Advice, please!

[ldubois7]

Hello!

I’ve had MC for a decade now.
I’ve been diligent about what I eat and don’t eat.
I make my own foods and don’t eat out.

A few months ago I started going 4-5 x’s in the morning, mostly. My stool is normal each day or a bit on the constipated side.
The problem is that I can’t get out of the house until late mornings now!

I do have hemorrhoids and can’t sit very long on the toilet. Seeing a general surgeon about that soon.

Does anyone have an idea why this is happening, or what I might try?

My GI just said that it’s the nature of an IBS, and wants to do a colonoscopy.

[tex]

Hello Linda,

These are uncharted waters so obviously I can only make an educated guess as to what's going on. I'm guessing you have intestinal inflammation — the "roids" confirm that. Been there, done that. When the inflammation fades away, the hemorrhoids should fade away, also. A little over three decades ago, I went to see a gastroenterologist about bleeding hemorrhoids. After he confirmed the problem, and I declined the surgery, he assured me that I'd be back, begging him to do the surgery.

But that never happened. I used Anusol suppositories for a couple of weeks to shrink the hemorrhoids, and added fiber to my diet. Apparently the hemorrhoids were a result of my chronic constipation. I didn't have any more problems with hemorrhoids until about 10 years later, when my MC symptoms began to become severe. But the point is, once the information is controlled, hemorrhoids tend to fade away.

I realize that you believe your diet is squeaky clean (and it may well be, for all I know), but if you read the newsletters that the Microscopic Colitis Foundation publishes monthly, and sometimes more often, you may recall that a few months ago, a newsletter that contained an article devoted to the almost impossible task of maintaining an uncontaminated diet was published. You might reread that article for clues, and you also might be interested in the most recently published newsletter, discussing the challenges of trying to resolve a persistent MC flare.

For your convenience, here are direct links to those newsletters:

https://www.microscopiccolitisfoundatio ... d91296.pdf

https://www.microscopiccolitisfoundatio ... 1943cb.pdf

And if nothing works, you might be one of those rare individuals who require a small maintenance does of budesonide, in order to take care of the inflammation that manages to sneak past your diet restrictions.

Tex

[ldubois7]

Thanks for the reply, Tex.

When talking to my GI doc, he mentioned that I had “a little” MC! A little! I thought about how my life has dramatically changed the last 10 years, and how hard I’ve tried to stay in remission to the best of my ability, and he didn’t seem to be concerned.
He just wants to do another colonoscopy.

So do you consider it a flare when the stool is normal (and sometimes on the constipated side), even though I have to go 4-5X’s in the mornings? I thought since I didn’t have diarrhea, that it wasn’t a flare…silly me!
I thought because I was going so much that I needed less fiber in my diet.

The only thing I can do is start removing questionable foods.

I eat basically the same things….I bake with grain-free flours (& do buy grain free chips), I eat cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, turkey & game meats.
I don’t eat gluten,soy, dairy or eggs.

Maybe I need to try Enterolab again, but I’m always “high” on everything when I test…which is usually during a “bad” spell with the MC.

Thanks for the articles, that I forgot about, from the foundation newsletter.

It can be so discouraging….it’s always good to

Linda

[Gabes-Apg]

hi Linda

some of the reasons I have had extended flares

- change of ingredients with what I thought were trusted products - sometimes manufacturers change the ingredients of their products.
- hormones
- stress (physical, emotional or mental)
- environmental.

( ie I am having ongoing mild symptoms since the flood event we had here in July due to stress and environmental factors)

- tweak my staples. originally I could not have carrots with cauliflower. During good remission I could have them. lately due to stress and environmental aspects I find that I can not have carrot with cauliflower. sounds weird but it is what it is

hope this helps

[ldubois7]

Thanks Gabes and it’s nice to hear from you.

Hormones are a possibility. We had a very hot summer, and my hot flashes were in full force.

I will be more diligent with looking at all ingredients, too.

The only processed foods I eat are plantain chips & grain free cassava chips, and grain free cereal.

I guess that I didn’t consider it a flare, as my stools were more normal and slightly on the C side.

Glad I contacted the experts for some advice!

I appreciate it. Stay well.

[Gabes-Apg]

hormone fluctuations will deplete magnesium so this may be contributing to the poop issues (and putting strain on the poop passing the hemorhoids)
putting coconut oil on the hemorhoids may help it is a good natural buffer to protect them when you are passing the poop

[ldubois7]

Gabes,

I take 250 mg of mag glycinate daily and use a spray.

Maybe I should take more?

[tex]

Hi Linda,

I consider normal to be the bowel movement pattern we had before we developed MC, although some of us have to settle for as close to that pattern as we can get.

You mention grain free cereal. I have no idea what that might be, but I assume you're aware that some of the grain alternatives, are sometimes cross contaminated. Quinoa, for example, was notorious for that problem roughly 10 years ago. One had to buy it either certified gluten-free, or kosher, in order to be sure of obtaining a safe product. Millet has been found to be cross contaminated in some testing studies. In some testing programs, some of the highest levels of cross-contamination have been found in items that originally entered the market as gluten-free, but they become cross contaminated during processing, or somewhere else along the line.

Tex

[ldubois7]

Ok, Tex, thanks for the advice.

I eat Forager cereal. https://www.foragerproject.com/all-products/cereal/
It has 6 ingredients.

The chips are https://sietefoods.com/search?q=grain+f ... e=products
They have 6 ingredients as I only eat the plain.

The grain-free flours I use are cassava, tigernut, coconut and almond.

I’ll cut out chips & cereal and see how it goes for me.

I’ll let you know!

[tex]

Okay, when I go to the Forager link, I see Cinnamon flavor, Chocolate flavor, and Strawberry flavor. Which one is plain? The first two show chickpeas, and navy beans in the ingredient list, and the last one shows chickpeas, navy beans and pea protein. Those are all legumes, and most of us who are sensitive to soy, are also sensitive to chickpeas, navy beans, and pea protein.

Tex

[ldubois7]

Tex,

The Forager cereal I eat is cinnamon.
They recently changed the formula. It used to be cassava flour and navy bean flour.
I bought a few boxes of the old formula before it changed…but I didn’t think about the pea protein, or the connection to soy with the navy bean flour.

The Siete grain-free chips that I eat are the plain ones.
Do you see anything there that’s contradictory?

I guess I let my guard down, and my inflammation increased.

I truly forgot about the legume connection to soy sensitivity.

[tex]

Linda,

I hadn't looked at the Siete chips, so I looked at the website just now, and if you're eating the plain ones, they should be okay. At least they would be for most of us.

Regarding the legumes issue, you may be in a similar situation to me. A few years after I reached remission, an EnteroLab test showed no sensitivity to soy. But I'm not a soy fan anyway, so I generally avoided soy, anyway. A number of years later, one day I ate a bunch of peanuts (as I often did), and my digestive system shut down. After a few hours, the cramps prompted me to go to the ER. "Yep, you have ileus", they told me. Since that certainly wasn't a surprising diagnosis, I asked them if they could restart my digestive system."Nope, it'll have to restart on its own", they told me, and sent me home. So I sat there wondering how long I would last without a working digestive system, because I knew that the food in there would eventually spoil, and begin to rot my guts. Fortunately, a few hours later, it restarted. Since there wasn't much doubt that the peanuts had caused the episode, on a hunch, I ordered a soy test, and lo and behold, I had become soy sensitive.

Tex

[ldubois7]

Tex,

It’s interesting that you should mention the soy connection with legumes. As I think about it, besides the cereal, I’ve been eating peas and string beans from our garden this summer, as I love them fresh.
I never did well with beans in general (digestive distress) but heck, I don’t do well with fermented foods or probiotics…all the things that are supposed to be so good for your gut.

I use carob, instead of cocoa, but it’s a legume, too. Maybe I’ve overloaded my system.

Have you heard of sunflower protein? I have a cereal (that I haven’t tried yet) that uses it.

I have to rethink my whole food list…once again.

[tex]

I don't have any personal experience with sunflower seed derivatives, but is far as I'm aware, they should be safe for virtually any of us.

Yep, avoiding soy, and all Its relatives, is a major project. When I was growing up, soy was only used for animal feed. and it was so rich, that if you used more than 2 or 3 % in a feedlot ration, those cattle could spray you with liquid manure from 15 or 20 feet away, as you walked by. Now, it's in almost everything on the grocery store shelves.

Tex

[ldubois7]

Oh my, that’s funny about soy and the cattle.

So much has changed in our world, or maybe I’m just getting old…

Thanks for helping me with my current puzzle. I appreciate your time.

Old pal,
Linda