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Okay, so from most of the reading I have done within this forum, there certainly appears to be a consensus that food intolerances are the main contributing cause for MC. How do you develop these intolerances when there were not symptons for 58 years? I could eat anything with no adverse affects. Now, just within the last 6 -8 months I have been diagnosed with MC.
Thanks for your support and for answering a question that has probably been asked before. It is so hard to start this major diet change.
Robert
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Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
I was dx at 60 w/this. Looking back on my medical history and family history has been a real eye-opener for me.
My first major symptom of this was when I was 9. I thought it was just stomach aches. Have you NEVER had any type of intestinal issues before your dx with mc?
My first major symptom of this was when I was 9. I thought it was just stomach aches. Have you NEVER had any type of intestinal issues before your dx with mc?
Resolved MC symptoms successfully w/L-Glutamine, Probiotics and Vitamins, GF since 8/'09. DX w/MC 10/'09.
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Gabes-Apg
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from some of the reading i have done - there were varying triggers. For some of the women it was HRT treatment.
Majority of the group agree that diet management is important and food intolerances cause people have to MC Flares, it is not the reason that MC started in the first place.
MC is autoimmune condition. There is not enough research and understanding of Autoimmune conditions to know how and why they start and what triggers them.
Have you had any medication changes in the last 2 years?
Any major lifestyle changes or situations that have occurred?
Embracing Diet change which is a full lifestyle change is very intense, and because the benefits of that change are not instant, it can be overwhelming.
Majority of the group agree that diet management is important and food intolerances cause people have to MC Flares, it is not the reason that MC started in the first place.
MC is autoimmune condition. There is not enough research and understanding of Autoimmune conditions to know how and why they start and what triggers them.
Have you had any medication changes in the last 2 years?
Any major lifestyle changes or situations that have occurred?
Embracing Diet change which is a full lifestyle change is very intense, and because the benefits of that change are not instant, it can be overwhelming.
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Hi Robert,
According to the foremost MC researcher, Dr. Kenneth Fine, (who has MC himself), when a gene that predisposes to MC is triggered, (which initiates the disease), a gene that predisposes to gluten sensitivity, is also triggered, in many/most cases, (which instantaneously establishes certain food sensitivities). IOW, MC doesn't necessarily cause food intolerances, (though food intolerances can cause MC) - in most cases, they just happen to be triggered at the same time. That's why collateral food sensitivities can occur at any age, (in sync with MC).
Tex
According to the foremost MC researcher, Dr. Kenneth Fine, (who has MC himself), when a gene that predisposes to MC is triggered, (which initiates the disease), a gene that predisposes to gluten sensitivity, is also triggered, in many/most cases, (which instantaneously establishes certain food sensitivities). IOW, MC doesn't necessarily cause food intolerances, (though food intolerances can cause MC) - in most cases, they just happen to be triggered at the same time. That's why collateral food sensitivities can occur at any age, (in sync with MC).
Tex
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.
I have been fortunate to have never had any gastrointestinal problems - no constipation/no D accept for episodes related to viruses. I only medication I take is lipitor and I have been taking that for ~ 6 years. I had started taking glucosimine and fishoil suppliments some time prior to the onset of MC. I stopped taking them immediately when the D started but there was no change.
Thanks for all your help.
Thanks for all your help.
Sometimes we fail to see connections to conditions, Robert, and I am referring to autoimmune issues here with you, specifically as you said:
So, you and I have a connection here. I had had major "arthritic" type issues that I was seeing my Naturopath for. He had me on megadoses of potent fish oil and glucosamine when I was first getting prolotherapy for joint damage. My D started around that time and I assumed it was the fish oil, so I kept cutting down on it because I could see oil floating in the toilet. I still am not taking the full amount he originally prescribed of fish oil, but I still take a huge dose of it daily (2/3'rds of what he originally prescribed), as well as all of the glucosamine-which I never cut down on. Still, I had D for 2 1/2 years before my dx w/MC which started at about your age.
The point I want to make here is this: You and I wouldn't likely have been taking these supplements if we didn't have issues with our joints. HRT is usually used by women who have had early hysterectomies - usually because of endometriosis type conditions, which is basically scar tissue in and around your intestines and many men here have had scar tissue in their intestines as well-so did I EVER have endometriosis, or did I have scar tissue caused by a gluten sensitivity? It looks the same. We wouldn't need pain meds if we weren't in pain. We wouldn't have infections that we needed antibiotics for unless we were susceptible to staph bacterias because of the breakdown of our intestinal wall. So, all these connections that we are told "may have caused" our MC is just BS, IMO. Which came first??
I wouldn't have taken massive amts of Ibu if I weren't in pain, I wouldn't have had an autoimmune disorder that attacked my joints unless something triggered it, I wouldn't have taken HRT if I hadn't had a hysterectomy when I was 26 because I had scar tissue that was strangling my bowel. I wouldn't have taken antibiotics if I hadn't had one freaky infection after another, most of which were never identified except for UTI's.
I wish now that I'd been a diary keeper so I could go back to childhood and see in writing what my life was like, but I do know that the first major episode was at age 9 when I was under tremendous stress and the last was after a 2nd sibling took his life. We all react to stress differently, sometimes we have no idea we are under stress. We all have different life experiences and levels of stress we grew up with and we adapted accordingly. I'd be willing to bet that if you look back carefully, Robert, to when this started for you, that there was either one event or a series of events that sent you down this road.
I also ate everything, I ate a lot of bread daily, I didn't go GF until 3 mos. before my dx w/MC last October and only did so then because my oldest daughter had recovered her health by doing so. Still - 4 months after being GF my test results from Enterolab in 12/09 showed major reactions to gluten. I treated my MC w/o prescription meds and my test results and my protocol are posted on this website. My symptoms stopped very quickly after I started my protocol for this in Nov. '09 and I have had only minor flares in the past 4+ months and they have all been related to catered or restaurant foods.
You wouldn't have been taking Lipitor for the last 6 years unless you had cholesterol issues, it is a potent drug that is not w/o side effects and this may also explain some things. There are endless links to the connection to your gut and lipitor on the WWW, and some of them claim to be a cure for colitis, and some of them say the exact opposite.
Cholesterol issues are often genetic - my 2nd husband's family is one of those - they are a cesspool of heart/lung/digestive/ADD/Autism spectrum issues. Both his parents are Eastern European and particularly on his father's side they are either genius or mentally disabled and this has infiltrated his nuclear family. Eastern European is one of the main genetic groups that are gluten sensitive or celiac.
My husband has taken the last 2 weeks off work to be with his parents, who have both had surgeries last week for what may have been collectively - thyroid cancer/cancer/fungus in the lung/heart problems/mucous plug in the lung/candida/diabetes, etc. etc. (we're still waiting for the last tests to come in - and thus far NONE has been dx as cancer, but they are very ill). His Dad could clear a room with his gas, clearly he's got digestive issues and has had all his life. My husband finally promised me last night that he will be tested for gluten by Enterolab, he already uses a CPAP, has increasing symptoms of asthma, has been getting allergy shots for over 15 years, and cholesterol and blood pressure issues.
Giving up gluten has been so easy for me, I truly rarely miss it and, as a caterer I am around it all the time. In my job I see gluten intolerance as a growing issue. I am never on a job anymore where it doesn't come up and had one recent job where 1 in 4 were GF.
Connie
And Gabes mentioned the connection to HRT and there are also connections to NSAID's and antibiotic use.I had started taking glucosimine and fishoil suppliments some time prior to the onset of MC
So, you and I have a connection here. I had had major "arthritic" type issues that I was seeing my Naturopath for. He had me on megadoses of potent fish oil and glucosamine when I was first getting prolotherapy for joint damage. My D started around that time and I assumed it was the fish oil, so I kept cutting down on it because I could see oil floating in the toilet. I still am not taking the full amount he originally prescribed of fish oil, but I still take a huge dose of it daily (2/3'rds of what he originally prescribed), as well as all of the glucosamine-which I never cut down on. Still, I had D for 2 1/2 years before my dx w/MC which started at about your age.
The point I want to make here is this: You and I wouldn't likely have been taking these supplements if we didn't have issues with our joints. HRT is usually used by women who have had early hysterectomies - usually because of endometriosis type conditions, which is basically scar tissue in and around your intestines and many men here have had scar tissue in their intestines as well-so did I EVER have endometriosis, or did I have scar tissue caused by a gluten sensitivity? It looks the same. We wouldn't need pain meds if we weren't in pain. We wouldn't have infections that we needed antibiotics for unless we were susceptible to staph bacterias because of the breakdown of our intestinal wall. So, all these connections that we are told "may have caused" our MC is just BS, IMO. Which came first??
I wouldn't have taken massive amts of Ibu if I weren't in pain, I wouldn't have had an autoimmune disorder that attacked my joints unless something triggered it, I wouldn't have taken HRT if I hadn't had a hysterectomy when I was 26 because I had scar tissue that was strangling my bowel. I wouldn't have taken antibiotics if I hadn't had one freaky infection after another, most of which were never identified except for UTI's.
I wish now that I'd been a diary keeper so I could go back to childhood and see in writing what my life was like, but I do know that the first major episode was at age 9 when I was under tremendous stress and the last was after a 2nd sibling took his life. We all react to stress differently, sometimes we have no idea we are under stress. We all have different life experiences and levels of stress we grew up with and we adapted accordingly. I'd be willing to bet that if you look back carefully, Robert, to when this started for you, that there was either one event or a series of events that sent you down this road.
I also ate everything, I ate a lot of bread daily, I didn't go GF until 3 mos. before my dx w/MC last October and only did so then because my oldest daughter had recovered her health by doing so. Still - 4 months after being GF my test results from Enterolab in 12/09 showed major reactions to gluten. I treated my MC w/o prescription meds and my test results and my protocol are posted on this website. My symptoms stopped very quickly after I started my protocol for this in Nov. '09 and I have had only minor flares in the past 4+ months and they have all been related to catered or restaurant foods.
You wouldn't have been taking Lipitor for the last 6 years unless you had cholesterol issues, it is a potent drug that is not w/o side effects and this may also explain some things. There are endless links to the connection to your gut and lipitor on the WWW, and some of them claim to be a cure for colitis, and some of them say the exact opposite.
Cholesterol issues are often genetic - my 2nd husband's family is one of those - they are a cesspool of heart/lung/digestive/ADD/Autism spectrum issues. Both his parents are Eastern European and particularly on his father's side they are either genius or mentally disabled and this has infiltrated his nuclear family. Eastern European is one of the main genetic groups that are gluten sensitive or celiac.
My husband has taken the last 2 weeks off work to be with his parents, who have both had surgeries last week for what may have been collectively - thyroid cancer/cancer/fungus in the lung/heart problems/mucous plug in the lung/candida/diabetes, etc. etc. (we're still waiting for the last tests to come in - and thus far NONE has been dx as cancer, but they are very ill). His Dad could clear a room with his gas, clearly he's got digestive issues and has had all his life. My husband finally promised me last night that he will be tested for gluten by Enterolab, he already uses a CPAP, has increasing symptoms of asthma, has been getting allergy shots for over 15 years, and cholesterol and blood pressure issues.
Giving up gluten has been so easy for me, I truly rarely miss it and, as a caterer I am around it all the time. In my job I see gluten intolerance as a growing issue. I am never on a job anymore where it doesn't come up and had one recent job where 1 in 4 were GF.
Connie
Resolved MC symptoms successfully w/L-Glutamine, Probiotics and Vitamins, GF since 8/'09. DX w/MC 10/'09.
Robert,
I have to agree with Connie, because exactly the same thing that you are experiencing, happened to me, before my GI symptoms started. My arthritis got so bad in my knees, that I sometimes had to use two canes, to get around. I started taking glucosamine sulphate, and flax seed oil, and I saw some significant improvement in my knees, but about the time that my GI symptoms started to show up, the arthritis began working on my left elbow, and a couple of fingers of my right hand. After I removed all sources of gluten from my diet, and my gut had time to heal, my arthritis slowly went away, until it finally disappeared completely.
Are you having any trouble with thinning tooth enamel, or cavities? I had that problem, also, even before my GI symptoms began, and it continued until my gut healed from all the gluten damage.
It is a fact that for many of us who are gluten-sensitive before the onset of MC, neurological issues present before the GI issues. For some individuals, GI symptoms never develop. There is intestinal damage, but the patient is asymptomatic, and most doctors will never, ever make the connection between the neurological issues, and gluten sensitivity, since most of them are probably not even aware that gluten can cross the blood/brain barrier to cause neurological issues, in the first place.
The point is, as Connie suggested, we may be confronted with the evidence of gluten sensitivity for decades, but we never recognize the symptoms as being due to gluten, and our doctors will certainly never make the connection - that's completely off their radar.
Lipitor has been known to cause colitis, in a few cases, but it's not generally recognized as a trigger for MC.
Incidentally, there's no need to stop taking glucosamine, or fish oil. I never stopped taking glucosamine and flax seed oil, and somewhere along the line, I added fish oil, also. Those are all good, healthy supplements.
Tex
I have to agree with Connie, because exactly the same thing that you are experiencing, happened to me, before my GI symptoms started. My arthritis got so bad in my knees, that I sometimes had to use two canes, to get around. I started taking glucosamine sulphate, and flax seed oil, and I saw some significant improvement in my knees, but about the time that my GI symptoms started to show up, the arthritis began working on my left elbow, and a couple of fingers of my right hand. After I removed all sources of gluten from my diet, and my gut had time to heal, my arthritis slowly went away, until it finally disappeared completely.
Are you having any trouble with thinning tooth enamel, or cavities? I had that problem, also, even before my GI symptoms began, and it continued until my gut healed from all the gluten damage.
It is a fact that for many of us who are gluten-sensitive before the onset of MC, neurological issues present before the GI issues. For some individuals, GI symptoms never develop. There is intestinal damage, but the patient is asymptomatic, and most doctors will never, ever make the connection between the neurological issues, and gluten sensitivity, since most of them are probably not even aware that gluten can cross the blood/brain barrier to cause neurological issues, in the first place.
The point is, as Connie suggested, we may be confronted with the evidence of gluten sensitivity for decades, but we never recognize the symptoms as being due to gluten, and our doctors will certainly never make the connection - that's completely off their radar.
Lipitor has been known to cause colitis, in a few cases, but it's not generally recognized as a trigger for MC.
Incidentally, there's no need to stop taking glucosamine, or fish oil. I never stopped taking glucosamine and flax seed oil, and somewhere along the line, I added fish oil, also. Those are all good, healthy supplements.
Tex
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.
I want to reiterate what Tex said:
I do have cartilage loss because of years of joint inflammation and that is why I am having prolotherapy in both wrists 3X/yr now, but I am NOT in pain, I do NOT need pain meds to sleep anymore since I stopped eating gluten. I have more energy now at nearly 61 than I did when I was 40.
There is hope. I was convinced I had cancer before my colonoscopy and dx with MC, as my Mom, her brother, my brother, my Grandfather, all died of stomach or colon cancer, bowel obstruction or a misdiagnosed case of TB, but the connection is that ALL of them had bowel issues and we sure as heck know that Dr's don't really explore much beyond what pops up on their western medicine leaning laptops that are probably programmed by drug companies. Gee - do I sound bitter??
I have had the same experience. I used to wince when I cracked an egg and I cook breakfast for film crews and crack an average of 4 dz, eggs a day and I would literally cry when it was at it's worst. I couldn't do yard work, everything hurt. I was seeing the #1 rheumatologist at Oregon Health Sciences Univ. Hosp. for this and he tested me for everything he could test me for. All the tests were negative. All my siblings supposedly have "arthritis", my mother did as well and she died of stomach cancer???? I honestly don't remember her as having had bowel issues, but I never really knew her. I refused methotrexate and sulfasalazine, I couldn't tolerate the mega doses of one pain med he gave me, it made me literally crazy and took me 3 days to come down from taking it for 3 days.After I removed all sources of gluten from my diet, and my gut had time to heal, my arthritis slowly went away, until it finally disappeared completely.
I do have cartilage loss because of years of joint inflammation and that is why I am having prolotherapy in both wrists 3X/yr now, but I am NOT in pain, I do NOT need pain meds to sleep anymore since I stopped eating gluten. I have more energy now at nearly 61 than I did when I was 40.
There is hope. I was convinced I had cancer before my colonoscopy and dx with MC, as my Mom, her brother, my brother, my Grandfather, all died of stomach or colon cancer, bowel obstruction or a misdiagnosed case of TB, but the connection is that ALL of them had bowel issues and we sure as heck know that Dr's don't really explore much beyond what pops up on their western medicine leaning laptops that are probably programmed by drug companies. Gee - do I sound bitter??
Resolved MC symptoms successfully w/L-Glutamine, Probiotics and Vitamins, GF since 8/'09. DX w/MC 10/'09.
It's always good to "see" another Texan, (though I wish it were under better circumstances, of course). You know, I've noticed that over the past year or two, there seems to be an increasing rate of new member registrations coming from Texas. We now have a lot of members from Texas. I hope that's just a coincidence, or maybe due to Texas GI docs getting to be more conscientious about diagnosing MC, and not a sign that there's something in the water, or the air, causing the disease. 
Tex
Tex
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.
Ant,
Yes, that information is collected somewhat regularly. At last report, Paratuberculosis was present in every country of the world, except for Norway, Sweden and a few states in Australia. Here is probably the main data center for Johne's disease research:
http://www.johnes.org/zoonotic/index.html
Note this quote from that report:
Tex
Yes, that information is collected somewhat regularly. At last report, Paratuberculosis was present in every country of the world, except for Norway, Sweden and a few states in Australia. Here is probably the main data center for Johne's disease research:
http://www.johnes.org/zoonotic/index.html
Note this quote from that report:
Most of these studies have focused on humans with Crohn's disease due to its clinical and pathological similarity to Johne's disease. This should not be interpreted to mean that Crohn's disease is the only pathological condition that might result from human infection with M. paratuberculosis if it can occur.
Tex
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.