Help with diet and entocort!

[Gabes-Apg]

The MC Dx is hard enough to deal with, results like this can be overwhelming.

Some that react to eggs, have been able to tolerate eggs from Ducks and other foul.

As Tex has mentioned, with the high result to Soy, getting enough protein may be an issue. Would you consider eating some fish?

this might not be what you want to hear right now, there are other MC'ers that had to give up/tweak their vegetarianism to come up with a MC safe eating plan in line with identified triggers.

hope this helps

[tex]

OK,

If those were my results, I would cut out everything in the 3+ category, and at least the top 1 or 2 in the 2+ category. Actually, I would probably cut out all of the foods in the 2+ category also, because it should be relatively easy to get by without them. Sweet potatoes should be a good alternative to white potato, and if that doesn't work, waxy potatoes (such as red potatoes, Yukon gold, yellow, black, and purple potatoes, and just about anything other than Russets) are much easier to digest.

Most of us do better without grains, but substitutes are millet, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, etc. I would suggest sorghum, except that it is rather closely related to corn (maize), so it might not work for you.

That's interesting that you showed such low sensitivity to milk. That gives you a rare advantage in this group, because most of us are sensitive to the casein in all dairy products. Please be aware that as long as your intestines are inflamed, you will be lactose-sensitive, but that should fade away as you get the inflammation under control, so someday you should be able to tolerate dairy products, which will make life a lot easier.

It's also possible that you may be able to tolerate certain types of beans (at least after you recover), such as white and black beans, for example. That's not a guarantee, it's just based on the experience of others on this board who are sensitive to soy.

You should be able to tolerate coconut milk (and other coconut products), and you might even be able to tolerate almond milk (though not almonds), but it's certainly possible that almond milk might not be an option. At least a couple of us on this board (I am one of them) cannot tolerate any type of nuts, or nut butters, but we can both tolerate almond milk, so that's why I mentioned that you might be able to tolerate almond milk. Hemp milk is another option that you might be able to tolerate.

Hopefully other members will have some suggestions to try for your healing diet. If you don't get any responses here, you might try posting the question on the Main Message Board.

We have to learn to be creative in order to get around our food sensitivities, but after we sit down and study the situation, we realize that there are many more options than we realized at first glance.

Tex

[miriam]

The bizarre thing about the results is that I had blood IgG testing done a few months ago and it came back highly positive for casein. I know the tests measure different things, but I was surprised that they were contradictory. Interesting about the potatoes-- I've been eating russet potatoes daily as they seem to be one of a handful of items that don't upset my stomach. I also have started eating fish and am thinking about returning to chicken and turkey, although on top of my ethical concerns, have been concerned that introducing a food that I haven't had for 13+ years would further irritate my system.

On a side note, I did try some bentyl this week which helped the pain a bit and the doctors seem to be considering switching my entocort to uceris. Have others found. Uceris more helpful than entocort? My stool test (fecal leukocytes) is still indicating inflammation, been after almost 7 months on entocort...

Thanks! It's wonderful to have a place to turn with all these questions...

[Gabes-Apg]

If you are going to introduce new ingredients you havent had for a while, start really slow, small small amounts.
your digestion is delicate like a baby, have small wellcooked serve about egg cup size. Expect some symptoms and change in BM.
wait 24hrs, have another small eggcup size serving, again expect some symptoms.
on the third day have another small serve, if on the third day there is minimal symptoms it is a keeper, if on the third day there is still quite a few digestion symptoms loose BM, you are reacting.

after trying a new ingredient, wait a week or two before trying another...

hope this helps

[tex]

The bizarre thing about the results is that I had blood IgG testing done a few months ago and it came back highly positive for casein. I know the tests measure different things, but I was surprised that they were contradictory. Interesting about the potatoes-- I've been eating russet potatoes daily as they seem to be one of a handful of items that don't upset my stomach. I also have started eating fish and am thinking about returning to chicken and turkey, although on top of my ethical concerns, have been concerned that introducing a food that I haven't had for 13+ years would further irritate my system.

On a side note, I did try some bentyl this week which helped the pain a bit and the doctors seem to be considering switching my entocort to uceris. Have others found. Uceris more helpful than entocort? My stool test (fecal leukocytes) is still indicating inflammation, been after almost 7 months on entocort...

Thanks! It's wonderful to have a place to turn with all these questions...

False positive blood tests results are much more common than false negative stool tests, but still, in that case I would keep an eye on casein as a suspect food, because all ELISA tests are very specific, and each one only tests for a single specific protein antibody, so it's possible that you are reacting to a different protein peptide than the one tested for in the EnteroLab test. And in general, IgG blood tests are much more reliable than IgE blood tests when testing for food sensitivities (though they are usually not as reliable is IgA stool tests). I hope that I haven't just confused the issue here. Doctors like to pretend that every test result is either black or white, but unfortunately there is usually a broad gray area in between these extremes that can confound the results.

If you have no problems with Russet potatoes, then there's no reason to avoid them. I mentioned the waxy varieties simply because they are easier to digest. Russets contain more starch (roughly 22 %), whereas waxy potatoes contain only about 16 % starch. But the main reason for the difference in the digestibility is the type of starch. Russets contain roughly 75 % amylopectin starch and 25 % amylose starch, whereas waxy potatoes contain much less amylose (some contain almost none). Amylopectin is much easier to digest than amylose. In fact, amylose is known as a form of resistant starch, and it has been shown to be an effective prebiotic. Prebiotics work by fermenting in the colon, to feed certain types of bacteria. In general, this is not good for someone who has MC, because the fermentation process can result in gas, bloating, and sometimes D. That said, if Russets do not cause gas, bloating, and D for someone, then there is no reason not to eat them.

Here is the primary difference between Entocort and Uceris:

Entocort becomes activated in the ileum and the first part of the colon, whereas Uceris becomes activated in approximately the last half of the colon. Since MC typically is more concentrated in the ileum and the first half of the colon than it is in the last half of the colon, for most of us Entocort may work somewhat better. Inflammation patterns can vary though, so for many of us, Uceris may work just as well. As far as I am aware, no official trials have actually been done with MC patients. The drug is labeled for ulcerative colitis, because UC typically starts at the rectum and propagates backward into the colon, thus making Uceris the drug of choice for treating at least the earlier stages of UC.

An advantage that Uceris holds over Entocort (provided that the manufacturer's claim is reliable) is that no budesonide is absorbed into the bloodstream (since all nutrient and medication absorption takes place in the small intestine — only water and electrolytes can be absorbed in the colon). This should prevent any risk of adrenal fatigue and/or osteoporosis due to corticosteroid influence. By contrast, trials show that up to 19 % of the budesonide in Entocort can be absorbed into the bloodstream (due to it's activation in the ileum), so this carries a slight risk of eventually leading to corticosteroid side effects if Entocort is used on a long-term basis. This risk is much, much lower than the risk with prednisone and other forms of corticosteroids, but it still must be considered as a long-term risk.

Tex