Posted 11/17/2015 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
Never posted here before, even though I read this forum regularly.
Not advertising any cures, just thought I'd share what I'm doing to keep the disease in check.
May be it'll work for you, maybe it won't...if you're too lazy to read all the background info, just scroll to the bottom.
BACKGROUND:
Colitis (although at first it was "proctitis")since 2007.
Never bother me too much - the only symptoms I had were a bit of blood in stool every time I went. No pain though. Going 3-5 times a day, but no crazy urgency, taking Salofalk suppositories on and off, eating pretty much everything.............
BUT things REALLY went downhill about 2 years ago. I had to take a 2 month course of antibiotics (f-ing doctors - prescribing them like it were candy; sidenote: I bet my colitis is due to antibiotics to begin with - I had colds/flu/whatever all the time when I was a kid, and the doctors would just keep feeding me antibiotics)......and soon enough - rivers of blood in the toilet bowl, gas, urgency, liquid stool, constipation - you name it. Started to really affect my quality of life - last year I spent 2 months at home, running to the washroom every 10 min and lost 30 pounds. Hell on earth.
Long story short...
WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW
2-4 tips to the washroom/a day.
Stool - well formed.
No urgency. No gas.
Minuscule amounts of blood - nothing visible in the stool itself, I have to look really closely into the paper to notice something.
And TODAY - I swear, I could not see any blood whatsoever...fingers crossed.
SUPPLEMENTS/MEDS THAT HELP TO ACCOMPLISH THIS
- Two tablespoons of turmeric w some black pepper sprinkled on top mixed with water.
(I take it with a spoonful of coconut oil - apparently turmeric gets absorbed MUCH better with oil, and pepper is supposed to make it more potent as well). I do this once in the morning on an empty stomach, and once before sleep.
- Juicing savoy cabbage. I make about 1-2 glasses of savoy cabbage + celery + cucumber juice (celery and cucumber are there just to dilute the nasty cabbage taste. But it is in fact cabbage that's doing the healing, from what I've read). Once in the morning, once before sleep.
- Lastly, MMJ. I live in Canada where marijuana is in fact legal IF you can find a doctor who'll write a prescription. Which I did. I vaporize some every night before sleep - I don't want to be high the whole day.
The number one effect I've noticed with weed is in the morning, during the first stool of the day, I really don't have to strain myself much - things come out of me in a pretty smooth fashion. And there's a noticeable decrease in blood. DOWNSIDE: I get anxiety, and I feel like I'm not 100% tuned in due to weed. And not just when I'm high, actually, for me, anxiey kicks in about 15-20 hrs after I took some weed. It's a major downside for me, but definitely MUCH MUCH better that all the nasty sideeffects of steroids. I'm trying to find a way to get off weed - but the last two times I tried, blood reappeared within a day.
P.S. As far as different strains go, high CBD low THC, or high THC low CBD, they ALL help. Even though I've been taking the high CBD kind mostly. They all make me feel better.
MEDS
Just taking 2 or 4 pills of Mezavant/day (it's a 5-ASA). Usually these don't do MUCH. But they make the symptoms 5-10% better. So I may try to stop taking them in the future.
OTHER THINGS THAT DON'T NECESSARILY HELP WITH COLITIS, BUT I STILL DO
Vit d
Digestive enzymes before meal
Fish oils
Cod liver oil
zinc
Wim Hof breathing exercises + cold showers (too long to explain - just do a google search, he's been on the Joe Rogan podcast, and Vice did a documentary on him). It may supposedly help with autoimmune stuff...but honestly I'm not gonna argue that it does, as I don't have enough evidence. BUT, when you are feeling miserable - the breathing and the cold shower REALLY helps with giving you energy, and making you feel better.
DIET
Very restrictive.
No milk.
No red meat.
The only grain I eat is rice.
No fruit, vegetables only (but they have to be boiled, not raw)
No sugar.
No starchy stuff like potatoes.
Nothing that's fried.
No sugar.
No caffeine.
Staying away from triggering foods (like almonds - for me, but we all have different foods I'm sure).
The only food that I have no trouble with when going to a restaurant are Thai green/red/yellow curry chicken. Otherwise, it's all home cooked meals for me.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST - CANDIDA/YEAST INFECTION
This crap's been bothering me for a while - clearly a sign of major dysbiosis - and that's why I don't eat any fruit, or honey, or sugar. BUT, HERE'S WHAT FIXES IT WITHIN DAYS - fermented cabbage juice, I use green cabbage for this one, not savoy (too long to go into details as to how I make it - just look it up on youtube, it's pretty straightforward). As long as I keep drinking that - YEAST DISAPPEARS.
ENDNOTE:
When you're juicing a lot of cabbage, supposedly, it can **** with your iodine levels. So look into supplementing that. I pulverize cranberries in a food processor, and add some of that to my tea every day.
FINAL THOUGHT
Hope this helps. This sure is a long list of things, but it really only takes me about an hour a day to do all of the above listed stuff. I did this write up to contribute to the forum that I often read - so thought I'd give back by sharing some of my experiences with this nasty disease. But I'm probably not gonna be sticking around to answer to too many replies, or bond over poop jokes, or whatever else. Peace. Feel better, everyone!