nopal?

CCinPA said...
good luck rbartolo! I generally drink 12 oz in the AM and 8 oz in the PM. Good to start with a small amount, but you might want to drink more as long as you don't have any problems with it.

Thanks so much CCinPA. I hope it works....trying to stay positive....maybe this is the "one" after so many failed attempts with natural things. How long should I give it? I think i'll do 4oz am and pm for the next 2 days and increase from there. i've gone twice since my 1st dose, but that's my normal. It was funny...was driving yesterday and spotted a latin store...I yelled out loud "OMG nopal leaves!" pulled in and low and behold they had a basket at the front door. Imagine if 80 cents worth puts me in remission?!

Thanks for the tips. i'll try and pack my patience, which is hard to do with this disease; especially when life goes on all around you. I'm not sure what's going on today with my bowel but I don't think I'm worse at this point. It's good advice not to look at this on a day to day basis. I've started a journal as well. Thanks so much again and all the best for continued healing.

I only heard of the sarsparilla when it was posted here recently. Since I am doing so well on nopal, I haven't looked into it, but if nopal stops working I will ;)

Not sure how much fiber is in the home made water or why it thickens. I don't think it's really high in fiber because I can have problems with too much fiber (it goes right through me), but my stool is definitely more bulked up since starting it. Haven't had any pencil thin BMs for at least a month or longer (don't remember the last time that happened)

I don't recommend stopping drugs that are working for you to try this. As you have seen from the people who have tried it here -- it doesn't work for everyone. Now if you can no longer take your present drugs for some reason it could be an option for you. If thinks start going bad you could maybe add it, but if you do be alert to any possible interactions with your current meds.

Also, I see that you are hypoglycemic -- if you ever decide to try this do some research about it's effects that lower blood sugar. You may have a very bad reaction if it lowers your levels too low.

(This is the only place I would ever tell anyone about those skewer sticks. People here understand, everyone else would look at me like I was truly bizarre lol)

Best wishes to you!!

Hi everybody. Thank you very much for all the advices, I really appreciated it. Just so you know what is going on, my son was diagnosed MARCH 2014. He was prescribed Apriso, which worked very well until July of the same year. He has pancolitis. In July, he started with a flare that lasted on and off until December. During this time, he was on Prednisone three times, and we started tapering it off slowly to avoid another flare. He was doing really well since December in a very small doses of Prednisone. We finished it around Mar 20, and by Mar 27 he started to have symptoms again. We saw the Dr. last Friday, and he explained my son had become steroid dependent, and that is when he said we would have to go to Humira. Since my son has had a series of orthopedic surgeries, the Dr. does not feel, especially in his case, that Prednisone is a medication to him him on any longer, due to bone loss.
My son was doing really well until Mar 23, and then started with mild symptoms on and off, until he had two days with about 5 to 6 bms . The doctor put him back on 20mg of Prednisone, until Humira comes in.
On Sunday, I prepared the Nepal water following the directions and gave him 4oz. All was well, he was down to probably 2bms, and on Monday morning he woke up with pain, and had about three bm before leaving to school, two more times at school, and a couple more when he got home. I knew then that iota was not something to be continued. We tried Rowasa enemas, but it did not agree with him either. Yesterday and today have actually been good days. He had two to three bums in the morning, but nothing else throughout the day. I heard about the sarsaparilla, but as I researched, it was approved for medicinal uses in 1942, mainly for skin conditions, it is an anti-inflammatory, and also acts as an imunomodulator, however, no scientific tests has been done in its use for ulcerative colitis, although I posted a site that claims it is beneficial. At this point, I decided to be more careful about what I try. Have read about the book Listen to my Gut, and actually contacted a clinic in Georgia that treats patients using the author's approach, in addition to supplements. I am not done with research on this, but will let you know how it goes. Meanwhile, we are btappering of the Prednisone, now on 15mg, going 10mg tonight, being careful with his diet, and waiting for the Humira to come in. Thanks God he felt better two days after the Nepal, so to me it tells that it did not work for him. Right now he is somewhat stable (2bms this morning), and nothing else during the day, so I keep praying that God watches over all of us dealing with this condition.
Again thanks for your support and good advice.
Hopeful Mom

Its a little early for me to chime in, but the improvement is so dramatic that I will. I came back to HW/UC after my latest scope indicated my self management hasn't been working. I have carefully managed my life around when and where I eat relative to the opportunity to use the bathroom. I came back to ask about Asacol sources and noticed the Nopal and sarsaparilla threads. I started on Asacol again, Nopal juice and sarsaparilla tablets for less than a week so far. I found the Nopal in a cool little mexican store in my town that I didn't know existed. I love expanding my horizons and seeing all the other food items I can buy in there. Anyway, I mostly just diced the pads and drink the water after straining the diced material from it. I have bathroom normalcy after less than a week that I have not seen in years. Again, its early but I am super SUPER encouraged. Try the Nopal, what can it hurt? And thanks to anyone who posts something that worked/works for them.

Good luck, inspector! Hope you have continued success!! I found on my journey with nopal that there can be days where it seemed like I was going backwards, but I kept drinking it and based my progress on week to week improvement rather than giving up when I had a bad day.

Question: since you started so many things at the same time (Asacol, nopal, sarsaparilla) how can you be so sure it's the nopal that is what is helping you?

garylou

you will only know if nopal helps if you try it. It's cheap and simple to prepare. It did not help me with my remaining symptoms (wanting to be 100% back to normal) in fact gave me such painful constipation I quit nopal in 3 days or so. I did not drink more than 8 oz a day split in 2 but got back to normal pretty fast when I dropped it so no real harm.

I suspect the fiber is the reason (invisible) so if you have no fiber problems it might be good for you.

My update.

I'm starting day 6 of nopal. The only change is that from day 3 I've started passing gas! (Exciting I know!) Very exciting that it's just air..nothing else coming out! Huge improvement. No change in anything else but I'm going very slow... just up to 8 oz a day and only 1 leaf per 2 quarts. I'm feeling confident enough to increase it. I have IVIG scheduled for Thursday and that normally stabilizes things a bit so I think unless something drastic changes between now and then I'd say it would be hard to say if nopal is working. however I'm going to keep it up as IVIG is not getting me into remission.

I haven't been constipated, but my stools were getting a little hard over the weekend (probably from the pizza I at on Friday followed by left over pizza on Saturday -- too much cheese can constipate me). Yesterday I saw a little bit of blood. It's bright red and mostly on the stool but there are faint traces on the paper. Because my stool was so hard it hurt a little when it came out. I may have irritated something. Stool wasn't as hard this AM, but did see the blood again and while there was still a little pain when it came out it didn't hurt as bad as yesterday. I have some anucort suppositories I am giving a try. I was going to do an enema yesterday, but it hurt a lot when I tried to insert the tip (the mesalamine burned when it touched the skin -- I always squirt out a little before I insert to make sure I get all the air out), but the suppository went in without a problem.

This is so disappointing because I haven't seen any blood at all for over 2 weeks, and prior to this, I had only seen a faint trace of blood once in the past month. Hoping the blood now is just from a little tear and resolves itself quickly.

Not to downplay anyone's constipation...but OMG what I would give to not poop for a day!

CCinPA- how many leaves of nopal do you use per quart?

thanks CC. I'll try less water. I haven't had the instant success that others seem to have (not surprised) but I don't seem worse.

I can imagine how disappointed you are. With this disease you can be on top of the world one day and in utter despair the next. It's probably the pizza and cheese. Chin up and keep going!

Its been almost 3 months now since I started NOPAL juice/gel and the good news keeps coming. I am only on 2 Apriso. I am eating my regular food..no changes.
A glassful of NOPAL juice along with its gel ,first thing in the morning. My Mom asks me with nervousness..
how are your stools...I say.. "Mom..Solid" She smiles and says "dear..I am getting another bagful of Nopal cactus from the oriental food store." Its funny that my Dad and Mom both started drinking Nopal...it has become a family morning party thing. They don't have colitis but think its going to make skin better and delay arthritis if it is such a good anti-inflammatory. By the way, I still take two capsules of Turmeric.
I am happy and enjoying my college life...going to concerts and studying hard. Fear is almost gone.
I hope and pray that I never need Prednisone ever again...it made me a little cockoo for a few days.
I wish all of you well and suggest that don't give up on Nopal and Turmeric. At least try for 6 months.
I want to thank "the answer" guy who first introduced us to Nopal on this forum.
Colonoscopy 2 weeks ago showed minimal inflammation only in rectal area.

Post Edited (Diva2014) : 4/9/2015 7:53:57 PM (GMT-6)