Cure for ulcerative colitis

An update: Today is my 4th day drinking nopal water. I am trying to keep my excitement in check, but the last 2 mornings I've had the most normal BMs since June 2014 -- softly solid, fully formed & no blood. I've been down this road before though and then after 2 weeks I would see blood again so not celebrating yet. Still, the stool consistency is better than it's been so I am hopeful. I am a little gassy, but I just started a new probiotic on Monday so I am thinking that is what is causing the gas. If it doesn't get better I will try stopping the probiotic and make sure it's not the nopal. I feel the best when I have 2 BMs/day -- once in the morning & once in the evening. Yesterday it was 2 times in the AM, and nothing in the evening. So far today (I've been up for 4 hours) just once. Maybe today is the day I get back to completely normal. ~fingers crossed~

I drank some Monday and Tuesday. How many days are we supposed to drink it? I have another pitcher in the fridge. It's really too soon to report back. Yesterday I had awful gas but today I do not. I don't know if anything is related to the nopal. My symptoms have been so up and down over the past few weeks it will be difficult to determine anything. Some days I go once and it's formed, others it's five times and loose and maybe even some blood. Only if I had ongoing perfect solid stools with no blood, urgency, tenemesus... Will I know nopal may be the culprit involved in my healing. I am also on other meds so it's hard to tell what is doing something.

Interesting stuff... Just did a Google search for

Nopal leaves antimicrobial

And would recommend you check out the results. These cactus leaves obviously have some excellent properties for us!

Yes, they are that big. They get cut up, split open, the flesh gets scraped into a large pitcher and the skin is also thrown in, then add 2 quarts of water and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. 1 pad per 2 qt pitcher. The store I got my nopal from was out of the whole leaves but they had some already cut up for cooking. I split those little pieces open and scraped out the flesh etc. I have enough from that one bag to make 4 pitchers for under $3! If I am going to continue this next week I am going to see if they can just clean the pads (they have nasty thorns I don't really want to deal with) and then I can cut them myself. The pieces I bought were cut pretty small and were a little difficult to work with. If you buy the whole pads, you need to very carefully clean/scrape off all the thorns.

If anyone's tried nopal flour, please let me know. Or I'll have to try it first :). Don't have access to nopal leaves unfortunately.

I stopped drinking it after 5 days. The person who started this didn't say to drink it continuously. I didn't notice any improvement in my symptoms. They are mild but I still go more than I would if I weren't mildly flaring. I was hoping maybe the nopal water would help to reduce the mild symptoms but no luck. If things were severe, I would think it would be even less likely to help.

That eases my mind a little, Gary. The blood is so disappointing when I see it, especially now with everything else being "normal". I just hope it goes away completely.

NSSG -- Since I felt like it was helping me, I decided to continue drinking it after doing a lot of research to make sure there isn't anything harmful in it. Nopal is actually filled with all kinds of vitamins in addition to its anti inflammatory properties. Sorry you didn't notice any change. I think I started noticing a change at about day 3.

google: Mexican grocery store [enter your city]
That's how I found the place where I got mine.

If nothing comes up near you, try searching for a Mexican restaurant.

I have no idea if that link would be ok for people to eat. Maybe you could try to contact them and ask.

Hey, thanks CCinPA. I tried that and it turned out one is 12 min from my house. Went there today and there was a pile of them. I loaded up and look forward to trying this out!

I have been having an UC flare up since September 2014 after taking an antibiotic for a tooth infection. Made note to self to take a different route next time. Grapefruit seed extract has helped with infections in the past...even strep throat. I wasn't thinking since it had been 5 years since my last flare up and just did what the dentist told me. Now I am paying for it. I've found that 3 things trigger a recurrence of UC for me: Drinking different water than I'm used to or mountain water that may have Giardia (happens in CO), stressful situations, and antibiotics.

I just saw the post about drinking Nopal infused water. I'm willing to give it a try. Will let you know how it works out. We have that plentifully in our grocery stores here in Denver. But first want to see what I'm currently taking through a bit longer.

I've already tried other things that haven't worked. First, I tried Mesalamine, since that has helped me very well in the past to get over symptoms in just 3 days. This time, it did nothing. I took it for over a month before giving up on it this time around. I considered fasting but thought I'd like to find an answer that doesn't leave me miserably hungry...the people who have fasted with success have fasted for longer than a week.

I found a doctor online who used to have UC himself and who treats many chronic conditions who uses fasting and diet changes as major parts of his treatments. If anyone wants the link...I will look him up again. His office is on the east coast down south and you do have to travel there at least once for your initial visit for about 3 days to allow time for testing and then he'd like to see you once a year. If nothing else works, I will make the trip to see him. Apparently he hasn't had flare ups - I know they are possible even 10 years later - and he's someone I feel I could trust since he's lived this nightmare himself. I think it's been 30 years for him.

Here is what I'm taking right now: I drink Slippery Elm 2 hours before or 2 hours after a meal. This is to coat the intestines and contains antioxidants as a side benefit. It can use up nutrients if eaten too close to a meal or medications. 5 minutes before eating, I take Fulvic acid. This is to increase my uptake of nutrients since my food is going through me so fast. During a meal or just after eating, I take a good probiotic. I say "good" because from my research, I've learned that some probiotics aren't what they're cracked up to be and are almost useless. A friend of mine with UC said that Moringa helped her so I started taking that. It has an earthy taste that I'm glad I only need a small portion of...I put 1 t. Moringa in yogurt or homemade low sugar apple butter. I use about 1/4 the sugar the apple butter recipe calls for and it is still yummy...need to watch sugar as I am Diabetic type 2.

I usually don't like to take more than a few things at a time so I know what actually worked but I'm already past that point with the list above so I added one new thing to the mix today. This morning, I remembered that I had generic brand Rowasa suppositories from all those years ago on the fridge door. Trying that today.

Will keep everyone posted. As this is my first day on the forum, I'm looking forward to reading what others have done to alleviate their symptoms.

Even if the medical community says there is no cure, I do believe we can find one. Just like when I had Lupus they said there wasn't a cure, but I am living proof through blood work 8 years later that I had it and now I don't. I read books about there being no incurable diseases and about the body's ability to heal itself. Those people's stories are too real for us to be discouraged. We just have to give it the right stuff to do that. UC is a tough one but I refuse to give up trying to find the cure.

Post Edited (I'm My Own Guinea Pig) : 2/8/2015 10:56:09 AM (GMT-7)

I would imagine if this doctor hasn't had a flare up in ten years, he has just found what works for him individually and that's great! it doesn't mean he can do it for you unfortunately. I am not saying it's not worth a try, because I am all about trying everything and anything, but I am saying, no one can promise they can do anything for anyone's UC. I have gotten into remission three times, two of which I can't positively indicate the cause of remission. Once prior it was definitely mesalamine that got me into remission because of the timing I started it and the positive result following right away without much other outside influences, like diet or supplements. Actually I have tried a boatload of supplements and never seen a result from any of them. Interestingly, there was an article the other day showing that a lot of these supplements doesn't even contain the ingredients they claim. I have stopped wasting money on such things.

You put the inner flesh/gel and the skin it is scraped from in the water. Throw it all in there! And just leave them in the pitcher as you drink the water. Make sure you clean the cactus pads well and remove all the thorns before doing this. I buy my nopal pads already cleaned and then I cut them up when I am ready to use them. 2 quarts of water per nopal pad. If you buy the nopal already cut into pieces it's about 1/4 pound per 2 qts water. Let it soak overnight. Good luck! So far there has been mixed results for people -- some it helps and some it doesn't do anything.

I live in Australia, does anyone by chance know where I can buy this stuff in its original leaf form?

I'd be open to purchasing it online from overseas as well.

Would love to give it a try.

Tim

Post Edited (Timmy85) : 2/27/2015 9:14:02 PM (GMT-7)