Subject: Re: Pain
Hi Suzy I have AS and get a stiff back and have had a lot of pain in my shoulder blades and lower back and hips in the past. When I breathed my ribs would be sore in-between and my expansion of my lungs would make my back hurt more with stabbing pains. You may have seen that I control my flares with diet - and I stand by this as a possible option for others - especially if you are not yet on immunosupresent (bad spelling) drugs. The quickest option without me rattling off what I do is to point you a website where there is a lady that treats her arthritis in a similar way to me - honestly this is the best advice I have seen on the web in relation to a diet approach. http://www.spondymonster.com/the-as-protocol/ She describes her pain here - http://www.spondymonster.com/my-as/ The bottom line is that arthritis is rarely the body attacking itself for no reason. Arthritis is a mis-directed immune response against an antigen (dietary or bacterial) that can be influenced by diet (or probiotics or antibiotics or gastric surgery or calm or stress). The very first things to try are - Eliminate all regularly allergic foods for at least 1 months, if it helps then - then gradually introduce one at a time to see if you react. A big study was done on allergic foods in arthritis and other diseases - list is here - http://www.altmedrev.com/publications/3/2/90.pdf The role of wheat protein is heavily studied in RA - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8575138 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2612082 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2902267 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2902267 All of these studies above point to the role of gliadin (the protein in wheat grains) making the gut more permeable to the bloodstream. Gut bacteria (and undigested dietary proteins) then stress out the immune system and lead to a phenomenon called epitope spreading. Epitope spreading is a bit like a policemen arresting a bystander as well as the criminal. Our body creates antibodies against bystander tissue that have a matching code to the stuff that leaks in to the gut. In Rheumatoid Arthritis one of these genetic codes is QKRAA (which is a protein sequence from a bacteria call Proteus Mirabilis) that is identical between RA sufferers collagen in small joints. Do not use the Gluten Free isle at the supermarket - just real food. One good bit of advice was to not buy anything with ingredients label on. Drink just water to start with. If you get a reduction in pain then my experience has been that removing all NSAIDs had a further long lasting reduction in flares. It is hard but it might be worth it. .
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