That's true of all drugs used to treat MC. There are no drugs labeled for MC - it gets no respect at all, in medical circles.Maxine wrote:I notice on the label it says nothing about MC; well, it wouldn't would it, after all, we only have a nuisance disease! It says it's for Crohn's and UC.
Pentasa is a good med - much better than Asacol, IMO. I agree, (as do virtually all of us here), that your symptoms will disappear significantly sooner, if you are taking a drug, and following the diet, concurrently. However, I disagree with his basic premise in that quote, concerning how the gut heals. For one thing, there is no research that validates his claim. According to Dr. Fines research, the inflammation fighting drugs, (such as the 5-ASA meds, the corticosteroids, and even the anti-TNF drugs), can only partially suppress the inflammation - they never do a 100% job. They do indeed help to suppress the pain, while the gut is healing, but it is the diet that actually allows the gut to heal. If your doctor disputes that, he should do a colonoscopy exam, (with biopsies), on some of his patients, who have been treating their MC with drugs for years. He would find that their colonic epithelial histology, would still show the markers of MC, probably not much improved from it's state when the initial diagnosis was made. If he were to do the same thing for patients who have been carefully following a diet for several years, which excluded all of their intolerances, he would find that their colonic epithelial cells have actually healed. (If they have slipped up on their diet, though, they would also still show the markers of MC, of course). The bottom line is, regardless of whether you use drugs, or diet, it's still going to take at least a year and a half or longer, before most people will be able to add raw vegetables and fruit back into their diets, and most people will take longer. Besides, 18 to 24 months appears to me to be "years", isn't it?Maxine wrote:His answer was that it is healing my gut, and if I didn't take it, I'd have more pain and bad d if I slipped up on my diet or got glutenated. He theorised that with no meds it could be years before I could have raw veggies, cooked broccoli and cauli (I miss you two!), and fresh fruit. With the 5-ASA meds I could be looking at 18 -24 months and I'd be able to try reintroducing problem foods.
We are all different, of course, and some take much longer to heal than others, but I seriously doubt that anyone would be able to tell any difference in the time required before fruits and vegetables can safely be added back into the diet, regardless of whether or not they use meds, simply because meds do not actually heal the gut - they mostly just mask the symptoms.It certainly is true, though, that if you are taking a med, and you slip up on your diet, the med will help to keep the symptoms from getting as bad as they otherwise might have been. That's a two way street, though. If you slip up on taking your meds, the diet will help to keep the symptoms from getting as bad as they otherwise might have been.
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