When we left off, Andrea was undiagnosed and searching for answers, find out what happens next…
At age 30, Andrea met the man of her dreams who convinced her to move back across the state to a darling little farm house nestled in the Oregon coast range.With the move back to the westside, she decided to check back in with one of the GI doctors she had seen a couple years earlier. Andrea was still looking for clues as to why her gut had become so sensitive to so many different foods, and she also mentioned to the GI doctor that she was also experiencing severe back pain.
The GI doctor casually said, “Well of course you have back pain, you have sacroilitis and ankylosing spondylitis.” That was the first time Andrea had ever heard those words, and it turns out the diagnosis of AS had been written on her chart 3 years earlier, but no one bothered to tell her. The GI doctor was pretty nonchalant about the AS diagnosis making it sound like it was simply a little inflammation in her spine. The Dr. also told Andrea the AS back pain was totally unrelated to her gut pain, so Andrea’s personal quest for answers continued.
Andrea soon saw a chiropractor who also diagnosed her with ankylosing spondylitis due to fusing of her SI joints and fusions in her lumbar spine on x-ray, and he suggested she try the no starch diet for AS. She was already on a low starch SCD (specific carbohydrate diet, very similar to the now popular Paleo diet) which helped her overcome the IBS and colitis she developed, but she had not yet heard of the starch free diet. With this new diagnosis of AS she quickly learned everything she could about eating starch free, and read up on the work Dr. Alan Ebringer, Professor of Rheumatology at Kings College, London, UK. You can read more about the research Dr. Ebringer has done and the London Low Starch Diet for AS he created at the website kickas.org.
Andrea explains, “There is a science to this diet approach that is based on starving out the gram negative klebsiella bacteria that thrives on undigested starches in the GI tract and is said to create a molecular mimicry in those who have a “leaky gut” condition combined with the HLA-B27+ gene, both of which I have. Though the HLA-B27 gene is not a requirement for getting the AS diagnosis, it is reported to be common in those who have AS. The dietary approach I have taken involves starving out the klebsiella bacteria while also focusing on supporting my gut health to overcome the leaky gut condition which allows this molecular mimicry to take place. Leaky gut is a term used to describe the scenario where the gut lining is permeated and is allowing food particles, proteins, and bacteria to break through the gut lining into the bloodstream stimulating the immune system to attack as if these are foreign invaders in my body.”
Andrea has also been to see a rheumatologist who pushed anti-TNF biologic medicine but because she has had such great results through her starch free diet she hasn’t yet been interested in biologic therapy, as it comes with list of side effects she is not willing to gamble with. Prior to her AS diagnosis at age 31, the disease had already taken quite a toll. She says, “I’ve shrunk three inches and no longer stand up fully straight, but this happened to me before my diagnosis and dedication to a starch free diet.”
Andrea felt compelled to write the cookbook because she’s had such positive results through following Dr. Ebringer’s London Low Starch for Ankylosing Spondylitis diet plan. The miracle is that her gut pains and colitis has completely gone into remission by following the starch free diet too, even though her GI doctor told her the gut distress and AS were unrelated, Andrea now begs to differ. She said she’s spent the past four years conversing with a ton of people from around the world who also live with ankylosing spondylitis on online forums, through emails, in person and with phone calls, and she has done her best to compile a cookbook featuring the foods and recipes that have helped everyone the most.
“It’s really empowering because I have gotten such great results through drastically changing my diet, and the best part is I feel like I have control over my life again. While my fused spine no longer allows me to go on long hikes comfortably, or do the high endurance outdoor sports I used to love, I am now enjoying delicious adventures that start on local farms and come together in my kitchen.”
