Fasting? Cleanses?

Just trying to gather some info on fasting and internal cleanses.  Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with either one of these?  Stories or success and failure both welcome.  Thanks!

I did a lot of reading online about juice fasting about five weeks ago when I was in the peak of this flare I am currently getting over (hopefully) and was feeling very desperate. I found some articles that sounded like total cons, "Cure colitis naturally! Click here to pay $19.95 for my pamphlet to find out how." Some that sounded more authoritative but still required you to buy a book. I found this article to be interesting and more instructive (http://www.doctoryourself.com/colitis.html) but the length of the fast it recommends is a little scary. There's even a couple of videos on Youtube by a guy who seems very sincere that vegetable juicing has helped him. So I did go out and buy a juicer and tried adding 8 oz. of juice to my diet twice a day. I don't eat nearly enough vegetables anyway so I thought it was worth a try to at least drink something healthy. Did it help? Some. I noticed less bleeding, urgency, and frequency (6-8 times/day down from 8-10). BM's were also very loose, which I guess is part of the "cleansing" process, but colazol was doing the same thing to me. But mostly I just felt generally better, energy wise. I told my GI about it. He nodded, got out his Rx pad and wrote me a prescription for prednisone and lialda. Things were much better much quicker after that. I still might try the real fast someday but I want to give the meds a chance first.

Personally, when I start to flare, I will go on a liquid diet for a few days and give my bowels a rest. I swear I have avoided steroids a few times doing that. But I have crohns, not UC.

I don't cope well with missing meals (I get tired, shaky, heachachy), but I've heard that after a day or two it becomes much easier. Do I have the will power to make it that far? I don't know... but the more I read about water fasts, the more convinced I'm becoming.

how about just changing the way you eat? We don't give our body enough credit to eliminate and clean out properly. UC does that quite effectively.

Take probiotics, adjust your eating habits, add fibre, drink enough water, eat a variety of foods helping your digestive tract to get enough exercise rather than being lazy, don't consume artificial sweeteners, don't drink alcohol except in small amounts or take in lots of crap foods.

My take on it.

quincy

Trust me when I say that nobody tries to eat healthier or take better of herself than me. I've been living like a purist for months and I'm not seeing results. I don't drink alcohol, caffeine, refined sugars, meats, dairy... the list go ON and ON. And I exercise regularly and take care of my toddler all day, so "lazy" does not describe me. I'm asking about fasting because I'm at the end of my rope and am looking for other options.

kiss520 said...
Trust me when I say that nobody tries to eat healthier or take better of herself than me. I've been living like a purist for months and I'm not seeing results.

  Ok, but then isn't it pretty clear to you that food is not causing the problem? What about systemic meds? If you're dying to fast then go ahead & do it for a wknd, see how it goes. Have you talked with your GI about trying other meds, or SCD, or things like that?

Diet is very personal. For some people it makes a huge difference, for me - not so much. There are several members that have had good luck with anti-yeast diets, etc.

Let's define a few things - a colon cleanse is different from a colonic. A colonic requires the insertion of fluid into the colon through the rectum. This is a completely unneccesary procedure. Want your colon completely cleared out? Prep for a colonoscopy! A colon cleanse uses supplements, fasting, liquids, etc to purge possible toxins from the colon.

There are a very few members on the site that have had luck with cleanses - these are usual members that also have a food allergy of sorts.

Have you looked for another GI? This is one person you should have a good relationship with!

Good luck with whatever you decide to try! Keep us posted :)

Hi,

I tried SCD-like diet (didn't make my own yogurt), but things got better when I tried the Maker's diet. This suggests switching to goat's milk dairy. This improved my symptoms. I went one month without mucus and blood. I messed things up by missing a few doses of Asacol.

I'm in this endless cycle of mucous, blood, urgency now and again. I'm trying the spinach in smoothies and sunflower seeds thing (still no wheat/grains/sugar, except I eat corn tortillas). Things do seem to be better (I'm recovering faster from my episodes and urgency is rare), but recovery has been very slow and subtle, so hang in there (I'm recovering from 2 hospitalizations last year, lots of steroids and remicade; I'm only on Asacol/Canasa now).

In terms of fasting, there's a doctor named Joel Fuhrman, who has a plan for Chron's and UC that includes diet modification, supplementing your diet, building up your stores of nutrients, then fasting on a monthly basis. I haven't consulted with him, but think it might be worth a shot. He recommends doing this in consultation with a doctor.

I eat 3 meals and have two snacks a day, so I'm not advocating for an eating disorder here, but when I need a sugar fix, I found that chewing and spitting out a cookie does the trick. I get no side effects from this, even though I know some sugar is getting into my blood stream. I also put berries and bananas in my spinach smoothie and this is plenty sweet (also add avacado and plain sheep's yogurt).

good luck

Post Edited (me,too) : 7/30/2008 12:32:11 AM (GMT-6)

RE the sugar - try replacing sugar with honey, sugar is a disaccaride which some people dont digest honey is sucrose (I think) a much simpler molecule which the body does not need to digest to absorb it.

Re fasting I have done it only for 3 days and it helped me a lot. I was getting worse quickly going into a flare and a fast followed by eggs, cheese and meat (no carbs or fibre) for a week-10 days helped a lot all together I would say though don't do more than 3 days food with no fibre as my stools were hard and caused problems passing them. Next time I will try fasting until I dont feel good (I dont think you can do more than 3 days if you are active and at work - in a centre I can see how you could just sleep through it...) probably about 1-2 days then go on a juice fast for as long as you can tolerate maybe another 2 days or longer? then introduce foods that are easily digested and have little/no fibre (but not too long see abvove) and then just try to eat easily digested foods - look up the pecanbread website for the SCD diet 'stages'. Note this is only what I would do and of course does not provide a totally balanced diet for the (short) time you do it but I think I've got much bigger things to worry about - like going into a flare! I woudl also consider taking laxatives to evacuate the system as much as possible before starting that way you're not fasting while food is passing through you.

Quincy - Your med suggestions sound right to me. I hate doing all these rectal meds and don't think they're necessary. I used to take colazal and would like to replace at least one of the enemas with that. I'm convinced that my inflammation has gone higher than my original dx indicated, so I don't think the rectal meds are even reaching it.

I've read that meat is one of the hardest things to digest. Is it smart to add it? Its so hard to determine what's easy on the digestion - this morning I saw pieces of undigested carrot in the toilet. I just ate carrots yesterday that were cooked until soft. Who would have thought those wouldn't break down?? I can't win!

Katie....just eat! small meals more often during the day. Start the Colazal and just use the Rowasa at night after a quick taper of the morning Rowasa.

meat takes longer to digest...so....not a big deal...that's good. You need fuel.

Carrots will look that way because you don't fully digest the type of fibre anyway.. The fact that you don't have much formed stool just allows you to see the carrots.

Have an egg in the morning for sure....unless you're allergic to them. Good protein, good vitamins and minerals.

Don't have lots of milk. Most of us are lactose intolerant and it'll just cause you more discomfort.

Eat foods that'll give you the best bang for the buck so to say. Protein is important for healing. Meats are the best source for that. Have vegetables as well cooked (steamed) as possible to give you the least amount of discomfort.

You can consider to take a digestive enzyme for meats. Bromelain is a good one.

I still think you should stop the fish oil for a while.....

Oh, have a treat a day....so that you're not feeling deprived. Don't do artificial sweeteners for sure.



when will you be talking to your doctor next to enquire about he Colazal?

quincy

Hi...definitely do the research, as much as you can to make sure you're not in the category of contraindications.

It doesn't have a negative effect on me, but that doesn't mean it won't for anyone else. There are other protein enzymes...again, do the research to find one or a combo that might work better.

They might cause some discomfort or even some diarrhea if too many are taken.

I eat a boiled egg and toast every morning (and coffee)...keeps me going for a long time.

Hope you have a good weekend.
quincy