MICROSCOPIC COLITIS SUPPORT

dont overthink balanced nutrition from food and weight too much at this stage..

while there is inflammation, leaky gut, and Vit D3 deficiency you are not absorbing and processing nutrients that well anyway!

the first stage to wellness is reducing inflammation, getting cells good levels of Vit D3 and magnesium, sorting a safe eating plan.
with time, the weight will come back easily and adding things to the eating plan.

Becca,

Is westhroid natural? I've also heard naturethoid (or a name similar) is another natural pill. I try to stick to natural as much as possible but am willing to make any changes as needed.

I looked the ingredients up online. I don't know what all this stuff is:
Armour® Thyroid (thyroid tablets, USP)* for oral use is a natural preparation derived from porcine thyroid glands and has a strong, characteristic odor. (T3 liothyronine is approximately four times as potent as T4 levothyroxine on a microgram for microgram basis.) They provide 38 mcg levothyroxine (T4) and 9 mcg liothyronine (T3) per grain of thyroid. The inactive ingredients are calcium stearate, dextrose, microcrystalline cellulose, sodium starch glycolate and opadry white.

Thanks!

Thank you Gabes. You are very helpful. I will work on everything. : )

Karen,

Yes Westhroid is natural, it is the same as Naturethroid. For me it really helped switching to it. Maybe ask your doctor if you can try it. Good luck!

Becca

Re: Iron

Yes, I agree with Tex on the iron. Iron generally acts as a laxative. If you are having WD then I'd eliminate iron supplements until you get solid stool.

If your ferritin iron scores are critically low I'd be talking IV iron with your doctor and see if that is an option.

In the meantime cook with cast iron frying pan and eat a lot of protein.

Most MCers, even in remission have a tough time tolerating iron as a supplement. Most of the iron supplements are minerals. I've used Proferrin which is a heme based iron that comes from cows.

Once you are in remission with solid stool I'd look into the Proferrin which is not cheap but will bring up your iron scores.

Typically, using the Bristol scale, what might my goal be?

Karen wrote:1) As for my tea, the peppermint is dried peppermint leaf. The ginger is herbal with ginger root as the only ingredient. Are these potentially problematic? I've only had these two for the last 8 months or so. Before that I used to have black tea with milk. Now I just put honey in my tea. I will certainly quit tea if need be. I'm just not a fan of water, thus the tea.

If those are pure teas, and the peppermint is not causing acid reflux problems, then they should not cause any major problems. Some consider them good for digestion, which I assume is one of the reasons why you selected them.

Tex

A lot depends on what your ferritin score is also--I'll come back to that.

6 or 7 is inflammation and I would not supplement iron or anything else orally other than D3

4 I would try Proferrin
5 I might try Proferrin if my ferritin score were 13 or lower

The problem with supplementing at 6 or 7 is that you stay in WD stage and never get out of it and I suspect your body is not absorbing the supplement anyways.

Any oral Supplements in 6 or 7 should be avoided with the exception of D3. Oral supplements are an irritant to the gut. They prevent and slow healing. They are a financial drain as they go right through us.

I tried 3 traditional iron supplements at 4. They immediately took me to 7. That is when I found the Proferrin. I could barely tolerate the Proferrin. Standard dose is 3 per day. I could tolerate 1 per day at lunch. The proferrin took me from a 4 to a 5 or a 5 to a 5 if that makes sense.

Taking proferrin one per day for 4 months brought my score from ferritin score from 13 to around 38 in 4 months.
I was cooking on cast iron and also eating a lot of shrimp clams and oysters that are high in iron.

Hopefully this helps.

Becca,

The problem with apple and GF cake might be sugar (or sugar alcohols). Apple contains a lot of sugar alcohols, and any type of cake contain a significant amount of sugar. After about 13 years in remission, I still cannot eat cake, and I'm pretty sure that it's because of the sugar content. Anything with more than a small amount of sugar causes digestive issues (resulting in D) for me.

And sugar alcohols in any significant amounts have always caused me to have D, because they are pretty much indigestible. Watermelon is another source of sugar alcohols that many of us cannot tolerate.

Tex

Brandy, that is very helpful.

Thanks to everyone! I'm feeling hopeful my long issue with this might soon get under control.

Hi all-

I purchased Doctor's Best Magnesium. Started with 2 pills and my tummy did not tolerate it well, D for 3 days. But I wanted to make sure it was the Mg, waited a week and just took 1 at bedtime, took 4 to 5 days for D to subside. (I was eating a bland diet during this time.) So think topical may be the way to go. From the board, I see that there is an oil and that foot baths may be an option. How frequently do these need to be done?

Thanks,
Angela

Just a funny aside......When I heard the term "spray", I thought it meant nasal spray. I just could not imagine spraying all of those sprays into my nose. Guess the learning curve is pretty steep

Angela
a cup of epsom salts on a foot soak or bath will provide up to 200mg elemental magnesium

so far as dosage for the topical oil/spray it depends on the individual products and you would need to check the label.

the daily requirement for magnesium is at least 350mg Elemental magnesium per day, if you are big user / deficient / having medication or food items that use magnesium then you would need more than this.
so far as how frequently do these need to be done, as frequent as it takes to get at least 350mg elemental magnesium per day..

Thank you so much, Gabes. That helps a lot!

After reading the whole topic, one thing is not clear:
If I start to use mag (topical oil spray) and d3 (also in spray, but sublingual form), should I take calcium tablets too? If yes, how much? (I thought I need to keep 2:1 calc:mag ratio.)