dish is absolutely a real disease/diagnosis. the condition has also gone by the names of marie-strumpel arthritis and forrestier's disease. . it is an acronym for diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. in more simple terms it is a condition in which the body makes widespread (the diffuse part) exuberant extra bone around the spine and joints (bone spurs or osteophytes). the underlying cause is unknown (the idiopathic part). it seems to affect the spine more than other joints and leads to very large flowing bone spurs that often span from one vertebral bone to the next. this results in stiffness and loss of motion and is definitely associated with back pain. it is definitely different than ankylosis spondylitis (as) in that the pattern of bone spurs is not the same. unfortunately the heel pain spurs and other issues can be associated with both dish and as or may be due to degenerative changes if you are a runner etc. unfortunately there is no "cure" for dish or as. . the prognosis is that both dish and as tend to progress and worsen over time but that does not necessarily mean that your pain will worsen and your function will deteriorate. a good mantra for this problem is to "minimize pain and maximize function" understanding that both of these problems are systemic diseases that can't be completely fixed.
is dish syndrome a real diease and if so what is it?