Spontaneous remission on Progestrone and Guarana tincture

I am male, approaching 40. Doc wrote off my GI complaints as IBS for many years.
Showed first really bad symptoms September 2010.

Dx with colitis November 2011.
Read my signature for case history and meds that worked /didn't work.

Been in continuous flare for six years. 6MP kept me stable and functional.

Read that women experience colitis mini-flares in sync with monthly cycle, particularly during first week of period. After studying menstruation hormone charts online, I realized that estriadol and progesterone are at their lowest during first week of period.

So as a guy, I wondered if I could somehow increase these two hormones in my body.

Seems DHEA converts into estriadol in the body.

Turns out DHEA capsules and progesterone cream are widely available online.

Now I was already taking 25mg/day of DHEA (capsule) since June 2016, to successfully stave off dreadful weekly headaches(think migraine pain levels). So I figure my estriadol levels must be increased by now.

Enter topical progesterone USP cream . I applied a quarter teaspoon of this cream twice a day , morning and night for the last month.

As an aside, I was trying Guarana tincture 1:3 to help with ongoing fatigue and poor concentration. 50 drops per day, on the days I really needed to concentrate(maybe 7 days in total during September)

My colitis is now in remission since the middle of September (about two weeks) and I have stopped 6MP.

How long this will last I do not know, but I am grateful for disappearance of symptoms.

The excessive progesterone dose causes muscle pain in my back and arms, so I have lowered the dose to one eighth teaspoon every other day.

Interestingly I had an extensive blood test last week. Red blood cell distribution width is elevated. Everything else in normal. My cortisol level is just below the lowest lab range.

Something tells me my adrenal system is compromised and progesterone and DHEA supplementation are propping things up to induce remission. Yet I cannot say with certainty what helped me into remission. It could have been pure coincidence.

Guarana is thought to help with autoimmune disorders too.

Hope this helps someone, I had almost given up.

I'm sure its a good link . It gives a brief introduction but I'm not paying to read the rest of it

However there is a suspected link between estrogen and colitis.
Here is a free link
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001650851201089X

regarding risks, I will happily exchange a bleeding bowel for something else, even if it is only slightly less uncomfortable

Interesting. Glad to hear you are feeling better.

Did you take the progesterone only pill (aka "mini pill") or the combination pill which contains estrogen and progesterone?

Estrogen is suspected to make colitis symptoms worse. Maybe there is some logic that ongoing use of a contraceptive pill containing estrogen would make your symptoms worse.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001650851201089X

That article refers to hormone therapy in postmenopausal women, yet this quote is interesting:

"There was no difference in risk according to the type of hormone therapy used (estrogen vs estrogen plus progestin)"

Estrogen would appear to be a significant factor in the progression of colitis.

Also the female body seems many times more sensitive to small doses of hormones.

I wish you every success in finding a solution to entering remission.

Remission really does seem linked to a specific set of criteria, something that varies widely between individuals.

For example, my entire colon was inflamed and bleeding at the worst point.

Prednisolone pulled me out of that flare in less than a week.

5-ASA meds caused a dreadful reaction yet others are stabilized using them.

Azathioprine triggered my pancreatitis , yet its metabolite, 6-mercaptopurine stabilized me.

Ibuprofen and aspirin will unfailingly trigger a bloody flare up.

This is of course my genome, my body chemistry.
It doesn't seem right to go into remission and say nothing about what I think worked

interesting read .

to quote weirdal1968 :

"Now before everybody reading this runs over their grandmother to buy some DHEA - YMMV"

I take it YMMV means "your mileage may vary"

My mileage did vary...for the better...so far...so good...

** Additional information update **

I have begun taking wormwood along with guarana since Friday 18th November. All I can say it I feel more human than ever. I mean ,I feel completely normal. No brain fog, low mood or low energy. Its easy to sit and focus on one thing at a time, instead of a just zoning out with zero concentration.

And my colitis, well it's like it never happened. It feels like my body clock was turned back 20 years, as though the wormwood has put something back into my body to fix it.

I'm reading some bat crazy stuff about wormwood getting rid of parasites. I don't subscribe to the idea that I'm riddled with colitis causing parasites, but something has changed in my body for the better.

Perhaps there is a multiplying effect with taking 15 drops of 1:3 guarana tincture and 10 drops of 1:3 wormwood tincture once a day in the morning.

Wormwood taken over a long period of time is supposed to be harmful. Though the sources I'm reading provide neither dosage or scientific research to support that claim. In fact it would appear the wormwood toxicity story is a myth perpetrated by supporters of Prohibition.

The most dangerous form of wormwood appears to be the concentrated oil not the tincture. The Media will of course sensationalize a person getting multiple organ failure from a few drops of wormwood. Conveniently forgetting to mention it was in concentrated oil form.

Anyway I feel great on wormwood and will continue writing updates

Post Edited (rikkidan) : 11/20/2016 4:16:23 PM (GMT-7)

Don't know. And as there is only one of me, and no biopsy samples were taken when I was sick, we shall never know.

Ideally an identical control subject with the same genome and symptoms as me is put in the same environment, but denied the substance being tested.

Then , rather than fly on a feeling that something works, real tangible data can be obtained and logical conclusions drawn.

As I said, I do not subscribe to the parasite theory. Without rigorously controlled test conditions and hard data I never will.

I read about a controlled study where wormwood was used to maintain remission in Crohn's patients.

It produced a positive result and I hypothesized that a UC patient may benefit too.

Enter these terms into your favorite search engine "ncbi Steroid-sparing effect of wormwood Crohn's disease"

Great to hear wormwood worked for you! I agree it should be used sparingly and think of it like a conventional medicine. For example we don't take painkillers every day, only as needed. Ditto wormwood.

There was a ncbi study into the therapeutic effect of wormwood (Artemisia) and other plants on adrenal and immune dysfunction.

Search for these terms "ncbi Artemisia TCM wormwood adrenal"

It's more about CFS but there is one comment about autoimmune dysfunction and adrenal problems.
This led me to think about how relevant wormwood could be for inflammatory bowel disease.

A blood test confirmed my own adrenal function is compromised.

What exactly were the results of your biopsies as per the pathology report?

q

Throughout or specific area?
q

Quiescent = remission.