Plant-based for recovery?

Rosiedays said...
if I should listen to my doctor and suddenly go on biologics when (I think )my symptoms are ok.

A cautionary tale on this thinking process. I was in a similar boat, I was living with my 4-bms a day and mild urgency. It was tolerable, I had adapted around it, and I was only after all only a "mild" case and happy taking only Lialda and rowasa. I had been reading this forum and was confident that was the right choice, and read many others fears of hardcore meds like 6MP and remicade (forum was very biased and very much against those meds except as a last resort before surgery at that time ~2012). So I told my doctor no on the 6MP when mentioned at several consecutive apts.

It's kind of like the frog being slowly boiled in a pot of water, I had no idea what was going on inside me...THEN came the flare of all ungodly hell. I was suddenly going to the bathroom 25+ times a day (about every 1/2 an hour while awake, and every couple hours at night), I had sharp knife-stabbing pains that took my breath away, and was nearly incontinent. I was given prednisone and had endoscopy and I was now a severe case and had spread in extent muktiple times of what it had been before, good bye mild severity and limited extent. It took me a whole year to get out of that flare, first trying only prednisone, second adding 6MP, and third adding remicade to the rest. I wish I had taken the remicade and/or 6MP before that flare ever happened, would've saved myself a lot of suffering.

That's my story, no guarantee i'll be you by any means. But just a reminder that "doing fine" isn't really fine in some cases, inflammation can slowly build and spread right under our noses and invite one dozy of a flare when we least expect it.

Biggest recommendation I can give is validate "doing fine" with some inflammation tests, a Calprotectin or C-Reactive Protein. Verify it is well control, and do not just assume what you're doing is working, and disregard doctor's recommendations foolhardily.

Another thing to consider about inflammation lingering and simmering is colon polyps and dysplasia. I’m not as well versed or well read as others here but I did end up with polyps a couple of which were mild dysplasia which my GI attributed to the year long inflammation. Maybe my age factored in there too or my previous diverticular disease, as I know others have flared for that long without developing polyps. My last colonoscopy was clear tho So my dr feels confident that the inflammation was the cause

Anyway just a reminder that this disease is tricky.

As this is my thread, I just wanted to chime back in.

During my remission periods, I pay for a calprotectin test every 6 months, even if I think I'm doing well. Simmering inflammation is the real deal, I have experienced it. What's unfortunate for me is that even though my calprotectin showed normal in the summer time, by the autumn when my latest flare started, it had turned from left-sided to full on pancolitis. So even with the best intentions, this disease is unpredictable.

Plant-based diets are superior for human health and longevity. All the research shows this. Plant-based does not mean no animal products, it means that plant consumption is upwards of 80% of the diet. This shows better results over vegan and vegetarian diets, though I have met UC patients who claim veganism works well for them.

My really close friend who has UC is doing well on a vegan diet, but her genetics show she doesn't process sulphur properly. She also can't take sulpha based drugs, or even vitamins and minerals that are conjugated with sulphur (like magnesium sulphate). Meat is high in sulphur because of the presence of cysteine and methionine, amino acids which are sulphur based and not present in most plant matter.

Then there is gut bacteria to consider.

I think there are specific and complex reasons why different diets work for different people. In my case, it has been suggested I try a no-meat, reduced saturated fat diet because of my symptoms. I'm not sure yet if I'll do this, but it's something to consider.

I also think there are different reasons for UC in general, which is why for some people diet does absolutely nothing. For me, during a flare, diet helps me recover faster, but it does not get rid of UC. Once my bowel lining is healed, the diversity of what I can eat goes way up. In my last remission period of 2 years, I was even able to eat dairy again. (It makes me cry to even write that -- I was doing so well. I hope I can get back there.)

For me the holy grail is being able to eat gluten again, but we'll see.

In my case, I have a deep down intuitive feeling that my UC is actually due to some kind of malabsorption or digestive problem further up, in the small bowel. There's severe leaky gut, or I'm not metabolizing something properly, and its undigested products end up in the colon where it causes inflammation. Over the years, it went from irritation and IBS to full on IBD. And now I'm stuck in the IBD cycle.

My despair is great, but I can't stop trying things.