so I bought some nopal...

Hi all!

I've been using nopal for about two weeks. Prior to starting, I was not having any blood, I had soft but formed stools, and I had random urgency (usually after my morning soda, as usual). After starting Nopal (I drank about 16 oz in the morning), I suddenly saw some blood in the morning for 2 days, then nothing for a day, then in the morning for a couple trips, then no blood since. For me, the beginning of blood either ends in a day or two (like a random wave from my colitis) or it lasts a month and comes with urgency, stinging pain, and dull pains (as we all know). This time, I had no pain - just blood; no urgency, and mostly formed stools (minus one trip after two nights of big salads). My girlfriend is a huge believer in holistic/natural remedies (i.e. healing from the inside out, not masking with meds) and had a theory about why blood started coming out without any other symptom (i.e. pain & urgency), which is/was when the body heals, especially ulcers in our large intestines, (stay with me because I was skeptical, plus it's hard to explain in my words) may not be totally healed and would 're-open' from time to time while taking the nopal and healing. While healing, the body is fixing those ulcers so they open up, or something, during the healing process and then close... if that makes sense. Like I said, I looked at her like she was nuts :) After about the 5th or 6th day, I haven't had any blood, no urgency even with my morning pops, mostly firm stools (something I haven't had in a long time), and a calm feeling in my lower abdomen (again, something foreign to me since '97). I can only surmise that her theory may be accurate, though my explanation and relaying it to you sucks.

All of this to say that I think it's doing something good for me and even if you are having blood while taking it, check to see if you are having all of the other symptoms that come with blood and give it a little time.

Best of luck to us all!

The nopal is in the fridge. It was already cut up in a conv. Bag so i hope that is ok. First glass tomorrow, positive thoughts.

I'm glad people are posting their results, so I'll post mine although they are very early because I rarely let things go downhill, preferring to quit sooner than later. I've quit nopal after 3 days due to extreme constipation that I haven't had since quitting gluten, and painful BM's as a result of the constipation. First IBS multiple BM's then extreme constipation--no fun.

Right now I'd rec. people who have diarrhea to try it but not constipation. I did not drink 8 oz. a day and after the first IBS episode stuck to my diet modification. I may try a smaller amount of it in a day or two and give it another shot, perhaps my gut needs to become accustomed to it. However I've had no blood at all unlike others who are trying it.

What a cranky piece of equipment my gut is. Glad others are doing well with it.

CCinPA,
My experience has been to cut the cactus nodules off, cut in 3" pieces, slice them in half exposing the white insides and dumping it all in water overnight. By morning it's gel like, thicker a day later, and a tad thicker the third.

So far I haven't needed to scrape anything. Try this to save time, frustration, and some sliced fingers

Regarding constipation, I thought this was like aloe Vera in that the more one consumed, the more you'd go. am I wrong on this one?

I have noticed some on this thread have been drinking it for several days or weeks.  The original poster said something about only drinking it for five days and then he was done (unless he got any flare type symptoms and drank a glass at that point.)  Are there any tips for the frequency that we should be drinking, or how much per day?  Or is it more of an individual decision based on the severity of your disease?  I'm currently symptom free for the most part (I have UC) but I still have lingering pain on the lower left side.  Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks, for the tip, RF! I just made a new batch and that saved me so much time! As far as the constipation goes -- I really don't know

It's been a month now and I am so so so close to feeling like I am 100% in remission. Going 1-2 times a day, fully formed, now seeing only very very faint blood every few days. When I started it was 2-5 (or more) per day, very soft & only semi formed with a good bit of blood every 2-3 days. And that had been going on since June. I have been drinking 24 oz of the water I make. Starting to cut back on the amount now so I don't get myself constipated. I suspect that everyone reacts to this stuff differently (just like every other treatment ha!). It hasn't constipated me yet, but since I am so close to being fully healed I don't feel the need to keep drinking that much every day. That blip I had last week I think was a bug and had nothing to do with UC or meds -- I felt funky all that day and was back to normal the next day and have been ever since.

Nix -- we don't know much about the OP of the original thread because he hasn't been back. All he said about dosage was 1 large glass in the morning and maybe another at night and that he only did it for 5 days. We don't know how bad he was or how potent his water was. I have seen pics of these pads that are really huge. The ones I get are maybe 6" long. I had been drinking 16 oz in the AM and 8 oz PM. I think everyone who is trying this is drinking different amounts and had different symptoms. Since you are symptom free and just are trying to get rid of some minor inflammation, you probably shouldn't drink that much -- maybe just try 8 oz a day and see what happens. This is all pretty experimental. There's a lot of information about the anti inflammatory properties of nopal online, but nothing except that original thread that says how to make the water.

I have no intention of ever stopping my maintenance meds, but plan to stop drinking nopal once I am sure there is no more inflammation and then use it as my go to at even the slightest hint of a flare. I don't see how it could hurt to drink it every day for a long time from everything I have read about this stuff. I just don't want to risk a big flare by stopping my meds.

Post Edited (CCinPA) : 2/11/2015 4:19:58 PM (GMT-7)

i got inspired with your posts and went searching for nopal in poland, and i've found many stores importing it from mexico, however all their ads stress the laxative function of nopal and i must say i'm a bit scared because diarrhea is a disaster in my case

I cut up two leaves and put them in a large plastic lemonade pitcher(probaby gallon sized) with water and started with it last night. Drank a glass last night and a glass this morning...and I seem to be going backwards now. 3 bowel movements a day has turned into 4 already by 1 pm, and every time the stools are loose, unformed and messy. the pain that has slowly started to subside over the last month or so is returning and I am hurting today. I did not have this problem back in February before the flare when I used nopal fruit instead of leaves. I gave up on it after the doc put me on Uceris.
I wonder if I am using too much nopal in the water? I wonder if it is irritating the flare and hurting it instead of helping? Wonder if it and the Uceris combined is having a negative effect.

Post Edited (DJB387) : 3/30/2015 1:45:22 PM (GMT-6)

DJB
I always quit new things if bad symptoms appear, don't need to puzzle why. Nopal made me very constipated, to the point of pain, so I quit. Your gut may head in a different direction with nopal. So quit.

Any update on this?

Anyone mind putting pictures of this up so that I can show that to the grocery store folks and/or tell me Spanish name of this thing.

I was actually considering getting powder to use it as a prebiotic but if its as simple as putting it in water, I will happily do it.

O.k maybe a off the wall crazy question. Where I walk my dog nightly there are a ton of cactus - I believe them to be Nopal, but there seems to be two different strains of them. One strain has long needles but only one needle comes out of a single node. Then there is another type that has smaller length needles but at each node instead of just one needle there are three needles that stick out in different directions. My questions are they both Nopal, do they both work, is one better than the other? I have seriously considered "harvesting" some of them to try this Nopal thing but don't know which one I should pick if either one of them. I tried looking at the mexican market but they didn't have any in the store, my thought is because there is a ton of it for free in any given field around here.

lol @ "cheerleader in-chief" :)

Nopal has kept me from going to biologics so far. Hope it continues!

Today was a little worrisome. Before my scope last week I hadn't seen blood for a long time -- probably only saw a faint trace 2 or 3 times since early March. Then a couple days after the scope I saw a small bit. Wasn't concerned because I knew that could happen from the biopsies. Only saw it once. Then this evening I saw a little again. Was about the same as last week -- just a little fluffy turd with a bit of bright red in it. Everything else is back to normal though. Going to go back up to 24 oz a day of nopal. It's possible the scope irritated things and it's taking a while to heal. Hope that's all it is, because the scope only showed a few patches of mild inflammation and everything else was healed with only evidence of past disease. I see my GI in June so I'll get the results of the biopsies then.