Flare and now back to remission

Well my body decided to flare about two and a half weeks ago even though I was using mesalamine enemas twice a week. I don't believe that I will be using them anymore. This is the second time that they failed to prevent a flare.

So why did I flare?

I have been basically following the Perfect Health Diet and decided to start some of the recommended supplementation. So about a week before flaring I started doing 1g Vitamin C once per day and 50 mg Zinc once per week. I stopped this once I began flaring. I have now started the Zinc supplementation to make sure I have no adverse affects and will add the Vitamin C supplementation in a couple weeks.

The day before I flared I had lunch away from home where I had a large hamburger on Texas toast as well as 1/2 of my daughter's hamburger and I had a slice of French silk pie. Normally I have no grains nor do I have most of the stuff making up the pie so I suspect that my body reacted very negatively to something in them.

For the next couple of days I had so much blood in the toilet that I could not see my stool through the water. I initially thought that maybe I burst an internal hemorrhoid but shortly after that I started experiencing lower left back and internal pain which is a sure sign for me of an active flare. I also experienced dryness around the edges of my lips which is something that I had not previously recognized as a symptom.

Anyway, two and a half weeks after the start of my flare I now seem to be symptom free again. In addition to being more strict with my following of the Perfect Health Diet I now have 3.5g of turmeric powder three times a week which I mix into my homemade creamy broccoli soup. I started consuming turmeric based on information I had read on this forum and the associated references (see below). Strangely I had cravings for more potatoes and bananas during my flare so I more or less doubled up on their consumption.

I see my GI in about a month so I plan to have him do a sIgA anti-gliadin antibody test to see if I am gluten sensitive. Are there any other tests that may help enlighten me as to why I had this flare?

Turmeric references:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21942294
zeenews.india.com/ayurveda/turmeric-can-soothe-gastric-inflammation-ulcers_1269.html

I find it interesting you said that when your body started craving somthing that you ate more of it. That seems a little contradictory to those that follow an anticandida diet that crave sugars and carbs. In those cases eating more of what your body craves is actually the wrong thing to do. Even though you have some clues as to what happened to you it is possible you are blaming the wrong thing (food). You said that about a week before your flare you started doing 1g Vitamin C once per day and 50 mg Zinc once per week. Vitamin C is actually known to cause diarrhea. Maybe your body didn't like the Vitamin C?

Thanks for the responses.

My body was craving food like crazy during the flare and really wanted me to consume sugary items but I denied it. The potatoes and bananas produce butyrate in the colon which is beneficial for treating UC so I had no concern about eating extra. I suspect that some of the cravings were the result of my body's inability to absorb as many nutrients as it was able to prior to the flare and my body craved additional food just to make up for the missed nutrients. I have been consuming about 2900 calories a day lately and given that I'm only 160 pounds that should be several hundred more calories than necessary.

I didn't have any diarrhea during the flare nor prior to the flare but I'm not ruling out the Vitamin C as the cause until I reintroduce it and see that there is no effect.

I eat hamburger once or twice a week so I don't think that is the issue. In fact, when I make my own hamburger patty I usually fry up some bacon to have with it and fry the burger in the bacon fat. I use romaine lettuce for the bun to eliminate any grains. Per the Perfect Health Diet, I try to get at least 60% of my calories from fats.

Besides myself, I have seen posts from a half dozen people who were led down the primrose path by doctors who tested them for gluten intolerance. They were told that tests indicated that gluten was safe to eat.

I cannot remember their names except for Imagardener2 and Kazbern. Perhaps they can add their stories here.

Lactose intolerance is another test that can be misleading. Sometimes it is the casein in milk that causes problems.

I also say be careful with the Vit C. I started taking 2,000 mg a day last week because of an allergic reaction to a medication. I've been having a lot of cramping and diarrhea ever since. I'm cutting it out for now and just dealing with the hives.

i wouldn't worry about the gluten test. if it bothers you, it bothers you. my celiac tests have always come up negative yet grains/gluten tear me up like crazy.

bananagirl said...
i wouldn't worry about the gluten test. if it bothers you, it bothers you. my celiac tests have always come up negative yet grains/gluten tear me up like crazy.

I'm still searching for the root cause of my UC. If I can get a positive test result for something then I at least have a path I can continue to search.