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Psyllium seed vs psyllium husk: finally a good answer

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 2/3/2012 8:47 AM (GMT 0)

C_G_K said...
OK, I'm jumping into this thread late, so this may have already been discussed, but butyric acid in high concentrations being beneficial to the colon is questionable.

See here for example:

http://gut.bmj.com/content/52/1/79.abstract


U.C. researcher said...
Twenty four hours after mice were given enemas containing either butyric acid or F varium culture supernatants, colonic ulcers with crypt abscesses, inflammatory cell infiltration, and apoptotic changes were observed.

C_G_K said...
Enemas containing butyric acid can be used to trigger U.C. in mice.

I'm sticking to the husk for now.

I'd just like to add my two cents that I think drawing conclusions from this mice study is very incorrect (and it is likely being misunderstood). Butyrate enemas (another term for butyric acid) are a known potential treatment for colitis. See for example:

"Effect of butyrate enemas on the colonic mucosa in distal ulcerative colitis" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1612357
"Butyrate inhibits NF-kappaB activation in lamina propria macrophages of patients with ulcerative colitis" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11989838
"The role of butyrate on colonic function" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17973645
"Butyrate modulates oxidative stress in the colonic mucosa of healthy humans" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19108937

It is because of the known potential benefit of butyrate enemas for colitis that the researchers did the study on psyllium seed powder in the first place.

Further, it's not stated in the abstract of the study about psyllium seed powder (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10022641), but if you have access to the whole study, you can see that they used pysllium seed powder (not psyllium husks). So I think psyllium husks may be fine in general, but they have not been demonstrated to benefit colitis and people are failing to follow the insight discovered in the study about psyllium if they are not using psyllium seed powder. I think this is a very common mistake people with colitis make, because they've heard about psyllium via word of mouth, but not looked at what was actualy done in the study (as the orginal post in this thread tries to clarify).

My experience, after I discovered the study on psyllium seed powder, was night and day. After fourteen years of colitis with several flares a year and the rate of flares increasing, I went into complete remission for five years and stopped taking any medications. (I had been taking twelve Asacol a day for those fourteen years and used Mesalamine enemas to get out of flares, but the Asacol seemed to maintain remission for less and less time.) I only had one flare after five years, because I got a bad samonella infection and my doctor thinks it triggered the colitis overactive immune response (I used Mesalamine enemas again to get out of that flare). I take 1/8 of a cup of psyllium, three times a day, mixed into a large glass of water.

I'm also mindful of my diet and use probiotics, but it was really the psyllium seed powder (not husks) that made the difference. I take no pharmaceutical medications anymore.

Post Edited (gg555) : 7/25/2021 7:45:48 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/14/2012 3:49 PM (GMT 0)
So, where are people getting their seed powder from these days? Seems like the Starwest Botanicals product is much cheaper than the Frontier product. Anyone compare the two for effectiveness and taste?
Posted 10/5/2012 6:58 PM (GMT 0)
So just to clarify:

When is the best time to take a probiotic? With or without food?

and when is the best time to take your psyllium seed powder? with or without food?

Is it better to take the two together, or separately?
Posted 1/24/2013 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
dietcoke - I'm in a similar boat as you (pretty much allergic to most medicines, or have become so).

My last flare started after stopping Remicade (immediate flare after schedule 8 week dose was skipped). I tried cutting out all foods and nothing got me out of the flare until I went back on prenidsone and it took me 60mg (2 days later went from 10BM's to 2). At the same time I started the 60mg pred, I started heavy VSL DS#3 (4 pks/day split am/pm). Since then I've been tapering about 10mg/week until I got to 20mg, then took 5mg every 2weeks and am down to 10mg now... I started with 4 pks VSL DS for about 20 days (as it suggests in their research), then dropped to 2 pk/day (AM). I'm not doing any diet restricitons since starting back on Pred/VSL and am at 2-3 BM's at 10mg (was at 1-2 @ 15mg pred).

Blood disappeared in about 1-2 days after starting VSL and hasnt returned since. Seems that I am never truely out of a flare because with every prednison mg reduction, i see a few days of increased BM's (no blood though) which seem to level out at 2-3. Luckily I've been able to keep tapering down to 10mg over last couple of months but its taking me longer to level out than previous 5mg reduction intervals so I'm not convinced I'm managing intestines enough to get off prednisone (or even get to 5mg/day pred).

I'm going to give physillium seed a chance and maybe that'll get me over the hump and get me off the meds.

My supplements etc are as follows all (AM):
-Fish Oil
-VSL DS# 3 (2 pks = 1.8billion)
-Multivitamin (Centrum silver men 50+..likely will be switching to more natural version)
-Garden of Life (Perfect Food) - 5 pills/day (Reco Serving), just started this recently to try to improve pred taper success.
-Glucosamin/chondroiton (not for UC but I take it)
- Citrical (to counteract prednison calcium depletion)
-1.5cups of whole Oats Oatmeal every morning w/ either fresh frozen strawberries and/or honey for sweetness
-Currently not restricting diet any any dedicated way but do eat more organic meats (chicken/beef)

Adding to regimen in next couple of days:
-L glutamine
-Vitamin D3 (5000 IU/day)
-Psyllium Seed Powder (TBD dosing, likely go for 2 TBL Sp/day to start)
-Slippery Elm

Allergic to:
-Mesalamine based drugs (made my flares even worse), tried nearly all version for 6months before stopping
-Remicade. Was on it for 1.5 years w/ 1-2 small flares during then started allergic reactions (hard to breath, hives everywhere)
Posted 1/24/2013 8:03 PM (GMT 0)
-Currently not restricting diet any any dedicated way

Most veterans of this disease, whether they are on meds or not, generally find that it is easier to maintain remission if they avoid their triggering foods. The usual suspects are gluten and dairy. I would avoid gluten for a couple of weeks to see if your symptoms lessen. Then the same for dairy. Eventually you may want to maintain a food journal to monitor any spikes from food allergies.
Posted 1/24/2013 8:25 PM (GMT 0)
Babeinwooods - The trouble I have is that I have already tried gluten/dairy/fructos/sugar etc free diet without meds and I dont stop flaring no matter what I cut out. I kept a log for a few months when i was off meds and nothing made any impact what so ever.

now that i'm back to 2-3 bm's w/ 10mg pred (and previous to now) I do notice some things seem to make my symptoms slightly worse (e.g. legumes in general) but I've not noticed any difference with gluten/dairy/sugar like what i've seen with legumes (such as peanut butter or lintels/hummus).


Anyhow, I'm definitely keeping tabs on what foods seem to make me better/worse as you suggest. However, the fallacy is to say that I've been in remission since I can't get away from meds without immediately flaring (even when i was gluten/dairy free for several months and then went off of remicade)

of course avoiding foods only gets at the symptom in my opinion and not the root cause. Its my hope that through supplements/nutrition the root cause will be addressed and I wont need meds at all. If that ends up being a diet shift I'm all for it, but so far I've not had much benefit from cutting anything out except legumes.

As a side note, did anyone start UC symptoms very shortly after receiving any vaccines? I started UC symptoms within a few months of receiving the Hepatitis B Vaccine and have seen very few mention this possible root cause but seems highly suspect considering the vaccine is made from yeast and has some instances of autoimmune effects reported. Anyhow, figured I'd ask:)
Posted 7/9/2013 7:13 PM (GMT 0)
Can you tell me what the difference is between psyllium husks, psyllium powder and psyllium tablets/capsule? My gi dr told me to start adding 1 tsp to yogurt or applesause daily to help slow things down a bit. But she was emphatic that it was not to be psyllium powder?? Also are psyllium husks the same as hemp hearts?
Posted 7/10/2013 7:02 PM (GMT 0)
All psyllium for dietary fibre is in powder form.

psyllium isn't the same as hemp.

Husks are the outer shell of a seed/grain. it's possible that the seed powder does include the husks as well, unless otherwise stated.

Hemp hearts are shelled. But I don't know what the shell of the help looks like...

q
Posted 7/10/2013 7:13 PM (GMT 0)
I have recently started taking the Psyllium Seed Powder after taking the Psyllium Husk and it has made an exponential difference for the better. Much smoother if you know what im saying.... :)

Best...
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