Natural Remission after 4 months

i would not talk so little about depression - it's not an easy disease to handle. i know, because i've been there.

when your body reaches high inflammation points and the serotonin level drops low because of the inflammation, you will not handle this disease without medication. doing it so means that you'll assume some risks...

but if you get your disease under control and lower the inflammation (see SED levels ...) things will get better probably.

for me it took 2 years to manage this problem and i consider myself a lucky man because it was faster than others needed...

I cant believe some of the posts I have read here. Someone is trying to get a dialogue about natural approaches to the illness, why dose this approach get derailed every time I see it brought up.

I dealt with my colitis with no treatment for 10 years, and for 12 years holistically, then all hell broke loose and I landed in the hospital, but I did manage to stay clear of meds for many years and Im very glad I was able to do that. I had a holistic MD who is a very good friend that helped me along the way. But for me, I had to go on asacol and 3 months on Pred to survive the flair. My holistic MD also said the Pred saved my life.

Their are seasons for everything under the sun, even colitis. If you can keep it under control without meds, I think thats a great way to go, if you cant, then meds are the next step.

As far as diet, it is a major factor for me hands down, no doubt about it. Also stress triggers it just as much. I have many years of journals showing it to be pure fact, but thats just me. How someone else's body works I dont know. But for someone to think their experience with colitis and their manner to deal with it is all n all, is ridicules...We all have to find our own path with this, and then be humble enough to realize we just found a path that works for us, and not the entire planet, this stuff can change on a dime.

Im glad to see posts out here about diet, stress and holistic approaches, Im just sorry these threads have to be blasted with negative input because others have decided to take the Big Pharma route...Right now Big Pharma is working for me, one day at a time. I think we should all have some respect for everyones approaches here. Who knows we might learn something if we come down of our soap boxes long enough to see their are answers outside our own heads. Thank you for the info on this subject, for real.

Peace.

Post Edited (Godslyric) : 1/4/2012 3:33:59 PM (GMT-7)

Godslyric I don't think this post has been hijacked. People are expressing different opinions as they are perfectly entitled to do. If natural methods work for some that's great. It doesn't work for everyone. The need for medication for a variety of conditions is a reality not a failure.

mum of 3 i;m gald those things are working for you. sounds like you had reactive depression which is a good thing

Wow, lots going on here since I last logged in! An update for me is that I'm feeling pretty good, the past week has been the best and I had the energy to go to the gym yesterday for the first time in months. A bit disheartening as I used to be able to fairly easily do 4 sets of 10 pullups, and now it's a bit of struggle to get 3 sets of 3... but I'm not complaining, and it gives me a goal to get back to that!

Being physical literally is part of my work so I'm so happy to see my health returning, in the past few weeks I've seen a 15 lb weight increase, up from my 30 lb loss. I've had only a small set-back which was being a little bloated and having D for a couple days and having to get up during the night. I'm now sleeping full nights and having 1 bm a day.

The biggest issue I'm dealing with now is insurance and bills! A couple doctors visits, a colonoscopy, blood work, stool tests, and and allergy test = $10,000+. Then the kicker was the doctor sent the tests to an 'out of network' company and also did my colonoscopy at an out of network facility which the insurance won't cover. Now I'm having to appeal the claims. This is really my first time dealing with the health-care industry... what a headache.

I'm not opposed to drugs, but I'd like to leave them as something to try further down the list. I'm glad I'm feeling well at the moment, but who knows what the future holds and I'm not going to rule out drugs if I get sick again. All I know is I was going to the bathroom constantly for months, would have an accident in my pants every other day, was anemic, lost over 30 lbs... I tried the intro SCD which lessened the symptoms but I was still ill. Within 4 days of just water and juice my body started to reset and recover, bleeding stopped, mucus stopped, trips to the bathroom lessened, my mind and energy started returning. I'm so grateful I could achieve this without the use of drugs, and I hope to continue on this path.

An example of my diet today was:
WATER
Morning: Frozen banana smoothie, home-made organic almond milk with cinnamon, honey and VSL-DS
Lunch: Puree pumpkin soup (onion and spices), SCD bread recipe with cheddar cheese and butter, steamed/stir-fried veggies with coconut oil
Evening: Spagetti squash, home-made tomato sauce with added spices, honey and diced tomato, bison meatballs, sprinkled with nutritional yeast
Bedtime: Eater's Digest Herbal Tea

Post Edited (LarBar) : 1/18/2012 6:15:03 AM (GMT-7)

I started feel better before I got the VSL. There was a mix up with the mail-order company Medco (who kind of suck). It took almost a month to get my VSL from the date I put in the prescription (for DS). They ended up sending a box to my house, but I was out of the state. So I had to place a new order, their website says some BS like "sometimes you can't wait for your medication, with Medco you don't have to!", well I had to. Even the second order took a week to get, the first took about 3 weeks.

Lady-V thats excellent you've achieved remission without drugs, Was your diagnosis severe? I think what happened is that before being diagnosed I was doing okay, going 3 times a day, with at least formed stools but started to see blood, but after I went to a chiropractor/acupuncturist she changed my diet, and started assuming I needed more bulk, so she added benefiber which made problems worse too soon. By the time of diagnosis, I was in so much pain throughout the night and some of the day, had never heard of even researched SCD. And I could have been a little more pro-active in the beginning, but because it happened so fast, all my doctor said was diet won't help, nothing except these drugs.

Getting off drugs the best I can, tired of this. :/ Sticking to SCD is hard but if it means less effects with my body due to drugs (amidst dealing with an over-active immune system), I'll take SCD anyday.

I"m all for modifying my lifestyle before trying the drugs.  When I was first diagnosed, I took what was perscribed, which made everything worse, so I stopped taking the perscription drugs because it just didn't feel right to me.  I have to say Thank Goodness for the Internet!  I spent every night reading and reading some more about all the things people try, and it seemed there were plenty of succes stories out there for healing without the drugs.  I juice dieted, did the SCD, tried various supplements, tried homeopathy and Chinese medicine.  Some combination of everything, very slowly, has worked for me.  My flare/symptoms were never really bad, and knocking on wood, I hope to keep it that way.  I am super careful about what I eat, how much I eat, chewing my food really well, basically trying to make the digestive process as easy as possible for my body.  I think it can be done, but wow, everyone is SOOO different, things that work for one person may not work for the next. 

Zucchini well done I used a naturpath and have never looked back am still on my diet and I love my rice milk shake of rejuven x and vital green. I am on less that half of the strength of the origional shakes as it is maintenance only now for me. I used to take three shakes a day and three bosellia tablets (naturpath pescription only and I think they are natural anti-inflammitory. Rejuven x helps to rejuvenatee new cells in the bowel as I believe our bowel cells only live for 3 days and mine where pretty ........ But thanks to the naturpath and the maitenance program/regime I am still medication free I love saying that I am going to say that again I am medication free and in remission. I thought remission was the and is the HOLY GRAIL. So to speak, and I was never going to get there but here I am a mother of three children 10, 8 and now 4 yrs old. I want to look after myself so hopefully In will see our children marry and have children.

mum of 3

Update as of March 18.

Feel better than ever. Being in a flare/sick for 4 months made me serious about being strict with my diet and health. I haven't eat out or really budged from a no sugar, no starch, no grain diet for 3 months. Have had a couple backwards days but were nothing more than a thought or a nuisance.

Spending time in the kitchen preparing food is great and I don't miss prepackaged foods. Everything from making almond milk to baking cookies and breads, it's all easy and has just become a part of my day. My small garbage bin has now become more of a compost as it's all vegetable skins, egg shells and a banana peel and apple peel here and there.

Haven't had any VSL for over a month, take a liquid green multi-vitamin and B12. I stay stress free and have engaged in activities that I've always wanted to do but haven't made time for. Started some new hobbies and got back into old ones. Did a 12 mile trail run the other day, aside from sore legs felt totally awesome. Trying to pass along the wisdom of eating right to friends I see stuffing themselves with all sorts of prepackaged foods.

I'm feeling happy and healthy, hoping the same for all of you as well!

Just an update, still going strong! Feeling even better than before I was sick. Life is good, work is amazing, so happy to be healthy and living vibrantly.

It is a bit of a challenge to live within your own world of diet, as eating and food is such a part of being social. You find tricks and ways to get through it the more you do it. Cooking up some veggies now with a little coconut oil to pack for lunch tomorrow.

Something else I've tried that works for me is Vegan Sport Performance Protein.

Wishing everyone happiness and health!

Something in me just can't give to the fact that there is just no reason that someone gets this disease. There is a reason and since we don't know then we should just use common sense and eat balanced, eat foods that decrease or eliminate inflammation throughout our WHOLE body. Stress in itself promotes inflammation and therefore we probably don't do much good for the disease. Decrease the stress levels and I'm almost positive it will do good for your WHOLE body and in turn reduce symptoms of UC.
Our bodies are amazing...in fact we have such powerful self healing mechanisms within that if we feed ourselves well and put the right things in our bodies then we can't get anything but good results!
I hate taking medication but I am not dedicated enough to try to live by my word but I do truly believe what I say is true.
The medications we take are merely band-aids, no more. Sadness! I so wish that we could find the cause and a cure for this disease as it fears me that my son will some day have it too.

I revisited what I have written here and it seems like a lifetime ago, but it was just over a year ago, things change so much. One of my supplements was taken off the market by the company that produced it I could not get stock of it from anywhere had to start a different supplement that tasted aweful!! LOL like gag!! but I adapted got used to it, not the same better in some ways but the other supplement made me look younger gave me more pep I mean energy I healed quicker. Am still in remission and am grateful every day I no longer take my health for granted and I have to work at maintain my diet and resting keeping stress to a minimum.
I realise that this site helped tremendously as I struggled to deal with UC and every one here understood which was and still is wonderful. So thank you all.