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Ankylosing Spondylitis Information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
Carbohydrate based 'healthy' diet.Introduction
Ankylosing Spondylitis is an inflammatory form of arthritis that tends to show first as lower back pain in a similar way to some other conditions. The cause of AS is not known for sure, but there have been some important developments in our understanding of this condition over the last few years. What is known is that it is about three hundred times more common in people who inherit a certain white cell blood group numbered HLA B27 than in those who do not inherit this group. Studies have also found that certain chemicals in the blood are raised in people with the condition, and this points to a microbe from the bowel acting as a trigger across the wall of the gut. The bacterium believed to be the most likely is Klebsiella pneumoniae as AS patients from ten different countries have been found to have high levels of antibodies against Klebsiella.
Who gets Ankylosing Spondylitis?
For a long time we have known that this back complaint, Ankylosing Spondylitis, 'runs in families', and Ankylosing Spondylitis usually affects men, although it can affect women as well. As it affects people with a specific white blood cell, it may be a genetic disorder. Typically, the disease affects young men. However, the illness does occur in women as well. As lower back pain is so common, you could go through your life with this condition never really diagnosed as anklyosing spondylitis. But if diagnosed early it can be treated effectively.
How does Ankylosing Spondylitis differ from other back ailments?
The most common back ailment is 'back ache', which may occur at any age. A 'slipped disk' is another example. But as we get older, our joints suffer from wear and tear. For these reasons most patients with back pain do not have AS.
Symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis that help distinguish it from other conditions are:
- Slow onset — Ankylosing Spondylitis appears over a period of weeks rather than hours
- Age of onset — usually around ages 20 to 25 years
- Ankylosing Spondylitis appears as early morning stiffness and pain
- Ankylosing Spondylitis persists for 3 months or more, rather than coming on in attacks
Ankylosing spondilysis tends to improve with exercise and be worse if you rest, which is the opposite of most joint conditions.
Although I have been talking about the lower back, the pain is not always confined to this area. Some patients have chest pain which is worse on deep breathing. This chest pain may be mistaken for heart problems although it actually emanates from the joints between the ribs and the spine. Because of this pain, it may be difficult to breathe deeply. Other joints may also be involved — shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles are the most commonly affected joints. Other soft parts of the body may also be affected: eyes may become inflamed, and heart, lungs and central nervous system, bowels and skin can also be affected. So, as you can see, the symptoms can be many and varied.
When Ankylosing Spondylitis begins, it usually causes an ache felt in the lower part of the back, the buttocks and sometimes down the backs of the thighs. It is usual for one side to be worse than the other. If this stiffness or pain is felt on waking and the condition wears off during the day, this is another indication that the condition may be AS.
Ankylosing Spondylitis is a disease which can be painful and disabling, but which can also have such indistinct symptoms that you won't necessarily feel ill, just generally tired, perhaps miserable, have a few aches and pains, and you may lose weight. In the early stages Ankylosing Spondylitis may clear up of its own accord, or it may progress. Ankylosing Spondylitis is a condition that really needs a doctor to diagnose.
Treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis
The most effective treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis is with a low-carbohydraqte, high-fat diet.
Ankylosing Spondylitis is generally thought to be an autoimmune disease, in other words a disease where your body's immune system attacks itself. This is a similar principle to several other conditions: coeliac disease, or Multiple Sclerosis for example. So it is probably not surprising to find that, in a similar way, taking starch out of the diet has been shown to be highly beneficial.[1]
An Ankylosing Spondylitis patient was placed on a low carbohydrate diet for weight loss in 1982. Four months later when he was reviewed in the outpatient AS clinic not only had he lost weight but his backache had gone. This started doctors thinking. Later, a low carbohydrate diet was devised, the main emphasis being in advising AS patients to significantly reduce their intake of bread, potatoes, cakes and pasta. To compensate for the calorie loss, patients were advised to in crease their intake of meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, but excluding potatoes. It was tried first on healthy people and then a clinical trial was set up. In this, AS patients reported that the severity of their symptoms declined and in some cases completely disappeared. Many patients also noticed that their requirement for pain killers also decreased.
Since 1983, the Ankylosing Spondylitis Clinic at the Middlesex Hospital in London has used the low-carb diet in the treatment of over 450 Ankylosing Spondylitis patients. Over half of these patients have not required any medication and are treated solely by diet.
Reference
[1]. Ebringer A, Wilson C. The Use of a Low Starch Diet in the Treatment of Patients Suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis. Clin Rheumatol 1996; 15, Suppl 1: 62-66
Last updated 1 August 2008Related Articles
