A little advice would be very welcome please!

[charlie fh]

Hi Gabes
Thanks , Im going to try and eliminate all the +2+3 foods as still eat the +1 but less of them.
The farming industry is in a terrible state .. Here in England its hard to get anything grown locally or without spray. I only eat organic free range meats and veg if i can get it. My grandmother is 94 and fit as a fiddle because she hadsuch a good diet growing up. it says a lot about the times we live in.
Ive been on the Mag/vit d3 for a while now . I also take vit c and zinc occasionally . The methyl B complex i take dont bother me in the slightest and are very pure but im clearly not absorbing as much as i should.

My cholesterol results came back as "serum mmol/l" whatever that means.. but mine was slightly high 5.9. So maybe Cholestrymine wil be a good thing for me anyway. When you say small amount, is that like one sachet?

Im going to try some bile salts and see if they suit me as ive noticed the Fat malabsorbtion since i developed MC.

One thing i wanted your advice on... are egg yolks as bad to eat as the white ? Also would duck eggs be somthing i could try from time to time? (i dont eat a lot of eggs anyway)

[Gabes-Apg]

I peel a few mm off sweet potato etc before cooking to reduce soy impact

for me, as I have constipation and diarrhoea - if I have to use the cholestryamine I take 1/8th satchet
start small and work up and find which dose helps you

Eggs are eggs in the case of inflammation reactions you are reacting to both the yolk and the white.
some people have tolerated duck eggs ok - if you can free range with no grain supplementing you are less likely to react
another option although small is quail eggs
( I can not tolerate eggs where the chickens are feed soy/gluten based feed)

[charlie fh]

Hi Gabes

Thanks for that info.. i think soy might have been the hidden enemy for me. After you said its in everything i started looking at the things i occasionally have like chocholate and it maycontain soy... and thats the good 80 percent stuff. That would explain my high level .

i read an interesting article about Kefir yohurts or drinks that are suitable for people with dairy sensitivities because the bacteria breaks down the proteins and make them more digestable? Is there any truth to this? especially goats kefir apparently ..... Im really interested in the microbiome and how its linked to the immune system and Gut-Brain interaction . Good probiotics have helped me massivley in the past.

I also was curious, does eveyone produce antibodies to foods ragrdless of whether they have gut trouble or not... I.e would a perfectly normal person still produce antibodies to certain foods inside the digestive tract? Im thinking for my mother really who has always had indegestion/acid problems.

Many Thanks for your help! C

[Gabes-Apg]

Soy is a cheap plentiful crop and is being used in many food items. the soy being used in the food supply is like a waste product (my mantra SOY IS EVIL)
20 years ago it was not in these food items

my observation of Kefir based products - in some aspects it has been flaunted as a gimmick with so many people avoiding gluten and dairy.
for as many articles published stating the positive aspects there are just as many with the negative.
Of note, non dairy kefir does not have as strong benefits as dairy based kefir. Most of the published benefits of kefir are based on dairy based kefir.

Regardless My advice to many here has been - listen to your body. What works for one may not work for another.
Start small and slow and see if it agrees with you.

for some any fermented product can increase histamine, (and in mc world histamine triggers inflammation) if your body is moderating histamine levels ok then this won't be an issue

the main thing to remember - there is no quick fix for healing. Time is main ingredient of good healing

[charlie fh]

Hi Gabes

Yes your approach makes perfect sense to me .. Thats why i was deflated to learn i reacted to oats on enterolab report . It has completly thrown me and my trust in my body. if i was listening to my body i'd still be eating porridge as it really seemed to suit.. firmed up my stool, less bloated etc all the good signs .. I just dont get it sometimes ! I can understand the other things like corn which definatly doesnt suit me. Could it be that i'd just started to eat oats when i did the test and it caused a immune spike which then settled down?

Anyhow , should i be concerned about my reactions to meats as most are +1 ? i wont have much to eat apart from potato if i dont eat any of the meat. I should note i dont show any obvious signs of reacting to these meats.
All advice is much apreciated thankyou!!

Charlie

[tex]

Charlie,

There is a reason why you felt that oats were safe. It's the same reason why almost everyone who joins this forum initially denies that they're sensitive to gluten. Gluten and casein are addictive — almost as addictive as opiate-like drugs. When they're digested, their molecules are broken down so that at least one of the peptides cleaved from their respective amino acid strings closely resembles opiates. They are known as gluteomorphins (or gliadorphins), and caseomorphins. These peptides cause our brains to crave them, and as part of the process, they persuade our brains to believe that something else is causing our digestive problems, rather than them. They cause our brain to feel satisfied and happy, when we eat them. Some of us are more susceptible to the effect that others, but that's basically why it's so difficult to give up gluten and dairy products.

Oats contain a storage protein known as avenin, and when avenin is digested, it produces peptides that resemble some of the reactive peptides in gluten. But avenin is a less potent allergen than gluten. Consequently, it normally takes longer for someone to build up a sensitivity to oats. In general, almost all of us are sensitive to oats, and once the sensitivity "matures", the reactions are very similar to gluten reactions. Oats were once thought to be safe for celiacs, and some people still make that mistaken claim, but research trials prove that virtually anyone who is sensitive to gluten, is also sensitive to oats.

Tex

[charlie fh]

Hi Tex

Thats very interesting .. I dont doubt it at all , and it doesnt help when bread etc can be so tasty . Im pretty sure gluten was the silent but major irritant/addiction for me .
I have stopped eating oats since the lab test results came back.. Unfortunatly my symptoms have gotten a bit worse (looser stools /slight cramp feelings in my lower gut). Im struggerling to find something good for breakfast. I usually have a banana or 2 maybe something else ike a gluten free rice cake. I cant have eggs .. i dont think i have histamine problems . I dont know if you have any obvious suggestions ?

Also i have had a perculiar problem for the last few months which is that im getting increased number of small spots on my nose.. only my nose. Its very strange . I also noticed lately my eyesight can be a little blurred or double vision. I wondered if this was related to MC in anyway.
Thanks
All the best!

[tex]

I have no idea what might be causing the spots on your nose, but the blurred vision could be due to an inflamed optic nerve, which may or may not be associated with MC. It might be a good idea to have that checked out by an ophthalmologist, especially if you have diabetes or hypertension.

Tex

[Mhdbeachgirl]

Hi: I was diagnosed with MC in late 2021 and found this wonderful group that has helped me tremendously with diet and remission. I was doing very well until in June, 2022 when I got Covid (from husband) which wasn’t that bad until day 4 when the diarrhea started. My husband had the same symptoms and his diarrhea resolved in one day, but mine did not. I tried Budesonide ( which did nothing) and eventually Cholestyramine, which helped a lot. I started to experiment with adding food to my diet that I restricted before, seemingly with success but the last 6 months have been very high stress (daughter’s wedding, moving, travel etc) and by March of this year the diarrhea was back and I ended up in the hospital for a week since I was so depleted. While there I had a sigmoidoscopy which confirmed that the pathology from my biopsy showed changes from the original biopsy that diagnosed the MC. The GI in the hospital put me on a 20 mg prednisone taper which I am finishing today and then they recommend mesalamine. I have been very “sick” on prednisone and happy to see the last of it. I am back on my very restricted diet for the last 2 months and don’t want to take anything else.

Is this a common occurrence that the pathology can change over time? Maybe it was the Covid?

[Gabes-Apg]

Covid is quite impacting on the immune system so yes - how your body reacts can change

Additionally when you had covid, did you increase Vit D3, Magnesium, Vit C and zinc to rebuild the immune system?
if immune system is not 'calm' then body struggles to heal

[tex]

I agree with Gabe's, Covid can change a lot of things. Exactly how did the pathology change? MC sometimes segues back and forth between LC (lymphocytic colitis) and CC (collagenous colitis), but that's irrelevant — MC is still MC. I have a hunch that the "pathology change" was strictly due to a change in pathologists.

Tex

[Mhdbeachgirl]

Thanks, Tex and Gabes for the response. Before having the sigmoidoscopy, I had Cat scan which showed inflammation in the gut, hence the sigmoidoscopy. This was not true before with the first diagnostic go-round. I will follow-up with my GI doc regarding the “changes”. BTW, he also said that he thought that diet probably plays a significant role in MC (which is why I’m sticking with him). He’s also on the younger side so there is hope for further enlightenment!

[tex]

Actually, MC can only be "officially" diagnosed by analyzing slides made from biopsy samples taken during a colonoscopy, because most of the inflammation is located farther into the colon, and the terminal ileum, far out of reach of a sigmoidoscopy. That certainly is not meant to imply that you don't have MC, because if it can be detected by a sigmoidoscopy, your entire colon may be inflamed.

Yes, it sounds as though you may have made a fortunate find when you located your gastroenterologist — he sounds like a keeper, with a far better understanding of MC, that most of his peers.

Tex