Anti-Inflammation Warfare

Nutrition
21

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I know some people with UC and Crohn’s. Horrible diseases and very debilitating. I’ve done a lot of reading on them and have experience observing those people and how they manage their disease.

Stay away from ORAL anti-biotics. They will make you flare up within 24-48 hours.

I’m not sure if IV-administered anti-biotics cause the same problem with gut flora (eliminating healthy flora). If the IV version does NOT have this issue, and your doc recommends it for use (only for an infection, I mean), then make sure you only take the IV version.

Casein is a hard protein to digest. So is whey. Stay away from dairy.

Your gut needs to be under minimal stress:

-Avoid nuts.
-Avoid high amounts of fat (since fish oil is anti-inflammatory, try restricting your fat intake to mostly fish oil).
-Avoid high amounts of INSOLUBLE fiber (plant based, so greens or skins of fruits). SOLUBLE fiber should help you (inulin, acacia, psyllium husk). Yes, keep away from salads for now.
-Avoid pungent or spicy foods (mustard, spicy peppers).
-Avoid SEEDS.
-Avoid coffee and alcohol. Both are highly acidic and can damage/irritate your gut lining.

As a general rule, avoid sauces. They tend to be high fat or be very complex in preparation, incorporating many herbs/spices whose cumulative effect on your gut could be very bad.

What is the medical procedure you’re scheduled for? If it’s invasive (and especially if it’s surgery), stop fish oil about 3-4 days before the procedure. Fish oil thins the blood so there is a risk that you will bleed more.

One tea you should be drinking daily is cuachalalate. The plant is only found in Mexico I believe, but its active ingredient is anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer. See if you can find it there. It comes in tea bags but you can also buy the bark (preferred) and boil a large piece in 1 L of water. Store in fridge and drink 4-5 glasses a day.

If you look at the molecular structure of the plant/tea, it is similar to prednisone, which is a steroid used for inflammatory conditions (it’s very powerful but has nasty long term side effects). I’m not sure if that’s why the tea is known to be anti-inflammatory or if there are other factors. I remember a chemist friend and I talking about this and he showed me the structures.

Try whole egg protein. It is pretty close to whey in profile and much easier on the gut.

Take your probiotic at NIGHT before bed AND take it with some soluble FIBER (pre-biotic), which should help the probiotic do what it needs to do.
Keep us updated.[/quote]

Thanks for the excellent advice Ponce!

I’ve read up about a lot of this and it all seems to correspond. What I do not get though is that I’m able to eat a handful of nuts daily and not have any issues while I cannot even keep plain bread, crackers or liquid nutrition in.

I will certainly look into getting that tea. I know what prednisone can do to someone and I do not want to experience that ever.

The procedure I’m scheduled for is a simple gastroscopy, camera down my throat to see what my stomach looks like, hopefully the doc can gather enough info from it to get me a good treatment plan.

About the pre-biotic. can you give a few examples of good sources? Again thanks for the solid write-up.

22

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I know some people with UC and Crohn’s. Horrible diseases and very debilitating. I’ve done a lot of reading on them and have experience observing those people and how they manage their disease.

Stay away from ORAL anti-biotics. They will make you flare up within 24-48 hours.

I’m not sure if IV-administered anti-biotics cause the same problem with gut flora (eliminating healthy flora). If the IV version does NOT have this issue, and your doc recommends it for use (only for an infection, I mean), then make sure you only take the IV version.

Casein is a hard protein to digest. So is whey. Stay away from dairy.

Your gut needs to be under minimal stress:

-Avoid nuts.
-Avoid high amounts of fat (since fish oil is anti-inflammatory, try restricting your fat intake to mostly fish oil).
-Avoid high amounts of INSOLUBLE fiber (plant based, so greens or skins of fruits). SOLUBLE fiber should help you (inulin, acacia, psyllium husk). Yes, keep away from salads for now.
-Avoid pungent or spicy foods (mustard, spicy peppers).
-Avoid SEEDS.
-Avoid coffee and alcohol. Both are highly acidic and can damage/irritate your gut lining.

As a general rule, avoid sauces. They tend to be high fat or be very complex in preparation, incorporating many herbs/spices whose cumulative effect on your gut could be very bad.

What is the medical procedure you’re scheduled for? If it’s invasive (and especially if it’s surgery), stop fish oil about 3-4 days before the procedure. Fish oil thins the blood so there is a risk that you will bleed more.

One tea you should be drinking daily is cuachalalate. The plant is only found in Mexico I believe, but its active ingredient is anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer. See if you can find it there. It comes in tea bags but you can also buy the bark (preferred) and boil a large piece in 1 L of water. Store in fridge and drink 4-5 glasses a day.

If you look at the molecular structure of the plant/tea, it is similar to prednisone, which is a steroid used for inflammatory conditions (it’s very powerful but has nasty long term side effects). I’m not sure if that’s why the tea is known to be anti-inflammatory or if there are other factors. I remember a chemist friend and I talking about this and he showed me the structures.

Try whole egg protein. It is pretty close to whey in profile and much easier on the gut.

Take your probiotic at NIGHT before bed AND take it with some soluble FIBER (pre-biotic), which should help the probiotic do what it needs to do.
Keep us updated.[/quote]

Thanks for the excellent advice Ponce!

I’ve read up about a lot of this and it all seems to correspond. What I do not get though is that I’m able to eat a handful of nuts daily and not have any issues while I cannot even keep plain bread, crackers or liquid nutrition in.

I will certainly look into getting that tea. I know what prednisone can do to someone and I do not want to experience that ever.

The procedure I’m scheduled for is a simple gastroscopy, camera down my throat to see what my stomach looks like, hopefully the doc can gather enough info from it to get me a good treatment plan.

About the pre-biotic. can you give a few examples of good sources? Again thanks for the solid write-up.[/quote]

In addition to the above advice, I would honestly suggest an intermittent fasting approach. Many of you know I have recently embarked on such a diet lifestyle. This is not me trying to get everybody on the IF bandwagon. Since your digestive system has to be minimally stressed, fasting is a great way for it to recuperate. While you are fasting, your digestive system will have an opportunity to repair.

23

Here’s two good articles:

http://goldberg.getwebspace.com/inflammatory.html

24

[quote]forbes wrote:
Here’s two good articles:

http://goldberg.getwebspace.com/inflammatory.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5685117_cure-ulcerative-colitis-through-fasting.html[/quote]

Very interesting information… I think the step wouldn’t even be that big for me since I can hardly stomach anymore than soup right now. I’m going to see if there is an experienced physician in my area who can guide me on this.

25

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]forbes wrote:
Here’s two good articles:

http://goldberg.getwebspace.com/inflammatory.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5685117_cure-ulcerative-colitis-through-fasting.html[/quote]

Very interesting information… I think the step wouldn’t even be that big for me since I can hardly stomach anymore than soup right now. I’m going to see if there is an experienced physician in my area who can guide me on this.[/quote]

Well I hope you do find someone who is experienced with it. I had digestive problems (though definitely not to the same extent as you, as I don’t have ulcerative colitis, but my dad did). Anyways, fasting has helped my digestive problems and they are almost non existent.

Nice avatar btw :wink:

26

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I know some people with UC and Crohn’s. Horrible diseases and very debilitating. I’ve done a lot of reading on them and have experience observing those people and how they manage their disease.

Stay away from ORAL anti-biotics. They will make you flare up within 24-48 hours.

I’m not sure if IV-administered anti-biotics cause the same problem with gut flora (eliminating healthy flora). If the IV version does NOT have this issue, and your doc recommends it for use (only for an infection, I mean), then make sure you only take the IV version.

Casein is a hard protein to digest. So is whey. Stay away from dairy.

Your gut needs to be under minimal stress:

-Avoid nuts.
-Avoid high amounts of fat (since fish oil is anti-inflammatory, try restricting your fat intake to mostly fish oil).
-Avoid high amounts of INSOLUBLE fiber (plant based, so greens or skins of fruits). SOLUBLE fiber should help you (inulin, acacia, psyllium husk). Yes, keep away from salads for now.
-Avoid pungent or spicy foods (mustard, spicy peppers).
-Avoid SEEDS.
-Avoid coffee and alcohol. Both are highly acidic and can damage/irritate your gut lining.

As a general rule, avoid sauces. They tend to be high fat or be very complex in preparation, incorporating many herbs/spices whose cumulative effect on your gut could be very bad.

What is the medical procedure you’re scheduled for? If it’s invasive (and especially if it’s surgery), stop fish oil about 3-4 days before the procedure. Fish oil thins the blood so there is a risk that you will bleed more.

One tea you should be drinking daily is cuachalalate. The plant is only found in Mexico I believe, but its active ingredient is anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer. See if you can find it there. It comes in tea bags but you can also buy the bark (preferred) and boil a large piece in 1 L of water. Store in fridge and drink 4-5 glasses a day.

If you look at the molecular structure of the plant/tea, it is similar to prednisone, which is a steroid used for inflammatory conditions (it’s very powerful but has nasty long term side effects). I’m not sure if that’s why the tea is known to be anti-inflammatory or if there are other factors. I remember a chemist friend and I talking about this and he showed me the structures.

Try whole egg protein. It is pretty close to whey in profile and much easier on the gut.

Take your probiotic at NIGHT before bed AND take it with some soluble FIBER (pre-biotic), which should help the probiotic do what it needs to do.
Keep us updated.[/quote]

Thanks for the excellent advice Ponce!

I’ve read up about a lot of this and it all seems to correspond. What I do not get though is that I’m able to eat a handful of nuts daily and not have any issues while I cannot even keep plain bread, crackers or liquid nutrition in.

I will certainly look into getting that tea. I know what prednisone can do to someone and I do not want to experience that ever.

The procedure I’m scheduled for is a simple gastroscopy, camera down my throat to see what my stomach looks like, hopefully the doc can gather enough info from it to get me a good treatment plan.

About the pre-biotic. can you give a few examples of good sources? Again thanks for the solid write-up.[/quote]

It is possible you have a mild gluten intolerance (gluten is found in bread and many other food items) or wheat allergy (Celiac’s). Get tested for both ASAP. Test results will save you a ton of headache (from the guess work of figuring out what foods bother you).

Oh, and if I were you, i’d get two SEPARATE tests done (sent to two different labs OR two sets of tests sent to the same lab but about 2-3 weeks apart, to avoid both being checked in the same batch).

27

If your mucosal lining is damaged (in the case of UC, for instance), you’ll need to eat foods that:

  1. Do not irritate the mucosal lining
  2. Repair/soothe the lining

One “soothing” food is home made QUINCE COMPOTE. I don’t know but it’s widely regarded in restoring mucosal lining. Also, if you can go to a nursery and find a live ALOE VERA plant, try slicing off a few inches of the the leave, butter fly cutting open the leave and scooping out the gel; eat this raw (it’s almost tasteless and odorless) or mix in with your shake). The aloe vera is good for HEALING IRRITATED tissue.

If you have an upset stomach, GINGER TEA is amazing. Brew for 15 minutes. Sip on it (don’t chug).

Yes, you will have to eat slower than usual, because fast eating (and eating/drinking in general) will stimulate the gastrocolic reflex (GCR), which is the signal to your body to start the digestive process. If you eat, drink, or even SMELL food, your mouth will begin salivating and that is the signal to the body to get to work; this means your intestines will work, too, and hence you might feel like using the restroom.

Another thing to do to strengthen (control) the GCR is to SQUAT - squatting helps you strengthen your muscles and control peristalsis (controlling your body for going to the bathroom). Of course, if you can’t squat because you’re feeling sick, that’s fine, but do your best to keep squatting regularly.

ACUPUNCTURE might help temporarily give you control of your bodily functions.

Stay away from MAGNESIUM (especially over 150 mg, regardless of the form) and HIGH DOSES of VITAMIN C (over 1 g, definitely over 2 g). Both can act as LAXATIVES.

CALCIUM can have the OPPOSITE effect (give you constipation) in high doses.

Raw ONIONS can also have negative effects on your intestines, probably because of the gas they can produce.

28

Regarding the test for Celiac’s, you can do what’s called the Prometheus DNA test (I think it’s based on probability and genetics) but, if you can get a more “traditional” test, go with that instead.

Have the doctor do a CAPSULE ENDOSCOPY (you swallow a pill-sized camera) AND a barium X-Ray “Small bowel follow through.” The barium tastes like chalk but will help “trace” the path through your intestines and will allow the radiologist to pick up on x-ray photos of obstructions.

YOU CANNOT HAVE AN MRI FOR AT LEAST 30 DAYS AFTER THIS PROCEDURE. The magnetic force of the MRI can rip the camera’s battery out of your body (it’ll take around 30 days for your body to excrete the camera from your body, along with solid waste).

Speaking of obstructions, have your doc check for:

  1. Strictures (intestinal tissue stuck together)
  2. Diverticulitus

Also, rare diseases that give the impression of IBD:

A) MAP (mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis)
B) Campylobacter Jejuni Enteritis
C) Clostrum Difficile (C. Diff toxins)
D) Overactive Cytomegalovirus (CMV-induced colitis)

Don’t fuck around with this condition. Get everything checked.

29

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]andersons wrote:
I don’t know much about ulcerative colitis (sounds awful), but I have had a peptic ulcer. I felt that it healed up once I took glutamine. I also took DGL and drank raw cabbage juice, so those might have helped too. Have you tried any of those? Is there a possible H pylori infection with your ulcer? [/quote]

DGL = licorice root right?

I have licorice root in my supp cabinet. I did read about cabbage juice when I researched alternative treatments for my colitis as well. I guess I should really try it. Where do you get it? Is it nasty?
[/quote]
DGL is not the same as licorice root; it has been “deglycyrrhizinated” which means the compound responsible for increasing blood pressure and other usually-undesirable effects is removed.

DGL comes as nasty lozenges.

Cabbage juice was not the best. I went to a local health food store that has a juice bar, and ordered a blend of carrot, cabbage, and ginger. If I were to need this stuff now, I’d attempt it in my VitaMix.

I think Ponce is right that you should have all those conditions checked out rather than try to medicate it with multiple supplements, any of which might irritate your GI tract further. I do understand, though, you might rather experiment than just endure the long wait for treatment.

30

Well guys this whole ordeal resulted in me being hospitalized for the past two weeks. It came to a point where I puked out anything I took in.

I’m back home now, about 40 pounds lighter than my normal weight. Docs are still unsure what the problem is. My stomach was extremely inflamed and my UC had worsened but they do not see a direct cause for it. Meds are working well though. I’m on antibiotics and entocort.

I’m kinda weary of what supplements to use right now. My doc said I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I don’t upset my stomach but I think that exactly diet is where there’s ground to win. We all know how western medicine is though, hardly any research on the influence of nutrition on any digestive problems (ludicrous if you think about it). My doc told me to stick to white bread, soup, basically anything low fat.

Ponce, I did order that Mexican bark you advised me… however right now I’m not sure if I should use ANY supplements. I’m so happy I can finally eat again. I’m even afraid to use probiotics.

31

Why are you on anti-biotics? I told you that, if you truly have UC, anti-biotics will mess you up. Are you on IV anti-biotics or oral? (I bet oral).

What do you mean they don’t know the direct cause of the UC? If they’re looking for a direct cause, they’re at least acknowledging that you have UC, period, so they should focus on symptomatic treatment of the UC.

UC is chronic. You will have it for life. You need to find the right combo of meds/treatment that will mitigate symptoms and/or put you in remission.

UC and Crohn’s are typically considered auto-immune, so if symptoms do not improve with NSAIDs and some prednisone, they will most likely recommend you go on immunosuppressants:

Humira - self injectable. financial assistance available for UC patients.

Cimzia - self injectable. financial assistance NOT available for UC patients, only for Crohn’s

Remicaid - requires infusions every 8 weeks, meaning you have to go to a clinic or Dr.'s office; also means you can’t really ever be away from a clinic for more than 8 weeks, so long term traveling plans are impacted. Easiest drug to get financial assistance for, though; the infusion itself is $500 but the drug is much more expensive. The manufacturer will likely comp you the full cost of the drug but not the infusion.

The benefit of self-injectables is that you can take them with you, so you’re not “anchored down” to an infusion site like you would be with Remicaid.

Are you on anti-biotics because they saw a slight increase in white blood count, and are assuming it’s an infection?

If so, they should stop the anti-biotics; your white cell will be up if you have inflammation, which is a hallmark of UC/Crohn’s anyway - of course you’ll have elevated white blood count.

32

They diagnosed UC in December, that’s not news. Colonoscopy showed that it worsened severely though.

I was on IV antibiotics but since they have sent me home I’m on orals (amoxicilline) this is purely because of my inflamed gut, they found some rare bacteria there (not h. pylori) and are treating it just because they don’t know what the bacteria will do to me. I’m on them til tomorrow and I will start with a probiotic supplement once I finish the pills (Dr. Z recommended the Ganeden BC-30 kind).

What I meant with the “cause”, is the cause of why my stomach was inflamed and why my UC worsened. My stomach lining was inflamed completely (my ENTIRE stomach) and I also had a pretty ulcer sitting there. I’m getting budesonide (weaker form of prednisone) to treat the stomach inflammation and also my UC flare up. They also prescribed enemas with budesonide to attack the UC directly.

I know about UC, I know it’s chronic, that doesn’t mean I’m going to take it lying down. I’m going to try everything possible diet-wise to manage the disease. I cannot believe that a disease which affects the digestive tract and colon cannot be influenced by what you put INTO that exact tract & colon.

33

Look into something called Low Dose Naltrexone. There’s a site out there about it. An unconventional treatment using a very old drug and uncommon dosage level (low, not high).

Check it out then ask your doctors about it.

Did they give you the name of the rare bacteria?

In the mean time, stay away from Magnesium (any supplemental form) and high doses of Vitamin C.

34

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Look into something called Low Dose Naltrexone. There’s a site out there about it. An unconventional treatment using a very old drug and uncommon dosage level (low, not high).

Check it out then ask your doctors about it.

Did they give you the name of the rare bacteria?

In the mean time, stay away from Magnesium (any supplemental form) and high doses of Vitamin C.[/quote]

I have the name of the bacteria somewhere, I will ask my doc on Monday, I have another gastroscopy scheduled then to check how my stomach is looking.

Will look into the alternative therapy.