Hi Wendy,
I think in the opinion of the Road Back people the fears of overgrowth by Candida are exagerated, especially given the potential trade off (loss of gut flora diversity) of greatly improved RA symptoms. RA as you know can be destructive of one's quality of life, to put it mildly. They would make the point that Minocycline has a very low toxicity, especially when compared to the 'miracle' drugs of the day - gold, Quinine, penicillamine, cortisone (in massive doses), and more lately methotrexate, all DMARD's that offered only the hope of slowing the disease progression. I think in the case of Minocycline clinical evidence is just as important as understanding the mechanism of action.
A question that arises from your post is: What constitutes the normal gut flora?
I would maintain that our diets have altered over the last 10,000 years such that we have not had the time to adjust in an evolutionary sense - to adjust from the hunter gather diet of high meat and animal fat intake; and to pare that back and replace it with a high-calorie, nutrient-poor, immune-disruptive grains-based diet with its attendant food related health problems.
Their are genetic predispositions to many diseases and modern medicine and research are largely directed towrds this end. However I would maintain that environmental triggers far outweigh genetic predispoitions and that the dieases of affluence - obesity, diabetes heart disease and cancer are the result.
We are not programmed to eat massive amounts of grains - so that if removed from our diets celiacs, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease might never arise - given of course that the damage has not already been done.
Some maintain that up to 90 % of cancers are avoidable - are the result of environmental triggers - grains based diet, alcohol, cigarette smoke, pollution.
Even AS might never eventuate - as it never did for the Innuit when they lived a more traditional lifestyle.
Klebsiella are considered normal gut flora - but in a starch free diet their numbers are diminished - in an evolutionary sense they probably shouldn't be considered part of our normal gut flora?
Cheers all.
David
