hi Brad, thanks for your thoughts and input. i'll try and clarify a few points.
why are you so he**-bent on disproving everything you possibly can about everything and anything involving the NSD?
i am not against NSD. i have repeteadly stated that it is the proposed mechanism by which it works that i am questioning. i am drafting a post on 'Therapeutic Diets - Context, Mechanisms & Potential' which will clear this up once and for all.
Even if it is working for every person claiming success as a full-blown placebo, then SO WHAT?
because i don't think it is a placebo. i believe that there is a genuine mechanism which if understood can provide a better understanding of the role of diet in AS, particularly for those for whom starch restriction doesn't work at all, is too inconvenient, or causes other side effects. i see dispelling the myth of the current proposed mechanism as the first step in opening peoples minds to other possibilities.
why are you so driven to prove that the NSD is pseudoscience that doesn't work?
i don't think NSD is pseudoscience - it is a diet for which there is strong anecdotal evidence. the proposed mechanism of NSD - reducing klebsiella bacteria which are the cause of AS is pseudoscience.
I know you feel you are doing a public service by warning folks away from the diet--or at least that's certainly the way I interpret your actions (and it's awfully hard to NOT interpret them that way), but I would have to respectfully disagree with you on that point.
it doesn't appear that you have read my posts thoroughly. here are a few things i have said about diet in this thread-
"there is plenty of legitimate scientific evidence that suggests that diet would be an important consideration given the involvement of gut bacteria and intestinal inflammation."
"i think that it is a shame because if a scientist with an interest in potential links between diet and AS goes back and looks at his dietary trial they will see find that it was based on an implausible hypothesis by a scientist with a controversial track record and will be unlikely to take it seriously when it may have genuine merit via other mechanisms."
"just to clarify again to ensure there are no misunderstandings. the messages that i am questioning are the mechanism of molecular mimicry involving klebsiella in AS and other diseases and why certain proponents of this hypothesis may have an unhealthy level of attachment to it. i am not questioning the message that LSD or NSD are potentially useful treatments for AS though i am questioning the mechanism by which they work."
from the
failures of NSD thread -
"a no starch diet that still includes at least 30% of calories from carbohydrates is low risk"
"there is no doubt that starch restrictive diets have potential in treating AS regardless of the mechanism and it is fortunate that there is a long term clinical diet study that proves this."
"there is now overwhelming evidence that gut inflammation and the interaction of the immune system with bacteria play a key role in AS. because of this, diet is an important and powerful tool in managing the disease."
many of your posts on the diet are, these days, driven by personal attacks against John, and I'm afraid your entire motivation has to be called into question
fair enough. it is John and Ebringer's klebsiella science that i am questioning, not the diet itself. John pushes my buttons because he is a pseudoscientific sasquatch who makes outrageous and unsupported claims and refuses to examine the possibility that he may be mistaken, all the while never bothering to research anything himself as he thinks he knows everything already, and then has the nerve to tell those who disagree with him that have actual evidence to support their claims that "everything they know is wrong".
I could no longer sit by without at least making this point.
fair enough. i think i also sat on the sidelines for too long before making my points about the klebsiella theory. there is only a certain amount of stuff that you can let slide before you feel like you should do something about it. it's good to try and just let stuff go sometimes but as Frank Costanza would say - "serenity now, insanity later."
