Please Help Answer These Colitis Questions

Meet Chris:

I am 30 Years Old. Living in Massachusetts, USA. I was diagnosed with UC in November of 2011. I have no children. I had my last colonoscopy about 1 year ago.

Some more about me:

likes =) – hiking, reading, spending time with the GF, Going to Temple and reading Ihaveuc.com. Ohh and relaxing, definitely relaxing.

Current Colitis Symptoms:

I am in remission.

Colitis Questions I Have For You:

Your thoughts and discussion are much appreciated =)

So here it is in a nutshell.

My understanding of Colitis is that no one really knows what is causing it – if there is even a specific thing causing it! Thoughts on this?

(In my non scientific opinion (from what I have read) the immune system is the only thing that could cause that kind of damage to our large intestines. If it was a bacterial overgrowth I would think some doctor somewhere would have discovered it by now).

So after being diagnosed I had flares on and off for about six months (I was too stubborn to go on medication). Basically what all that diarrhea did was weaken my colon muscles to the point where when I wasn’t in a flare I was severely constipated (at least that is what I think happened). Has constipation like this ever happened to anyone else?

What I did then was I started giving myself Warm Salt Water Enemas (they work great by the way). What I noticed though is all the different types of food that make it past my small intestines and into my large intestines. The enemas would increase the transit time of everything I was eating before the large intestines could take any action on the food. So I got to see what exactly made it to the large intestines and what did not (again this was during non-flare times when I was not having any diarrhea or anything). For example if I had had red peppers or salad greens or nuts you would be blown away as to how much made to my large intestines. I mean it was like my small intestines did not even touch the stuff and just dumped (pardon the pun) it into my large intestines.

Now obviously things like tomato sauce or nut butters were a lot harder to tell. But I can say that meat and lactose free dairy were the only things that got consistently digested. Nothing of the meat or the lactose free dairy ever made it to my Large Intestines. (except fully digested poop – whatever that is) So this leads me to my third question for you all:

Ever since then I have been eating pretty much all meat and lactose free dairy – with the occasional orange, skinless apple, berry or grape – I have been in remission. I would say 90% to 95% of all my calories come from meat. My third question is has anyone ever tried going all meat (lactose free dairy included)? What was your experience? (Please leave feed back on how long you tried it as well – in my experience you need at least a week and a half on any diet for it to have any significance on Ulcerative Colitis)

I am not trying to push my diet on anyone because I understand how hard each and everyone us try to get healthy (although obviously I tell people about it). I don’t want to imply that this is the cure. But it seems to me that if what we are trying to do is keep whatever is initiating this severe reaction in our large intestines out of our large intestines then this would be the best way to do that. From what I have read and from what I have experienced Protein and Fat are pretty much completely digested in the small intestines and never enter the large intestines.

P.S. I did do the SCD diet and I found this to be the best alternative to the diet I am now on but in my experience it did not go far enough. Anybody experience that?

Again your thoughts and discussion are much appreciated =)

Medications I’m Taking:

I am not taking any Medications. I took Asacol briefly but was not on it long enough to make any judgements on it. Although I did see that diarrhea was a side effect – talk about irony!

written by Chris

submitted in the colitis venting area