whats your best method for treating flare ups.

thanks.

Ask Bombay

You can get ulcers from that?

stay hydrated (electrolyte replenishment), low residue...

Ragoo said:

---

You can get ulcers from that?

---

No, you cant

Does it burn when you pee?

sportsfan100 said:

---

whats your best method for treating flare ups.

thanks.

---

A fifth of whiskey, a couple lines, and a loose woman.

Your mom likes when I get ulcerative with her colitis.

wife had UC. Many years treatment with steroids and finally surgery to remove colon.

Google Kenny Honnas u tube for some good info. Kenny figured out how to treat his UC after top gi docs could only offer surgery to remove colon or drugs that they said would probably give him cancer by the time he was 40. Keny was 19-20 when worked out a treatment plan that allows him to lead a normal life. Impressive!

Have you considered biologics, such as Humira, Remicade, Entyvio, etc? They can be game changers. They can have some adverse side effects but having serious flares can make life miserable.
My brother has UC and he was reluctant to try the biologics initially. However, the flares were very debilitating and he could be confined at home for days on end. His only options at that point were surgery or biologics. He went on Humira and has been back to normal going on 4 years.

Yes. I've had it since I was 18.

At times when I was younger I had a lot of trouble. Now I am 46 and in remission. I've never had to take a biological med, but they weren't available when I struggled. Now I take Lialda as a maintenance.

My suggestion is to find a really good physician that specializes in IBD. I see the head of the UT Digestive Diseases Center in Houston. He has saved my life. He was previously at the BCM in Houston. Go to a clinic like this.

Removing someone's colon is far down the on the list of solutions now days. If someone suggests this, run and get a second opinion. This should only be an option if cancer is imminent and things like Remicade (sp?), Humira, and experimental trials with Xeljantz failed.

The Mayo Clinic also has a lot of expertise in this field..

You can manager this, but you need to find a really good physician that specializes in IBD.

This is where I go:

https://www.utphysicians.com/clinic/ut-gastroenterology-clinic-tmc/

They are affiliated with Memorial Hermann.

On other thing, what are you doing with your diet?

I have not tried gluten free, but some people with Chron's and UC say it really helps them.

If you drink beer, limit your beer consumption. Especially that of craft, unfiltered, "wheat" type beer. If is says "wheat" on it anywhere, I avoid it. Also, no doctor will tell you this but avoid any and all Anheuser Busch products. For some reason their brewing process seems to really make IBD go crazy. Perhaps it's the rice they use? Everyone I know with UC has reported this! I still have an occasional beer, but not daily and not more than one or two at a time.

If you do drink, stick to wine and cocktails.

I have also found that raw spinach is really good for me. We eat a salad with supper four or five times a week, and we always make sure that it has plenty of spinach. I also avoid all things that say they are "whole grain." We are programmed to think this is good for us, but not for UC. And fish like Salmon with a high oil content is good. I try to eat relatively healthy, moreso than when I was younger. But for the most part I eat when I want, avoiding whole grains like the plague and too much beer.

Exercise when you feel good.

Experiment, and remember that everyone is different. There is no magic bullet for this disease. I live a normal active life with a wife and kid. I do not allow this disease to limit me.

Glad to help!

Doesn't seem anyone is taking my suggestion to see Kenny Honnas utubes seriously. He was told his only options were colon removal or drugs with serious side effects. He found two books by MDs, not totally quacks, that talked of how diet and probiotics affect UC, and developed a plan that got his UC under control. He is at A&M studying nutrition and wants to go to med school. Then treat patients with gi problems. Do as The Chicken Ranch said. Find a doctor that will advise you on diet, probiotics, etc and not just surgery
and severe drugs. Now most folks will not have the dedication or enough self control to stay on a very strict diet or find the right probiotics as Kenny did.

I don't know anything about UC, but I can confirm everything about Kenny. He's a good dude.

Knowledge is power. Get as many opinions and examine as many resources as you can.

But I'd also recommend seeing a top physician that is actively engaged in UC research. Your local GI doctor is not the right place to go.

It is so important to remember that everyone is different with this disease.

If you're bent wi' arthiritis,
Your bowels have got Colitis,
You've gallopin' bollockitis
And you're thinkin' it's time you died,
If you been a man o' action,
Though you're lying there in traction,
You will get some satisfaction
Thinkin', "Jesus, at least I tried."

Does it make you fart a lot because I might have it.

^ Name checks out.

The Chicken Ranch said:

---

On other thing, what are you doing with your diet?

I have not tried gluten free, but some people with Chron's and UC say it really helps them.

If you drink beer, limit your beer consumption. Especially that of craft, unfiltered, "wheat" type beer. If is says "wheat" on it anywhere, I avoid it. Also, no doctor will tell you this but avoid any and all Anheuser Busch products. For some reason their brewing process seems to really make IBD go crazy. Perhaps it's the rice they use? Everyone I know with UC has reported this! I still have an occasional beer, but not daily and not more than one or two at a time.

If you do drink, stick to wine and cocktails.

I have also found that raw spinach is really good for me. We eat a salad with supper four or five times a week, and we always make sure that it has plenty of spinach. I also avoid all things that say they are "whole grain." We are programmed to think this is good for us, but not for UC. And fish like Salmon with a high oil content is good. I try to eat relatively healthy, moreso than when I was younger. But for the most part I eat when I want, avoiding whole grains like the plague and too much beer.

Exercise when you feel good.

Experiment, and remember that everyone is different. There is no magic bullet for this disease. I live a normal active life with a wife and kid. I do not allow this disease to limit me.

Glad to help!

---

I would also add that start keeping a food diary if you haven't. It may help identify patterns.

Agree about the whole grain and the spinach. I would also add that raw cruciferous vegetables - like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli are often irritants and you might be careful.

Fish like salmon is definitely a good one but don't heavily fry it in oil. The Omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial to the colon - some of that research was done at A&M in Dr Lupton's lab by a friend of mine for her PhD. I have added a daily fish oil supplement that seems to help.

Another thing to add is to look for some of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's patient education offerings. They can be a big help to understanding about the current thoughts and treatments.

One of the things I learned at a CCFA panel held in Houston is some of the research is leading the folks specializing in IBD to believe it may not just be 2 diseases. It may be possibly as many as 20-30 that just present in 2 predominant pathologies. This may explain why there is such a wide variety of responses to treatments and outcomes as well as it having both genetic and environmental triggers.

And at least 15% of IBD patients fall into an atypical presentation that cannot be classified into either Crohn's or UC when tissue samples are taken and analyzed - which is the case for mine.

My gastrointestinal guy thought I did and just kept missing it. Turns out it was a weird form of intestinal cancer that doesn't have a name, so I got pretty lucky. I knew a young girl with it at my church when I was a teenager who had it.

I remember when I went off to A&M she came by and wished me good luck and said she was jealous because she didn't think she could go to A&M. I said she was pretty bright and wouldn't have a problem going to whatever college she wanted. She said she wasn't worried about that, she was worried she wouldn't live long enough to go to college.

Which she didn't.

The Chicken Ranch said:

---

Knowledge is power. Get as many opinions and examine as many resources as you can.

But I'd also recommend seeing a top physician that is actively engaged in UC research. Your local GI doctor is not the right place to go.

It is so important to remember that everyone is different with this disease.

---

I would also second this. At least consider seeing one for a second opinion on your primary GI's treatment protocol. It can help give you peace of mind that you are one the right course. I found one to get a second opinion a few years ago when I was at Baylor College of Med in Houston that was engaged in active research and part of the CCFA's research advisory panel.

Also be aware of stress in your life. It can really hit the body hard and make the already stressful flares worse. For some it can become a vicious cycle.

And since we are in the middle of the Texas heat hitting us, be careful of dehydration in particular. IBD patients can be more prone to dehydration. Some of the medications used to treat it can also make you a bit more sensitive to heat exhaustion as well. So be careful and drink plenty of fluids. Also consider drinking fewer caffeinated beverages as caffeine can promote dehydration.

And to those that mentioned the video guy post isn't getting as much love. I don't know his stuff personally but as TCR has said, everyone is different.

This is one of those diseases that for many is not as simple as cutting one thing out of the diet. The average length of time from first onset of symptoms to initial diagnosis is often close to a decade. And while diet is useful for some people, it isn't usually the whole story for most. And while many suggest diet as the ultimate answer, it is often unclear if there are other things in their lives that contributes to their changes working. Maybe they have a low-key personality that deals with stress better than others or some other factor.

As I noted above, there is growing understanding that these diseases are a bit more complicated than once thought. It has only been recently that it seems the scientific community has decided to class these as auto-immune diseases. This is also why some of the most novel classes of drugs - the biologics and chimerics - are sometimes needed.