Newbie looking to heal 30+ years colitis page

[WendyB]

Last weekend I stumbled upon MDA and have read every word I can find with my limited free time. The last time I "accidentally" found a site, it changed my life in an unexpected and positive way so I'm hopeful this will be the case again.

Brief history:

At 15, I became extremely sick with ulcerataive colitis. The doc gave me two weeks to respond to meds or he would yank out my colon. Thankfully my body responded. Fast forward to today. I'm 49 years old and still battling the disease. The past year has been my worst health wise. (MAJOR stress) Two colonoscopies revealed lots of polyps and masses. Thankfully no cells had turned cancerous. The third colonoscopy couldn't be performed because my colon was too inflamed.

My doc tried talking me into removing my colon but I am stuborn and refuse to give up any body parts. My logic is that I can't heal my colon if I don't have it any more. I've always been a believer in natural healing. I just pray my body gives me enough time to figure how to heal it. My doc was also furious with me because I refused to take several highly toxic meds he insisted would help me. I took one drug for nearly 30 years then my body became too toxic from the drug. The newer drugs were even more toxic. One threatened to damage other organs in order to help my colon and required hours at the hospital every month. Besides, I'm interested in healing my body, not swallowing another band-aid pill that masks the symptoms so I could go on living like I was.

My first huge step towards healing started a few years ago with healing my emotions. The rage that was stuffed inside me was shocking. I finally healed the rage a few months ago. I still have a lot of stress from family drama but I'm learning to set boundaries and cut off my gut reaction pretty fast when mud is slung my way.

Now for the diet part...Every doctor I ever saw told me that diet had NOTHING to do with my health. I knew they were wrong but didn't know the answer.

I still don't!

In the past year I tried the Specific Carb Diet and lost an unhealthy amount of weight. I was thin to begin with so I turned into a skeleton with flesh. My dad became physically sick when he saw me and was scared I was dying. My son freaked out too. I gave that diet up after a few weeks because I couldn't maintain the restrictions and weightloss.

I gave up gluten and dairy. Bought several gluten-free cookbooks and started eating breads and desserts with rice flour, sorghum flour and other gluten-free flours.

My next inspiration was Forks Over Knives so I became about 98% vegan. I filled my diet with fruit, veggies and lots of gluten-free carbs....beans, rice, quinoa, buckwheat. This didn't make the positive changes that I expected. I keep hearing the clock tick tock in the back of my head.

I recently gave up alcohol (it used to be my prozac)

A few months ago, I finally filled my huge dream of moving to Hawaii. Now that I'm living my dream I just need to get my body totally healthy so I can live here for the rest of my long life.

On Sunday I made the decision to go Primal this past Monday. Since then I have eaten a few bites of gluten-free bread simply because I was about to go nuts from withdrawl. I know this will pass quickly as I wean myself off the sugar infused energy and become more accustomed to animal based fuel.

I seriously had no idea that all the carbs I was eating was causing more inflamation in my body.

Since I'm new to the island, I still need to figure out where to buy grass-fed meat. We have 5 mouths to feed so buying totally grass-fed could be challenging for now. I talked to my husband about all this and he is hopeful this will help me too. He wasn't crazy about the whole vegan experiment so he's thrilled about me eating and cooking meat again.

I'm keeping a journal of what I eat and how I feel physically each day. Since we live in the city, I walk everywhere. The beach is a short walk away and I find the energy of the island, sand and water healing. The daily sun is amazing and doing wonders for my spirit and vitamin D intake.

Thanks to everyone on the forum who came before me. I have read a lot of posts and will continue to read and offer support where I can.

Goal: heal colon, gain a few pounds of muscle, become physically stronger, have endless energy. I'm helping raise my beautiful granddaughter. She needs her grandma!

[valmason01]

I love how positive you are. It is so hard to try to find cures when the medical field seems to be uncaring at best and more interested in keeping you sick at worst. I realize there are no guarantees but I think eating this way is a good step for you. Be patient. A lifetime of illness does not heal overnight. It sounds like you have support. Don't hesitate to use it. Believing with you that you are going to be there dancing for the birth of your great-granddaughter!

[WendyB]

Thank you for such a beautiful, supportive response! The thought of being alive for the birth of my great-grandaughter nearly made me cry at the thrill of possibilities :-)

[valmason01]

And it is possible. I can't wait to see how your story unfolds...

[Kate Ruckman]

BEST of luck! Looking forward to hearing positive results...and long life to you.

[WendyB]

Thank you Val and Kate! I'll keep updating as I notice change. I'm really excited to see how I feel after 30 days. Out of all the diatary changes I've made, this one excites me the most.

[Lewis]

Yeah. The SCD is interesting. AFAIK it arose because back in the day people with various GI issues had been treated with diets that were pretty much carb-free. (There's nothing new about low carb.) So this doctor looked around & tried to find carbs that wouldn't cause these people GI distress - so their diets could be more interesting. So he was saying: you don't have to be ketogenic; you can also ram down plenty of ripe bananas. If you were losing weight on the diet you have to ask yourself: Was I implementing it correctly? Were you eating enough fat and/or enough of the "specific" carbs you were allowed.

Broadly: I think implementation is crucial & you want to be sure that what you understand Paleo/Primal to be matches what's really been suggested.

I think your choice not to opt for surgey is courageous. AFAIK your condition isthe one that one of THE main voices in the movement, Robb Wolf, used to suffer from. I'd check out his site too.

[Kate Ruckman]

Thank you Val and Kate! I'll keep updating as I notice change. I'm really excited to see how I feel after 30 days. Out of all the diatary changes I've made, this one excites me the most.

Yes. please do update! It may take a while to heal the damage, but the fact that you're feeling better after only 30 days is GREAT. This diet has certainly done a lot for me in less than a year--weight loss, no more heartburn or acid reflux, hernia doesn't hurt any more, no more inexplicable mood swings (just the explicable ones!), less pain, skin smoother, no freaking out if I can't get food RIGHT NOW. Oh, yes, and cholesterol and all my blood work NORMAL, this year, after years of being high.

So I KNOW it was the solution for me.

[WendyB]

Kate, I am thrilled to hear you have had such a wonderful year healing so many health issues! I think you misunderstood me...I just started a week ago and am eager to see how I feel 30 days from now. I haven't made the 30 day mark yet :-) Tomorrow marks the first week. This whole way of eating makes sense.

Lewis, thank you for your input. I eventually read about so many people who went on the SCD and lost a lot of weight their first couple weeks -months even -and became weak and that seemed to be the "norm". My problem was that I didn't have any fat to lose because I was already thin. I ended up losing muscle. Thanks for the info to read about Robb Wolf. Will do that today. My understanding of the Paleo way of eating is to eat grass fed and wild meat, vegetables, some fruit and plenty of healthy fats. I'm getting plenty of fat so far in the form of coconut oil, coconut milk, olive oil, mayo (still using store bought but will start making my own when this runs out). I'm not losing weight, in fact I may have put on a pound which is welcome!

Eating the Paleo way is a good reminder to me to keep life simple not only with eating but in every other area as well. We really know how to complicate things!

Thank you again to everyone for all the support and positive feedback!

[Kate Ruckman]

[QUOTE=WendyB;938202]Kate, I am thrilled to hear you have had such a wonderful year healing so many health issues! I think you misunderstood me...I just started a week ago and am eager to see how I feel 30 days from now. I haven't made the 30 day mark yet :-) Tomorrow marks the first week. This whole way of eating makes sense.]

I did indeed misunderstand (reading too fast!) but I'm delighted to hear you feel better after just a week!