Have you tried completely avoiding dairy?

Did you even stop taking yogurt? We are also contemplating to stop dairy for my daughter. I'm concerned about calcium deficiency.

There is a whole bunch of things that might be involved besides lactose.
I have stopped dairy in the past no effect that I could see.
Right now I am 3 weeks into nor red meat or dairy, and something is going on different.
I now have some smell back to my stools where I have had little to none for the past 20 plus years.
I also have less blood.
What might be going on,red meat contains heme, high in sulfur amino acids, milk cheese high in sulfur amino acids. May promote sulfate reducing bacteria,MAP and MAP antigen elimination.
Also suspect changes in general for the microbiome.
Red meat and dairy, also contain the none human sugar, Neu5Gc,which causes us to all have antibodies to this sugar,it causes inflammation. The Neu5Gc is incorporated into surface sugars on cells,the the immune system starts an attack.
They have not attributed it to any disease yet,but perhaps
people with autoimmune disease handle the inflammation poorly.

Would not be too worried about low calcium from not eating dairy,half the people in the world wont eat dairy,but that is usually due to lactose intolerance.

Old Mike

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 3/16/2014 2:23:41 PM (GMT-6)

Congrats on your remission!

Dairy has not been an issue for me. But a lot of people find relief from different ailments by cutting out dairy. Glad it helped your UC!!

Makes me wonder if you actually truly had UC. Maybe all you had was a severe lactose intolerance. For people with true UC eliminating dairy might help in some cases but I really don't see that all by itself putting anyone in to remission.

I am genetically lactose intolerant to a certain extent but personally I wouldn't give up butter unless I really had to - life's too short. Apparently it's high in the short chain fatty acid butyric acid so potentially beneficial to gut health (if you aren't highly lactose intolerant).

On the other hand I do keep my lactose intake relatively low especially during a flare up or if I have sinusitis. I am usually fine with lower lactose foods like mature cheddar, cottage cheese, probiotic yogurt drinks. I don't drink milk though.

I think commercial dairy is problematic for quite a large percentage of people, including those without bowel disorders. Acne is often linked to dairy and break-outs disappear when it is eliminated from one's diet. Due to America's factory farm situation with cows, I'd never wish commercial milk on anyone. My IBS problems basically started with pasteurized 1% milk. I'm sure it played a huge role in my UC diagnosis as well.

However, I think cultured dairy (as well as raw) is a different ballgame. The idea that our foods need to be predigested is something that is new to people, but it's how we've been eating for millennia. Today we take digestive enzymes, but raw dairy with it's microbial cultures intact as well as raw (and fermented) veggies fresh from soil used to be the "digestive enzymes" of the past. Records indicate that people drank raw milk and had vibrant health. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used to treat his patients with unadulterated whey rich in proboiotics and with positive results. He somehow knew intrinsically that the gut was at the center of it all, which is what makes his work genius today.

The Masai tribe (as well as the French population) drink significant amounts of raw milk and have very little incidence of osteoporosis. I think dairy companies here should take note from these cultures and figure out why they aren't succumbing to the same issues we are. Unfortunately, it's a business so it's almost always about the bottom line. I have to pay a little more for raw dairy, but it has helped my digestion significantly. It would be inaccurate to say that kefir cultured from raw milk didn't help my gut come along.

TL;DR - our foods need to be predigested to minimize the harm it does to our body.

Thanks for your thoughts and responses everyone. To the person who doubted whether or not I actually had colitis...I wont say for sure one way or the other if it was actually UC or a lactose allergy... but I did have 3 gastroenterologists tell me I had UC.

I do fine with raw milk - don't know so much about pasturnized cuz I haven't drinked it in a while -

I do avoid cows tho, especially when they're standing in the middle of the road - they have no respect for fences @!

And to add to Insofla, there are two types of casein A1 and A2. Many people can tolerate A2 (from jersey cows) but not A1 protein (from Holstein cows). In Australia they actually have the type of protein labelled on all the milk they sell.

Here is an interesting article on it: http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/the-devil-in-the-milk-dr-thomas-cowan-on-how-a2-milk-is-the-answer-to-the-mystery-of-why-even-raw-milk-sometimes-does-not-seem-to-be-enough-of-an-improvement-over-store-bought/

Insofla, they actually mention low dose naltrexone in that article too, it may be of particular interest to you. [url]

Thanks laughingduck.

I have posted the article you mentioned a long time ago.

So glad you are posting it again!

Thanks soystud! How did you do that?

Yes, I've been vegan for 2 years and 3 months. Had no effect on my UC, sadly. Sugar on the other hand definitely causes me symptoms in excess.