Diverticulitis - question about Aloe Vera

Although I do not have Ulcerative Colitis the Moderator suggested that I post my questions here hoping for some answers?? Thanks in advance!! Some of the info I post may/might help those folks with UC. I was diagnosed with diver about two years ago, I had bad pain in my lower left gut quite frequently. One of my recent (6 months ago) blood tests showed my blood sugar a little high (102) so as a precaution I cut way down on sugar and carbs. I figured if I had diver I surely didn't need diabetes!!! I removed the great majority of carbs and sugars from my diet (5 months ago). I eat proteins and fats and low carb veggies. I also take 2 Tbls of ground flax seed daily along with many vitamin and mineral supplements. All these changes helped tremendously, although I would still occasionally get a mild (very mild) diver attack. I don't know if it was the sugar and or the carbs that was irritating my gut?? about 6 weeks ago I read on another forum about how Aloe Vera juice helped to heal the gut so I started using AV daily about 5 weeks ago. My gut feels really great here lately. I’ve been on AV for about 5 weeks now and I feel so good I’m afraid to talk about it. I take 5 AV gel tabs a day. My big question(s) is: I don’t know if I’m taking too much AV and I don’t know for how long I should keep taking it?? The AV info label reads for 1 tab, “Aloe Vera(200:1) 25mg”, then it goes on to say “(Equivalent to 5,000 mg or approx. one teaspoon of 100% pure AV inner leaf gel).” My question is, how much AV am I actually taking (5 tabs a day) ??? Evidently each gel tab is 25mg but contains 5,000 mg of AV gel??? If that is correct then am I taking 25,000 mg of gel per day??? Is that safe?? Am I correct in my calculations?? How long should I keep taking this amount of AV? I have had absolutely no side effects except ZERO diver attacks and ZERO diver symptoms AND I MEAN ZERO!!! I have even been introducing small amounts of candy and honey into my diet with no bad effects. Could I have lulled my diver into hibernation??? Do I keep taking the AV so I can continue to eat some candy/honey?? Inquiring minds want (need) to know.
I've always read that eating lots of fiber would help the diver...NOT TRUE IN MY CASE!! Before switching to low carb/low sugar I tried tons of fiber and my stool would be softer but I still would get diver attacks anyway. Now my stool is very firm and I get no pain or discomfort at all (since the AV). In fact...my intestines feel stronger and more capable of doing their job (it's hard to explain). As if, in the absence of inflammation, they work better and are stronger???
UPDATE: I also have Asthma and have been on an inhaler for a year as my Allergy specialist has been trying to decrease the inflammation in my lungs. They have a machine you blow into and it measures the amount of inflammation in your lungs. Although I have been using the steroid inhaler for a year the inflammation has not decreased. When the low carb, low sugar diet helped to decrease the inflammation in my gut I had a theory....could the carbs and sugar be inflaming other parts of my body??? I stopped taking the inhaler 5 weeks ago to test my theory and just visited my Allergy specialist yesterday (11/4/2014). He was pleased to see that the inflammation in my lungs had finally decreased and told me that the inhaler was finally working. I told it that it wasn't the inhaler it was the low carb low sugar diet. I explained everything to him and he was amazed!!!
PS - I eat less than 30 carbs a day and maybe 15 sugars (honey) a day.


Hope someone can tell me if I'm overdosing on AV????
Thanks,
Treblig

*just added more description to your title*

Post Edited By Moderator (Red_34) : 11/5/2014 10:27:50 AM (GMT-7)

Thank You for the bump. I'm amazed that all these folks with irritated intestines have no comment or information???

Puzzling....

Treblig

why would you assume we're interested in aloe vera?

There's tons of info on the internet on it, I'd assume...if you can't find any info on it through a search on here.

As well....probably those who have used it aren't here any longer....obviously, not many are using it now.
q

nothing rude about saying why assume since he/she found it puzzling.

I made other suggestions as to why and to search elsewhere.....so you've misunderstood.

q

Well, it's all a matter of perception on all sides.

q

Yes it's too bad you did not get the welcoming response you were seeking... You sound like you'd be a fantastic addition to our board.

I tried aloe vera juice. It made me really sick. Didn't help with the colitis and actually increased the intensity of a flare. I will never try aloe ever again.

I don't really know too much about diverticulitis, but it is my understanding that it is quite different from ulcerative colitis. So it is great that it has been effective for treating your issues!

Maybe you could search and find a DO or a naturopath in your area who would be able to answer your questions regarding the aloe dosing? Or if you have a natural foods co-op in your area there may be staff who have familiarity with the product your using. If all else fails perhaps you should contact the manufacturer to make sure you are taking their product correctly. I'm sure they'd be happy to help and hear your success story.

Here's a link for a study that was done with AV
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15043514
I take that amount 2 times a day too (100 ml) - you're converting it to grams so idk how that's gonna work. I never heard of AV tabs.
The thing you need to know about AV - and the other folks - is that Aloe Vera Juice could be mixing in the skin and that's a NO-NO - just underneath the skin of Aloe Vera is some of the most potent laxative around, which is also toxic. So you gotta make sure you're having just the inner gel - which in your case is true it apears.
I'm going through a flare right now and looks like AV is not doing much honestly.
In your case, I noticed you're having Flax Seed which would be terrible if you're in a flare, eventhough that stuff is grounded there are PLENTY of whole seeds in there which do a lot of damage when flaring.
Also, if you read carefully the finding in the study they say more people had benefits, but at the end the clinical findings under microscope showed no difference. Which kinda says that AV is not really fixing the problem.

Donnie, you said,
"I'm going through a flare right now and looks like AV is not doing much honestly." If I was not on the low carb, low sugar diet the AV gel pills would not have helped me at all so to say that the AV doesn't seem to be helping requires a caveat!! If you don't figure out what food items (or their ingredients) are aggravating your gut FIRST, it would be fruitless to ingest potentially helpful remedies because the things that you might be eating (that are aggravating your gut) will still be present. I know that if eat a large piece of cake (sugar and carbs) tonight I will be in pain tomorrow..this I have proven more than one time (AV or no AV). Although, I have found that the effects of the cake are minimal as the AV quickly calms things down. But remember, I'm eating the piece of cake when my gut in NOT inflamed so I don't suffer as much as I would have before I started the diet. I know that if my gut is inflamed, like before I started the diet, it would really kill me for many, many days (maybe a week and a half). But now with my gut in good shape a piece of delicious cake only hurts me for a day or two max. Of course I'm taking the AV everyday, cake or no cake. It took me quite some time to figure this out and some it I figured out by mistake.

treblig

I used to eat lots of rice....but not any more. I cut out potatoes (which I loved), rice and anything else that was high in carbs or sugar. You do know that your body can convert carbs into sugar RIGHT?? You have to give yourself a chance!! I eat less than 30 carbs a day and about 15-20 sugars. In fact about the only sugar I get is the few that are in the 86 percent dark chocolate bar that I eat every day to help keep my blood pressure in check. It wasn't until I cut way back on carbs and sugar that I noticed a big difference. Of course, every person is an individual and we are all different but you'll never know if it will help you unless you try. Rice has a lot of carbs!! I used to pig out on Chinese fried rice (long ago). If you're getting a bigger flair and you're eating food items high in carbs (rice, or anything else) you may be shooting yourself in the foot. I used to eat carbs like there was no tomorrow because I don't gain weight very easy so I could get away with it. But once I realized that carbs were part of the problem I gave them up with the sugar. Now I eat the lowest carb oatmeal for breakfast with 5-6 strips of bacon. I good sized slice of grilled ham for lunch with a chunk of organic cheese. For supper I'll eat a salad with tomatoes, lettuce, chopped up organic cheese and 20-30 grilled medallions of sausage. I'm basically on a high protein, high fat diet. I've lost 10 lbs (which I really didn't need to lose). That's another thing....everywhere you read to avoid meats because they are hard to digest and will aggravate the inflammation in your gut?? It's bull pucky!!! Meat will only aggravate your gut if it's already inflamed. If you remove the foods that inflame your gut then meat does not present a problem, I'm living proof!! They also say to eat lots of fruits (sugar) and vegetables (carbs) to keep things moving and keep the stool soft...well...that doesn't work either because your eating sugar and carbs again. The fruits and veggies may soften your stool but they also inflame the lining of your gut (at least in my case)!! I avoid fruits and high carb veggies and I feel great!! Now that my gut is so much better I'll eat one pear every other day and haven't seen any bad results yet. But first you have to knock out the inflammation!! Once the inflammation is under control you can experiment, but as long as your gut is inflamed there's no way to solve the problem. Even now, if I'm feeling great I'll eat half of a piece of cake with delicious icing. The next day I will get some pain (not real bad but still), since my gut was not inflamed the discomfort is minimal. Now if my gut was inflamed (like before the low carb/sugar diet) and I ate some cake I would be in bad pain and have some bleeding for over a week.
Am I making any sense??? It's really hard to explain all this in just a few sentenses.

Treblig

Thanks Treblig, I do appreciate your input. And it's funny because I've been leaning towards the caveman, paleo kind of diet. I too never had any issues digesting meat, ckn, fish. Carrots and other veggies?? that's a different story, they come out the other end shinier than they went in...
And I don't even wanna get started on this whole processed, wheat thing. It's a disaster I think, and it's so far out spread in our world today that there's really no easy way to tackle it. I've been reading the Wheat Belly book and he's got some solid arguments in there.
I keep saying this - but I agree with your inflamation argument - gotta get inflammation under control first, before experimenting with other things. btw I'm starting to look like a stick so no need to loose weight lol - also I have no other med problems really so nothing preventing me from trying this.
I'll be starting slowly on the caveman/paleo diet while taking my Apriso (and Uceris if I'll have to).

I hope you got some answers on your AV question