RE: Starting a Three-Day Fast: Some Insights From Stem Cell Research
This is fascinating! I too have an autoimmune condition (seronegative spondyloarthropathy, probably ankylosing spondylitis), and I too suspect it was brought on by an antibiotics course, because the condition started quite suddenly while I was on antibiotics that my gastroenterologist gave me. However, in my case my dad had the condition (AS + Crohn's disease), as well as a cousin, so dunno.
I've been improving my symptoms slowly and steadily for years via exercise and diet (low-FODMAP specifically, the only gut diet I found that works).
I've been aware of the health benefits of fasting, but doing a long-term fast seemed kinda dangerous. But this autoimmune reset thing I didn't know about. I guess now I'll have to binge-read your progress reports!
Hi, thanks (I should look at my replies more often - sorry!)
What was the antibiotic? Those triggers are also a reason I refuse to call them auto-immune, with the strong suggestion it is somehow my fault. More often they are changes, such as epigenetic or the inclusion of foreign DNA, that then make parts of your own system appear to be foreign to your immune system - but they were not until the trigger input, whether "medicine" or other chemical.
I too was surprised as I delved into the literature. Maybe I should post some more - I just have so many other things to write and work to go to. But messages such as yours are a great reminder that I haven't quite finished the story! :-)
I don't remember now which antibiotic it was specifically. Maybe because the idea that the trigger might've been the antibiotic arose much later. At that time, I still had blind faith in doctors! Even when my own dad, himself a doctor, was telling me something like, "if you start taking pills you'll need to take other pills later to cure the things caused by the former pills"!
But I think it was to kill the helicobacter pylori. Itself a questioned, if not debunked, practice currently.