“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.”

via Ankylosing Spondylitis – Second Opinions, UK .