Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; Fasting to come off NSAIDS? Help/Advice?

Here is a bit of background on me. A very similar story to alot of people it seems. I know it is a bit long winded but helps to paint a fuller picture. Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. The section in BOLD gives the gist of my question if your not wanting to trawl through the rest.

I am 25 and have suffered with varied back problems for the past 7 years. It began with a sciatic type pain which I saw a physio for. Since then I have seen a full array of "experts" to try and identify and alleviate the pain which has moved around alot but has always stayed in my hips, back and neck. This has included physio's, chiro's, osteo's, and a host of alternative practitioners. Some of these treatments have resulted in short term improvements but the pain has always come back eventually.

At the end of last summer I found that the pain and stiffness in my hips and lower back became so bad that I was unable to continue working. My profession is as an Outdoor instructor so I rely on my body working well! Most of my work at the time was guiding and teaching sea kayaking on the west coast of Scotland but had to stop. At this point I had been taking Ibuprofen everyday for a couple of months.

On stopping work I began seeing a chiro who I had used before and found good. I was seeing him two or three times a week for about two months, not having manipulation on every visit but having fairly intensive treatment. I did not respond to the treatment as quickly as he would have hoped and although he was able to increase the movement in the joints the pain levels were not dropping. I was still taking ibuprofen through this whole process.

He advised me to go to the doc's and get some tests done saying that there was a possibility of some inflammatory problem occurring. HLA B27 came back positive with raised inflammatory markers. At the time I was traveling alot with work so was not able to see a rheumy. It was left that when I returned in a couple of months I could see a rheumy for further treatment.

During this time the pain got worse and moved into my left shoulder and neck. I saw another doctor while I was away and began taking diclofenac (beginning of March). This helped dramatically and on returning home my family doctor prescribed more of the same. I saw a rheumy about a month ago now who confirmed the suspicion that it might be AS. He suggested that I move onto Arcoxia 120mg once a day. which I have been taking for the past two weeks.

It has now been about a year since my pain levels have required me to be taking some form of anti-inflammatory and in that period the symptoms of my AS have accelerated massively. I believe the two to be linked with regards to the damage I believe that has been done in my guts and the increased pain and problems in other areas of my body (toe, knee, hip, back, neck, sternum, ribs, and shoulders). As a result I am keen to come off the NSAIDS. I have been on a paleo diet for about two months as I had heard it could help with a variety of disease's, but have only recently found kickAS and have now been strict NSD for a week testing everything I have eaten/drunk.

As I said, I am wanting to come off the NSAIDS as I hate what I feel they are doing to my body but feel I am trapped in a loop. I was hoping my pain levels would drop a little on the diet and I could come off the drugs in relative comfort but I know they are compounding the problem in my guts and stopping them from healing.

I am thinking of cutting the drugs completely and thought it might be good to do a water fast at the same time to try and kick start the healing process. I am a bit apprehensive about doing this as I know i'm setting myself up for quite a bit of pain!
Any advice on this or anyone who has done a similar thing would be great.

I am aware that there is normally an adjustment period where the body has to wake up and do the work that the anti-inflammatories have been doing. Not sure how long this takes?

Hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Tristan

Since starting the NSD I have also not been eating any dairy, sugar (including fruit) or any of the foods identified as being bad for auto immune problems through the paleo diet (eggs, nightshades, etc).

Hi, Tristan!

I'm in the same shape as you right now. I've been on NSAIDs for over 3 years...and prednisone, Humira, Sulfasalazine, methotrexate, etc. etc. I realized that every year, the meds stop working and something is added. I feel worse and worse as it progresses. Something had to stop.

The paleo diet finally worked for me, but I had to remove EVERYTHING. Fruit, dairy, nuts, eggs, nightshades. I can't even eat sweet potatoes and squash. The only med I'm taking now is LDN, and I think it does help cut the inflammation during the night (raises endorphins).

An absolute fast was not necessary for me. The NSD/paleo strict diet allows me to still eat without flaring, but I can't cheat even once. As you might have seen my previous post, my problem is trying to keep my weight up now. I'm down to 109 despite adding food like crazy for the last 3 days.

I'm hoping Cordain's new book in a couple months will help us. We've got to figure out a way to make this weird diet work!!

Hang in there. I'm determined we can cure this "incurable" disease together.

Hi lindy,

Thankyou for the response, its very uplifting to know that its not only me fighting the fight (as it were).

How did you end up coning off the meds? Did you reduce the doses gradually or simply continued with the diet until you saw results then came off them?
Difficult decisions to make.

LDN is something I have looked at briefly but haven't found any good descriptions or explanations of how it works yet. Do you have any good links for info on this?
My rheumy is wanting to get me onto Humira but i'm not keen at the moment.

Thats great that the diet is working to fix the pain for you... just need to find a solution for keeping the weight on. I'm pretty sure it will be an easier hurdle to manage now that your started on the right track. Wish I could offer you some gem of wisdom but i'm still stumbling along in the dark at the moment and grabbing any info i can get my hands on.

Thanks again
Tristan

Hi Tristan,

Have you thought of tapering off your nsaids? I take Mobic as my nsaid, tappering allows your body to get used to being without it slowly with no jolt. Unfortunately, I haven't tapered off my nsaid but I have done it with prednisone.

I hope the diet helps you and gets you feeling better.

Take care,
Sheri

Hi Guys,

Could you tell me what LDN is? Haven't heard of it. Thanks.

I'm with you guys in spirit. I am pretty i

Low dose naltrexone.

google it and you will find a lot of information on it.

When I was first diagnosed, used to take Aleve every day. When not in a big flare only took one per day, which is an over-the-counter dose so there wasn't anything to taper. It wasn't even supposed to be enough to cause the classical NSAID heartburn problems (but of course it did, after less than 2 yrs). I think tapering is called for in your case, since you're starting from heavier-duty doses. A couple more weeks of gradually-lessening NSAID shouldn't cause much additional damage -- the important thing is that you're getting off them and fixing your diet.



My rheumatologist thinks I'm a nutty alternative medicine type because I won't take his miraculous biologics. However my GP is on board with treating arthritis via diet and also was the one to prescribe LDN when I asked about it (which reminds me, I need to ask him for a renewal). If you have a good general physician, try that route -- they have a broader view of health than rheumatologists and seem more able to understand why young patients might not want to be stuck on powerful meds (with risk of likewise powerful side effects) for decades at a time.

Thanks for the advice. Didnt take any meds yesterday and had a terrible nights sleep but i guess you gotta start somewhere.

Will look into LDN a bit more.

For me personally when I fasted (water fast) my pain levels were lower than when I was taking nsaids and no starch diet. Everyone responds differently but if diet is affecting your pain it stands to reason that eating nothing will drop your pain. good luck