Added success with 10mg amitriptyline.

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:41 pm

WOW - entocort for that long!! I feel better knowing that it should be okay to stay on it for that long. What is amitriptyline? you mention fast motility - I believe I have that as well as my stool is always yellow but I don't eat anything besides chicken, beef, green beans, carrots and yogurt (24 hr SCD yogurt homemade). When I added avocado back into my shakes last week my stool went green !! Tex mentioned that fast motility

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Normal transit time in the colon is about 24 to 30 hours, but this can vary depending on the individual and diet. Rapid transit is a common symptom of MC, and it's usually caused by the inflammation, which prevents the proper absorption of electrolytes, and that triggers D.

Most of us eliminate from our diet the foods that cause inflammation, and as the inflammation subsides, digestion will improve, the gut will begin to heal, and motility will return to normal.

But if you are low on stomach acid, that's still going to prevent your digestive process from working normally, so you will probably still have a rapid transit problem even if all the foods in your diet are safe.

The safest way to slow down motility (without decreasing stomach acid) is to take Imodium (loperamide), which is available OTC (in the U. S.), or Lomitil (Diphenoxylate and atropine), which is available by prescription only (in the U. S.).

You can slow down motility by taking an antispasmodic drug such as Levsin (hyosyamine), but that will reduce stomach acid even further, so if you happen to be low on stomach acid to begin with, that could handicap your already-compromised digestive ability even more.

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carolm · Post by **carolm** » Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:27 pm

Babs and Sunny,
thanks for your kind words. To answer your questions Amitriptyline is actually in the anti-depressant family and was marketed as Elavil. It's been out for ages. In large doses it was used to treat depression but somewhere along the line they learned that in small doses like 10-25mg it affects the smooth muscles of the intestinal tract and slows down motility. Since I am C prominent that would seem like a bad thing but in fact it made a huge difference to me. I was pulling out all the stops with my diet and nothing else was having an impact.

It's funny that I started this thread one year ago. Since that time my husband had 2 heart procedures at KU Med Center (4 hours away) plus one other hospitalization on Christmas day for A-fib that went out of control. I KNOW that if I had not had the help of the Amitriptyline I would not have made it through his first surgery which because of complications resulted in an 8 day ICU stay (we were prepared for a 4 day stay).

Every month my motility became less and less problematic. Instead of one rough day a week it became one rough day every two weeks, then once a month. And in August of this year when school started up again I went the entire month with no problems, and by that I mean no days that my LC or motility required Imodium or that I had to leave work due to my LC. The same thing for September and October. Now it's been long enough that I now trust that I will not have problems. My days of the 'aggressive bowel' seem to be behind me. I'm still taking the Amitriptyline but I feel that now that I've healed I barely need it. I still have to be careful with fiber in the foods I eat, which will increase my bm's the next day for sure, but that's not the same as my gut having a mind of it's own and just emptying everything in about 90 minutes on some random day.
I don't think the motility issues are common but I wanted to talk about them because someone out there may be struggling too, and I want them to know the meds helped and now I view it as a stage I went through.

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:53 pm

thanks Carol - I know what you mean as far as everything going through you in 90 mins - that's me too with "D"!! Maybe that drug will help me - I guess it's worth a try. I did try Zoloft years ago and made me violently ill yet no issues with paxil or Prozac. Do you know if it is from the same family as Zoloft?? Maybe I should try immodium first to see if anything changes?? I always hated trying it as I used to figure I had a parasite and just needed to eliminate everything all the time. So I have to change my thinking and understand 1 BM a day is a good thing I guess. Was your stool colour yellow or on the lighter side as well or ever green?

Leah · Post by **Leah** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:25 pm

Isn't both Zoloft and Prozac bad contraindicated for MC? TEX?

Post by **tex** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:58 pm

Leah wrote:Isn't both Zoloft and Prozac bad contraindicated for MC? TEX?

Yes, all SSRIs are known to cause MC.

Tex

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:29 pm

are you serious!!! I have been on those for 17 years !! So should avoid anti depressants altogether then? I can't believe that could be the reason I have this dreadful disease UGH!!.

PS your book just arrived TEX - can't wait to start reading it!!

Also went to allergist yesterday - highly allergic to the same things I was in 1998 - most trees especially birch, alder, willow and most nuts and cross react with all fruit that grow on a tree and raw veggies and sunflower seeds and plantains and dandelions and dock/sorrel (have no idea what that is) dust mites etc.

He says by me ignoring these allergies for years after being tested in 98 I can cause more harm to my gut. he says with gut issues a lot of foods will not show up. He says I have oral allergy syndrome and will look at the histamine issue after doing the RAST test (blood test) for inhalants and more food first. says I should have done years ago allergy shots to the birch and alder trees as they are the worst and feels I wouldn't be where I am today. says I should still do them now to see if helps. but after yesterday - I am nauseas again to foods I was getting accustomed to like chicken broth. made me nauseas tonight as did my left over steak from last night. Very yellow stool too from all the cashews I have been eating (cookies made with the flour and pancakes ) as dying for some type of carb!!!

My edema in ankles is bad and he gave me allegra to help calm down my back - my heart reacted to it with racing etc. but was calming down about 4 hours later. Today just not feeling good at all.

UGH! this is all so frustrating - but I did find a mast cell dr in Canada so hopefully I can see her - dr. joneja in Kamloops BC!!

Her website is very detailed http://www.allergynutrition.com/index.php about allergies/mast cell etc. so am excited to maybe find the missing link to my remission.

Back to the anti depressants: so should I avoid altogether Tex since being on them for so many years? I have now got in to see our local mental health unit and will be seeing them weekly to help me with this food frustration etc.

babs

carolm · Post by **carolm** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:56 pm

Babs, Amitriptyline is a tricylic antidepressant and is not related to Zoloft. Keep in mind what Leah and Tex said in the posts between yours and this one. There is evidence that the SSRIs can cause MC. If you are taking one like Prozac and not seeing results with your diet changes it could be that Prozac is keeping your gut inflamed so your MC continues. Zoloft is the SSRI that is most frequently named as contributing to the development of MC. Even though Amitriptyline is in the anti-depressant family, the 10mg I'm taking will not give me any antidepressant effects. I believe doses for depression are 100mg and up. Doses that high would knock me out for days I'm afraid. And doses that high might aggravate MC rather than help it- IDK. I would urge people to be cautious if considering it at higher doses. In terms of treating depression I believe the tricyclics had more side effects and were slower to reach a therapeutic level than the new SSRIs. That's why they fell out of favor.

As far as stool color I didn't have any unusual colors. Below is a link to an article with a chart that discusses unusual stool color and what those colors may mean.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stool-color/AN00772

There are other meds for motility but I'm not familiar with them, I just know that others have mentioned them (Lomotil maybe?). I will say that even though I'm C prominent if I was having spasms or cramping and aggressive motility I would take a couple of Imodium to slow it down-- mainly because if I'm at work I don't want to take anything sedating and in about an hour things would calm down. So if you aren't taking Imodium it's well worth a try. Most people have no side effects from Imodium.

I had also hoped for a parasite or something easier to fix but no luck. I had and will always have LC-- I decided I may as well hit it head-on.

Hope this helps.
take care,
Carol

carolm · Post by **carolm** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:02 pm

O000ps Babs--- you and I must have been typing at the same time. When I posted mine, yours popped up too. I hope my post above still makes sense.

Here's a good article on mast cell and GI motility-- I believe I got this from Mary Beth, our favorite, exceptionally knowlegible dietician here:

http://alford.grimtrojan.com/Mast_Cells ... isease.htm

Carol

Post by **tex** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:17 pm

Barb,

Carol covered the problem with SSRIs causing MC. Not everyone who takes an SSRI develops MC, obviously, and not everyone who has MC reacts to SSRIs, but we have quite a few members who can trace the origin of their MC to taking an SSRI, and for them, they cannot reach remission unless they stop taking the SSRI that caused their inflammation. In some cases, just avoiding the SSRI will bring remission, but in most cases where the patient has been sick for years, diet changes are also necessary, in addition to avoiding the SSRI.

If you feel that you need to take an antidepressant, as Joe suggested — ask your doctor about Wellbutrin (buproprion). It has fewer side effects than the others, and is less likely to cause MC.

Tex

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:14 pm

thanks you guys!! What is your take Tex on my allergy test results as stated in above message?

Post by **tex** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:50 am

Barb,

Those results appear to be similar to the results posted by many members who share their results of such tests. Since I have pollen allergies, if I were to have that test done, my results would probably be similar also.

Tex

Leah · Post by **Leah** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:47 pm

Barb, it sounds like you have a histamine/mast cell problem. I can't wait to hear what the specialist says if you get in to see her. Just to let you know, left over proteins are high in histamines, so try to only eat freshly cooked. I know, I know.... yet another thing to think about. This whole process takes a while to figure out, but you are on the right path. Hang in there ( and switch your antidepressant if you can)
Good luck
Leah

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:15 pm

Thanks Leah appreciate your support!! yes, no more leftovers but so difficult - if I cook something for lunch can I still eat the leftover for supper ?? or is that still not going to work?

I am first going to try LDN before anti depressant and see what happens.

From my experiences and now being aware of everything I am pretty sure this is all allergy/histamine related. now just to fix it which from my reading there's not a heck of a lot to do for it. I am going to try the allergy shots - anyone here done that?

babs

Leah · Post by **Leah** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:20 pm

Food you cook the same day should be fine. It's easy to get a list of high histamine foods on line. Try to avoid them as much as possible. Taking antihistamines definitely helped me, but we are all different.
Leah

barbiem · Post by **barbiem** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:35 pm

what about cooking the food then freezing it after being cooked??