Lots about Ankylosing Spondylitis (was my success story)

[Guest guest]

Collin,

Its great to have another AS around to compare stories. Sorry that

you have it though. Cutler says there's an 80% cure rate with

autoimmune disease so I've had great hope. There is little in the

archives about AS at this point.

> Could you please tell me more about your experiences with ankylosing

> spondylitis and how chelating effected this?

> I havent done ALA yet, is it any different than DMSA?

>

> Thanks,

>

> COllin

>

Before discovering the problem with mercury, I cut out junk food and

it nearly eliminated the pain of spondylitis. After a year of on and

off of this diet I took out fillings and began chelating. This

caused a massive increase in all of my symptoms. At the same time, I

began a strict candida diet (virtually no carbs). I think the

exposure, chelators and starting candida diet at the same time was

hard on me.

Over the past year I have been weaning off minor cheats on the diet

and cheating less frequently. It seems that the candida finds a new

way to survive over time. I was pain free while eating fruit, then I

had to cut that out. A minor cheat would cause more and more pain

and fatigue. Currently, I am having to give up coffee as it's

causing symptoms after going 2 months without a cheat or any simple

sugars. Sometimes I am disturbed by this trend, but the " Candida

people " talk frequently of this happening. Enough time on the strict

diet and you can be cured of it. I believe the difference for us is

that by ridding ourselves of the mercury we can KEEP it gone.

Also over time the location of joint pain has changed. It started 5

years ago as slowly progressing pain in sacroiliac joints. After

becoming excruciating, it diminished and began in lower back at

night, forcing me to get up at about 4 am to walk it out. Next I got

a sudden pain in one shoulder where I was diagnosed with rotator cuff

tear. I couldn't move my shoulder at all from the pain. After 4

days of that it disappeared almost as suddenly, then showed up in the

other shoulder. Now it made sense- just another joint affected. Now

with coffee it affects the balls of my feet at the metatarsotarsal

joints. If I were to fall off the wagon, I would suddenly have hip

and back pain again as well.

ALA hasn't done much to me, but I have gone real slow after starting

the DMSA too soon and getting so screwed up. I do know that I can't

do ALA alone and that I can't go up to 50 mg yet. I haven't noticed

a correlation to AS with dose changes- just anxiety, fogginess, word

retrieval, etc.

My steady improvement in all aspects I do atribute to following the

protocol using DMSA and ALA.

Feel free with other questions or comparing stories.