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Hello all,
Last night was the worst. Up five times with a major blow out. Kinda sounds like a up coming sale. Blow out sale in my bathroom Anyway this morning I was exhausted thirsty to say the least.
For dinner I had a baked potato with Broccoli sprinkled with cheddar. And popcorn for later in the evening. Although it was microwave kettle corn. I’m thinking that may have been the culprit? I am taking Hyssop Tea which settles my stomach nicely. Boswellia extract and probiotics and vitamins. So far I’m still king of the throne. Could someone come and feed me please! I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Anyway getting to my question (sorry) Am I getting any nutrients in the vitamins, probiotics etc or is it a waist of time?
I forgot to add. GI put me on mesalamine. I haven’t received it yet because my copay is $400
Which is t going to happen. So in for the long haul.
Most of us react to gluten, dairy, and soy, because they cause our immune system to produce antibodies. Fiber doesn't cause our immune system to produce antibodies, but it's very irritating for our colon when it's already inflamed, therefore, most of us have to totally avoid gluten, dairy, and soy, and minimize fiber in our diet, in order to stop the diarrhea. We have never advocated the use of probiotics when treating microscopic colitis, because probiotics cause some of us to react, and only a very small percentage of MC patients benefit from them. Even the American Gastroenterological Association Institute agrees with us on this policy, as of their latest guidelines issued on December 15, 2015.
To answer your questions, unless you're taking vitamins that are in the active form, rather than the ordinary, cheaper forms normally available, no, supplemental vitamins are probably not providing much benefit. With our malabsorption problem, we derive much more benefit from the active forms of vitamins.
Regarding mesalamine, as a treatment for MC, you probably wouldn't be happy with it, any way, because for most of us It's rather slow to provide control, if it works at all. It often requires weeks of treatment, sometimes months, before it begins to help. Of course, your mileage may vary, because were all different.
I hope this helps,
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.
Actually, we can still partially absorb most vitamins, but the amount we absorb, may not be sufficient for our needs. What percentage we're able to absorb varies, but basically it depends on our inflammation level and our digestive tract turnaround time due to the diarrhea. Normal turnaround time is around 24 to 30 hours. It can be so short with microscopic colitis that we're able to absorb very limited nutrients from our food, and from supplemental vitamins. Watery diarrhea, especially, severely limits our absorption of nutrients.
In general,The multivitamins consist of the lowest price vitamins available, therefore they typically have some of the lowest absorption rates. And because they contain so many ingredients, some of those ingredients may cause us to react, so we may have to avoid them. Nevertheless, they're still useful for some of us, for making sure that we aren't deficient in any trace elements. The forms of the vitamins make a difference. Tablets are usually slower to absorb than capsules, and liquid vitamins are usually absorbed better, simply because they're available for absorption faster, once they enter the digestive system.
Vitamins are available in various chemical compositions. And some of these compositions are known as the active and inactive forms. Some vitamins have more than one inactive form, and more than one active form. When a vitamin is taken in the inactive form, it has to be converted into the active form by the digestive system before it can be used by the immune system or any other target in the body. Typically, this conversion consists of a methylization process to change the chemical composition of the vitamin. This can be especially important for many of us, because about half of us have certain gene defects that compromise our ability to perform methylization conversions. These gene defects are known as MTH FR mutations, and the range of mutations can be quite large for some of us. The bottom line is, because of these issues, some of us have a very limited ability to convert vitamins into the active forms. When this happens, the inactive form of the vitamin builds up in our body, and if our doctor orders a test, it will show a very high result for that vitamin, despite the fact that we're actually deficient, because we can't use the vitamin unless it's in the active form, and we're unable to convert it into the active form. Consequently, we usually derive a much greater benefit by taking the active forms of certain vitamins.
This is also one of many reasons why an adequate magnesium level is essential for good health. Magnesium is used in over 300 different chemical conversions in the body. And converting the inactive forms of vitamins into the active forms is one of those essential functions.
As an example, the most common inactive form of vitamin B-12 in vitamin supplements, Is cyanocobalamin. The most common active form available is methylcobalamine. Methylcobalamin is significantly more expensive than cyanocobalamin, but it is much more readily absorbed by the human body. It can even easily be absorbed when placed under the tongue, thereby completely avoiding all the problems that MC is causing farther down the digestive tract, where food is normally absorbed. Many liquid vitamins are available in the active form. Many vitamins are also available in transdermal patches to be worn on the skin. They're an expensive option, but they work well when oral vitamins cannot be absorbed properly.
I hope this helps,
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.
Anyway this morning I was exhausted thirsty to say the least. 
