ehh SCD

So I've been on the SCD for about 3 months now. I decided to give a change in diet a shot to help my UC. So after 3 months my results hadn't seemed much improved so yesterday I decided to go HULK SMASH on the SCD, I was tired of eating a limited diet for no outstandingly apparent reason. I ate a burger and some fries with lots of processed ketchup, a small bowl of strawberry ice cream, 1/2 a pizza, breakfast was pretty SCD legal. This morning I woke up at 6 and ran, actually ran to the bathroom, everything came out in a very cramping painfully gassy BM, The pizza which I ate last night around 9:30 passed as well pretty quickly thats about 8 1/2hrs, I noticed cause the pepper rings did not digest. So today I guess I'll continue with the SCD which has definately not been a miracle and hasnt solidified my stool one bit, but it does seem to help with the urgency and gas.

Just thought I'd pass along my experience with it. I know there seems to be a divide in the UC community about Diet vs Rx measures to help alleviate UC symptoms. Dont really know what side im on diet definately has its ups but nothing rock solid for me, and as for Rx if it isint in a  medical book or taught in a classroom somewhere my Dr. isint gonna be able to help one bit. I do have to say extremists on both sides annoy me. And calling surgery a cure is absurd to me its like telling a double amputee that hes never gonna have to worry about shoes anymore. 

Well I guess you can say you ran an experiment and then you just plain ran. Sorry. Little UC humor (very little).
You may remember saying that I tried SCD 5 years ago and had no improvement so gave it up and just this past January tried it again but got back into it in stages. I monitored each food and even if it was SCD legal I removed it if it offended.

Today I am so glad I gave SCD another chance even though my diet is modified (still no SCD yogurt or fruit or juices, only blueberries are tolerated). So perhaps you could do more detective work on your diet and see what foods may be keeping you from improving more.

There's a guy on the SCD forum like you (Kevin) who has been on the diet for 8 months and barely improved. He is thinking of quitting because yes it IS hard.

I know that diet is the answer to my UC in a way that meds have never done.

BTW did you see my post about cabbage juice? I am totally convinced I've gotten more improvement drinking it and my new juicer makes the cabbage juice taste WONDERFUL (sweet and fresh). Please don't dive into that if you are curious. Start with just a little and see what happens. My gut seems to like it's effects.

Best wishes. At least you are this far ahead and KNOW that diet affects you. That's a good thing.

I do think of a colectomy as a cure. Would I choose to do it if I can easily maintain remission? No. Will I do it if I'm flaring and nothing is getting me into remission? In a heartbeat. I like Judy's analogy. A double amputee has a heck of a time leading a normal life. A person with a colectomy, in my opinion, doesn't have much trouble at all leading a normal life.

I think this goes back (again) to the fact that we're all individuals and there is no "one size fits all." IMHO, the SCD as a good place to start investigating what foods work for you personally, and what foods are problematic. Because it is so strict, it does eliminate a ton of foods that are potentially problematic. However, there certainly may be SCD-approved foods that cause problems for YOU or that you're just not healed enough to be able to tolerate. I couldn't eat the SCD yogurt, no matter what I tried. All dairy bothers me. I get my probiotics through supplements, instead. Some notorious SCD-approved foods that newbies who are inflamed don't tolerate well are nuts, nut flour baked goods, beans and raw fruits and vegetables. I always had problems with the "beginner" diet, which is supposed to be super safe. Go figure. My point is you must experiment and find what works for you. Keep a food diary. Start with several days of eating nothing but a handful of foods that you feel/know are "safe" for you. Then add one food every day or two and record your symptoms. Eliminate anything that bothers you - no matter if it's considered SCD safe or not. If trying to follow the SCD becomes too much of a strain, the book Listen to Your Gut offers levels of diets to follow depending on the severity of your UC and The New Eating Right for a Bad Gut offers lists of foods generally tolerated by UCers vs. those that are generally problematic (along with great info about reducing inflammation with omega3s). These books will give you some guidelines for your experiments without being as prohibitive.

Also, keep in mind dietary changes alone may not be sufficient. For me, it took the addition of probiotics to rebalance gut ecology and healing supplements to reduce inflammation and help heal the colon in order to really see improvement. Stay on your maintenance meds. Healing doesn't have to be either/or. Natural and alternative approaches can work WITH meds and can allow you to reduce or eliminate them eventually. And it takes time. In general, the longer you've been sick, the longer it's going to take to reduce symptoms. On the other hand, once you start to heal, you'll discover you can tolerate a much wider variety of foods than before.

princesa- well said.....

Hi,
Are you taking supplements along with the SCD?
The proper supplements really speed up the healing from the diet.
If not, I would suggest...

Intestinew - therapeutic dosage of L-Glutamine, an amino acid that heals the lining of the intestine.

Fish Oil - a natural anti-inflammatory

Liquid Acidophilus - in addition to the SCD yogurt to really boost the good bacteria in your gut.

Olive Leaf Extract or Candidastat - a really good anti-fungal supplement to help kill off yeasts and bad bacteria etc.

The goal of the SCD diet is to bring the intestinal flora back into balance by boosting the good bacteria and killing off the bad bacteria, yeasts, and fungus. Adding supplements to the diet makes it work much faster.

I was diagnosed with severe UC back in 2004 and put on meds by my doctor, which didn't do much. After being on the SCD and supplements, I've been symptom free and med free for years now. I consider myself fully healed.

ALSO, go really easy on any recipes containing honey like the SCD baked goods. Those should be an occasional treat. The majority of what you eat should be meat, fish, poultry, fruit, veggies, allowed dairy, yogurt, etc.

Feel free to visit my blog at www.comfytummy.com

subdued has a good point. I am in a really solid remission right now, and won't risk it for anything. I suppose I could quit my meds and try diet instead, but I'm far, far, far too cautious to do something like that. If meds weren't controlling my symptoms, I'd for sure look into diet as something to add. But I probably wouldn't quit the meds totally, unless I felt they were actually making me worse.

imagardener2, I've had people tell me I need to anyway (UCers who think diet makes a difference for everyone). Kind of baffling, quite honestly! And, how could I possibly know what diet modifications to make and which to not make? I mean, if I were to take out everything that's been suggested that UCers avoid, I wouldn't have much left! :) My point about quitting meds was that I'd have to do that to figure out diet stuff (so that I'd have symptoms to track).

I completely understand that diet affects some people, and my thoughts are that if you think food is affecting you, then do your best to figure out what that is.