Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Any costochondritis tricks or tips?

Hi, sue:

I see Your point, and perhaps I was unclear: I would prefer a more useful classification so that when the germ-cause of AS is accepted universally, "other diseases" with the same cause can also be identified.

The problem for me was ignorance (well my own but also rheumatologists)--and for example I have "arthritis" so I got this book by Giraud Campbell and sure enough he was treating patients with Marie-Strumpell's using diet, but I could have been swayed NOT to do his regimen if I would have believed that one person's AS is not the same as another's; it gave me an opportunity to slide.

Today, I know how illogical it is to pretend that AS has many different causes, but I WANTED to believe it, much to my detriment. But also, I am looking for and at other diseases with the same underlying cause, and these are myriad.

So we cannot call it "B27 Disease" because that is just not right and too restrictive, and perhaps I want to call all forms of spondyloarthropies "Klebsiella-Reactive Arthritides," but I am looking for exceptions and just eliminated Uspa or Udiff; the list is growing.

We each manifest AS differently, but the cause of AS, Reiter's (long-term), Crohn's Disease, and Udiff is the same, even in canines.

Best to You,
John

john, i would have thought that after almost three decades of the theory of molecular mimicry and the klebsiella link, science would have moved ahead to make drugs that would eliminate klebsiella and make their cultures in the bowel impossible...what is so smart about klebsiella that we dont see a drug that kills it off and keeps it that way... wouldn't that be simpler and far more effective that a life of NSD?

in that case, you're talking about an antibiotic or vaccine. novel antibiotic targets or vaccine research for even pathogens like tb, mrsa, etc are few and far between; more research needs to be done on these for sure.

plus klebsiella: 1. is more similar to other good bacteria in our gut like e. coli and 2. drug resistance is on the rise. throw in that broad spectrum drugs would wipe out both the good and bad bacteria, and you can see how challenging the research is.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC88898/?tool=pmcentrez

plus there is very little money in antibiotic research in general, thus big pharma has phased out most of this research and it is being done at the smaller biotech companies and through academia.

i know a little about this because my field of research is discovering and characterizing novel antibiotic targets, focussed more on tb and staph areus, specially focussed on two enzyme families, but follow the field in general.

not to say i disagree with you, because i don't. just stating why more antibacterial research does not take place, why its such a challenge to find novel antibiotics toward novel antibiotic targets. but some of us are working on it.

currently some people are going both the diet and antibiotic route; i'm sure you've read dragonslayers and others posts about this. but broad spectrum antibiotics are tricky as we need our good bacterial microflora. i think the trick will be antibacterials aimed specifically at klebsiella's novel virulence factors, as suggested in the linked paper.

thanks john,

see your point better now.

when my new rheumy said, "i believe all spondyloarthropathies start in the gut.", i thought of you and your various posts. and his approach to treating me is based on that philosophy.