Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; Newbie with questions- Kefir as a probiotic??NSD??

Hi, I am looking at eating more probiotic foods but would rather supplement with food as opposed to pills. I have read that kefir as a fermented drink with milk or coconut milk (as a dairy free alternative) is good for encouraging good gut flora but I dont know if it is starch free. Does anyone have any experience of using this? Any advice would be great...

Anyway, I have just joined kickAS and thought it about time I said hi to everyone out there. I only discovered the website a couple of weeks ago and have found all the info, opinions and success stories great. I was officially diagnosed with AS just a few weeks ago but my GP and I had suspected AS some while before that.

I have been on a form of a paleo/primal diet about two months now as I had heard/ read that diet can be very effective in tackling RA and other auto-immune problems and thought it might have similar effects for me if it was AS as suspected.

I am now adjusting my diet to eliminate starch in the hope that I will see some results as the diet I have been eating has included lots of sweet potatoes and other root veggies. (Not great for NSD!)

Well thats me reluctantly joining the club of having to kickAS... nice to meet you all! Thanks to those of you who have unknowingly helped already with your input and stories on this site... they are a great pick me up when not feeling so strong!

Tristan

Hey Tristan,

Welcome to KA!

Good luck on your new diet- hopefully you will see some good results.

I've toyed around with the idea of probiotics but have yet to pull the trigger. Since I've had such success on the NSD I am reluctant to mess with a good thing. But there are lots of folks here with probiotic experience and I'm sure they'll chime in and provide some excellent info.

Good luck!

Hi Tristan , I have been on the diet for 3 mounth . 53 days sense my last embrel shot . My AS is at a max level so i am not getting the results as others but at lessed i am off the heavy Meds . Ya !!! Hang in there And keep reading lots of great Info here . Welcome Kurt

Hey Truth, you could try a couple low-risk meds to help reduce inflammation (neither are supposed to interfere with gut healing):
* LDN
* boswellia 5-loxin (actually this one is a supplement, no prescription needed)

Both have practically no side effects. For most people the effect is gradual and not huge like anti-TNF, but some have fairly amazing success with LDN. Read some of Barngodess' posts about it.

Hi kurt, did you see an improvement when still on the embrel and diet? The docs seem mad keen for me to get onto Humaria but im not sure about the idea of that yet. Gonna give the diet thing a good go to begin with. Still taking lots of NSAIDS which I know are bad for my guts.... not sure of the best way to come off them.

Kefir would be great to use as a probiotic. Also home made sauerkraut (from Nourishing Traditions). It's super easy, and great to repopulate healthy microbes in the gut.

I would also recommend a therapeutic strength probiotic supplement. I personally use BioKult.

What sort of thing is good to look for when selecting a probiotic?

Do you know if kefir has any starch in it? Do you use it and have you tested it with iodine?

Thanks for your help

Tristan

I actually use the Inner Eco coconut kefir every morning and really like it. I just started the NSD a few days ago. I tested it and it was negative for starch.

I have been taking Kefir, but I am new (3 weeks) on the NSD and I think it is helping. I did find this on Wikipedia and I wonder if this polysaccharide is enough to be a problem?-

"Kefir grains contain a water soluble polysaccharide known as kefiran"

Klebsiella are so darned versatile, that they might be able to digest it
http://biocyc.org/META/NEW-IMAGE?type=ORGANISM&object=TAX-573

However even though klebsiella can metabolize all kinds of stuff in theory, it still could be of net benefit to you if the probiotic cultures coming with it are able to out-compete the klebsiella for a net decrease in their population. Only way to find that out is by experimenting on yourself -- try it both ways, long enough to be able to observe a trend. Try not to change other things during the experiment, or you're unlikely to figure out which thing helped (or which hurt, or they might cancel each other out).