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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHello Everyone!! A family friend of mine just found out he has colitis. He really wants to treat himself holistically and naturally. He asked me for advice but unfortunately I don’t know much about the topic. Lucky for both of us, I knew all of you are full of information and thought someone might be able to offer some advice for him. If anyone has had success treating this issue naturally please share your experience. Thanks in advance for your responses!
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I have colitis. I’ve had it for 14 years and the one thing that helped me get off all the medication I was on wasn’t other meds it was the specific carbohydrate diet. It can be hard to commit to but the results (for me) were completely worth it. The main book for it is titled “Breaking the Vicious Cycle” by Elaine Gottschall. It’s not a raw diet. I found that a lot of the recipes in here are SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) safe or could be easily adapted. I was on prednisone for 11 years and was only ever get off it for a month at the most before I’d be hospitalized again. Then I did the diet and I’ve been off it for 8 months and counting. There are a lot of online support groups for it as well where people share recipes and double check what foods are safe. It’s something that you have to commit to 100% though if you really want it to work. Doing some of the diet restrictions and not others isn’t going to help your friend. Hopefully he chooses something that works for him!
iheartveggies – i feel for your friend (and for you, layladebloody). I’ve had ulcerative colitis since i was 9 and have dealt with it differently at different stages of my life. This past year, I had a really bad flare and lost too much blood every day for about 3 months – it was terrible. however, the medication made me feel like i was losing my mind – i was awake for almost 4 days at one point. i started doing a lot of blended salads, avoided all wheat and gluten products, and avoided dairy. it slowly improved and now i’m in remission again. i think one of the important things about colitis is the fact that the same diet restrictions do not work for everyone – you really have to experiment and learn your body’s triggers. i recommend the book Healing Inflammatory Bowel Disease, the Cause and Cure of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis by Paul Nison. it’s a very small book, but lots of great suggestions and info. Good luck to your friend!
Your friend just needs some discipline and patience to heal this disease. He should realize that certain foods make colitis much worse and to avoid those foods. To find out what these foods are, he should go on an elimination diet where he eats only a few foods that he knows for sure don’t irritate him, then slowly add other foods in. Like eat only bananas for a week, if he starts to feel better, then he can add other stuff slowly.
Toughest part in the beginning is finding out what foods irritate you. It takes time and plenty of trial and error. Unfortunately when you make a mistake, it hurts!
Do the obvious and avoid packaged foods, dairy, meat, whole grains (too fibrous), anything that looks sharp or very fibrous like broccoli or most raw vegetables.
Best to eat fruit, and juice or lightly steam veggies until he’s healed.
Best book that I’ve read on this is Self healing colitis and chrons by David Klein. That and 80/10/10 will give you all the info you need to heal this condition.
Look up info on Aloe Vera juice it really helped me and it usually what is recommended for the condition.
Cares
Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who responded. I really appreciate your feedback and I am happy that I will have some suggestions for my friend. To layladebloody, DagnyTaggart, and Cares- I am sorry you have all gone through stages of not being well. I am sending good, loving vibes your way! Thank you for sharing your experience!
damn I missed out on the loving vibes!
Oh No SinzofMan I didn’t forget about you! It just didn’t sound as if you were suffering :) Loving vibes are coming your way too!