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rsfarm wrote:I also take potassium pills. I do both night and day.
What brand and dosage of pills do you take? My postassium tests low or borderline low. I can't eat any of the foods that are high in potassium, like potatoes, tomatoes, fish, chocolate, etc. The supplements I've seen aren't very high dosages.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
If you find the cost of pre-made magnesium spray prohibitive, as I do, you can make your own. I've been using spray I made for the past 10 months or so. Here's how you make it.
To make your own you just buy bulk magnesium chloride and mix it with water. Magnesium Chloride is used in making tofu, and so is available in bulk and relatively cheaply at Chinese/korean stores as Nigari flakes. Mix it 2/3 of the desired volume of oil in distilled water, and 1/3 in magnesium chloride.
Linda
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
The 13th Dali Lama
Thanks for the magnesium oil 'recipe' - someone told me how to make it with magnesium chloride from a tropical fish supply place, but I like the idea of 'food grade' better (plus, I know where to get this, and have no idea where the tropical-fish people shop!).
(I'm thinking I could also travel with the powder, then add water when I arrive, for purposes of getting through the airport.)
I'm using up a wildly price-y product from a health food store now - and it does seem to help.
You're welcome, Sara. It makes all difference in the world for me for leg cramps and restless leg syndrome. If I go more than two days without using it, they come back with a vengeance.
Linda
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
The 13th Dali Lama
Linda wrote:Gloria, bananas are a very good source of potassium, at least 450 milligrams per banana. Can you eat those now?
I don't think so. I had 1/2 banana this morning and had gas and pressure all day and made four trips to the bathroom (so far). I wish I could because I know they contain a lot of potassium.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
Sorry to hear about bananas. I hope some potassium-strong food can be readmitted to your diet, once you're through the current infectious recovery, and Entocort is really out of your system. Surely the 8 weeks is a conservative estimate - so you may be ahead of the curve, a little bit. Certainly, that is how I think of you ;)
I tried avocado for the first time yesterday, and it was either a bad idea, or I had too much of it, or it was overripe. I wish I knew which one(s). The funny thing was that I had taken it out to consider for lunch, and set it aside. Our piano teacher comes on Tuesday mornings, and our dog thinks Shawn is his favorite uncle, so always gets a little cranked up. He usually grabs shoes (or Shawn's gloves), or rearrange sofa cushions, or generally let his mouthy side run free (in the beginning, he'd chew on the piano bench!). After I took away two sofa cushions and a TV remote (mercifully, he now brings us these things... we haven't trained the behavior away, but at least he's playing his game with us on the team)... he went down to the kitchen and got the avocado, and handed it to my husband during his lesson right after mine. That's the only reason I remembered to eat it! It was miraculously intact, no tooth marks at all. And yet, I cannot blame the dog... Sigh.
I believe you will rebalance potassium, when you can. I hope I'll to tweak certain key nutrients, but following your lead, I am prioritizing healing at the top of my list. I appreciate your example in getting my priorities straight. My "new math" is subtract first, add later; divide into smaller portions if necessary... and never multiply the risks.
I am not clear how we determine the portion sizes for experimenting... so if half a banana was too much, either it was important for you to eat enough to learn that, or else... maybe 1/4 is OK for now? That's the sort of arithmetic I need to take on after my Enterolab results arrive (maybe tomorrow). I recently used a baking powder that I later realized contained cornstarch, and I was fine the next day - but I don't believe that means I can eat corn in different formats or larger quantities (at least not without considerable caution).
Zizzle wrote:
Sara,
LOL. I pictured you in the airport with your jar of white powder..."yes, Mr. TSA screener, it's magnesium chloride, really!!"
Hm, I'm finding that picture pretty amusing, too, Z ;) I have traveled with baking soda, when I had weird skin rashes (of course not thinking they, too, were probably diet related)... and also with very scary-looking knitting needles, which are allowed, though it would be easier to wreak havoc with those than with most nail-clippers (which are not allowed). (Of course, the TSA understands that I would be most reluctant to mess up my knitting project, and therefore unlikely to wield them in an unsafe manner.)
If you don't see me being taken into custody on the news, you'll know it all worked out!
I've taken white powder (cornstarch with sugar) through security at the airport without any problem so that I could make instant pudding enroute. I had almond milk with almond extract in a 3 oz. container to mix with it after I was on board. This was for my 12 hour trip to Hawaii.
Sara wrote:I recently used a baking powder that I later realized contained cornstarch, and I was fine the next day - but I don't believe that means I can eat corn in different formats or larger quantities (at least not without considerable caution).
I suspect that we can eat the starch form of intolerant foods because they don't contain the concentrated protein that the actual food has. If you look at the list of nutrients, you'll find that little or no protein is listed for cornstarch and potato starch. It may be that you are able to eat cornstarch, but not corn. I'm still not able to eat corn, but I can eat cornstarch and corn flour. It's the roughage that I can't handle.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
Tex, I still seem to get D when i eat foods high in fats. It also seems to be the main cause of my MC. I eat a lot of low fat meats and egg whites for protein. Sorry it took so long to answer your question
rsfarm wrote:I also take potassium pills. I do both night and day.
What brand and dosage of pills do you take? My potassium tests low or borderline low. I can't eat any of the foods that are high in potassium, like potatoes, tomatoes, fish, chocolate, etc. The supplements I've seen aren't very high dosages.
Gloria
I buy what ever potassium pills that are available at Walmart. They each have 99 mg. Sometimes after taking 2 in the morning and 2 at night I still have cramps at night. The doctor says not to take more than 500 mg daily, but I will take a couple more so the cramps don't keep me up. When I travel in a car I make sure they are handy because I eventually get cramps.
Has your lipase production ever been checked? Lipase is a pancreatic enzyme that digests fats, and many of us with MC also have pancreas issues until we get our symptoms under control. If a lipase enzyme deficiency is the problem, a supplement might help your fat digestion.
If you're referring to leg or foot cramps at night, for many of us, that's caused by a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is also a common cause of the restless leg syndrome. IOW, I'm not doubting that you may need a potassium supplement, but a magnesium supplement might help to resolve the problem without having to take so many potassium pills. Be careful with magnesium, though, because it's a laxative, so it doesn't take very much of it to cause D for many of us.
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.
I didn't know that about lipase. I took and adored a lipase enzyme product some years back - perhaps that was an early hint that I had MC-related issues? A friend's brother was representing that product line at the time, and though I was skeptical, I was impressed.
Hm.... I'll add that to my list of lab tests to request one fine day.
That sounds like good advice. I will have my lipase levels checked and let you know.
I also take magnesium. Both seem to help with the cramps.
Thanks also to Sara for starting this thread. I now know that I can not do white rice (and other empty carbs), only brown rice. This has made a big difference. I get very fatigued and this last about a day and a half to 2 days.
