Hi JP-
I grew up in suburbia, but went camping all the time as a kid/teen/young adult, all over the midwest and up in Ontario, Canada. In college I moved to Boston for 5 years, and then it was down to NYC for the last 15 or so....I had back pain stretching back to Boston, in my early to mid-twenties, but it really hit hard, although infrequently at first, in NYC in the late '80s, when I was 26-27.
I have HLA-B27, had iritis, confirmed AS about 4 years ago when I was 34ish....
Hope that helps, welcome to the site, as we know now, although HLA-B27 is found in 8% of the European population I believe, we have Asian ASkickers and I believe Indian and Middle Easterners, and yes, the Eskimos have the highest percentage of HLA-B27....and another myth is that it is a disease of men....as you see here, just as many KickASers are women. Hang in there!
Peace
Linc
Linc O'Brien
