To try SCD or not to try??? Help!!!

Ever since Conquer UC posted about trying paleo/SCD, I have been thinking really hard about this.

I became vegetarian when I was 17 (vegan at 18) due to being diagnosed with proctitis. I had read that cutting out meat could help. That kept me in remission for 4 years with no meds. It was when I became an 80/10/10 raw fruitarian that my symptoms came back. Since Sept 2010, I have been flaring on and off and have never gotten control of it completely. I mainly blame it on the fruit diet as well as taking Lialda- my only symptom I ever had was bleeding and starting Lialda, I got urgency, diarrhea a million times a day, and the pain.

I have made a surgery consult for Aug 7 to discuss my options. My doc wants to start me on imuran which is okay. I was on 6mp and that seemed to help some but definitely didn't give me remission. I am just contemplating in my head whether or not to try SCD before I have surgery (if I have it). Would you give it a try if it were between the two?? Out of all the weird therapies and diets, the only things I haven't tried are worm therapy and paleo/SCD.

Now, if I was going to do this diet full on, I'm pretty sure I'd have to go back to eating animal products. This is VERY hard for me as over the years my morals have greatly changed and murder is something I never want to support. I know I became veg. for the health aspect, but now I stay this way for the animals since obviously I am not doing well health wise. I am just very torn and confused. I know most of you on here aren't vegetarians, and that's fine, I just needed to kind of talk this out with myself and others. My health is on the line and if there is ANY possibility this diet could put me into remission, then I think I should give it a shot. Surely, I'd have to slowly add these foods back into my diet and most likely take digestive enzymes since my body hasn't had this stuff in quite a while.

I'd really appreciate anyone's thoughts on this. Thanks.

 

I was a vegetarian myself before I started this diet. I love animals too and I hate the cruelty of men towards them. But you know when I read about the diet and how effective it was, I was thinking: The animals or my health? So after some time I came to the conclusion to give up being vegetarian in favor of my health. I'm still disgusted eating meat so my diet is mostly vegetarian and I love nuts. I still have meat just not often. And I'm trying not to think about it when I eat it. Also, you can make sure to eat all organic if that makes you feel better.

I say give SCD/Paleo a try. Paleo didn't help me but that doesn't mean it might not help you. Although I was wondering how long you have been vegetarian? My stomach had trouble with that much meat (I tried the SCD intro diet about a month ago and it gave me horrible stomach cramps, not UC cramps but stomach cramps). And I regularly eat meat. If you try to reintroduce meat, I think you should be prepared for some stomach and system unhappiness :(.

thank you so much for your responses, guys.

SSOOOO, i ordered the SCD book so i'll be getting it tomorrow. i didn't know you could do it as vegetarian. i really don't know enough about it to be honest. i figure reading the book won't hurt and if i feel like trying it, then i'm gonna do it wholeheartedly.

andrina, i'm so glad you understand mentally how i feel. i do plan on buying organic and "humanely" raised products as much as i can. i care so much about my health and i don't want it to get worse. how long have you been doing SCD? has it improved your symptoms? also, did you notice any negative things happened when you reintroduced meat into your diet?

byebyeuc, you are DEFINITELY right. surgery terrifies me right now. i am hoping that if i start imuran and the SCD, that the imuran would get the inflammation under control and i could eventually get off of it if the SCD is working. i don't have any ulcers right now in my colon, just inflammation, and my doc says it is definitely healable. i just hear so much about this diet that i think i'd regret not trying it and going ahead with the surgery instead.

activeucer, i became a vegetarian at 17 and i'll be 23 next month. adding meat is definitely a concern since i was wondering if your body can somehow stop knowing how to digest it if you haven't had it in a while. i don't know enough about food science in the body. are there certain meats that are easier to digest than others? before i became a veg, i usually just ate whatever my mom cooked! i really can't remember if certain ones caused more distress than others. did you notice any improvements when you tried SCD? i see you are scheduled for surgery.

stereo, awesome reply! what diets have you found that help better than SCD? i'm really willing to try anything to not have my colon taken out. i do think the high fruit diet is just a mess for colitis patients. i had heard about david klein's whole fruit thing and was so swept up in it that i was just getting sicker and sicker by the second. i didn't know SCD had dairy in it. i haven't had dairy on a regular basis since i was about 17 (last time i had it was christmas 2011). i have been lactose intolerant all my life so dairy was never a huge part of my diet. i had drank a lot of soy milk and almond milk. also, could you give me an example of what a typical day's meals look like for you?

I have been successful with SCD/paleo but I just don't know if you can do it successfully as a vegetarian (and I was a happy vegetarian for years before getting UC). I relied a lot on chicken broth in the beginning when everything upset my gut except that.

Pure SCD was not perfect for my recovery, there were too many foods on the "legal" list that my gut disliked and I tried to be 100% compliant. So I had to restrict my diet further than SCD which was pretty hard to do.

Now that I am in remission I can eat many more things that were problematic a year ago. But it took so much time and detective work to figure out what was and was not acceptable to my gut. I don't know whether you will see enough improvement in the time you have allowed before surgery.

But what the heck. Give it a try. It's a healthy diet and won't hurt you.

Best of luck either way.

BananaGirl,

I'm giving it a try as a vegan. I'm doing my own version but trying to stay as close to the diet and substitute as best I can.

I do did not start having problems until becoming raw vegan! I can't help but think it's the fruit as well. I'm going to try cutting out a lot of the fruit and stick to mostly veggies. I'm not in a horrible flare and it's actually getting better so I'm hoping these changes will help.

hey nana girl =

i'm a former ethical vegan - i chose my life over an animals life - was never a choice i thought i would ever make - i was very content being a vegan - just felt good -

and i may go there again - but i realize for my body, meat is a good thing - i only buy meat from local raised organic cows - i eat wild caught fish only -

i think you just have to make a choice and go with it - it will either work or not - if it doesn't, do something else - i hope to never see the knife = i like my innards just the way they are thank you -

Bananagirl,

I'm not a vegetarian, but I've had similar feelings about the animals. There is a way to help that. You can find a farm that raises their animals in a humane way. They cost more, but it's really worth it.

I was lucky to find a couple of small farms in my area that use biodynamic ways to raise the animals. They lead nice animal lives out in the sun, on the pasture, the farmer talks to them. They do not suffer like a factory farm raised animal. Subsequently, a more nutritious product is the result. I go out to the farm on a regular basis to see the animals. The pigs live piggy lives, the chickens do chicken-y things like peck at the bugs, the cows get to graze on pasture and never stand ankle deep (or anything deep) in poop. I talk to them and sometimes bring them something. Just last week, Gabrielle, one of the pregnant cows came over and stood by me. The calf in her belly used that moment to stretch and I saw it move. It was so cool. Gabrielle is the dairy cow, so we the customers won't get her milk for a while(her calf will). We also didn't get milk from her while she was pregnant. Gabrielle has never been sick or fed antibiotics. She eats grass and forage (what a cow is meant to eat), she grazes outside in the sun with all the other cows. She is a peaceful cow. There is a way to raise animals in a humane and respectful way. They are humanely killed too. I feel like I have greater respect for animals now, and I don't feel guilty about consuming them for my own health. I use everything I can, bones, livers etc. trying my best to respect that animal that died for my wellbeing. I think this is a viable alternative and I hope you can consider this.

Also, you may have already started on SCD, but if you haven't, I think that GAPS, which is based on SCD, is thought to be more helpful for folks with UC. That's not to say that some are helped with SCD. (My own thought is that it is the bone broth that really is the magic that gives your body the ingredients to heal the intestinal lining = better control over the symptoms.

Anyways, whatever you do I hope it helps you. I certainly think you are worth making the effort for. I hope you can give a solid month or two as a trial.
Good luck.

ActiveUcer: what do you mean you were hospitalised w first flare while on paleo? Like the paleo triggered ur uc?
Were you just eating a meat and veg on paleo? No fruits or nuts?

I was eating meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts (lots of almond butter). I also don't think it negatively impacted my uc at all as I've consistently been getting worse over time, regardless of diet.

ActiveUCer said...
I was eating meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts (lots of almond butter). I also don't think it negatively impacted my uc at all as I've consistently been getting worse over time, regardless of diet.

Were you not taking any meds during that time to help heal?

BabeintheWoods said...
Welcome back!

Thanks. I'm 4 weeks into an 8 week cross country trip with internet only now and then. UC symptoms barely noticeable, more like food-related IBS and that only rarely. I even get up pre-dawn, drink a cup of coffee and photograph sunrise in whatever national park we're in currently. Not possible a year ago.

Maintaining my diet has been amazingly easy, there are always protein meal choices available that eliminate bread/wheat.