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Has anyone heard of or experienced Amino Acid Therapy for MC?? My new Doc is recommending it and don't know alot about it.....would appreciate any advice you may offer!
Kim
Amino Acid Therapy
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Kimberly M
- Little Blue Penguin
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:13 pm
Amino Acid Therapy
Hello Friends!
Has anyone heard of or experienced Amino Acid Therapy for MC?? My new Doc is recommending it and don't know alot about it.....would appreciate any advice you may offer!
Kim
Has anyone heard of or experienced Amino Acid Therapy for MC?? My new Doc is recommending it and don't know alot about it.....would appreciate any advice you may offer!
Kim
Hi Kim,
Amino acid therapy is promoted by some practitioners to supposedly help balance brain chemicals, (neurotransmitters), and other things of that sort. The only treatment close to that, that I'm aware of, that's used for treating digestive system issues, is the use of amino acids and pre-digested nutritional items, used in enteral feeding, (usually by means to a tube, either directed into the stomach, or implanted into the duodenum, for patients who are unable to eat normally, or in cases where patients are truly allergic to normal food). Some refer to this as an elemental diet.
I'm aware of one individual with MC who tried enteric feeding, and when it didn't resolve the symptoms, her doctors talked her into submitting to an ileostomy, claiming that the ileostomy would resolve her symptoms. We advised her that it wouldn't stop her symptoms, but she decided to go ahead with the surgery anyway. After the surgery, she still had all her symptoms, plus chronic abdominal pain, (that she didn't have before), plus the nuisance of having to deal with an ileostomy. Despite their assurances, doctors don't always have good ideas, and they don't always know what they're doing, unfortunately.
I've heard of amino acid therapy being used in combination with an antihistaminergic drug, and a mast cell stabilizer, to treat ulcerative colitis, (which involved mast cell degranulation issues), as in the following example, but if mast cell degranulation is the problem, then treating that issue will resolve the symptoms, and the amino acid treatment would be irrelevant and unnecessary. Replacing the amino acid therapy with a diet low in histamines, and avoiding foods that are known to trigger mast cell degranulation, would be a much safer and more effective approach.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16944185
That said, maybe your new doctor is a brilliant new innovator, and he's onto something that I'm not aware of, but before I would even consider a treatment of that type, I would want to talk with some of his patients who have had their cases successfully resolved by that treatment program - patients who were successfully treated at least a couple of years ago, not patients who are only a few weeks or a few months into the program, who will probably be enthusiastic about the program, but the jury may still be out.
Here's an article by a doctor, that discusses some of the concerns about treatments of this type:
http://www.lifedynamix.com/articles/Ask ... erapy.html
Tex
Amino acid therapy is promoted by some practitioners to supposedly help balance brain chemicals, (neurotransmitters), and other things of that sort. The only treatment close to that, that I'm aware of, that's used for treating digestive system issues, is the use of amino acids and pre-digested nutritional items, used in enteral feeding, (usually by means to a tube, either directed into the stomach, or implanted into the duodenum, for patients who are unable to eat normally, or in cases where patients are truly allergic to normal food). Some refer to this as an elemental diet.
I'm aware of one individual with MC who tried enteric feeding, and when it didn't resolve the symptoms, her doctors talked her into submitting to an ileostomy, claiming that the ileostomy would resolve her symptoms. We advised her that it wouldn't stop her symptoms, but she decided to go ahead with the surgery anyway. After the surgery, she still had all her symptoms, plus chronic abdominal pain, (that she didn't have before), plus the nuisance of having to deal with an ileostomy. Despite their assurances, doctors don't always have good ideas, and they don't always know what they're doing, unfortunately.
I've heard of amino acid therapy being used in combination with an antihistaminergic drug, and a mast cell stabilizer, to treat ulcerative colitis, (which involved mast cell degranulation issues), as in the following example, but if mast cell degranulation is the problem, then treating that issue will resolve the symptoms, and the amino acid treatment would be irrelevant and unnecessary. Replacing the amino acid therapy with a diet low in histamines, and avoiding foods that are known to trigger mast cell degranulation, would be a much safer and more effective approach.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16944185
That said, maybe your new doctor is a brilliant new innovator, and he's onto something that I'm not aware of, but before I would even consider a treatment of that type, I would want to talk with some of his patients who have had their cases successfully resolved by that treatment program - patients who were successfully treated at least a couple of years ago, not patients who are only a few weeks or a few months into the program, who will probably be enthusiastic about the program, but the jury may still be out.
Here's an article by a doctor, that discusses some of the concerns about treatments of this type:
http://www.lifedynamix.com/articles/Ask ... erapy.html
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.
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Kimberly M
- Little Blue Penguin
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:13 pm
Thank you so much Tex for your response! This doctor says he is one of only 25 or so in the US who does this sort of treatment. He took blood at my last appt. and was sending it to a lab in Spain (only one in the world) to see if I was able to be matched with the exact, specific amino acid for my body. He said there is a general amino therapy which may help me but he's hoping to match mine.....believes it will work better. The therapy is injections. He did a ton of blood work and stool work. I told him about Enterolab and he hadn't heard about that lab in particular but believed in their work and was interested in my results (my current gastro doc say's they're a hoax). He doesn't believe that diet alone can heal my particular situation.............it's all soo confusing. I would love to believe he is onto something that will work but your health is to important to just trust anyone with it. I have an appt. on Wed. and we will go over all my test results and decide how to proceed from there. I have been working hard on my diet but haven't been able to get below 2 Entorcort per day. New doc hates the fact that I am on steroids and have been for over a year now. He also believes that the use of antibiotics may have been what triggered my MC. Really prefers I use anitbiotics only when absolutely necessary from now on.
Sorry for the book, but thanks again for your input......I respect it immensely!!
Kimberly
Sorry for the book, but thanks again for your input......I respect it immensely!!
Kimberly
Well, your new doctor seems to be leaning in the right direction concerning the use of meds, and what we've learned on this board, about the effects of diet on disease, so he might have some good ideas, worth considering. He appears to know more about treating the disease than your GI doc - at lease he's open-minded.
Good luck with whatever course of action you decide to follow, and please keep us informed.
Tex
Good luck with whatever course of action you decide to follow, and please keep us informed.
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.