anyone read "self healing colits and crohn's" by david klein?

I stupidly purchased that book about four years ago. I've since thrown it away.

The book is self-published, written poorly and contains essentially the same info that's on his website. If you go through the website pretty carefully, you'll find all kind of descriptions of his "cure". The book contains all this material reprinted plus some additional details. But honestly, I don't remember much of it. I remember thinking that it sounded more like a late-night infomercial than a book.

The "cure" -- if I remember correctly-- is all diet-related. And diet changes have never worked for me. Maybe if you read the website info you'll find something in there you'll want to try. Certainly if it works for you, then you'll want to read more in the book. In which case, buy it used on ebay and save a few bucks.

I don't give this book or this supposed "cure" any creedance. Sure, it's possible that it worked for this guy or maybe a few people... but diet "cures" don't work for everyone. Actually, I resent anyone who markets something as a cure. It really seems irresponsible and it's insulting to those people who are suffering with an incurable disease. It would really seem better to market something as a tool to getting into remission and staying that way. At least, that's my opinion.

In case you can't tell, I'm still annoyed at myself for shelling out the bucks for this book! :)

I don't think there can be a cure for colitis. There's only periods of remission.

There's probably many causes of colitis so there can't be one catch-all cure. It's like saying aspirin is a cure for everyones headache.

thanks julee70 for the book review! that's kind of what i was expecting but you never know. i appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with it!! i shall save my money! :)
aloha

I haven't read the book, but have been through his Web site. As far as I can tell, it's mostly about a raw food diet. Interesting, because raw veggies are difficult to digest and are the kiss of death for most folks with digestive issues. Perhaps you could get around it by juicing, but, to me, his approach was just too far out there. Glad it worked for him, but it wasn't something I wanted to try.

My daughter was a vegetarian from birth and when she was diagnosed I did not want to add meat to her diet so after looking at all of our options (scd, paleo, david klein/vegan/natural hygiene) I decided to consult with David Klein. He did not leave a good impression and I was left feeling like this was a diet which made no sense and I really did not trust him. Having said that, for an adult, I don't see why you can't try it for a few weeks. I've heard of a lot of people who do well and quite a few who do really badly on this. But, it's basically "raw" juicing/food combining and I think he allows some steamed squash etc at the end of the day. Then you slowly build up to his "full" natural hygiene diet which I have to say I'd happily rather lose my colon than live off of. But, again, if you want to try it, why not?

Haha, yeah, lots of comments on the web are pretty negative about him. The book's like $25, that's expensive to me! lol. It sounds extremely restrictive...he says even salt, pepper and a lot of herbs are bad for you!

OMG. Wow...um yeah, maybe I won't follow his diet.

I agree that I don't really think David Klein knows what he is talking about. He draws some stupid conclusions from who knows where.

That being said, I tried the diet, and it actually worked for me. I tried to follow it strictly for a month, but then ignored stupid stuff like food combining and what not. Then I moved to my diet slowly that is just vegan, and whole foods mostly, and I am doing pretty well. I have a theory about strange diets working for colitis. I think it worked for me, because changing from a typical diet to a whole foods vegan diet changed the bacterial make-up of my colon. It has been proven that meat eaters and vegans have different bacteria in their colon. Now this doesn't necessarily mean vegan bacteria=good, meat bacteria=bad. I really think it all has to do with bacteria, but unfortunately this isn't well understood yet.

Also I gained 15 lbs on the diet, because I started feeling a lot better. I wouldn't buy his book though, just follow a low-grain whole food vegan diet basically if you want to try it.

vegan diet = yes

grains = no

Sara,

Your entire intestine is loaded with bacteria. Their constitution differs in each of us and this difference is what makes certain foods okay for one UCer, but problematic for some other UCer. This is what "I think". I could certainly be wrong.

Although there are common foods that are problematic for most of us. Gluten and Dairy top that list. Since you are a vegan, Gluten is the only exclusion left for you to try. Cutting out gluten and dairy certainly helped me and helped my achieve partial remission, ie no bleeding, but I still have no control on BMs.

I have also read on other UC forums that to many vegans, a raw diet doesn't suit. Cooked (steamed) veggies are more tolerable. Ofcourse depending on whether you are diarrhea or constipation prone UCer, you will have to adjust the kind of veggies to avoid.

^ I cut gluten even before I got my tests done. They came out negative anyways. But it has helped me tremendously. If you are in the US, there are gluten free bakery and pasta products available.

Changing diet came after suffering for a year of on and off remissions. I maintain a journal of any food changes I made to my diet. I took dairy out first and within a week my bleeding had reduced. Achieved remission through 5ASAs (blood only not BMs). Flared again in a couple of months. Took out gluten and same result as dairy. Reduced bleeding and then higher dose of 5ASAs to induce remission. Actually taking gluten also helped me in reducing BMs by a frequency of 2. But thats it. After than no amount of diet change has helped me with my BMs.

I have figure out how to be free from bleeding but not how to get my BMs to 1-2/day.

Post Edited (BadColon) : 2/5/2013 8:11:02 AM (GMT-7)