budesonide- question

[christimac]

Hello:

I have just been put on budesonide - 9 mg a day for 30 days... I am only eating chicken, pork chops, natural sausage, white rice, plain potatoes... working on no dairy, no soy, no gluten.

Will the medicine affect what I am eating?

After the 30 days is up, will I relapse? I would prefer not to be on medication but I would like to attempt to heal my gut.

I can't put in words how grateful I am for the support on this site and how you guys reach out to help us newbies and everyone else.

I truly believe there is strength in the group and I not feel alone.

thank you,

Christiane

[tex]

Hi Christiane,

I'll try to answer your questions.

Will the medicine affect what I am eating?

Budesonide will typically mask symptoms from some food sensitivities, and in a few cases it will mask symptoms from virtually all food sensitivities. IOW it will not cause any food reactions, but it may hide a few reactions.

After the 30 days is up, will I relapse? I would prefer not to be on medication but I would like to attempt to heal my gut.

There is a good chance of a relapse because of such a short treatment program, without adequate dose tapering. But everyone responds to treatments differently. It takes much longer for the gut to heal than most physicians realize. Most members here find that it typically takes roughly 6 months or longer for the diet changes to bring remission (though a few see remission much sooner). So taking budesonide for about 6 months works well in many cases to mask the symptoms while the diet changes are healing the gut. In most cases, using the onset of constipation symptoms as a signal that it's time to step down the dosage to the next level works well (much better than using some arbitrary time schedule for stepping down the dosage).

But since many GI specialists do not yet realize that diet changes are the key to controlling MC, they believe that corticosteroids heal the gut, despite published research showing that corticosteroids actually retard healing. And even if corticosteroids were capable of healing the gut, they certainly couldn't do so in such a short treatment period. For most MC patients, a 1 month treatment is way too brief. Still, it's not impossible that you might be lucky and heal faster than most, especially if you have already been avoiding gluten for a month or more.

Good luck with your recovery.

You're very welcome,
Tex

[CathyMe.]

[quote="christimac"]Hello:

I have just been put on budesonide - 9 mg a day for 30 days... I am only eating chicken, pork chops, natural sausage, white rice, plain potatoes... working on no dairy, no soy, no gluten.

Will the medicine affect what I am eating?

After the 30 days is up, will I relapse? I would prefer not to be on medication but I would like to attempt to heal my gut.

I can't put in words how grateful I am for the support on this site and how you guys reach out to help us newbies and everyone else.

I truly believe there is strength in the group and I not feel alone.

thank you,

Christiane[/quote]


Hi there Christiane,
As Tex as mentioned, I would suggest you ask to be kept on the Budesonide for longer than 30 days and then taper off slowly. When I was in a flare, it worked for me after approximately 7-10 days and then I remained on it for at least 6 months, slowly tapering until I was able to just take 1/2 pill every other day. If you stop it after 30 days, I believe your symptoms will return.

[janden143]

I have just finished a three month course of Budesonide. One month on each tapering dose. I have been off them for two weeks now and so far, so good!