Semi-Remission by: Juicing Veg, Sunflower Seed & Spinach Diet, Vit E Enema, Fibre, VSL #3

Hi everyone.

Following up on my previous post, I had been flaring non-stop for over 3 years, and have tried many different treatments and medicines.

My diet is vegetarian, and soon after getting diagnosed I stopped alcohol, caffeine, most gluten products, processed foods, foods with high sugar content, and any dairy that is not fermented or aged. I have also visited some of the best doctors in the USA, England, and India but they all offer very similar treatments.

I have been on 175 mg Azathioprine (for 15 months) and 4800mg Asacol (for 36 months) and at various times have tried prednisone, predfoam, pentasa/canasa suppositories, but have not seen much of an effect until recently when I made some changes - many based on what I had read on the forum. However, rectal treatments (such as suppositories) do work, and are an important complement to oral drugs.

3 months ago began doing Vitamin E enemas (Sheldon's therapy). After a week or so this helped get more formed BMs - and then adding psyllium powder to my diet made it even better. I had tried psyllium husk in the past but that may have been too rough for my colon, and crushed psyllium powder may be smoother and easier to digest. Also, once I started taking psyllium powder the migraines stopped as I think that helped get all the waste and toxic build-up out of the system; otherwise I would get a severe migraine ever 2 weeks. I am now taking metamucil wafers instead of psyllium powder, and have much less gas now and don't feel as bloated.

I started juicing spinach and carrots, and also began following the spinach and sunflower seed diet (Cfromutah's diet) 6 weeks ago and am not seeing blood in my BMs anymore, less urgency.

Adding in VSL 3 has helped reduce the number of BMs to 3-5 a day and for the past couple of weeks I am actually able to sleep the whole night without having to get up to go to toilet. I had tried VSL3 as well as other probiotics in the past but did not see much of an impact then.

Right now, my daily routine is:

MORNING

AM Juice 1 large bag of spinach and a handful of carrots. Pour through sieve several times before drinking so that no residue or pulp gets through and I'm only drinking juice. Stir in 1 pouch of VSL3. It tastes better than it sounds and is an excellent energy boost. I am not juicing any fruit.

LUNCH

2 Metamucil wafers before meal, with VSL3
Light meal PLUS 1/2 can sauteed, canned spinach; and sunbutter (2 tbsp) or 1/3 bag roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
1 Metamucil wafer after meal

EVENING

2 Metamucil wafers before meal, with VSL3
Light meal PLUS 1/2 can sauteed spinach; and sunbutter (2 tbsp) or 1/3 bag roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
1 Metamucil wafer after meal

NIGHT

100mg Azathioprine, 2400 mg Asacol
Once or twice a week: Vitamin E enema, or Canasa suppository

I drink about 6-8 x 0.5 litre bottles of spring water during the day.
Also, I have been meditating and doing yoga every evening and I strongly feel that has helped too. There are some specific yoga exercises that are supposed to unblock and balance out energy; and according to Eastern medicine a lot of illness is a result of blocked energies and/or energy imbalance in the body.

Hope the feedback above helps (and I need to update my signature)

Do you think you will eventually try to wean yourself off your meds?

love4cats,

I think it's too early for me to do that, although I have reduced the dosage of azathioprine from 175mg to 100mg and asacol from 4800mg to 2400mg. I figured that if azathioprine was going to work for me, it would have done so within 1 year at most, especially as it's supposed to kick in within 3-6 months.

I'll wait to meet with my doctor to decide what to do, but for now I would rather stay on the meds - I'm not in complete remission yet, so I don't want to do anything too drastic.

Hi Happy Living :)
We get it through the Wal-Mart pharmacy...it comes in a refrigerated box and must be refrigerated upon arrival. Please be aware that this is industrial strength Probiotics.  After my daughter's jpouch surgery, she started with 1/4 of the packet for a few days until she felt her body could handle a bit more and stepped it up a little at a time.  You may experience some additional gas/abdominal discomfort until your body adjusts.  It comes in a powdered form and can be mixed into yogurt, pudding, smoothies...anything cold.  It's not great mixed with just water....Any questions, please feel free to click on my name and email me.

Your post is interesting as you are using both natural and alternative methods and some potent meds experimenting to see what works. I agree with what you say about meditation and yoga, ones energy and how it is used or misused is very much related to how and if dis-ease is manifested. Unfortunately most Yoga "teachers" have very shallow knowledge.

Regarding the VSL #3 which I use with sulfasalazine to maintain remission my experience with it is that it is far more useful when going towards or while in remission. It may work while deeply in a flare but it requires really massive doses. Without a prescription VSL #3 is cheapest if bought through there web site.

rdm,

Yes, I think a combination of traditional and alternative treatments is the way to go for me. It just takes some patience and persistence to keep trying different therapies till something works.

I bought VSL3 from a local pharmacy at the same rate as the online price, but have also noticed that some of the other pharmacies here are marking up VSL3 by about 10-15% from the online price.