I have a question..Im new to this whole colitis life, so please bear with me.
After I eat dinner, which is usually chicken, and some rice, no veggies for now, I seem to be ok. I keep a diary of what I eat and how many times I "go" to the bathroom.
About how long does it take to know if you are reacting to something you ate?
It seems I am ok at night, then in the morning, sometimes the only thing I have to do is wake up and Im in the bathroom again! starts with the horrible cramping, and in I go.. that will last for a couple of times, then I eat breakfast sometimes I go once more, than ok for most of the day, to start it all over again.
any ideas?? thanks!
about how long does it take?
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Hi there,
I think it varies from person to person. Some people can't finish eating before having a reaction, while others may take hours or a few days. I'm sort of like you in that most of the time I'm fine right after eating, but mornings are really bad. I think it's common to have D in the mornings, or even to have it wake you up. I tend to have most of my problems first thing in the morning and at night. Others have had different experiences. Don't worry, we're all a little different here.
Love,
Courtney
I think it varies from person to person. Some people can't finish eating before having a reaction, while others may take hours or a few days. I'm sort of like you in that most of the time I'm fine right after eating, but mornings are really bad. I think it's common to have D in the mornings, or even to have it wake you up. I tend to have most of my problems first thing in the morning and at night. Others have had different experiences. Don't worry, we're all a little different here.
Love,
Courtney
Hypothyroid 05/05
LC/CC 07/08
Celiac 07/08
LC/CC 07/08
Celiac 07/08
I can only agree with Courtney. Some of us have major problems during the night, but for me, it usually started when I woke up, about daybreak, (or an hour or two earlier), and I would have to make 2 or 3 trips to the bathroom before leaving the house, then maybe 1 or 2 more during the morning. Afternoons were pretty good, with usually only one BM, and after that I would usually be able to make the deliveries that I needed to do for my work, without major problems. Usually I would have 1 more in the evening, or before bedtime, but after that, I would typically be OK until the next morning, and then it would start all over again.
"Normal" transit time is about 30 to 40 hours, (for someone who has a normal digestive system, and is not sick), but it can vary somewhat from person to person, and diet can affect it, obviously. That doesn't mean, however, that you would have to react to a particular food within 30 hours. Some of us seem to react to certain intolerances as late as 3 or 4 days after eating it. Most reactions to gluten or casein seem to begin about 6 to 10 hours after eating it. As Courtney pointed out, though, some members here react to gluten in as few as 10 to 20 minutes, and I never could tell that I reacted to it directly. In my case, gluten just seemed to cause background inflammation, which caused everything else to make me sick. Apparently reaction time depends on which parts of the digestive system are involved in the reaction. The name of the disease implies that MC affects only the colon. However, if this were true, then any reaction that begins in less than 3 hours after any food is ingested, would have to be due to something besides MC, since it normally takes over 3 hours for food to reach the colon. Obviously, the small intestine, and in some cases, even the stomach, can trigger a reaction, so these organs must also be sensitized, in order to initiate a reaction so quickly, for some of us.
Please understand that as long as these organs are sensitized, these reactions can/will occur, regardless of what you eat. IOW, you do not have to eat a food to which you are intolerant, in order to have D. You will have chronic D, simply because your GI tract is inflammed. These reactions will continue until your gut has had sufficient time to heal. For some of us, who have accumulated a great deal of damage to our intestines, healing can take up to a year, and even longer, but in many cases, it does not take as long. Often, 3 to 6 months of healing is sufficient, especially if the diagnosis was promptly arrived at, within a couple of months or so, of the onset of symptoms. Of course, eating a food to which you are intolerant will almost surely trigger a reaction, and it will delay the healing process, and inflict more damage to the intestines.
After you achieve remission, then it will be much easier to determine your reaction time to various intolerances. Normally, after we are in remission for a while, we will react to an intolerance only briefly, because we will not have a great deal of accrued damage to the intestines to make the intestines ultra-sensitive. IOW, once we are in remission, if we slip up and eat something that we shouldn't have, we may have one or two sessions of D, but after that, (unless we continue to eat the foods that we are intolerant of), we should recover quickly.
I hope this helps.
Tex
P S I have to agree with Joan, due to the close similarity of the sequences of the amino acid chains in gluten and in casein, (milk protein), that we react to, it would be extremely rare for someone to be intolerant of casein without being intolerant of gluten.
"Normal" transit time is about 30 to 40 hours, (for someone who has a normal digestive system, and is not sick), but it can vary somewhat from person to person, and diet can affect it, obviously. That doesn't mean, however, that you would have to react to a particular food within 30 hours. Some of us seem to react to certain intolerances as late as 3 or 4 days after eating it. Most reactions to gluten or casein seem to begin about 6 to 10 hours after eating it. As Courtney pointed out, though, some members here react to gluten in as few as 10 to 20 minutes, and I never could tell that I reacted to it directly. In my case, gluten just seemed to cause background inflammation, which caused everything else to make me sick. Apparently reaction time depends on which parts of the digestive system are involved in the reaction. The name of the disease implies that MC affects only the colon. However, if this were true, then any reaction that begins in less than 3 hours after any food is ingested, would have to be due to something besides MC, since it normally takes over 3 hours for food to reach the colon. Obviously, the small intestine, and in some cases, even the stomach, can trigger a reaction, so these organs must also be sensitized, in order to initiate a reaction so quickly, for some of us.
Please understand that as long as these organs are sensitized, these reactions can/will occur, regardless of what you eat. IOW, you do not have to eat a food to which you are intolerant, in order to have D. You will have chronic D, simply because your GI tract is inflammed. These reactions will continue until your gut has had sufficient time to heal. For some of us, who have accumulated a great deal of damage to our intestines, healing can take up to a year, and even longer, but in many cases, it does not take as long. Often, 3 to 6 months of healing is sufficient, especially if the diagnosis was promptly arrived at, within a couple of months or so, of the onset of symptoms. Of course, eating a food to which you are intolerant will almost surely trigger a reaction, and it will delay the healing process, and inflict more damage to the intestines.
After you achieve remission, then it will be much easier to determine your reaction time to various intolerances. Normally, after we are in remission for a while, we will react to an intolerance only briefly, because we will not have a great deal of accrued damage to the intestines to make the intestines ultra-sensitive. IOW, once we are in remission, if we slip up and eat something that we shouldn't have, we may have one or two sessions of D, but after that, (unless we continue to eat the foods that we are intolerant of), we should recover quickly.
I hope this helps.
Tex
P S I have to agree with Joan, due to the close similarity of the sequences of the amino acid chains in gluten and in casein, (milk protein), that we react to, it would be extremely rare for someone to be intolerant of casein without being intolerant of gluten.
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.
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MaggieRedwings
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Morning Brenda,
For me the mornings are always bad but recently have gotten much better. Afternoons and nights are usually uneventful. When I was at my worst in the beginning of MC, my reaction time could be almost immediately upon eating something. 15 minutes would have been a very long time for a reaction. At that point in my life the day was an eternity and would have incidents throughout the day. Nighttimes were my first part of the day that was eliminated for accidents during the healing process. From there on it has slowly gotten less and less.
Stick with the diet and I am sure you will see relief.
Love, Maggie
For me the mornings are always bad but recently have gotten much better. Afternoons and nights are usually uneventful. When I was at my worst in the beginning of MC, my reaction time could be almost immediately upon eating something. 15 minutes would have been a very long time for a reaction. At that point in my life the day was an eternity and would have incidents throughout the day. Nighttimes were my first part of the day that was eliminated for accidents during the healing process. From there on it has slowly gotten less and less.
Stick with the diet and I am sure you will see relief.
Love, Maggie
Maggie Scarpone
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Resident Birder - I live to bird and enjoy life!
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Resident Birder - I live to bird and enjoy life!