Hello, Robin_H:
About 40% of AS patients do not have elevated ESR/CRP tracking disease activity. However, in the majority of cases, these are useful to determine disease activity. When I first started NSD, I was able to check my ESR on demand (I was in Philippines and laboratory close), and could absolutely demonstrate the effect of dietary starch on this--long before my actual perception of pain increase, which did not happen as I got much more strict.
In his "Etiopahtogenesis" paper, published in the AS and RA Papers section, Ebringer tracked 36 patients' ESR for a 9 month period. The instructions to the patients were to just try and reduce eating all the obvious starches as much as they were comfortable with and try eating more meats and leafy vegetables. There was one unchanged, but one of the two wrong-way results was later revealed by his son (also a patient): "Dad eats a potato every dinner; says 'it is not really a meal without it.'"
HEALTH,
John
