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Hello There,
I'm a newbie. Went years without diagnosis, had multiple & redundant surgeries, until another doc looked at the pathology from the most-recent biopsy and saw collagen, oh my! The answer: collagenous colitis.
In many ways, I was fortunate, I had been trying to lose weight and had gotten used to keeping a food diary, this diary clearly showed me which foods to avoid: all grains but rice, diary, corn, potato, bananas, pineapple, pork, etc...the list does go on and on and on. But, it kept getting worse, and more and more foods jumped onto the 'foods to avoid' list. :( I was afraid that all foods would eventually make it onto that list (it's easy to get dramatic, when you're without diagnosis for years and you keep getting worse).
The doc that diagnosed me put me on Cyclosporine (an immunosuppressant), it worked beautifully, I could eat anything without issue! The version of cyclosporine I was taking was a powder in a capsule. Just before Thanksgiving, I learned that the FDA pulled that version. I was given the same drug, but in a solution of 18% alcohol. It didn't work (the doc theorizes that the powder created a topical-like application and the alcohol had to be metabolized by the liver, making it less effective), and now, I am back on the food avoiding plan. I must say that taking an immunosuppressant wasn't without misgivings, but I just felt so normal, and my diet was free of restriction and I could finally travel (ahhhh...couldn't have done it w/out cyclosporine).
I recently heard of the herbal supplement: Boswellia. I read about it here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17764013 Has anyone tried this? Words of wisdom otherwise...as you know, this is no fun...I'm happy that I can control it through diet and being on cyclosporine for months quieted/calmed it, so that's good. But any info would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Cindy
Fresh Meat
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi Cindy,
Welcome to our internet family.
Sorry to hear that your treatment was withdrawn by the FDA.
In the abstract that you cited, note that the results of the trial included this observation by the researchers:
Of those, I believe that this is the only one that describes an actual trial, using boswellia as a treatment, (attempted), for MC:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =boswellia
Again, welcome aboard,
Tex (Wayne)
Welcome to our internet family.
Sorry to hear that your treatment was withdrawn by the FDA.
In the abstract that you cited, note that the results of the trial included this observation by the researchers:
I've always wondered if that statement was a misprint, because it implies that the treatment made no difference to the cellular markers of MC, nor did it bring any improvement in clinical symptoms of the patients. That's a direct contradiction to their conclusion, where they state that:Compared to placebo, BSE treatment had no effect on histology and quality of life.
If you do a search for the term "boswellia", on this board, it will bring up 31 "hits".BSE might be clinically effective in patients with collagenous colitis
Of those, I believe that this is the only one that describes an actual trial, using boswellia as a treatment, (attempted), for MC:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =boswellia
Again, welcome aboard,
Tex (Wayne)
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.