Subject:

Dr. Ebringer - London AS Diet

 

Question:

What do you know about the London AS Diet?

 

Elaine writes:

To All This is Chapter 2 of my trying to get to you some contradictions to a few things we have seen of late: (l) the Starch Free Diet book which Ebringer is supposed to be using but I doubt if he is and (2) what specialist researchers are saying about the two drugs: 5-amino salicyclic acid )Asacol and pentasa) and Salzopyrene or Azulfidine which CCFA list under the heading of 5-amino salicylic acid and which I think is absolutey confusing and wrong. As a result of reading Probiotics I found in the med library a complete issue of Bailliere's CLINICAL RHEUMATOLOGY - Internation Practic and Research, Vol. 3/Number 2 devoted to THE GUT AND RHEUMATIC DISEASE. Doctor P .J. Rooseny of Canad's McMaster Health Center in Hamilton chaired the meeting where 7 different countries were represented. In the foreward Dr. Rooney starts by saying: “Why would rheumatologists and immunologists concern themselves with the murky depths of the gastrointestinal tract?” He goes on and ends the Foreward by saying: “The clinical phenomena which highlight gut/joint interactions are explored in the next few chapters and the relationship between the drugs used in the therapy of rheumatic diseases and the gut is reviewed in the final two chapters of the volume. And old proverb states that ‘diet cures more than doctors.’ Perhaps this will again prove to be true when our knowledge of this exciting area of rheumatic disease research is more complete.|” _____________ Although the treatment of killing B cells which make antibodies sounds like something new, the theory of autoimmunity is rather old and Dr. Ebringer of Middlesex Hospital in London UK has worked on this along with the involvement of bacterial overgrowth in the gut for years. Dr. Ebringer appears to be using a restricted carb diet like SCD.    Do you know how Dr. Ebringer first saw the connection between arthritis and gut diseases? He was using azulfidine for the gut problem of his patients and realized that the arthritis was improving. He knew the biochemistry of azulfidine: that one part of the molecule keeps bacteria from reproducing and finally traced both diseases to gut bacteria. ______________  I periodcally read my compendium of articles from Clinical Rhematology, August, 1989 and will again. But there are lengthy reports that I remember thusly: The NSAIDS which contain the aspirin-like compounds were causing gut problems. So, when Dr. Ebringer started his research, he tried azulfidine for a few patients with gut problems and found that the arthritis improved. I see it as the azulfidine which works on the theory that UV and Crohns is microbially caused is more efficacious than the 5-amino salicyclic which works on inhibiting harmful prostaglandins and then resulting in less inflammation. ______________ I do not know where you live but if UK you have a leading rheumatologist. Dr. Alan Ebringer at Middlesex Hospital in London, who has worked diligently for many years showing how the arthritis is related to the gastrointestinal problems. He developed a hypothesis which shows something called "molecular mimicry" whereby (in an effort by the immune system) the immune system tries to get rid of the overgrowth in the gut and in that way, the antibodies get into the synovial membranes between joints and cause rheumatoid arthritis. He has used a diet which is identical to SCD and has cured them.