Starting psyllium seed powder.

Tonight I received my first bag of the powder, and I've given it a go. I will chronicle my experience with it here, as I was inspired by LookingForTheCure's testamonials. Does anyone know how long it should take before this powder starts to have an effect?

So far after one day I've noticed no changes, still seeing blood just as before and having urgency. Been trying salmon, spinach, yogurt and probiotics, still no major improvements. Tapering off pred, at 20mg now, I think even if I'm still bleeding I'd rather not be on pred anymore...

I don't want to get my hopes too high but I jettisoned Heather's Tummy Fiber because I was still having diarrhea. The first day I did psyllium husk powder (from Whole Foods) two days ago, my stool bulked up and everything came out fairly well formed in one sitting in the evening. That was good and I had had one teaspoonful. The next day, same thing happened under two teaspoonfuls except I experienced what I guess was a lot of gas or stretching hurting my colon.


I would say at two teaspoonfuls, I didn't have the urgency issues that I had on one teaspoonful. DRINK LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER. I'm going to try two teaspoonfuls tomorrow. I'm also tapering from 20mg to 10 mg Prednisone tomorrow, and that's my scary drop.



I'm a newbie, diagnosed Sept. 15

I'm thinking of adding a teaspoon at night because I had an urgent D in the middle of the night.

That would make two teaspoons in a.m. and 1 at night, the bottle says dose is one tablespoon daily....

Also I've read to wait two hours after you've taken other meds because it can affect absorption of other meds.... or take four hours before eating...

I'm having trouble keeping this all straight!

Lookingforacure,

Should I switch to psyllium Seed powder? Will it still bulk up the stool like the husk powder, but "also blast butyrate levels upwards 40%."

I don't even know what butyrate levels are?

Ellen

neekap - as to your "side note" question, I often have an experience where one BM has little to no blood, followed by another with much more (and vice-versa). I don't think that's the drugs kicking in, though. Rather, I expect it is just like a cut on the outside: as it tries to heal, it bleeds sometimes then stops at others. It is an interesting question, though. I often wonder what the hell is going on in there!

On the psyllium seed powder issue - what if I don't have much of a problem with forming stool (my colitis is quite low), but more with bleeding and urgency? Would PHP still be helpful? I have been reading up on butyrate for some time now and like the sound of it, but am a little concerned at creating a "rougher" situation for my colon that will only encourage bleeding. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I believe that the husk might be rougher on the colon, but the seed powder is ground very fine and has more of a healing effect. As for the husk, I would recommend trying it, start with a small a mount and see how you do. Like everything else with this disease, your mileage may vary.

More updates...last night I passed one BM with a bit of blood, but overall much less than I've been experiencing over previous weeks. Today, I went twice in the morning, a couple hours apart, no blood, nearly perfect stool. Then I went all day with no urge to go at all, but when I did finally go around 5:30pm it was mostly formed with a little blood. Been taking one slightly heaping teaspoon morning and night, along with husk powder as well. Mixed with soy milk the seed powder actually tastes kind of good.

Overall, I would say there is definite and fairly sudden improvement with this seed powder (I went from bleeding like a stuck pig at night to just some streaks of blood in about 2 days). I wonder if this keeps up I can reach remission....I'm worried it will suddenly stop working like most other treatments.

Also, I think taking probiotics with this is key as well, and I may start to up my dose of those as well and see what happens.

where are you getting psyllium seed powder. I can only find psyllium husk powder

http://www.amazon.com/Psyllium-Seed-Powder-lb-Frontier/dp/B000UY86NO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1258420449&sr=8-1

Came in 3 days

My daughter started psyllium seed powder about a month ago with great results. As you can see from the signature block, we are continuing to try many different ideas, but whether it is a coincidence or the pysillium seed powder, her symptoms have never been as under control as they are now. We are still tapering down on pred, but she is at a very low dosage now. I honestly believe psyllium seed powder is a potent therapy for UC, which the study on butyrate levels in the colon backs up. I have also read that psyllium seed powder is one of the natural cures for candida infections in the GI tract - this could have something to do with the results people are seeing.

We found whole psyllium seeds at an herbal store and I grind the seeds in an industrial strength blender. They are very tough to grind up, but by sifting (using a very fine strainer) and then re-grinding the remaining large parts, we have been able to get good powdered psyllium seeds. This way, we know the powder is from seeds, not husk.

We stir the teaspoon of psyllium powder into apple sauce, with VSL#3 and cinnamon. My daughter thinks this is the best way to eat both VSL#3 and psyllium seed powder. The cinnamon really helps.

We also encourage her to eat one or two packets of metamucil wafers each day, which contain psyllium husk. I obviously hope everyone has good results with this and I hope more studies are done on the effect of the psyllium seed powder.

LookingFortheCure - thank you so much for posting you information here! You have helped us and we appreciate it very much.

Update?

After I read this thread, I ordered a lb. of the seed powder online, as they only had the husk powder at Whole Foods. I am very anxious to try it out!