Colitis

[Guest guest]

Dr. Bihari says steroids are not the best of meds to take along with

LDN. Steroids can definitely lower the affects of LDN. Steroids are

immune suppressing and LDN upregulates/boosts the immune system back

towards normal. Any drug that suppresses the immune system works

against LDN.

Art

---

>

> Hi there,

>

> I have a friend who has had colitis for a yr, her dr has put her on

> prednisone 20mg for 2 wks. Should I advise her to try ldn, God knows

> it workss great for my sarcoidosis!

>

> Thanks for readng.

> Jo

>

[Guest guest]

> >

> >Thanks Zahavi, will recommend Ldn!

> >

> > Thanks for readng.

> > Jo

> >

>

[Guest guest]

jo you may want to look into the gaps diet too. they have had good

success with it and ulcerative colitis.

http://gapsdiet.com/

One Patient's Experience With Ulcerative Colitis and the Gaps

Diet

Contributed

by: Kurt Worthington, Berkeley, California, December 2008

It all

started about three years ago. I am a self employed architect who was

fortunate enough to be asked to help with designing the master plan of

Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda. As someone who has travelled

extensively throughout my life, I welcomed this opportunity to

participate in something so important and was excited about the

adventure that lay ahead. I have since been over there six times to

this beautiful, small and hilly, green African country.

However

after returning from my first visit there, which lasted our typical ten

days, I noticed blood in my stool. I always seem to get traveler's

diarrhea when I travel to unusual places, but this was the first time

that I noticed blood. Somewhat worried but not overly so, I went to a

Gastro Intestinal doctor. I explained where I had been and figured I

must have caught a bug of some kind. At first he thought the same and

prescribed the normal western treatment - antibiotics. I took them for

a while but my symptoms remained. As a result, I returned to his office

a few weeks later. He told me since the antibiotics did not work, it

was probably something else. He then decided to do a sigmoidoscopy and

explained that he suspected I had Ulcerative Colitis, a disease I had

never heard of. The sigmoidoscopy retuned results classic of what he

suspected - I did indeed have UC.

The doctor

explained to me that this was a disease that was hereditary and can

happen anytime in your life; however it is more common in the early

years (teens and twenties) or shows up in people in their fifties.

Having this occur in my mid-forties was a little unusual. He went on to

explain that it was a disease of the immune system. His simple

explanation was that a bug of some sort entered my system; my immune

system went to attack it, and was now not shutting off. The only way to

shut it off was by medication. He then went on to explain the medicinal

treatment "pyramid" as he called it. At the base of this pyramid was a

wide array of medicines, all not too intense, but as you worked your

way up the pyramid, there were fewer choices in medicine, and these

medicines were more intense and strong.

So we

started at the bottom and he prescribed 12 to 14 tablets of Asacol.

"How long would I need to take these?" I asked. "Probably for the rest

of your life," he said. I was starting to understand that this was a

serious disease. The Asacol did not work. He then starting working his

way up the pyramid. I was learning more about this disease both through

my GI as well as from my own reading. There seemed to be two theories.

One was what my GI believed; the other was that it was based on diet. I

brought up the diet philosophy to my GI, but he disregarded it - which

frustrated me.

Onward we

marched up that pyramid of medicine; I worked my way to the middle and

now was being prescribed 60 mg of prednisone a day as well as other

medications. The prednisone steroid was horrible. I could not sleep, I

was incredibly irritable and it turns out (as I later discovered) it

was giving me steroid induced osteoporosis and cataracts in my eyes. My

face puffed out and I started losing my hair. The prednisone did not

work that well either and, from what I was experiencing from the side

effects, I wanted off it.

I was now

extremely frustrated as my disease just seemed to be getting worse and

worse, even though my medicine was getting stronger and stronger. I was

having 10 to 15 to 20 bloody, uncontrollable bowel movements a day.

Everywhere I went, I mapped out the bathrooms because I literally had

about 20 seconds from the time I got the urge until the time I had to

go to the bathroom. For the first time in my life I felt handicapped. I

was not in control of my body and that frustrated the hell out of me.

Well, I

made it to the top of the pyramid which included Remacaid, via an

infusion into my body taking three hours about once every three weeks

and Imuran, an immune suppressant drug that does just that - it hinders

your immune system (an idea I did not feel that good about). These

treatments did not work as well. I was miserable, had lost weight

because my intestines were not absorbing what they should and I was

incredibly lethargic. I felt like I had constant jet lag. All this was

a result of my disease and the drugs I was taking for it.

My doctor

then said that since the medication was not working, my only other

option was surgery. A second opinion supported this and the doctor

actually said to me, "Just do it, you do not need your colon anyway." I

could not believe this was happening, it was like a bad, bad dream and

I was not waking up from it. The operation that he said I needed would

be a two part operation, each one taking me out for about a month at a

time. It was called a "J pouch" operation where during the first part

they take out the colon and create an internal sack, but they then give

you an external bag for your waste. Then in a month, after your

intestines have a chance to heal, they take away the external bag and

reconnect your inside so that this J pouch now acts as your colon.

There are common problems with the J pouch such as infections, etc. If

it fails completely, you must wear the external bag for the rest of

your life. However, some people do not have many problems except that

they need to go more often then they did. Even still, this operation

horrified me. But it had been three long years of living with this and

it was getting worse and worse. I kept holding on to the belief that it

was diet related and kept bringing this up with my GI. However, it kept

falling on deaf ears. I started to look outside the traditional

medicine path. I tried a strict diet prescribed by a Chinese

acupuncture doctor but that did not work either.

Friends of

my parents who live in Germany, one of whom is an anthroposophic eye

doctor, were appalled at the treatment that I was being prescribed.

They told me to search out an anthroposophic doctor in the Bay area to

see if he or she could help with an alternative method. That is how I

found Dr. Cowan. I was literally at my wits' end because in the week

that I met Dr. Cowan, I also interviewed two surgeons who could

possibly do the J pouch surgery. I must say I was a little reluctant

that Dr. Cowan could help. But he said one key phrase that convinced me

to postpone surgery: "I sure as hell would try this first before you

remove your colon because there is no going back after you do the J

pouch surgery."

I told Dr.

Cowan my story, about the trips to Rwanda, the medications I was on,

etc. But he also wanted to hear more about me. So I told him about

myself, my personality, as well as the fact that five years ago I had a

stint put in one of my arteries, that I was on a statin to lower my

cholesterol, and I was on a very low fat diet. My LDL was about 79 and

my heart doctor wanted it below 70.

Dr. Cowan

took in all this info and started drafting a recovery plan for me. The

first thing was to stop the statin and to not worry about my

cholesterol. If anything he wanted my cholesterol higher because he

said cholesterol has healing abilities, and the fact that my

cholesterol was low was actually hindering my recovery from ulcerative

colitis. He introduced me to the Nourishing Traditions cookbook

and told me to look at it not only as a cookbook but as a philosophy

because the diet he was going to prescribed for me would not, for now,

allow me to use all of the recipes in the book.

The diet

he prescribed was the GAPS diet by Natasha McBride, which is related to

Elaine Gottschalls Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The Nourishing

Traditions ideas dovetailed well with the GAPS diet in many ways.

At first the GAPS diet was difficult to do. It is very restrictive in

that you eliminate virtually all starches, carbohydrates and sugar.

Corn, soy, wheat, rice, barley and many other items were forbidden as

well. When you take these ingredients out of your diet, the supermarket

gets real small, real fast.

As I

mentioned though, I was at the end of my rope. It was either this diet

and the protocol that Dr. Cowan prescribed or it was off to the cutting

table. The latter thought made the diet seem really easy.

Honestly,

I was both skeptical and hopeful at the same time when I started the

GAPS diet. I did not know if it was going to work. Dr. Cowan warned me

that I would not see results right away and that the diet would have to

be continued for at least one year after my symptoms stopped. I knew I

was looking at a long road ahead of me.

I

diligently read Dr. McBride's book and followed the recipes in her book

as well as the basic ones in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook.

I started on the broths and cooked only organic meat and organic

vegetables. Joining a chat room and getting some names from Dr. Cowan,

I was able to find new recipes. The diet went from hard work to a lot

of fun because I started to experiment with a new ways of cooking. I

also learned about a very valuable book by Kendal Conrad called Eat

Well, Feel Well. This book took the diet to another level and

showed me that this diet could be tasteful, creative and even gourmet.

The first

thing I needed to do was find a substitute for typical starches or

carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, pasta or bread at my meals. Conrad's

book talks about this and gives recipes (to name a few) for mashed

celery root and mashed carrot for potato substitutes, spaghetti squash

to replace pasta, and cashew bread to replace the traditional bread

that I was so used to eating. For breakfast, almond flour became my

friend when making carrot muffins;

ground up pecans for scrumptious pecan waffles with honey is also a

favorite. I started to make my own kefir with the kefir grains given to

me from Hamilton-Roth at Dr. Cowan's office. Letting the grains

sit in whole, raw milk from Organic Pastures for 24 hours provided a

great morning fruit and raw-egg smoothie. Often I would substitute

yogurt made from the raw milk for the kefir. I also tried to eat as

much fermented food like sauerkraut and beet kvass.

As I

mentioned, I was on multiple and very strong medications at the time I

started this diet. However Dr. Cowan instructed me that we would slowly

taper off these hard medications and substitute a few drugs that he

prescribed coupled with this diet. I started noticing results within

the first two weeks. They were not big changes, but there were changes.

I started to see a reduction in my bowel movements from 15 down to

maybe 10 a day. After a month, it dropped even more and after three

months I really started to see a difference. But I also started losing

more weight. The adjustment of eliminating carbohydrates and because my

colon was still not absorbing nutrients the way it should caused me to

lose weight - dropping from 165 to 140 pounds. However, I was now going

only 5 to 6 times a day (almost all still bloody and still not very

controllable) but this was so much less than before. I had reason to be

encouraged and optimistic.

I started

the diet in February of 2007 and by mid June my symptoms were

completely eliminated. I felt more energetic and my weight was

stabilizing. During the summer we slowly tapered off Imuran, the immune

suppressant drug that my GI had told me I would need to be on for the

rest of my life.

It is now

late December, I still have not had a relapse. I feel great, people

tell me I look great, and my weight has started to climb back up. But

most important of all, I still have my colon. As someone who was

hopeful but skeptical about this diet, I am living proof that it works!

monique

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Ldn is worth a try for colitis. I know a couple of persons using it for colitis, and it works really well for them. Tell your friend to avoid her triggers while on LDN and that she may need months before she's getting all improvements, because with LDN they often come gradually. Asacol is one medicine that is ok to combine with LDN for colitis, and she can use this as a maintanance drug untill she feels so well that she could try to stay without it, if she wants.

She can start up using LDN while down on 10 mg prednisone, since prednisone from 10 mg and down is not suppressing the immune system as when bigger dosage.

LDN is balancing the immune system, increasing some of it's activities and decresing some. LDN is also increasing our endorphins which make our immunesystem fight the enemies instead of the intestines linings.

Ingrid

From: jobisselle <jobisselle@...>low dose naltrexone Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 5:23:35 PMSubject: [low dose naltrexone] colitisHi there,I have a friend who has had colitis for a yr, her dr has put her onprednisone 20mg for 2 wks. Should I advise her to try ldn, God knowsit workss great for my sarcoidosis!Thanks for readng.Jo------------------------------------

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much for the input Ingrid!From: Gunn Dybfest <gunn.ingrid@...>low dose naltrexone Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 11:04:25 PMSubject: Re: [low dose naltrexone] colitis

Hi,

Ldn is worth a try for colitis. I know a couple of persons using it for colitis, and it works really well for them. Tell your friend to avoid her triggers while on LDN and that she may need months before she's getting all improvements, because with LDN they often come gradually. Asacol is one medicine that is ok to combine with LDN for colitis, and she can use this as a maintanance drug untill she feels so well that she could try to stay without it, if she wants.

She can start up using LDN while down on 10 mg prednisone, since prednisone from 10 mg and down is not suppressing the immune system as when bigger dosage.

LDN is balancing the immune system, increasing some of it's activities and decresing some. LDN is also increasing our endorphins which make our immunesystem fight the enemies instead of the intestines linings.

Ingrid

From: jobisselle <jobisselle (DOT) com>low dose naltrexoneSent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 5:23:35 PMSubject: [low dose naltrexone] colitisHi there,I have a friend who has had colitis for a yr, her dr has put her onprednisone 20mg for 2 wks. Should I advise her to try ldn, God knowsit workss great for my sarcoidosis!Thanks for readng.Jo------------ --------- --------- ------

[Guest guest]

Cheers I will!From: Sauve <moniquesauve@...>low dose naltrexone Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:16:35 PMSubject: [low dose naltrexone] Re:colitis

jo you may want to look into the gaps diet too. they have had good

success with it and ulcerative colitis.

http://gapsdiet.com/

One Patient's Experience With Ulcerative Colitis and the Gaps

Diet

Contributed

by: Kurt Worthington, Berkeley, California, December 2008

It all

started about three years ago. I am a self employed architect who was

fortunate enough to be asked to help with designing the master plan of

Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda. As someone who has travelled

extensively throughout my life, I welcomed this opportunity to

participate in something so important and was excited about the

adventure that lay ahead. I have since been over there six times to

this beautiful, small and hilly, green African country.

However

after returning from my first visit there, which lasted our typical ten

days, I noticed blood in my stool. I always seem to get traveler's

diarrhea when I travel to unusual places, but this was the first time

that I noticed blood. Somewhat worried but not overly so, I went to a

Gastro Intestinal doctor. I explained where I had been and figured I

must have caught a bug of some kind. At first he thought the same and

prescribed the normal western treatment - antibiotics. I took them for

a while but my symptoms remained. As a result, I returned to his office

a few weeks later. He told me since the antibiotics did not work, it

was probably something else. He then decided to do a sigmoidoscopy and

explained that he suspected I had Ulcerative Colitis, a disease I had

never heard of. The sigmoidoscopy retuned results classic of what he

suspected - I did indeed have UC.

The doctor

explained to me that this was a disease that was hereditary and can

happen anytime in your life; however it is more common in the early

years (teens and twenties) or shows up in people in their fifties.

Having this occur in my mid-forties was a little unusual. He went on to

explain that it was a disease of the immune system. His simple

explanation was that a bug of some sort entered my system; my immune

system went to attack it, and was now not shutting off. The only way to

shut it off was by medication. He then went on to explain the medicinal

treatment "pyramid" as he called it. At the base of this pyramid was a

wide array of medicines, all not too intense, but as you worked your

way up the pyramid, there were fewer choices in medicine, and these

medicines were more intense and strong.

So we

started at the bottom and he prescribed 12 to 14 tablets of Asacol.

"How long would I need to take these?" I asked. "Probably for the rest

of your life," he said. I was starting to understand that this was a

serious disease. The Asacol did not work. He then starting working his

way up the pyramid. I was learning more about this disease both through

my GI as well as from my own reading. There seemed to be two theories.

One was what my GI believed; the other was that it was based on diet. I

brought up the diet philosophy to my GI, but he disregarded it - which

frustrated me.

Onward we

marched up that pyramid of medicine; I worked my way to the middle and

now was being prescribed 60 mg of prednisone a day as well as other

medications. The prednisone steroid was horrible. I could not sleep, I

was incredibly irritable and it turns out (as I later discovered) it

was giving me steroid induced osteoporosis and cataracts in my eyes. My

face puffed out and I started losing my hair. The prednisone did not

work that well either and, from what I was experiencing from the side

effects, I wanted off it.

I was now

extremely frustrated as my disease just seemed to be getting worse and

worse, even though my medicine was getting stronger and stronger. I was

having 10 to 15 to 20 bloody, uncontrollable bowel movements a day.

Everywhere I went, I mapped out the bathrooms because I literally had

about 20 seconds from the time I got the urge until the time I had to

go to the bathroom. For the first time in my life I felt handicapped. I

was not in control of my body and that frustrated the hell out of me.

Well, I

made it to the top of the pyramid which included Remacaid, via an

infusion into my body taking three hours about once every three weeks

and Imuran, an immune suppressant drug that does just that - it hinders

your immune system (an idea I did not feel that good about). These

treatments did not work as well. I was miserable, had lost weight

because my intestines were not absorbing what they should and I was

incredibly lethargic. I felt like I had constant jet lag. All this was

a result of my disease and the drugs I was taking for it.

My doctor

then said that since the medication was not working, my only other

option was surgery. A second opinion supported this and the doctor

actually said to me, "Just do it, you do not need your colon anyway." I

could not believe this was happening, it was like a bad, bad dream and

I was not waking up from it. The operation that he said I needed would

be a two part operation, each one taking me out for about a month at a

time. It was called a "J pouch" operation where during the first part

they take out the colon and create an internal sack, but they then give

you an external bag for your waste. Then in a month, after your

intestines have a chance to heal, they take away the external bag and

reconnect your inside so that this J pouch now acts as your colon.

There are common problems with the J pouch such as infections, etc. If

it fails completely, you must wear the external bag for the rest of

your life. However, some people do not have many problems except that

they need to go more often then they did. Even still, this operation

horrified me. But it had been three long years of living with this and

it was getting worse and worse. I kept holding on to the belief that it

was diet related and kept bringing this up with my GI. However, it kept

falling on deaf ears. I started to look outside the traditional

medicine path. I tried a strict diet prescribed by a Chinese

acupuncture doctor but that did not work either.

Friends of

my parents who live in Germany, one of whom is an anthroposophic eye

doctor, were appalled at the treatment that I was being prescribed.

They told me to search out an anthroposophic doctor in the Bay area to

see if he or she could help with an alternative method. That is how I

found Dr. Cowan. I was literally at my wits' end because in the week

that I met Dr. Cowan, I also interviewed two surgeons who could

possibly do the J pouch surgery. I must say I was a little reluctant

that Dr. Cowan could help. But he said one key phrase that convinced me

to postpone surgery: "I sure as hell would try this first before you

remove your colon because there is no going back after you do the J

pouch surgery."

I told Dr.

Cowan my story, about the trips to Rwanda, the medications I was on,

etc. But he also wanted to hear more about me. So I told him about

myself, my personality, as well as the fact that five years ago I had a

stint put in one of my arteries, that I was on a statin to lower my

cholesterol, and I was on a very low fat diet. My LDL was about 79 and

my heart doctor wanted it below 70.

Dr. Cowan

took in all this info and started drafting a recovery plan for me. The

first thing was to stop the statin and to not worry about my

cholesterol. If anything he wanted my cholesterol higher because he

said cholesterol has healing abilities, and the fact that my

cholesterol was low was actually hindering my recovery from ulcerative

colitis. He introduced me to the Nourishing Traditions cookbook

and told me to look at it not only as a cookbook but as a philosophy

because the diet he was going to prescribed for me would not, for now,

allow me to use all of the recipes in the book.

The diet

he prescribed was the GAPS diet by Natasha McBride, which is related to

Elaine Gottschalls Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The Nourishing

Traditions ideas dovetailed well with the GAPS diet in many ways.

At first the GAPS diet was difficult to do. It is very restrictive in

that you eliminate virtually all starches, carbohydrates and sugar.

Corn, soy, wheat, rice, barley and many other items were forbidden as

well. When you take these ingredients out of your diet, the supermarket

gets real small, real fast.

As I

mentioned though, I was at the end of my rope. It was either this diet

and the protocol that Dr. Cowan prescribed or it was off to the cutting

table. The latter thought made the diet seem really easy.

Honestly,

I was both skeptical and hopeful at the same time when I started the

GAPS diet. I did not know if it was going to work. Dr. Cowan warned me

that I would not see results right away and that the diet would have to

be continued for at least one year after my symptoms stopped. I knew I

was looking at a long road ahead of me.

I

diligently read Dr. McBride's book and followed the recipes in her book

as well as the basic ones in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook.

I started on the broths and cooked only organic meat and organic

vegetables. Joining a chat room and getting some names from Dr. Cowan,

I was able to find new recipes. The diet went from hard work to a lot

of fun because I started to experiment with a new ways of cooking. I

also learned about a very valuable book by Kendal Conrad called Eat

Well, Feel Well. This book took the diet to another level and

showed me that this diet could be tasteful, creative and even gourmet.

The first

thing I needed to do was find a substitute for typical starches or

carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, pasta or bread at my meals. Conrad's

book talks about this and gives recipes (to name a few) for mashed

celery root and mashed carrot for potato substitutes, spaghetti squash

to replace pasta, and cashew bread to replace the traditional bread

that I was so used to eating. For breakfast, almond flour became my

friend when making carrot muffins;

ground up pecans for scrumptious pecan waffles with honey is also a

favorite. I started to make my own kefir with the kefir grains given to

me from Hamilton-Roth at Dr. Cowan's office. Letting the grains

sit in whole, raw milk from Organic Pastures for 24 hours provided a

great morning fruit and raw-egg smoothie. Often I would substitute

yogurt made from the raw milk for the kefir. I also tried to eat as

much fermented food like sauerkraut and beet kvass.

As I

mentioned, I was on multiple and very strong medications at the time I

started this diet. However Dr. Cowan instructed me that we would slowly

taper off these hard medications and substitute a few drugs that he

prescribed coupled with this diet. I started noticing results within

the first two weeks. They were not big changes, but there were changes.

I started to see a reduction in my bowel movements from 15 down to

maybe 10 a day. After a month, it dropped even more and after three

months I really started to see a difference. But I also started losing

more weight. The adjustment of eliminating carbohydrates and because my

colon was still not absorbing nutrients the way it should caused me to

lose weight - dropping from 165 to 140 pounds. However, I was now going

only 5 to 6 times a day (almost all still bloody and still not very

controllable) but this was so much less than before. I had reason to be

encouraged and optimistic.

I started

the diet in February of 2007 and by mid June my symptoms were

completely eliminated. I felt more energetic and my weight was

stabilizing. During the summer we slowly tapered off Imuran, the immune

suppressant drug that my GI had told me I would need to be on for the

rest of my life.

It is now

late December, I still have not had a relapse. I feel great, people

tell me I look great, and my weight has started to climb back up. But

most important of all, I still have my colon. As someone who was

hopeful but skeptical about this diet, I am living proof that it works!

monique

[Guest guest]

I too am taking LDN for colitis, microscopic colitis in particular, and

also Hashimoto's. I have to say, I did not get the diarrhoea under

control until I added diet to the mix. I am following Sherry

Brescia's " Great Taste, No Pain " .

Had 4 days on Asacol, which was all I could tolerate - side effects

were horrific. Now just on LDN and diet, probiotics and digestive

enzymes occasionally, and doing great!!

Good luck to you ~ Nettie

[Guest guest]

Tracey, it takes approximately 6 weeks for your dose of

levothyroxine to be fully absorbed. However, until you find the dose of

levothyroxine which removes all of your symptoms, it is usual to increase by 25

mcgs every 6 weeks to 2 months. Your colitis may definitely be better now you

are on thyroid hormone replacement as parts of your body are suddenly going to

start waking up with your increased metabolism and start to work as they

haven't done for quite some time. Good luck.

Luv - Sheila

Just wondering if anyone else has it here.

I've been taking levothyroxine for a week, 25mcg gone up to 50 today. Not sure

if it's the levo but my colitis has calmed down quite a bit!

Also how long before this stuff really kicks and makes you feel better?

No virus

found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

Version: 8.5.364 / Virus Database: 270.12.60/2166 - Release Date: 06/11/09

17:59:00

[Guest guest]

,

Do you definitely have colitis - or just colitis symptoms.

When I am not medicated properly for thyroid I get days of constipation then perhaps a day or two of diarrhoea, then constipation and diarrhoea (sometimes with colic type pains). Extremely distressing and on my mind all the time, especially if I have to make an appointment.

As soon as my thyroid is treated properly this disappears completely and I am so normal I don't even have to think about it.

Lilian

[Guest guest]

Thank you both!

It's definitely ulcerative colitis, had it nearly 5 years now. Only time it

truly went in remission was just after having my youngest son, although the

naltrexone really helps.

Which I'm wondering about as I went hyper about 6 months after having him

(didn't know that then but it's obvious now) and gone hypo now.

If it's pregnancy related thyroid trouble how come it didn't happen when I had

my other 2? Could it be related to colitis (being autoimmune) as I didn't have

that until my second son was 1 years old so this last pregnancy was my first

with colitis.

>

Your colitis may definitely be better now you are on

> thyroid hormone replacement as parts of your body are suddenly going to

> start waking up with your increased metabolism and start to work as they

> haven't done for quite some time. Good luck.

>

>

>

> Luv - Sheila

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Tracey,

you should feel continuing improvement until you reach optimum

at around 125-150mcg for a full replacement dose- doc should be aiming

for a TSH of around 1.0.

Subject: Colitis

Just wondering if anyone else has it here.

I've been taking levothyroxine for a week, 25mcg gone up to 50 today.

Not sure if it's the levo but my colitis has calmed down quite a bit!

Also how long before this stuff really kicks and makes you feel better?

------------------------------------

TPA is not medically qualified. Consult with a qualified medical

practitioner before changing medication.

[Guest guest]

Hi Tracey,

Just that the stresses of pregnancy finally caught up- mine

packed in after my second baby.

Subject: Re: Colitis

Thank you both!

If it's pregnancy related thyroid trouble how come it didn't happen when

I had my other 2? Could it be related to colitis (being autoimmune) as

I didn't have that until my second son was 1 years old so this last

pregnancy was my first with colitis.

> Lilian

>

Ooh waking up, that's something I've not done in a while!

>

Your colitis may definitely be better now you are on

> thyroid hormone replacement as parts of your body are suddenly going

to

> start waking up with your increased metabolism and start to work as

they

> haven't done for quite some time. Good luck.

>

>

>

> Luv - Sheila

>

>

------------------------------------

TPA is not medically qualified. Consult with a qualified medical

practitioner before changing medication.

[Guest guest]

- please make sure you delete everything else except a small quote from

the actual message you are replying to. I have done it for you this time.

Lilian, Moderator.

Just when you need to feel well the most!

Just been thinking about it, when I was hyper I had the worst pomphloyx (hand

eczema, all itchy and blistery, just awful) ever, also lost fingernails.

I've had this eczema on an off since having my eldest. Not predictable at all.

Then when I lost loads of weight I had it constantly. Then it disappeared

(touch wood) I've not had it at all for over a year.

Could this eczema (googling seems to make a link) be when my thyroid was being

attacked and I was a bit hyper during those times? Perhaps it was starting to

get like it and the 3rd baby really set it off.

>

> Hi Tracey,

> Just that the stresses of pregnancy finally caught up- mine

> packed in after my second baby.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Yes same for me. Definite problem during and after my second pregnancy only it

took GP 6 years to diagnose it.

> >

> Your colitis may definitely be better now you are on

> > thyroid hormone replacement as parts of your body are suddenly going

> to

> > start waking up with your increased metabolism and start to work as

> they

> > haven't done for quite some time. Good luck.

> >

> >

> >

> > Luv - Sheila

> >

> >

>

>

>

> ------------------------------------

>

> TPA is not medically qualified. Consult with a qualified medical

> practitioner before changing medication.

>

>

[Guest guest]

So I went to my PCP about my ongoing stomach issues. He does not think it is

from the Arava, he thinks I have colitis. Oh joy. Anyone else have this?

*~ Kami ~*

[Guest guest]

this will help with digestive disorders.

monique

i took this from a doctor's newsletter:

One Patient's Experience With Ulcerative Colitis and the Gaps Diet

/Contributed by: Kurt Worthington, Berkeley, California, December 2008/

It all started about three years ago. I am a self employed architect who

was fortunate enough to be asked to help with designing the master plan

of Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda. As someone who has travelled

extensively throughout my life, I welcomed this opportunity to

participate in something so important and was excited about the

adventure that lay ahead. I have since been over there six times to this

beautiful, small and hilly, green African country.

However after returning from my first visit there, which lasted our

typical ten days, I noticed blood in my stool. I always seem to get

traveler's diarrhea when I travel to unusual places, but this was the

first time that I noticed blood. Somewhat worried but not overly so, I

went to a Gastro Intestinal doctor. I explained where I had been and

figured I must have caught a bug of some kind. At first he thought the

same and prescribed the normal western treatment - antibiotics. I took

them for a while but my symptoms remained. As a result, I returned to

his office a few weeks later. He told me since the antibiotics did not

work, it was probably something else. He then decided to do a

sigmoidoscopy and explained that he suspected I had Ulcerative Colitis,

a disease I had never heard of. The sigmoidoscopy retuned results

classic of what he suspected - I did indeed have UC.

The doctor explained to me that this was a disease that was hereditary

and can happen anytime in your life; however it is more common in the

early years (teens and twenties) or shows up in people in their fifties.

Having this occur in my mid-forties was a little unusual. He went on to

explain that it was a disease of the immune system. His simple

explanation was that a bug of some sort entered my system; my immune

system went to attack it, and was now not shutting off. The only way to

shut it off was by medication. He then went on to explain the medicinal

treatment " pyramid " as he called it. At the base of this pyramid was a

wide array of medicines, all not too intense, but as you worked your way

up the pyramid, there were fewer choices in medicine, and these

medicines were more intense and strong.

So we started at the bottom and he prescribed 12 to 14 tablets of

Asacol. " How long would I need to take these? " I asked. " Probably for

the rest of your life, " he said. I was starting to understand that this

was a serious disease. The Asacol did not work. He then starting working

his way up the pyramid. I was learning more about this disease both

through my GI as well as from my own reading. There seemed to be two

theories. One was what my GI believed; the other was that it was based

on diet. I brought up the diet philosophy to my GI, but he disregarded

it - which frustrated me.

Onward we marched up that pyramid of medicine; I worked my way to the

middle and now was being prescribed 60 mg of prednisone a day as well as

other medications. The prednisone steroid was horrible. I could not

sleep, I was incredibly irritable and it turns out (as I later

discovered) it was giving me steroid induced osteoporosis and cataracts

in my eyes. My face puffed out and I started losing my hair. The

prednisone did not work that well either and, from what I was

experiencing from the side effects, I wanted off it.

I was now extremely frustrated as my disease just seemed to be getting

worse and worse, even though my medicine was getting stronger and

stronger. I was having 10 to 15 to 20 bloody, uncontrollable bowel

movements a day. Everywhere I went, I mapped out the bathrooms because I

literally had about 20 seconds from the time I got the urge until the

time I had to go to the bathroom. For the first time in my life I felt

handicapped. I was not in control of my body and that frustrated the

hell out of me.

Well, I made it to the top of the pyramid which included Remacaid, via

an infusion into my body taking three hours about once every three weeks

and Imuran, an immune suppressant drug that does just that - it hinders

your immune system (an idea I did not feel that good about). These

treatments did not work as well. I was miserable, had lost weight

because my intestines were not absorbing what they should and I was

incredibly lethargic. I felt like I had constant jet lag. All this was a

result of my disease and the drugs I was taking for it.

My doctor then said that since the medication was not working, my only

other option was surgery. A second opinion supported this and the doctor

actually said to me, " Just do it, you do not need your colon anyway. " I

could not believe this was happening, it was like a bad, bad dream and I

was not waking up from it. The operation that he said I needed would be

a two part operation, each one taking me out for about a month at a

time. It was called a " J pouch " operation where during the first part

they take out the colon and create an internal sack, but they then give

you an external bag for your waste. Then in a month, after your

intestines have a chance to heal, they take away the external bag and

reconnect your inside so that this J pouch now acts as your colon. There

are common problems with the J pouch such as infections, etc. If it

fails completely, you must wear the external bag for the rest of your

life. However, some people do not have many problems except that they

need to go more often then they did. Even still, this operation

horrified me. But it had been three long years of living with this and

it was getting worse and worse. I kept holding on to the belief that it

was diet related and kept bringing this up with my GI. However, it kept

falling on deaf ears. I started to look outside the traditional medicine

path. I tried a strict diet prescribed by a Chinese acupuncture doctor

but that did not work either.

Friends of my parents who live in Germany, one of whom is an

anthroposophic eye doctor, were appalled at the treatment that I was

being prescribed. They told me to search out an anthroposophic doctor in

the Bay area to see if he or she could help with an alternative method.

That is how I found Dr. Cowan. I was literally at my wits' end because

in the week that I met Dr. Cowan, I also interviewed two surgeons who

could possibly do the J pouch surgery. I must say I was a little

reluctant that Dr. Cowan could help. But he said one key phrase that

convinced me to postpone surgery: " I sure as hell would try this first

before you remove your colon because there is no going back after you do

the J pouch surgery. "

I told Dr. Cowan my story, about the trips to Rwanda, the medications I

was on, etc. But he also wanted to hear more about me. So I told him

about myself, my personality, as well as the fact that five years ago I

had a stint put in one of my arteries, that I was on a statin to lower

my cholesterol, and I was on a very low fat diet. My LDL was about 79

and my heart doctor wanted it below 70.

Dr. Cowan took in all this info and started drafting a recovery plan for

me. The first thing was to stop the statin and to not worry about my

cholesterol. If anything he wanted my cholesterol higher because he said

cholesterol has healing abilities, and the fact that my cholesterol was

low was actually hindering my recovery from ulcerative colitis. He

introduced me to the /Nourishing Traditions /cookbook and told me to

look at it not only as a cookbook but as a philosophy because the diet

he was going to prescribed for me would not, for now, allow me to use

all of the recipes in the book.

The diet he prescribed was the GAPS diet by Natasha McBride, which is

related to Elaine Gottschalls Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The

/Nourishing Traditions/ ideas dovetailed well with the GAPS diet in many

ways. At first the GAPS diet was difficult to do. It is very restrictive

in that you eliminate virtually all starches, carbohydrates and sugar.

Corn, soy, wheat, rice, barley and many other items were forbidden as

well. When you take these ingredients out of your diet, the supermarket

gets real small, real fast.

As I mentioned though, I was at the end of my rope. It was either this

diet and the protocol that Dr. Cowan prescribed or it was off to the

cutting table. The latter thought made the diet seem really easy.

Honestly, I was both skeptical and hopeful at the same time when I

started the GAPS diet. I did not know if it was going to work. Dr. Cowan

warned me that I would not see results right away and that the diet

would have to be continued for at least one year after my symptoms

stopped. I knew I was looking at a long road ahead of me.

I diligently read Dr. McBride's book and followed the recipes in her

book as well as the basic ones in the /Nourishing Traditions /cookbook.

I started on the broths and cooked only organic meat and organic

vegetables. Joining a chat room and getting some names from Dr. Cowan, I

was able to find new recipes. The diet went from hard work to a lot of

fun because I started to experiment with a new ways of cooking. I also

learned about a very valuable book by Kendal Conrad called /Eat Well,

Feel Well/. This book took the diet to another level and showed me that

this diet could be tasteful, creative and even gourmet.

The first thing I needed to do was find a substitute for typical

starches or carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, pasta or bread at my

meals. Conrad's book talks about this and gives recipes (to name a few)

for mashed celery root and mashed carrot for potato substitutes,

spaghetti squash to replace pasta, and cashew bread to replace the

traditional bread that I was so used to eating. For breakfast, almond

flour became my friend when making carrot muffins; ground up pecans for

scrumptious pecan waffles with honey is also a favorite. I started to

make my own kefir with the kefir grains given to me from

Hamilton-Roth at Dr. Cowan's office. Letting the grains sit in whole,

raw milk from Organic Pastures for 24 hours provided a great morning

fruit and raw-egg smoothie. Often I would substitute yogurt made from

the raw milk for the kefir. I also tried to eat as much fermented food

like sauerkraut and beet kvass.

As I mentioned, I was on multiple and very strong medications at the

time I started this diet. However Dr. Cowan instructed me that we would

slowly taper off these hard medications and substitute a few drugs that

he prescribed coupled with this diet. I started noticing results within

the first two weeks. They were not big changes, but there were changes.

I started to see a reduction in my bowel movements from 15 down to maybe

10 a day. After a month, it dropped even more and after three months I

really started to see a difference. But I also started losing more

weight. The adjustment of eliminating carbohydrates and because my colon

was still not absorbing nutrients the way it should caused me to lose

weight - dropping from 165 to 140 pounds. However, I was now going only

5 to 6 times a day (almost all still bloody and still not very

controllable) but this was so much less than before. I had reason to be

encouraged and optimistic.

I started the diet in February of 2007 and by mid June my symptoms were

completely eliminated. I felt more energetic and my weight was

stabilizing. During the summer we slowly tapered off Imuran, the immune

suppressant drug that my GI had told me I would need to be on for the

rest of my life.

It is now late December, I still have not had a relapse. I feel great,

people tell me I look great, and my weight has started to climb back up.

But most important of all, I still have my colon. As someone who was

hopeful but skeptical about this diet, I am living proof that it works!