Many of you would have thought it probably just because of high cholesterols, or wrong sleeping position. It possibly be true, but it might also be something else. My fiancé suffers from a severe back pain and losing its neck flexibility of moving left and right. These symptoms happened for a couple of weeks and he decided to see a therapist.
He felt better every time therapy ends, but soon the pain came back again, and the pain had occurred for almost two years. One day I urged him to see a real doctor, an orthopedic, and so he followed my instruction. After a full body and medical checkup and MRI, doctor said that his back pain occurred because of inflammation. The inflammation was due to an excess protein produced in between bones, which then causes the bones to fuse time by time. The fusion affects patient flexibility to move, as well as pain in a long term.

The excess protein produced was due to internal factor, which is the gene, HLA-B. This gene was mostly found in Caucasians, but only those with an active HLA-B will get Ankylosing Spondylits. This disease only occurs to man and do no harm to woman. The worst part of having this disease is it can be treated, but not be cured. Doctors said that this disease is inherited, but my fiancé parents had insisted that nobody in their families had ever had this disease.

Personally, I denied calling it a disease, but I prefer to call it as an abnormality. A well-known Taiwan celebrity also has Ankylosing Spondylitis, he is the famous Jay Zhou. Jay said that he needed to take 7 pills each time he was in pain. If you happen to be an Ankylosingers, please do not feel embarrassed to it, because you are not alone.
Research has found that Biologics could help in fighting the inflammation, as well as slowing the fusion, however, the treatment is more expensive.

Affordable NSAIDS drug, such as Voltaren and Arcoxia can be consumed if you are in a severe pain. It stops the pain, but it does not cure the fusion. However, using this drug in a long run could cause damage and side effect to your health and kidney. So, the only solution is to endure the pain and use the drug only when you really need it.

We went to well-known orthopedic in Johor, rheumatologist in Singapore, but all of them said the same thing, which is to exercise and stay healthy. The best exercise for Ankylosingers is swimming. It enables us to move our whole body, movement reduces stiffness, and so it could reduce the pain and slower the fusion of the bones.
If you stay in Jakarta, Indonesia, I would recommend you to Prof. Dr. Harry Isbagio, you could click here for more information about the doctors. Please do not see Chiropractic without your doctor’s approval. My fiance went to see a chiropractic last week, he felt better after the therapy, but it hurt him much more tomorrow afterwards. Mistreatment might lead to severity, such as bone breaking, and many more. So I suggest you to please have your own personal rheumatologist and consult only to him, because nobody would know your body better than yourself and your personal doctor.

This writing is made so that you Ankylosingers do not feel alone, and I sincerely hope somehow it can be a help for you.