MC and perimenopause
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MC and perimenopause
I am recently diagnosed with MC and also having a horrible time with perimenopause symptoms. I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a link between fluctuating hormones and MC. My digestive symptoms started around the same time that I entered perimenopause, initially diagnosed as IBS.
Hi Tonya,
Welcome to our internet family. This is a somewhat common problem, and it tends to complicate treatment programs. Yes, the symptoms of MC can be made worse by hormonal changes, while in some cases the symptoms may improve. And conversely, when MC is active, it can also lead to hormonal changes that wouldn't normally occur. MC can cause inflammation to spread to endocrine glands, and the inflammation tends to alter their hormone production.
Compared with someone in the general population, we are about 7 times as likely to have a thyroid problem, for example. And thyroid output tends to alter many body functions. For example, the thyroid either directly or indirectly regulates (or significantly affects) our metabolism, heart rate, and blood pressure. It can cause adrenal fatigue, and it can alter the production of various sex hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc.
Some women find that HRT prevents them from being able to reach remission from MC, even when the treatment is bioidentical, and/or administered by means of a transdermal patch. Oral contraceptives are a problem for many. For some women, MC will go into remission during pregnancy, while for others, the symptoms only become worse during pregnancy. When MC is active during perimenipause, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish which issue is causing which symptoms, and treatments can conflict.
The odds are extremely high that your "IBS" was simply misdiagnosed MC, and the onset of perimenopause triggered hormonal changes that made your MC more aggressive. On the other hand, in some cases, MC can trigger early onset of perimenopause.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
Welcome to our internet family. This is a somewhat common problem, and it tends to complicate treatment programs. Yes, the symptoms of MC can be made worse by hormonal changes, while in some cases the symptoms may improve. And conversely, when MC is active, it can also lead to hormonal changes that wouldn't normally occur. MC can cause inflammation to spread to endocrine glands, and the inflammation tends to alter their hormone production.
Compared with someone in the general population, we are about 7 times as likely to have a thyroid problem, for example. And thyroid output tends to alter many body functions. For example, the thyroid either directly or indirectly regulates (or significantly affects) our metabolism, heart rate, and blood pressure. It can cause adrenal fatigue, and it can alter the production of various sex hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc.
Some women find that HRT prevents them from being able to reach remission from MC, even when the treatment is bioidentical, and/or administered by means of a transdermal patch. Oral contraceptives are a problem for many. For some women, MC will go into remission during pregnancy, while for others, the symptoms only become worse during pregnancy. When MC is active during perimenipause, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish which issue is causing which symptoms, and treatments can conflict.
The odds are extremely high that your "IBS" was simply misdiagnosed MC, and the onset of perimenopause triggered hormonal changes that made your MC more aggressive. On the other hand, in some cases, MC can trigger early onset of perimenopause.
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.
Thanks for the welcome. I ordered your book from Amazon last week and have read most of it. There is a lot of good information in there.
Here is my history. I started having some diarrhea about 6 years ago, a couple of months after entering perimenopause. The symptoms lasted a couple of weeks and then resolved for 6 months or so. The diarrhea was not a main issue for the next few years, the main problem was,nausea, gas, bloating, and stomach rumbling. Earlier this year the diarrhea came back but was not uncontrollable, I was basically having loose BMs at my normal BM times. This lasted for about 4 months but worsened over the summer to numerous loose BMs during the day and overnight. At that point I was tested for celiac and they did fecal tests for parasites, etc. All came back negative so I was referred to a GI who immediately suspected MC and I was diagnosed with CC after a colonoscopy. I have never taken medication for it ( I am highly anti-drug and pro natural cures). Pepto and immodium don't resolve symptoms at all, and no herbal treatments have helped either. The diarrhea resolved itself for about 6 weeks in the fall but I had a lot of nausea and bloating at that time. At this time the nausea got better but the loose BMs started again but they never got past the point of just being loose at my normal BM times. My hormones were completely out of control at this point also. I have not altered my diet at all during this time. I have also been working with an acupuncturist for a couple of years. I am considering the food intolerance problem but I don't feel at this point that that is my problem and neither does my acupuncturist, but I am not ruling out anything at this time. I have been eating a healthy diet for over 7 years (no refined foods and very little processed foods) and I have been a strict vegetarian for over 5 years now because meat started making me nauseous. I am now basically a vegan except for honey and a small amount of casein in my cheese substitute. My acupuncturist had me remove dairy from my diet along with raw and cold foods and citrus fruit since I have what is defined as spleen qi deficiency in Chinese medicine. Over the past few days the loose BMs are getting better but my nausea is starting to come back. I am seeking a lot of information to help me deal with this moving forward. I am going to start a food diary to see if I can find a trend that is linked to my eating habits.
I feel very lucky to have found your support group, I have browsed some of the posts already and look forward to educating myself more in the future.
Thanks,
Tonya
Here is my history. I started having some diarrhea about 6 years ago, a couple of months after entering perimenopause. The symptoms lasted a couple of weeks and then resolved for 6 months or so. The diarrhea was not a main issue for the next few years, the main problem was,nausea, gas, bloating, and stomach rumbling. Earlier this year the diarrhea came back but was not uncontrollable, I was basically having loose BMs at my normal BM times. This lasted for about 4 months but worsened over the summer to numerous loose BMs during the day and overnight. At that point I was tested for celiac and they did fecal tests for parasites, etc. All came back negative so I was referred to a GI who immediately suspected MC and I was diagnosed with CC after a colonoscopy. I have never taken medication for it ( I am highly anti-drug and pro natural cures). Pepto and immodium don't resolve symptoms at all, and no herbal treatments have helped either. The diarrhea resolved itself for about 6 weeks in the fall but I had a lot of nausea and bloating at that time. At this time the nausea got better but the loose BMs started again but they never got past the point of just being loose at my normal BM times. My hormones were completely out of control at this point also. I have not altered my diet at all during this time. I have also been working with an acupuncturist for a couple of years. I am considering the food intolerance problem but I don't feel at this point that that is my problem and neither does my acupuncturist, but I am not ruling out anything at this time. I have been eating a healthy diet for over 7 years (no refined foods and very little processed foods) and I have been a strict vegetarian for over 5 years now because meat started making me nauseous. I am now basically a vegan except for honey and a small amount of casein in my cheese substitute. My acupuncturist had me remove dairy from my diet along with raw and cold foods and citrus fruit since I have what is defined as spleen qi deficiency in Chinese medicine. Over the past few days the loose BMs are getting better but my nausea is starting to come back. I am seeking a lot of information to help me deal with this moving forward. I am going to start a food diary to see if I can find a trend that is linked to my eating habits.
I feel very lucky to have found your support group, I have browsed some of the posts already and look forward to educating myself more in the future.
Thanks,
Tonya
Your pattern of symptoms is definitely non-typical, but it's not surprising, because the disease seems to be able to present in many different ways. I wonder if you might actually have constipation-predominant CC. I'm basing that observation on the fact that most of us cannot tolerate fiber in our diet (without having persistent D), and as a vegan you obviously must be eating a high-fiber diet. It's possible that the fiber might be offsetting the constipation to result in the pattern of bowel movements that you have.
I had a pattern of alternating D and C, and nausea was a frequent problem for me, also. At the time, I wasn't aware of this, but today, if I were in that situation I would try taking an antihistamine. Not only can antihistamines help to relieve the nausea for most of us, but for many of us, they can resolve our intestinal inflammation issues almost as well as a corticosteroid. And of course, antihistamines are generally some of the safest over-the-counter medications available, with no known risks of long-term use. Many of us find that after using one or more antihistamines for several months or so (provided that we are strictly avoiding any foods that cause us to produce antibodies), our gut will heal sufficiently that we are able to stop using the antihistamines, or at least only use them as needed. Here's an example of the effectiveness of antihistamines that you might find interesting:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 8&start=15
Regarding food sensitivities: Most of us have them. They seem to go with the disease. However, a few people who have drug-induced MC do not have food sensitivities if they stop using the drug that triggered the disease before they develop any food sensitivities.
The fastest, most reliable way to rule out food sensitivities is to order stool tests from EnteroLab, in Dallas, Texas, and they will send you a stool sample collection kit, after which the sample can be frozen and then returned to them for testing. No other lab in the world has been found to offer any tests that are anywhere near as accurate and reliable as the EnteroLab tests for determining food sensitivities.
Food sensitivities can also be determined by trial and error, or by using an elimination diet to achieve remission, and then testing foods one at a time, to see if they cause a reaction. Most people don't have any luck with random trial and error testing, because as long as we still have at least one food in our diet that causes us to react, removing other foods from the diet will not cause a definitive response. IOW, we have to be in remission before we can determine whether or not any given test food is a problem. The elimination diet works, but the problem is that some people start out with one or more foods to which they are reacting, so they are never able to attain remission.
When I started trying to find a solution (about a dozen years ago), I wasn't aware of the existence of EnteroLab, so I started keeping a food/reaction journal. I was never able to tell whether or not gluten was a problem, because I seemed to react to anything and everything. Only by permanently cutting gluten out of my diet was I able to eventually notice reaction patterns to other foods in my diet, by studying the journal.
This is because gluten (gliadin) antibodies are extremely persistent (their half-life is 120 days), and this causes gluten to dominate all other food reactions, because we continue to react to gluten for a long time after it is removed from our diet. The half-life of most other food sensitivities is only about 6 days, so they get used up much faster, and we don't react to them for more than a few days, as a general rule.
Acupuncture is usually helpful, but unfortunately it cannot overcome any food sensitivities that might remain in our diet. Some of us are able to enjoy periods of spontaneous remission from time to time (without making any diet changes), but in order to reach a status of sustained and stable remission, virtually all of us have to avoid certain foods, including trace amounts.
You're very welcome.
Tex
I had a pattern of alternating D and C, and nausea was a frequent problem for me, also. At the time, I wasn't aware of this, but today, if I were in that situation I would try taking an antihistamine. Not only can antihistamines help to relieve the nausea for most of us, but for many of us, they can resolve our intestinal inflammation issues almost as well as a corticosteroid. And of course, antihistamines are generally some of the safest over-the-counter medications available, with no known risks of long-term use. Many of us find that after using one or more antihistamines for several months or so (provided that we are strictly avoiding any foods that cause us to produce antibodies), our gut will heal sufficiently that we are able to stop using the antihistamines, or at least only use them as needed. Here's an example of the effectiveness of antihistamines that you might find interesting:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 8&start=15
Regarding food sensitivities: Most of us have them. They seem to go with the disease. However, a few people who have drug-induced MC do not have food sensitivities if they stop using the drug that triggered the disease before they develop any food sensitivities.
The fastest, most reliable way to rule out food sensitivities is to order stool tests from EnteroLab, in Dallas, Texas, and they will send you a stool sample collection kit, after which the sample can be frozen and then returned to them for testing. No other lab in the world has been found to offer any tests that are anywhere near as accurate and reliable as the EnteroLab tests for determining food sensitivities.
Food sensitivities can also be determined by trial and error, or by using an elimination diet to achieve remission, and then testing foods one at a time, to see if they cause a reaction. Most people don't have any luck with random trial and error testing, because as long as we still have at least one food in our diet that causes us to react, removing other foods from the diet will not cause a definitive response. IOW, we have to be in remission before we can determine whether or not any given test food is a problem. The elimination diet works, but the problem is that some people start out with one or more foods to which they are reacting, so they are never able to attain remission.
When I started trying to find a solution (about a dozen years ago), I wasn't aware of the existence of EnteroLab, so I started keeping a food/reaction journal. I was never able to tell whether or not gluten was a problem, because I seemed to react to anything and everything. Only by permanently cutting gluten out of my diet was I able to eventually notice reaction patterns to other foods in my diet, by studying the journal.
This is because gluten (gliadin) antibodies are extremely persistent (their half-life is 120 days), and this causes gluten to dominate all other food reactions, because we continue to react to gluten for a long time after it is removed from our diet. The half-life of most other food sensitivities is only about 6 days, so they get used up much faster, and we don't react to them for more than a few days, as a general rule.
Acupuncture is usually helpful, but unfortunately it cannot overcome any food sensitivities that might remain in our diet. Some of us are able to enjoy periods of spontaneous remission from time to time (without making any diet changes), but in order to reach a status of sustained and stable remission, virtually all of us have to avoid certain foods, including trace amounts.
You're very welcome.
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.
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately I can't afford the enterolab testing unless insurance pays for it. I will schedule a visit with my doctor to see if she can order it for me. The antihistime is interesting, I resist taking any kind of drugs whenever possible, so I will research homeopathic remedies. I feel that nature has supplied us with everything we need to maintain our health, but I will try OTC medication if there is no alternative.
thanks for all the help.
Tonya
thanks for all the help.
Tonya