Simply don't eat anything?

I always feel better after colonoscopy, i know sounds crazy but i think it's because i don't eat anything for 2 days before. i was thinking to try 2 day fasting too but with 3 very active kids have to wait until school holidays are over

Not a good idea to stop eating. Sorry ignoring uc won't make it go away. When you have a uc flareup you loose weight. If you stop eating on top of that then you'll accelerate that weight loss. Starving your body of nutrients isn't good.

Go see your GI and adjust your prescription and dosages. Better to solve the problem in a logical way.

choosing to fast or give your colon a rest is not ignoring as the poop man said - there is nothing wrong with giving things a break for a few days - but as andrina said, a liquid diet would probably be the best choice -

I doubt if there will be much healing in a few days tho - it takes mine almost a month after a flare !

but I agree with mr poop and eg that your meds might need some tweaking -

good luck

Post Edited (soystud) : 4/22/2014 6:28:38 AM (GMT-6)

Bowel rest hasn't been shown to help much with UC. When I was flaring, it didn't seem to matter how little I ate, the same amount of "stuff" always came out! Going with the theory that UC is auto immune, your own body is making your colon sick. Not eating is not going to stop your body from attacking itself. You may feel a little better by not further irritating your colon with as much food, but in the long run, not eating on top of being so ill is probably not the best idea.

Hypoalbuminemia (clinically low levels of protein) is a common issue with UC. Your body needs protein in order to heal the lining of the colon. When you don't eat, your protein levels get even lower. See where I'm going with this?

I'm not sure how extensive your disease is, but not eating also puts you at risk of getting dehydrated. Bland foods (like BRAT diet) slow down digestion and allow your bowel to absorb water from the foods and beverages you take in. This is less of an issue if most of your colon is unaffected, but still worth considering.

Finally, your reasoning is incorrect that there's "nothing for your colon to push down." At "rest", your digestive system still produces lots of digestive juices that need to be expelled, and in a flare state your colon produces tons and tons of mucus that needs to come out as well. Just because you stop eating does not mean your colon will become immotile -- in fact it would be pretty dangerous if that were the case.

Like I said, I'm not going to stop eating, I was just curious as to what would happen if I stopped, would it heal faster?

Pluot seemed to answer my question:
"
At "rest", your digestive system still produces lots of digestive juices that need to be expelled, and in a flare state your colon produces tons and tons of mucus that needs to come out as well.
"

I seem to do better with a number teeny tiny "meals" every few hours so that I'm never completely empty/hungry rather than nothing at all. My intestine seems to be more than willing to eat itself if nothing else is available.

in general, the benefit of bowel rest does seem to be small. it does help some very severe cases, and hospitals may put patents on IV nutrition to provide bowel rest.

more generally, "not eating" is an extreme elimination diet, so you may have better symptoms because all food irritants are gone. (Short term). this is not he same as healing however.

in medical literature FODMAPS diet is the most beneficial. Eliminating these short-chain fatty acids seems to help a lot. In fact, people with gluten sensitivity (non-celiac) get no adverse effect of gluten if they are on FODMAPS - because the real problem is not the gluten in most cases, but stuff that goes along with gluten.

UC also rises and falls with contortions of the gut microbiome. Some microbes are more dependent on food in gi trac than others. some bloom with excess fructose, some need to ferment certain grains ... in this sense, not eating for a while, is a manipulation of the gut microbes. some may die out, other may bloom when competitors die out. things will change. no predicting if the change will be for the better however. You could see how short fast (and short fast combined with OTC probiotics) work in your case. You might get better, but you might make yourself sicker. Make very conservative experiments and listen to your body.

I do well with CVS ultra-strength probiotics (better for me then VSL) and cold rice (likely resistant starch) and ginger, and Acacia fiber. Took me a while to home in on this combination.

I don't know about not eating. There are some days I feel like that and may fast a day or 2 but completely stop? My love for food is too strong for that. Being on bowel rest may not do much for physical healing but it does a whole lot for piece of mind. I have less pain and can get creative in the kitchen in a different way. I usually make smoothies which are rich with nutrients that I may not be able to digest otherwise. Most of my recipes come from greenthickies.com but I do substitute things and add things to accommodate my diet needs. You could do juicing but I found it wasn't enough to hold me over. I also made my own jello with herbal tea and honey. Very easy and very tasty. This along with thick soups made a la crock pot and I'd be good for about a week. Hope this helps!