Ulcerative Colitis

sbskeptic · Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:37 pm

I was wondering if anyone else diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis has had any success with this diet. I am currently taking Prednisone (20mg/day) for the Colitis condition and wondering if that may be affecting (eliminating) any chance at weight loss. I am a 49 year old male, 190lbs when I started SB (3 1/2 weeks ago) and still at 190lbs. I am in Phase 2 but haven't add too much back in since ending Phase 1 because I haven't lost any weight.

I would expect a lot of "don't get discouraged" replies, because that seems to be the typical response to dieters that are not having any success, but don't bother because I'm not really discouraged, I just don't think this diet works for everyone.

koolgyrl1978 · Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:52 pm

A family member of mine is on Prednisone for another condition and I know she struggles keeping her blood sugar in check because that medication can effect the body's ability to process sugars effectively. She has type II diabetes so that compounds the effects. It also increases the amount of water her body holds onto. So it is not surprising you are struggling to drop the pounds. Don't get discouraged though because even though the medication may be effecting how fast you make progress it doesn't mean the SBD isn't bettering your health. You should probably talk with your doctor and discuss this with them, because they may have suggestions on what you can do to help with the side effects of the Prednisone. My suggestion would be to try increasing your activity level because that helps your body increase it's ability to regulate blood sugar properly. Also plenty of water & keep eating right. You can do this...you just might make slower progress. Good luck!

fat supermodel · Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:23 pm

Hi sbskeptic!

I feel for you. Last year I came down with UC out of the blue and for 5 months didn't know what it was. After 2 months of continuous disaster everyday in the bathroom (you know what I'm talking about!), and after trying everything from starving myself, to eating 'bulky' foods, to taking anti-spaz pills and anti-diarrhea pills, I found the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, formulated by Elaine Gottshall. Here are some links for further info:

Oh for crying out loud! I have to have 'ten posts' before I can post a link!? How backwards is that?! Ok...try googling specific-carbohydrate-diet. Otherwise, go to breakingtheviciouscycle dot info, scdiet dot org, healingcrow dot com.

I am just now starting the SB diet. I was on the SC diet last year for 2-3 mths until I was pretty much all better again. I never wanted to use prednisone, and did everything in my power to avoid getting that far. Luckily for me the SC diet worked wonders (and I lost alot of weight). From what I can tell the beginning phase of SB diet is almost the same as the SC diet, except fruit, mozarella and cottage cheese. I highly recommend you read a copy of Elaine Gottschall's book, seeing if it makes intellectual sense to you, and trying it out for a few months to see if it heals your UC. I healed mine before my docs could even give me a professional diagnosis of UC! It took them 5 months to do so. Sigh.

If you get relief from your UC on the Specific Carbohydrate diet, maybe the South Beach diet will work for you as a weight-control program, that's more liberal than the Specific Carb one is. I did not lose weight, even though I couldn't keep anything in, when I had UC and was eating 'normally'. I don't know why. Maybe it was a fluid-retention thing. Maybe that's what's happening to you from the prednisone. However, I lost weight dramatically on the Specific Carb diet (but I wasn't on prednisone).

As soon as my UC was under control (without drugs!), I started eating cakes and toast again :-) so now here I am back to square one on the weight-control issue, which is what led me to this board...

I hope you can find something that works for you.

sbskeptic · Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:14 pm

Thank you both for your replies. I'm hoping to get off of the Prednisone soon as I'm sure it's an issue with the SB diet along with various other unpleasant side effects.

Fat supermodel (are you really fat?), thanks for commiserating with your UC condition. I have taken a look at Elaine Gottshall’s diet and agree with your assessment of the two diets and their similarities and differences. I was thinking about trying the SC diet but haven’t found the right motivation to get serious with it. My doctors have actually been pretty wonderful. When I first started having symptoms, my general practitioner immediately sent me to a specialist who ordered a colonoscopy (preparation is simply not fun) and made the UC diagnosis quickly. The entire process was about 4 weeks. I’m sorry you had to suffer for 5 months before a diagnosis was made. My symptoms weren’t that horrible so I was put on a maintenance medication to get the condition under control. I then had a pretty bad flair-up, thus the Prednisone. The Prednisone, in a few days, was able to calm down the flair-up which was almost incapacitating due to the pain from the spasms. I’m not sure any diet could have done the same in that short a period of time. I actually didn’t eat anything for about a week except for broth and juice because I was so sick and afraid to eat.

I'm really writing to urge you to stay with medical counsel in addition to dietary treatments. I am scheduled for a colonoscopy every two years due to the frequency of far more serious colon conditions that can be caused from having UC. Remission is common with this condition but it doesn’t mean the symptoms won’t come back. Do yourself a favor and get the prescribed screenings. If your doctor is not prescribing regular colonoscopies, I’d find a new doctor. I just think it’s better to be safe than sorry. You probably already know all of this and I usually don't preach, but I'd hate to see someone suffer when it may be preventable.

Good luck and thanks again for the replies.

fat supermodel · Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:49 pm

After taking a good look at my colon, they said I didn't need to come back for 5 years! Don't worry, I will keep in touch with the docs. Especially if I get the stabbing gut pains... :shock:

Well I'm neither fat nor a supermodel, but if I were young enough and pretty enough, I'd be a fatter version than they are, naturally! So no, by definition, that's not fat! Somebody nicknamed me supermodel because I'm tall, and I added the 'fat' for a bit of self-poking fun.

Good going with the SCD! I hope you get some relief soon.

RedRox · Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:08 am

fat supermodel wrote: Oh for crying out loud! I have to have 'ten posts' before I can post a link!? How backwards is that?! Ok...try googling specific-carbohydrate-diet. Otherwise, go to breakingtheviciouscycle dot info, scdiet dot org, healingcrow dot com.

If you had been here before the anti-spammer software was installed that also put this "feature" into play, you would be likely be very thankful for it. I know it's a pain, but it has really cut our spam/porn spam problem to almost nil and it was out of control and getting worse beforehand. Does it affect some well meaning people too? Yes. So do metal detectors in airports for those with surgical metal holding bones together. If there were no malicious people in the world, we wouldn't need either.

Sorry for the inconvienence, but it does have a purpose. Hope you stick around long enough to get your 10 posts in! :)


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