I was diagnosed with MC about 4 years ago. I used a combination of conventional treatments (steroids) and natural treatment (colonics and diet). My original problem cleared up, but following a recent surgery to remove an ovary, my problem has flared up again probably due to the antibiotics and NSAIDS taken after surgery. I also have a tendency to suffer from an over growth of candida in my intestines.
After reading some posts here, I now realize that I have been eating EVERYTHING wrong. My last bout with this disease, I experimented with a raw, vegan diet and had some success, but it is hard to follow continuously.
Has anyone had any success using a short juice fast? I have a high-quality juicer and can make fresh juices. Another thought is to make "green smoothies" in my Vitamix.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
New to this forum - Does juice fasting work?
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi Anna,
Welcome to the board. I'm sorry that you're having major symptoms again. You're probably right about the antibiotics and NSAIDs causing your flare. And, of course, the candida can cause the leaky gut syndrome, which goes hand-in-hand with MC, to cause all sorts of additional symptoms.
A vegan diet is not as much an issue, (provided that you can get enough protein to promote the healing process), as the raw fruits and veggies, of course. After I discovered that citrus juices made me sick as a dog, I sort of lost interest in juices, so I don't have any experience with using them as part of a recovery program. I did drink a lot of smoothies for a while, but I leaned more toward the "safer" fruits and berries, (frozen bananas, blueberries, mango, straberries, etc., swimming in coconut milk, or apple cidar), rather than vegetables. I eventually decided that I got sick less often if I avoided those fruits, though, so I stopped making smoothies after I got serious about my recovery.
Incidentally, concerning fasting - while osmotic diarrhea can usually be stopped by fasting, in the case of secretory diarrhea, (which is the type most often associated with MC), the diarrhea will not stop until the supply of electrolytes and water is so severely depleted that the risk of death due to dehydration is a serious concern. IOW, fasting is not a safe way to control the D associated with MC. Many, many members here have spent time, (more than once), in an ER, due to life-threatening dehydration problems.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
Welcome to the board. I'm sorry that you're having major symptoms again. You're probably right about the antibiotics and NSAIDs causing your flare. And, of course, the candida can cause the leaky gut syndrome, which goes hand-in-hand with MC, to cause all sorts of additional symptoms.
A vegan diet is not as much an issue, (provided that you can get enough protein to promote the healing process), as the raw fruits and veggies, of course. After I discovered that citrus juices made me sick as a dog, I sort of lost interest in juices, so I don't have any experience with using them as part of a recovery program. I did drink a lot of smoothies for a while, but I leaned more toward the "safer" fruits and berries, (frozen bananas, blueberries, mango, straberries, etc., swimming in coconut milk, or apple cidar), rather than vegetables. I eventually decided that I got sick less often if I avoided those fruits, though, so I stopped making smoothies after I got serious about my recovery.
Incidentally, concerning fasting - while osmotic diarrhea can usually be stopped by fasting, in the case of secretory diarrhea, (which is the type most often associated with MC), the diarrhea will not stop until the supply of electrolytes and water is so severely depleted that the risk of death due to dehydration is a serious concern. IOW, fasting is not a safe way to control the D associated with MC. Many, many members here have spent time, (more than once), in an ER, due to life-threatening dehydration problems.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex: Thanks for the advice.
I would just like to clarify one thing. When I referred to "juice fasting". I was referring to things like fresh vegetable juices such as kale mixed with celery (lemon and apple added for flavor) or carrot juice, so I think I would be getting enough electrolytes.
I am just trying to figure out a way to calm my colon down. It seems everything I eat or drink irritates it!
I would just like to clarify one thing. When I referred to "juice fasting". I was referring to things like fresh vegetable juices such as kale mixed with celery (lemon and apple added for flavor) or carrot juice, so I think I would be getting enough electrolytes.
I am just trying to figure out a way to calm my colon down. It seems everything I eat or drink irritates it!
Anna V.
Hi, Anna, and welcome. I'm sorry to hear your symptoms have come back. NSAIDs and antibiotics were part of my initial set of triggers, too.
I have been a juicer and smoothie fan for years, but have to agree with Tex that the first order of business is to get your system calmed down, and fiber can be very irritating when our guts are so inflamed. I had also been leaning vegetarian/vegan, and it's been a big change of gears now that I have learned which foods cause a reaction for me. I sympathize with what you say about feeling as though you've been eating everything wrong. Most of us do poorly with salads and raw foods, and the insoluble fiber would presumably still be in your fresh juices.
So I agree with Tex, I wouldn't juice-fast at least till you get some symptom relief, and then you may not feel you need to. I do drink smoothies some days of the week now, after about 4+ months of healing. I started very slowly (small amounts of greens, only safe fruits, etc.). My original 'safe' foods were bananas, homemade chicken soup, and gradually I added boiled potato, well-cooked carrots, etc. The specifics of what works will be different for each of us, but as you've been reading, the Likeliest Suspects are gluten and dairy, followed by soy. In addition to those I am avoiding all grains and all legumes at the moment, though I think that might not be necessary, because it's working. You might consider Enterolab testing, which is how I discovered I also react to eggs. There's a lot of info here about that - but many people have also figured out their intolerances on their own, as Tex himself did.
Like you, my original problem with MC seemed to clear up, and then came back years later. And like you, *everything* seemed to cause me to react in the beginning... that makes it really hard to figure out the real culprits. Did you originally take Entocort, or some other steroid? Many have used that enteric form, which has less systemic effect, with good results. Some people have been able to discontinue them, and some take them for an extended period or definitely, often at a lower dose. Others are attempting to tame the MC beast with diet alone. (I did use Pepto Bismol in the beginning, which was very helpful to me but is not universally well tolerated.)
Finding this forum has made an enormous difference, and I hope you'll find the same relief and assistance here, and start feeling better soon.
Sara
I have been a juicer and smoothie fan for years, but have to agree with Tex that the first order of business is to get your system calmed down, and fiber can be very irritating when our guts are so inflamed. I had also been leaning vegetarian/vegan, and it's been a big change of gears now that I have learned which foods cause a reaction for me. I sympathize with what you say about feeling as though you've been eating everything wrong. Most of us do poorly with salads and raw foods, and the insoluble fiber would presumably still be in your fresh juices.
So I agree with Tex, I wouldn't juice-fast at least till you get some symptom relief, and then you may not feel you need to. I do drink smoothies some days of the week now, after about 4+ months of healing. I started very slowly (small amounts of greens, only safe fruits, etc.). My original 'safe' foods were bananas, homemade chicken soup, and gradually I added boiled potato, well-cooked carrots, etc. The specifics of what works will be different for each of us, but as you've been reading, the Likeliest Suspects are gluten and dairy, followed by soy. In addition to those I am avoiding all grains and all legumes at the moment, though I think that might not be necessary, because it's working. You might consider Enterolab testing, which is how I discovered I also react to eggs. There's a lot of info here about that - but many people have also figured out their intolerances on their own, as Tex himself did.
Like you, my original problem with MC seemed to clear up, and then came back years later. And like you, *everything* seemed to cause me to react in the beginning... that makes it really hard to figure out the real culprits. Did you originally take Entocort, or some other steroid? Many have used that enteric form, which has less systemic effect, with good results. Some people have been able to discontinue them, and some take them for an extended period or definitely, often at a lower dose. Others are attempting to tame the MC beast with diet alone. (I did use Pepto Bismol in the beginning, which was very helpful to me but is not universally well tolerated.)
Finding this forum has made an enormous difference, and I hope you'll find the same relief and assistance here, and start feeling better soon.
Sara
Sara:
I did take some kind of steriod in the beginning, but I don't remember which one. I am currently finishing up a course of prednizone. I don't like the idea of steriods, but the symptoms got too bad. I have some measure of relief. I am trying to keep to a bland diet, which I find difficult. I seem to get the worst symptoms first thing in the morning.
By the way is microscopic colitus the same as lymphocytic colitus? I was actually diagnosed, with lymphocytic colitus, but I mistakenly used the abbreviation MC instead of LC.
I did take some kind of steriod in the beginning, but I don't remember which one. I am currently finishing up a course of prednizone. I don't like the idea of steriods, but the symptoms got too bad. I have some measure of relief. I am trying to keep to a bland diet, which I find difficult. I seem to get the worst symptoms first thing in the morning.
By the way is microscopic colitus the same as lymphocytic colitus? I was actually diagnosed, with lymphocytic colitus, but I mistakenly used the abbreviation MC instead of LC.
Anna V.
Anna,
Denise got there first... so now you know you weren't mistaken after all ;) CC & LC are called 'microscopic' because they can only be diagnosed when biopsies are put under the microscope to look for the cell changes involved (lympocytes in your case, and collagen where it shouldn't be for those of us with collagenous colitis - like me). There is also mastocystic enteritis, which is even less likely to be diagnosed because the biopsy sample has to be treated with a special stain for the mast cells to show up. For all of them, unless someone's looking for 'em, they don't tend to be found, so they are often believed to be rarer than they are... or at least rarer than *I* think they are!
Morning symptoms are common - that is definitely my pattern. Whatever we ate the day before takes some time to reach the small intestine and then the large intestine - the reaction doesn't take place immediately but farther 'downstream' - and that means that the morning upsets could have been from anything you ate the day before, not just from dinner. It is even possible that a reaction can span more than one day (last time I inadvertently ate gluten, it took several days for the reaction to stop, and almost a week before I felt 'normal').
It's good that the pred is giving you relief - and I don't blame you for not wanting to be on such a powerful medication. If you are still having symptoms, you must be eating something to which you have a pretty powerful reaction, powerful enough to break through the steroid's effects. The medication gives you an opportunity to get better, by dropping those things, so you don't have an even-worse re-flare when the medication is discontinued. Once your system is calm, you can always carefully re-try a food, so you know for sure which are the real culprits. (I knew without a doubt, before the testing, that gluten and dairy were among mine, and would never knowingly retest them.)
I don't eat blandly now, but did in the beginning - only because I was trying to rule out everything that could possibly be making me feel so sick. It takes being prepared, for sure - hard to keep up with that when you're feeling awful. But it was soooo worth it. I was able to stop a quite extreme reaction in about a week, with diet and Pepto Bismol. I still had some healing to go and some learning to do, for sure, but I could leave the house and socialize and work, and stop the extreme weight loss (and fear).
I hope you're gathering what you need - information, boiled potatoes, whatever it takes! and are able to feel better soon.
Sara
Denise got there first... so now you know you weren't mistaken after all ;) CC & LC are called 'microscopic' because they can only be diagnosed when biopsies are put under the microscope to look for the cell changes involved (lympocytes in your case, and collagen where it shouldn't be for those of us with collagenous colitis - like me). There is also mastocystic enteritis, which is even less likely to be diagnosed because the biopsy sample has to be treated with a special stain for the mast cells to show up. For all of them, unless someone's looking for 'em, they don't tend to be found, so they are often believed to be rarer than they are... or at least rarer than *I* think they are!
Morning symptoms are common - that is definitely my pattern. Whatever we ate the day before takes some time to reach the small intestine and then the large intestine - the reaction doesn't take place immediately but farther 'downstream' - and that means that the morning upsets could have been from anything you ate the day before, not just from dinner. It is even possible that a reaction can span more than one day (last time I inadvertently ate gluten, it took several days for the reaction to stop, and almost a week before I felt 'normal').
It's good that the pred is giving you relief - and I don't blame you for not wanting to be on such a powerful medication. If you are still having symptoms, you must be eating something to which you have a pretty powerful reaction, powerful enough to break through the steroid's effects. The medication gives you an opportunity to get better, by dropping those things, so you don't have an even-worse re-flare when the medication is discontinued. Once your system is calm, you can always carefully re-try a food, so you know for sure which are the real culprits. (I knew without a doubt, before the testing, that gluten and dairy were among mine, and would never knowingly retest them.)
I don't eat blandly now, but did in the beginning - only because I was trying to rule out everything that could possibly be making me feel so sick. It takes being prepared, for sure - hard to keep up with that when you're feeling awful. But it was soooo worth it. I was able to stop a quite extreme reaction in about a week, with diet and Pepto Bismol. I still had some healing to go and some learning to do, for sure, but I could leave the house and socialize and work, and stop the extreme weight loss (and fear).
I hope you're gathering what you need - information, boiled potatoes, whatever it takes! and are able to feel better soon.
Sara
Denise,
No need to apologize - you are always welcome to contribute, of course! I didn't take the question as directed to me personally at all, and you were right there with good info.
When I was first here, getting helpful info from many people was incredibly helpful, even though some of it overlapped very closely, while I was trying to get my mind around what was happening to me. Anna, I hope you're finding it helpful to be here, too.
Love,
Sara
No need to apologize - you are always welcome to contribute, of course! I didn't take the question as directed to me personally at all, and you were right there with good info.
When I was first here, getting helpful info from many people was incredibly helpful, even though some of it overlapped very closely, while I was trying to get my mind around what was happening to me. Anna, I hope you're finding it helpful to be here, too.
Love,
Sara
Sara and Denise:
Thanks for your responses. I am grateful to have found this forum!
I will have to experiment with what I am eating. I have eliminated the spicy food and corn products that is usually in my diet and am eating white rice and chicken or turkey. I have been trying to remember what worked last time, and I think I had to cut out all caffeinated beverages. Bananas give me heartburn, so I can't eat them (except on occasion in the morning). Potatoes sound pretty good. I also seem to have some luck with applesauce.
One thing that surprises me, is about the fiber. What I was diagnosed, the gastroenterologist prescribed Citrucel pills.
Thanks for your responses. I am grateful to have found this forum!
I will have to experiment with what I am eating. I have eliminated the spicy food and corn products that is usually in my diet and am eating white rice and chicken or turkey. I have been trying to remember what worked last time, and I think I had to cut out all caffeinated beverages. Bananas give me heartburn, so I can't eat them (except on occasion in the morning). Potatoes sound pretty good. I also seem to have some luck with applesauce. One thing that surprises me, is about the fiber. What I was diagnosed, the gastroenterologist prescribed Citrucel pills.
Anna V.
Good to hear you sounding encouraged and making progress (and I'm grateful to be here, too - every day). There's a lot of 'common wisdom' that's not so wise - fiber's on that list. I've always been a fiber fan myself (lots of fruit/veg/'whole grains' - ack!). Caffeine is fine for me, and for many of us (contrary to the popular 'wisdom') - but not for everyone, and you're right to question anything and everything.
Chicken/turkey/white rice/applesauce are all good bets (of course not everyone can handle all of those, but they are not big red flags - and more important, they seem to be working for you). Hope the potatoes work in... and fear not, there will probably be a non-beige food returning to your life at some point
I think fiber is less of a problem when we are healed, and some people are probably always more sensitive to it than others.
Congratulations on your progress,
Sara
Chicken/turkey/white rice/applesauce are all good bets (of course not everyone can handle all of those, but they are not big red flags - and more important, they seem to be working for you). Hope the potatoes work in... and fear not, there will probably be a non-beige food returning to your life at some point
I think fiber is less of a problem when we are healed, and some people are probably always more sensitive to it than others.
Congratulations on your progress,
Sara
