questions for Levi

I did reintroduce milk. I have been drinking the Horizon organic fat free brand. I have not noticed any problems whatsoever, but I also am only drinking a small amount. I plan to continue drinking it and drinking more of it. I agree you should try it it and see what happens. I sincerely hope it continues to work for me and works for your daughter. Some foods just aren't worth eating without milk, especially as a kid.

As far as the Cat's Claw goes, I have been doing a lot of research on that latley so I hope my answer doesn't put you into a cataonic state and you regret asking:

First, I had gone 50 BM's in a row without seeing blood, then last month I saw the tiniest amount, just a small string maybe 1/10 of a mm. I mean a TINY amount. It was a few weeks after starting Cat's Claw and begining my Rowasa taper. I thought both of those might be culprits and had a minor hissy fit. Well, this past weekend I reached 50 again and surpassed it with much fanfare with only that single incident in between. So, I haven't been taking the Cat's Claw for the last 3-4 weeks but think maybe I overreacted in eliminating it. When I saw that tiny bit of blood I was on a business trip and VERY stressed. So, I haven't been taking it long enough to find out one way or the other. But the evidence I've found on the internet shows it being a very powerful anti-inflammatory especially for UC or CD.


My concern with Cat's Claw (this is where I need advice, I've been thinking about posting a topic on this for a while) is a lot of information on the drug says be careful taking it if you suffer from a disease that affects the immune system. It will even have this disclaimer on websites that have the following powerful evidence that Cat's Claw is a very good supplement for UC:


Experiments have been done with rats and those given the Cat's Claw have nearly perfect GI-tracts and the others had "pronounced disruption."

A study was done with nine UC patients and those receiving Cat's Claw saw their UC improve dramatically.

Taking Cat's Claw can offset the negative affects that taking NSAIDs will have on your intestinatl track, making them OK to take with IBD

Cat's Claw prevents the activation of Nuclear Factor KB-a protein linked with inflammation.

Several sites mention its ability to inhibit growth of cancerous tumors.

And finally, the reason I started taking it, Cat's Claw is considered a "potent inhibitor" of TNF-alpha production. Isn't TNF-alpha a huge component in our gut inflammation? This is the biggie for me.

So I'm sort of torn myself, this seems like it does wodnerful things against inflammation, but what about the fact it might cause the immune system to act up? Any ideas?

Here's a good site about CC:

http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et1298/et1298s9.html

I take it for UC and for general heart health. It does wonderful stuff for your digestive and cardiovascular systems, I just don't know about the "activate you immune response" deal.

Lastly, I get mine from Vitacost and it is the NSI brand. It is cheap, but I think it is a good brand and I use NSI for all of my supplements.

Hope you don't regret asking. ;)

KC, I feel like I gave you a weak response because I'm new with trying Cat's Claw as well. But it's amazing you asked when you did. Last night I was debating hard whether to start back taking it or not for the first time since I had stopped. I actually found that aritcle last night while reading up on it. I think I am going to start back tonight. Are you going to start your daughter on it?


My bottle says serving size is one casule daily (500mg.) The directions; however, say take 1-3 capsules daily. I'm going to start at just 500mg. What about you?