the information with us. I hope people who are newly diagnosed with autho-immune disease take a look at the gut bacteria/permeability research and at least try a low carbohydrate diet  before starting the drugs.  What do they have to lose?

Take care.

  

 

 

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please come back. I would really like to know more!

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Hi janniey 

sddsxxs said he would not post anymore?? - but he sent me a PM that told me that his main diet change was a chicken bone broth -

In his words....

"chicken feet 1lb carrots, celery, tons of raw garlic like 15 of them and two tsp of apple cider vinegar"

There are lots of recipes online for bone broth of different kinds.

One of the other diets related to low carb / low starch and also bridges to gluten free is a diet by a French physician called Jean Seignalet - his assertion was that food should not be cooked above 110c.

I have been very low carb but not starch free - and have been wheat and corn free for over 20 years.  Like DevonGold's post if I stray my body hurts a lot - but then I go on my defensive diet and wait for the inflammation to subside.