Ulcerative Colitis (Colitis Ulcerosa)

Diet and Nutrition
1

I know this is not a nice subject to talk about but I hope some of you will contribute nonetheless.

About a month ago I’ve learned that I have UC. It’s not much of a discomfort for me (yet). All I experience is blood in my stool and sometimes stomach cramps.

I was wondering if any fellow T-men are suffering from this condition and if any of you have found ways for it to get better (lifestyle, diet, supplements, medication?). My doc prescribed me some meds but I’m not a huge fan of Western medicine. It seems that all they’re interested in is treating the symptoms and not getting to the source of the problem.

Any advice is very welcome!

2

My girlfriend was diagnosed with a very serious case of UC about a year ago. I imagine prednisone would be the drug of choice for you to calm down any flare ups. She had such a severe case that diet, medicine, holistic healing, or anything else did not help at all. She ended up getting a colostomy surgery (last resort) and is feeling much better but awaiting for her next surgery soon. Controlling stress seemed to help the most. If there is anything I can help you with, please let me know.

3

Oh man sorry to hear about that.

I don’t have much inconvenience from it yet… just blood loss and sometimes stomach cramps so I think I have the time to mess around with alternative therapies. Trying everything within my diet to make it better as well but so far not much success.

Prednisone is serious stuff and I’d rather not mess around with drugs like that until I’m left with no choice.

4

Good choice about staying away from the Prednisone. Not trying to scare you, but rather inform you of my girlfriend’s experience with it. Like I mentioned, it did not help a great deal because her disease was already too far along. The doctors continued to put her on a higher and higher dosage and she was on it for over two months straight. The worse part about the drug were the side effects.

She had excessive hunger which lead to weight gain, she retained water in many areas including her face, but the worst side effect was the mental breakdowns. It made her extremely irritable, gave her anxiety, and made it very difficult to get a good night sleep. This side effects were probably exacerbated because she was taking upwards of 40mg a day.

5

I have been diagnosed with UC last year. Probably similar to you, my symptoms are not that bad, a lot of blood lost and no cramps.

My doctor prescribed me Salofalk in pills 1gr in the morning and 1 gr in the evening, I took them for 6 months and all the symptoms disapeared. Right now, I am ok.

From a nutrition point of view, it seems that we should reduce fibers, but like my doctor told me, since I am eating very clean (meat, veggies and fruits), to not cut or change on my diet. This diet was obviously not ideal for UC but we have the choice between having a little blood lost (or nothing like me now) or having a poor nutrition that may cause, in long term, other diseases such as colon cancer… I chose to keep on my clean diet.

Hope this help, good luck !

6

Get yourself checked for food allergies/sensitivities. Stay away from wheat for sure.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/76578.php

7

[quote]ourouk wrote:
I have been diagnosed with UC last year. Probably similar to you, my symptoms are not that bad, a lot of blood lost and no cramps.

My doctor prescribed me Salofalk in pills 1gr in the morning and 1 gr in the evening, I took them for 6 months and all the symptoms disapeared. Right now, I am ok.

From a nutrition point of view, it seems that we should reduce fibers, but like my doctor told me, since I am eating very clean (meat, veggies and fruits), to not cut or change on my diet. This diet was obviously not ideal for UC but we have the choice between having a little blood lost (or nothing like me now) or having a poor nutrition that may cause, in long term, other diseases such as colon cancer… I chose to keep on my clean diet.

Hope this help, good luck ![/quote]

Heh you’re lucky… I got the Salofalk prescribed as well but in enema form :frowning: I haven’t been able to get myself to use them yet.

8

[quote]pickitupsnake wrote:
Get yourself checked for food allergies/sensitivities. Stay away from wheat for sure.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/76578.php[/quote]

Thanks for that link! Very good info. There’s no wheat in my diet at all since I’m almost perpetually low-carb. I’m gonna ask my doc about food allergy testing.

9

[quote]pradaboy wrote:
Oh man sorry to hear about that.

I don’t have much inconvenience from it yet… just blood loss and sometimes stomach cramps so I think I have the time to mess around with alternative therapies. Trying everything within my diet to make it better as well but so far not much success.

Prednisone is serious stuff and I’d rather not mess around with drugs like that until I’m left with no choice.[/quote]

It took forever, but I was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Except for a couple bad flare-ups years ago, I’m lucky in that I seem to have a pretty mild case.

I agree with your desire to avoid corticosteroids unless absolutely necessary, but judging from a friend who has a bad case of Ulcerative Colitis, it can definitely become necessary. But even then, you take it for as brief a period as possible, and try to get off after remission begins.

I was doing sulfasalazine (Azulfadine) for a long time (before I knew for sure it was Crohn’s), and now do something called mesalamine (Pentasa), which works on the small and large intestine. In your case, sulfasalazine would probably be the preferred treatment. It’s really not the kind of major drug like a prednisone, you just can’t take it if you have a sulfa allergy.

The side-effects, for me, were essentially zero, and I’ve been able to maintain remission for years now, but whatever you do, make sure you get an enteric-coated version of the drug. Otherwise, you’ll be able to taste it and smell it and it gets on your fingers and really is pretty terrible. Enteric coating gets rid of all that.

I have found that both drugs have had no negative effects with regard to training, muscle gain, fat loss, etc. The idea that they’re “western medicine” and therefore harmful is dangerous, in my opinion. These are autoimmune disorders with a genetic and developmental etiology. To attribute a true, biopsy-confirmed diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis with some gluten allergy, micronutrient deficiency, or more absurd pseudoscientific silliness is a serious mistake.

10

I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!!

11

[quote]ChrisPowers wrote:

[quote]pradaboy wrote:
Oh man sorry to hear about that.

I don’t have much inconvenience from it yet… just blood loss and sometimes stomach cramps so I think I have the time to mess around with alternative therapies. Trying everything within my diet to make it better as well but so far not much success.

Prednisone is serious stuff and I’d rather not mess around with drugs like that until I’m left with no choice.[/quote]

It took forever, but I was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Except for a couple bad flare-ups years ago, I’m lucky in that I seem to have a pretty mild case.

I agree with your desire to avoid corticosteroids unless absolutely necessary, but judging from a friend who has a bad case of Ulcerative Colitis, it can definitely become necessary. But even then, you take it for as brief a period as possible, and try to get off after remission begins.

I was doing sulfasalazine (Azulfadine) for a long time (before I knew for sure it was Crohn’s), and now do something called mesalamine (Pentasa), which works on the small and large intestine. In your case, sulfasalazine would probably be the preferred treatment. It’s really not the kind of major drug like a prednisone, you just can’t take it if you have a sulfa allergy.

The side-effects, for me, were essentially zero, and I’ve been able to maintain remission for years now, but whatever you do, make sure you get an enteric-coated version of the drug. Otherwise, you’ll be able to taste it and smell it and it gets on your fingers and really is pretty terrible. Enteric coating gets rid of all that.

I have found that both drugs have had no negative effects with regard to training, muscle gain, fat loss, etc. The idea that they’re “western medicine” and therefore harmful is dangerous, in my opinion. These are autoimmune disorders with a genetic and developmental etiology. To attribute a true, biopsy-confirmed diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis with some gluten allergy, micronutrient deficiency, or more absurd pseudoscientific silliness is a serious mistake.[/quote]

Actually I got the Pentasa prescribed as well. I have both that and the Salofalk still sitting in my closet. I’m hoping to resolve it another way although I understand your concern for the pseudoscientific “silliness”.

EDIT: I mean what EMZ was saying sums up my issues with Western medicine. When cutting out your intestine is considered a “cure” I say we took a wrong turn somewhere.

12

[quote]Emz wrote:
I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!![/quote]

I’m going to go look for that book immediately. Thanks for the advice.

BTW are carb refeeds still possible in your lifestyle or does that too mess with the remission?

13

[quote]Emz wrote:
I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!![/quote]

Will you come back and post if your remission ends? Because, as I’m sure you’re aware, these conditions are characterized by periods of flare-up and remission. The idea of the drugs is to prolong the remissions and hopefully minimize the duration and/or severity of the flare-ups.

Simply being in remission is not necessarily proof that something worked. But if you never have a flare-up again, then yeah, it’s possible you “cured” your inflammatory bowel disease. Just be sure and let us know if that day ever comes, otherwise you haven’t really told us much of anything. Even severe cases of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis have periods of remission.

FYI, I’m on Pentasa and eat every food you described with no ill effect.

Edit: I apologize if my post came off as harsh or argumentative; that’s just my dry writing style. I don’t wish to step on anybody’s beliefs or criticize their choices, I simply want to make my position clear.

14

My girlfriend had to get the bag and its been pretty devastating. All of her large intestines had to be removed and she was near death. It is a last resort but she feels much better and can eat anything she wants. Her next surgery will be a reattachment and hopefully be able to forget about all of this.

15

I don’t agree with everything in the book mind, the author takes a somewhat classical view in dietary recommendations (high carb/low fat) - I’ve gone the other way but where the book really shines is in it’s list of allowed foods, caution foods and complete avoidance foods - that list has helped me make a more informed choice about what I eat/avoid.

I don’t avoid refeeds I train with weights 3/4 days and do hiit 2 days a week - Sweet potato and rice keep my glycogen topped up! This is why I follow NHE and not the AD, the refeeds on NHE are more moderate but more frequent, every Wed/Sun you have 1 carb meal if cutting and 2 if mass gaining <last meal of the day>, unlimited carbs in that 1/2 meal but how much can you comfortably handle at each meaal, I can’t do much, maybe 100-150 grams worth of carbs and it works really well for me! The AD loads used to kill me, they were too much so I switched to NHE, much more manageable!

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]Emz wrote:
I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!![/quote]

I’m going to go look for that book immediately. Thanks for the advice.

BTW are carb refeeds still possible in your lifestyle or does that too mess with the remission?[/quote]

16

True, the disease is always there so there’s always a danger it could regress but the biggest difference between you and I is that your using drugs to induce/maintain remission (as I once did - plenty of pred and azathioprine to suppress the immune system is all that I could tolerate - 4 years of treatment!) whereas I am now maintaining remission through diet, true it’s only been 2 years but compared to where I came from with the disease it’s all been very positive! Remission came on extremely quickly and coincided with the dietary changes I made, it was a complete 180 from being at the point of being put forward for surgery to remission and the complete cessation of medication. I’ll certainly stick around and post more though, whether positive or negative! I wish you all well with your condition!

[quote]ChrisPowers wrote:

[quote]Emz wrote:
I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!![/quote]

Will you come back and post if your remission ends? Because, as I’m sure you’re aware, these conditions are characterized by periods of flare-up and remission. The idea of the drugs is to prolong the remissions and hopefully minimize the duration and/or severity of the flare-ups.

Simply being in remission is not necessarily proof that something worked. But if you never have a flare-up again, then yeah, it’s possible you “cured” your inflammatory bowel disease. Just be sure and let us know if that day ever comes, otherwise you haven’t really told us much of anything. Even severe cases of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis have periods of remission.

FYI, I’m on Pentasa and eat every food you described with no ill effect.

Edit: I apologize if my post came off as harsh or argumentative; that’s just my dry writing style. I don’t wish to step on anybody’s beliefs or criticize their choices, I simply want to make my position clear.[/quote]

18

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]ourouk wrote:
I have been diagnosed with UC last year. Probably similar to you, my symptoms are not that bad, a lot of blood lost and no cramps.

My doctor prescribed me Salofalk in pills 1gr in the morning and 1 gr in the evening, I took them for 6 months and all the symptoms disapeared. Right now, I am ok.

From a nutrition point of view, it seems that we should reduce fibers, but like my doctor told me, since I am eating very clean (meat, veggies and fruits), to not cut or change on my diet. This diet was obviously not ideal for UC but we have the choice between having a little blood lost (or nothing like me now) or having a poor nutrition that may cause, in long term, other diseases such as colon cancer… I chose to keep on my clean diet.

Hope this help, good luck ![/quote]

Heh you’re lucky… I got the Salofalk prescribed as well but in enema form :frowning: I haven’t been able to get myself to use them yet.[/quote]

Are you for real? It’s a atube up your butt. It doesn’t mean you are ghey.

Jesus Christ, man the fuck up!

BBB[/quote]

Yeah, man up and jam that penis-shaped tube up your ass!

Just kidding, dude. I agree with BBB. Do what must be done.

19

[quote]Emz wrote:
True, the disease is always there so there’s always a danger it could regress but the biggest difference between you and I is that your using drugs to induce/maintain remission (as I once did - plenty of pred and azathioprine to suppress the immune system is all that I could tolerate - 4 years of treatment!) whereas I am now maintaining remission through diet, true it’s only been 2 years but compared to where I came from with the disease it’s all been very positive! Remission came on extremely quickly and coincided with the dietary changes I made, it was a complete 180 from being at the point of being put forward for surgery to remission and the complete cessation of medication. I’ll certainly stick around and post more though, whether positive or negative! I wish you all well with your condition!

[quote]ChrisPowers wrote:

[quote]Emz wrote:
I’ve managed to maintain remission of my crohn’s by avoiding all grains/wheat/gluten containing products i.e. most carb based foods, high irritant foods such as raw veg (fibre) seeded veg and fruit (berries especially) nuts (very coarse,tough). To plug the energy gap of dropping a crap load of carbs I’ve gone onto a high fat cyclical diet (Natural Hormonal Enhancement - one of the diets DH pimps on the AD thread in addition to the AD) -

I had never been as bad as I was when I was eating berries/nuts/raw veg like celery, clean carbs such as oatmeal, rice, pasta etc thinking I was eating healthy, and I was but then I picked up a book by James Scalla What to eat with IBD. It got me to understand that the very healthy diet I was eating was hurting the condition and exacerbating the condition, it’s sad but true that some of the healthiest foods on Earth simply aren’t suitable for people suffering with IBD. Since adopting this way of eating I’ve been free of the condition, free of meds and more importantly, I’ve been taken of the critical list whereby my consultant wanted to slice me open, take out some intestine and give me a bag - hell no!!! I only wish my consultant would have been more open minded about diet/nutrition when I was suffering, it’s certainly helped me no end and now that I’m maintining remission and because of that, my consultant wants to know more about my diet and what I do, the cheek!![/quote]

Will you come back and post if your remission ends? Because, as I’m sure you’re aware, these conditions are characterized by periods of flare-up and remission. The idea of the drugs is to prolong the remissions and hopefully minimize the duration and/or severity of the flare-ups.

Simply being in remission is not necessarily proof that something worked. But if you never have a flare-up again, then yeah, it’s possible you “cured” your inflammatory bowel disease. Just be sure and let us know if that day ever comes, otherwise you haven’t really told us much of anything. Even severe cases of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis have periods of remission.

FYI, I’m on Pentasa and eat every food you described with no ill effect.

Edit: I apologize if my post came off as harsh or argumentative; that’s just my dry writing style. I don’t wish to step on anybody’s beliefs or criticize their choices, I simply want to make my position clear.[/quote]
[/quote]

Yours is definitely an intriguing testimony. Who knows, maybe you had some kind of food intolerance or allergy that produced the symptoms of Crohn’s without actually being a classical case.

I can tell you this much, if the mesalamine or sulfasalazine didn’t work for me, and my only choice was prednisone, I’d be trying dietary interventions again for sure. I’m just glad it has not come to that. Back when I was first experiencing symptoms though (in my early 20s), no change I made in diet had any impact, including wheat and dairy avoidance.

20

check out the other thread about UC… I’ve had it for about 1.5 years now. keeping stress under control really helps. best of luck, going to keep checking these threads too. they really help me.