New to UC! Please Help! Diet ideas??

Hi and welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear you are still having trouble.

Since you have been on meds for a month and still having symptoms, you should definitely call your GI and let them know. Usually you should be treating from "both ends" so you should look into trying mesalamine and/or steroid enemas. If you were diagnosed with pancolitis, that is pretty severe. Personally, I'm not sure oral mesalamine alone would be enough to treat it. You may need steroids to get it under control. I would ask about Uceris before resorting to prednisone, as Uceris is targeted to GI tract and has less side effects.

I'm not familiar with the diet you mentioned, but I have found reducing sugar intake to help with symptoms. Everyone responds to diet differently, so maybe start a food journal to see what bothers you. For example, I have trouble with pork and beef, but can usually eat chicken and fish without too much issue. I also try to avoid fatty and spicy foods. Some people swear by cutting out dairy, or gluten. I switched to lactose free milk since my husband is lactose intolerant anyway, but haven't noticed a difference compared to regular milk. So what works for one person may not work for you!

Certainly eliminating or greatly reducing sugar will be healthy and lower inflammation in your body. Yes it would be a drastic change for most people. Besides the obvious places you find sugar it's also in fruit, honey and many other places you wouldn't think.

Will this help your UC symptoms? What helped me most is keeping track of what I ate and seeing which individual foods seemed to cause problems. Sugar was not my major problem food but it is inflammatory so I eat as little as possible but other food did more damage.But we are all different and you'll have to do the work to see if diet modification helps you.

I totally agree with using mesalamine enemas along with your oral meds. Use them for a month, keeping your oral meds the same, if no improvement then talk to your GI and see what other oral meds you can try. Mesalamine enemas may do the job without changing to a different oral RX.

Good luck.

You need to see your GI and get a script. There are a few choices based on your symptoms

Some people, including me, have had good results with oil of oregano, taking a couple drops in a glass of water. Not sure if o-o-o is an essential oil. But others have had zero or bad results. I haven't used it in a while but back then it helped.

Boswellia, which is (I think) frankincense has helped some others, but not me.
I don't remember anyone having positive results with external use of essential oils.

Yes mesalamine enemas are expensive and with high deducible insurance I get them from Canada. You need a paper script from your doctor to get them. Canada suppositories are less expensive (again Canada order) but don't reach as much area and for me are 2nd choice.

Before going unconventional, which has helped me, try all the conventional RX possibilities. Saves time and wear and tear on your colon and mind.

I think it's great to give these dietary ideas a try, but please be aware that there is no "One size fits all" solution here. Somethings work for one person and don't work for another. It takes a lot of trial and error to find what works for you. Nothing worked for me, not prescription or alternative...

sugarskull said...
The oral mesalamines are mostly brand name (I think) but there should be a generic mesalamine enema that is very cheap.

Not true for my insurance, very expensive generic enemas. Last time I ordered I asked the price when they arrived, because they cannot/will not tell the price beforehand, and when I heard it I said no thanks, got a paper scrip from GI and got from Canada. Still expensive but less than US price.

You could try SCD