New Microscopic colitis diagnosis

[garenjarvis]

I was recently diagnosed with microscopic colitis. Mine is mild. It is a journey to figure it all out. My heart goes out to everyone who is struggling with it too. Does anyone struggle with constant swelling of lymph nodes in neck, joint stiffness in neck, back pain, lightheaded feeling and shortness of breath?

[tex]

Hi Garen,

Welcome to the group. Swollen lymph nodes under my jaws and in my neck, a stiff neck, back pain, and even TMJ (temporomandibular joint) problems were common issues for me back when I was reacting. Most doctors aren't aware that any of these symptoms are associated with MC. All those symptoms faded away after I changed my diet to avoid my food sensitivities.

I also had shortness of breath. I found out later that this was almost surely due to a chronic magnesium deficiency. MC depletes magnesium. Many of us probably have MC because magnesium deficiency greatly raises our risk of developing autoimmune diseases. Every known disease in the world is associated with magnesium deficiency.

I also had lightheadedness, but that was probably because I often had severe nausea. This, too, was probably due to my chronic magnesium deficiency. Pregnant women experience a similar issue, called "morning sickness". Progesterone production increases during pregnancy, and this depletes magnesium, resulting in nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness etc.

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex

[garenjarvis]

Hi!! Thank you so much for your reply. You are so right about doctors not knowing. I asked them if my symptoms were related and they said no. In my mind it makes sense that they are all related because the gut effects the whole body and lymph nodes react when the body is sick. If I have inflammation in my colon, it would make sense it was elsewhere too. I am sorry you went through that, but I feel better knowing that my symptoms are part of MC. I hope you enjoy your night??

Garen

[garenjarvis]

Hi Tex,

I hope you are having a good day. What did you find help your recovery? I was prescribed a steroid, but decided not to take it because people often have symptoms come back after going off. What did you find was helpful,

[tex]

I simply stopped eating all of the foods that were causing me to react. But because I was unaware of the EnteroLab stool tests back in those days, it took me about a year and a half of trial and error experimentation, before I could identify all of the problem foods. First, I eliminated all sources of gluten, and never touched it again. After several months without any gluten, then I was able to tell how other foods affected me. Before then, I seemed to react at random. After I got all of the gluten out of my system (anti-gliadin antibodies, from gluten, have a 120-day half-life), then other food reactions began to make sense. I kept a detailed journal of everything I ate, and how I felt, and reacted, after each meal or snack. After I finally tracked down all of my food sensitivities, I cut all of them out of my diet, and within a couple of weeks after that, I was in remission.

Tex

[garenjarvis]

Thanks so much!

[Gabes-Apg]

the best option for good long term healing is to avoid the things that cause the inflammation

food is the main category.

the other thing to spend some time having a look at is the other places there are other inflammation triggers
- are you having histamine symptoms
- bathroom products, make up, toothpaste etc'
- drinks - some teas have soy etc
- stress and sleep quality.
- Vit D and magnesium these are essential for managing inflammation in the body and healing

[Mjg]

How much vitamin D and Magnesium should you take?

[tex]

The vitamin D dose needed will depend on your particular circumstances, such as how much sun exposure you get, and your stage of healing. The average individual uses 5000 IU per day of vitamin D, but most of us need more, when we begin our recovery, because we're deficient. MC depletes vitamin D and magnesium. We can get vitamin D from food and sunlight, but almost everyone has to take a supplement in order to get enough these days, because we don't spend anywhere near as much time out in the sun, as our ancestors did. A few months after you begin taking vitamin D, it's a good idea to have your level checked, to determine whether you need to take more or less, in the future.

Healing is performed by our immune system, and it consumes vitamin D and magnesium in order to perform its duties. I've been in remission for years, and I live in sunny Central Texas, and get a decent amount of sun exposure, but I still take 5000 IU of vitamin D daily in the winter, and 3000 IU of vitamin D in the summer months, in order to keep my vitamin D level up where I like to see it, for optimum disease resistance (60 to 80 ng/mL). We need more when our inflammation level is high, and our immune system is trying to heal the damage done by the inflammation.

Magnesium is needed to activate vitamin D. Vitamin D supplements, and even vitamin D derived from the sun, is in the inactive state, and until it's activated by a chemical process in the body that requires magnesium, our immune system cannot use it. Over 300 chemical processes done daily by the body, require the use of magnesium, so it's absolutely vital that we maintain good magnesium reserves in our body. Every known disease is associated with a magnesium deficiency.

The recommended RDA for magnesium is a good place to start for most of us. That would be 400 mg for men, and 320 for women. But some of us can't tolerate oral magnesium when we're recovering from MC, because too much of it can trigger diarrhea for those of us who are extra-sensitive to it. So those of us in that situation have to use magnesium oil or lotion on our skin. Alternatively, we can do foot soaks in Epsom salts, or we can add a cup of Epsom salts to our bathwater and soak for 15 or 20 minutes several times a week. If you can tolerate oral magnesium supplements, that's by far the easiest. We've found that the best oral supplement for magnesium is magnesium glycinate, but don't take it all in one dose, because we can only absorb a limited amount at any given time. I take 300 mg of magnesium glycinate daily, divided up as one tablet after each meal.

I hope this is helpful.

Tex

[Mjg]

Thank you so much! Please ignore my same question else where I am not very good at navigating the forum
Mary

[AES]

Very interesting. I am going to check out magnesium glycinate. Thanks!