Subject: Re: Understanding pa
Hi Marlene I'm doing really well thanks :) My arthritis is still being kept at least 70% at bay with my diet and other weird stuff that I do. Although I am suffering from inflamed red itchy eyes - almost certainly caused by eating too much milk chocolate last week. I should stick to the dark stuff... As its happened tome dozens of times- chocolate is a weakness :( I think disease names are convenient labels that describe the "best fit" - when I first went to the doctors with my mother at age 17 - they found it hard to pigeonhole me although they said that some of the X-rays showed signs of RA and osteo - they then called me "non specific" - my Dad had had AS since age 17 - and I knew that what I was experiencing was similar. At various times I had a combinations of pain lower back, spine, hips, shoulder blades, shoulder rotator cuff, rib cage, sternum, sore knees. I've had related psoriasis type skin flares (mostly scaly skin on back, shins, butt!) and eczema where I sweat in my elbow pits & knee pits . I had a gouty type big toe with a partial bunion (progress now halted) - and resolved plantir fasciitis.. Psoriatic Arthritis aside - I think that OA is not always just wear and tear and medical research in the last 3 years seems to confirm this. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22057346 http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2011/11/osteoarthritis-results-from-inflammatory-process-not-just-wear-and-tear-study-suggests.html The cynic in me thinks "bonanza" for the drugs companies - they will put forward pretty much the same drugs for OA as they prescribe for RA (27 million in USA have OA!!!) 10% - and if they work and help then great. Then again the research suggesting the an immune malfunction is causing OA - should make us look at population studies and compare countries by diet and lifestyle. 27 million suffering wear and tear ? The immune response they are suggesting is driving OA is something called the "Complement System" - which has 3 different pathways to an immune response - two of them are based on processing of bacteria and dietary lectins. I've been reading about complement and watching a few educational youtube videos today and got more interested as they mentioned hypertension (which my wife has) - the bottom line is that the malfunctioning of "the Complement System" can be driven by dietary proteins (Antigens) and cause a variety of diseases due to genetic difference, bad luck and chaos - ie this paper on Schizophrenia where Bovine Milk Proteins and Wheat protein were more than a suspected cause http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22801085 I would say that although the start point is having specific genes - the same mechanism of either bacterial or a combination of bacterial and dietary antigens could cause and / or exacerbate many diseases including - - Skin diseases (major suspects Bovine Casein from milk, Streptococcus), and we already know that Dermatitis Herpetiformis is caused by wheat - Rheumatoid Arthritis (e coli, mycoplasma, proteus Mirabilis & food cross reaction because of the immune response to bacteria) - Ankylosing Spondylitis (Klebsiella - and cross reaction of food lectins) - Psoriatic Arthritis (strep and cross reaction to food lectins) - Brain, including Huntington's, Alzheimer's, Autism (TTG activated by gliadin in wheat, leaky gut caused by gliadin in wheat allowing endotoxins from bacteria to stress the immune system), and we already know that Ataxia can be caused by gluten! Lastly to go full cycle to my own recent trouble with my eyes - I read today that one of the eye conditions called Uveitis (which I have thankfully never had) associated with AS can also be caused by Casein from cows milk! Sorry for the long post.... and I hope you get your diagnosis sorted. Take care, Sean
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