Could this be a trigger???

[jlewton]

Working on getting into remission, recently got my enterolab results back and am reactive to everything, 2+ for rice. I take two supplements, Tumeric and Milk Thistle, which both contain Rice Flour and Organic Rice Bran. Could that be enough to keep me from reaching remission?
I am combing through all of my supplements and other household products to see if I am missing any hidden triggers, so far this is all I can find.
Thanks for any input!

~Jennifer

[tex]

Hi Jennifer,

I don't have any personal experience with these supplements — I've never taken either one of them. But reading posts on here for almost 17 years, it appears to me that most of us react to turmeric supplements, and I don't understand why you're taking a milk thistle supplement. Most of us are much better off if we take none of those supplements while we're trying to recover from this disease. After we're in remission, we're much more likely to be able to tolerate them. But taking various supplements while we're still reacting, virtually never provides any benefit (they go right through us anyway, because of the malabsorption problem caused by active MC), while having a relatively high probability of preventing us from ever reaching remission.

If you want to take any supplements, restrict them to vitamin D and magnesium, because those are depleted by MC, and they're necessary for the proper functioning of our immune system to allow normal healing. But even in the case of magnesium, the wrong type, or too much, can cause diarrhea, so many of us are better off with topical applications of magnesium oil or lotion, or foot soaks in Epsom salts, especially while we still reacting. But remember, this is just my opinion, and it's possible that there may be someone among our members who's had fantastic results using milk thistle supplement. But I kinda doubt that.

Tex

[jlewton]

Hi Tex,

Thanks for always taking the time to reply!

My question here is more about the Rice Flour and the organic rice bran that are listed as additional ingredients in the capsule of the supplements, than the supplements themselves. My Enterolab results have me as: (2+) Moderate immunological response for rice, and being my LEAST immunological reactivity in the Grains cateogry.

So I wonder if any small bit of rice flour in the supplement capsule is harmful to me? I take the tumeric to help with inflammation and pain associated with RA and OA instead of taking any NSAIDS. I tried stopping for a little, but within a week I was developing a lot of joint pain that I hadn't had for a long time, so I started back with the tumeric. If you think the rice flour in the capsule is bad, I would try finding a new brand that doesn't have it as an ingredient. But I feel tumeric itself is safe and helpful for me.
And, FYI, I take the milk thistle to help support the liver as the Biologic I take for RA can be hard on the liver.

Another question about Rice flour and potato starch... I've been trying to find ingredients to make my own gluten free bread ( while also, DF, Soy free, nut free etc) I also reacted to white potatoes. I didn't realize the gluten free flours all have either potato starch or rice flour in them as well. Does that make these not safe to use? I found another version of gluten free flour and it had Garbanzo bean flour, fava flour, which I think are legumes, so are those unsafe too?? What about Almond flour? If we aren't supposed to eat nuts, is this out? I have some coconut flour, by can't find a recipe that doesn't add these other flours as well???

Does anyone else out there have a safe gluten free (every trigger free) bread recipe you could share?

Sorry for so many questions!

[Gabes-Apg]

- you can purchase safe flours separately/ as individuals and make your own GF flour blend that suits your best options
everyone here has different triggers / safe items. part of the MC journey is finding your safe items and eating plan

- spend some time in the dee's kltchen area of the forum, there are loads of options there. _or use the search function

[tex]

Regarding the tiny amounts of rice in supplement capsules, normally, small amounts such as that don't bother us. That said, certain items in tiny amounts would definitely be a problem. For example, if the ingredient in question were gluten, there's no way that we could tolerate it. And soy or casein in tiny amounts would probably be a problem, but foods in the category of 11 other antigenic foods normally won't cause any problems if they're ingested in small amounts. I hope this helps.

Tex

[jlewton]

Thanks Gabe for the reminder to look at Dee's Kitchen!

There is so much information to absorb here, sometimes I overlook the obvious! That is one area I haven't looked at, at all yet- I will now!

Tex, thanks for the insight, I am starting to stress on all the littlest details to try and get this right, glad to know the tiny amounts of rice flour in a capsule, shouldn't be problematic. I am reading labels religiously, any amount of gluten is OUT!

Always another question...

I have been eating a lot of salmon as I have had to cut out beef, chicken and pork. I just read in another string, that if you can't tolerate tuna, salmon might not be good either. I am a 2+ for tuna,, with it being my LEAST reactive of the meats. Do you guys think I need to avoid salmon then? It's so hard to tell.. what about Walleye? I just tried it for my first ever last night, seems okay, but not I'm worried about these fish options too??

Thoughts??

[tex]

This can be a complex issue, but when saltwater fish are problematic, sometimes freshwater fish are safe, or other unrelated species. Remember, shellfish are usually safe for us, unless we were allergic to them before we developed MC, and shellfish offer a lot of options.

Tex