Bleeding again, I hate this. SCD diet trial.

I've just been on 3 months worth of pred and felt human again after so long feeling like crap.

Now it's been 2 weeks off the pred and I have significant amounts of blood. No D but still blood.

I've tried to change my diet too and have been following SCD for a week. It seems to have addressed my bloating, wind and left sided pain but still BLOOD.

The docs want me on azathrioprine but I'm not tempted on them just yet.

Don't really know why I'm writing on here as I'm not asking anything in particular. Just a tad lost for where to turn. The docs don't seem to help too much and just tell me I have to go on azathrioprine.

Hmmm. Not fun times.

Are you using mesalamine enemas at night and suppositories daytime? These meds really help bleeding more than any RX I ever used.

The other thing that helped eliminate my bleeding was removing insoluble fiber. SCD uses almond meal which has a lot of insoluble fiber which my gut hates.

Agreed on the aza, it takes a while to build up to therapeutic levels in your body. I wouldn't wait...

I know that the SCD diet does help people, but its terribly rigid in my view. I am in remission, and I followed SCD recently because of food intolerances, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and as you know its a very structured way of documenting slowly what you can eat, but what I found was that I felt depressed on it, rice, potatoes, etc are off the table, and I lost nearly a stone, which is not great, especially for people that are in the middle of a flare, which can often cause weight loss too!!

Whilst it is tempting to want to try things that you think are going to help, I think your main priority should be getting the correct Meds to stop this flare up.

With regard to food, I think everyone with UC should just eat what they enjoy, whilst perhaps keeping a food diary for a month or so, and then you can note down anything that really does make you feel bad. Life is hard enough with UC and following a diet that is horribly rigid just made me feel miserable.... life is better without those kind of restrictions I think.

imagardener2 said...


The other thing that helped eliminate my bleeding was removing insoluble fiber. SCD uses almond meal which has a lot of insoluble fiber which my gut hates.

Hi imagardener2, I just tried almond meal for the first time this week and don't think my system liked it at all either! I was just curious about what kinds of fibrous things you eat assuming you just stick to soluble fiber... oatmeal? Are there any other flours that you find to be more gentle on the system? Any other tips.. I'm wondering if insoluble fiber irritates my gut after the experiment this week.

It's hard to take the next step up in medication, but I would say azathioprine really hasn't been problematic long term.  I did have nausea initially, but that passed very quickly.  I also had bad headaches on it for about 3-4 weeks.  Since then, however, no noticeable symptoms or side effects.

I would also strongly urge you to try diet modifications, but to give it time and to tinker with it.  They don't works at all for some people, but for some they clearly help with symptom management.

We're likely t have more success using diet and meds together compared to just diet altering alone (which did nothing for my disease activity and even taking a multitude of naturals didn't stop damage from being done via inflammation) it wasn't until Humira put me in remission that got rid of my inflammation. I did over 2 decades with no meds (either allergic or non-responsive) until Humira, speaks volumes IMO, choice is yours of course but generally you'll have more success working with your GI and following his advice, if you ignore it then you're tying your GI's hands in regards to trying to help your flare.

Personally I'd rather be on Aza than pred.

Sorry to heard that the blood is back. You must fell so depressed, this disease keeps on playing with our nerves with its hope moments and desapointements.

In my point of view diet help with symptoms but cannot make a flare go away. I was successful with Low FODMAP diet to reduce pain and bloating, which helped me sleep better and be in a better mood. It contributes to get into remission but will not do it by it self.

Curious have you tried 5-ASA rectal and oral meds ? If not I would try that first. If not I guest you have to go to the next level before it gets worse.

Hope you find some answers about the AZA here.

Thanks for all your replies.

Some mixed views there with meds and diet. I'll give the diet a bit longer and see what happens.

The thought of going on long term meds that screw with my immune system do scare me. I'm only 28 and worry what the future holds if I'm putting things like that into my body. Although, keeping my colon in the long run does sound like the favourable option.

Cheers all.

Oh and also for the guys that asked. I'm currently on 6 x balsalazide a day and mes enemas 3 times a week.

The enemas do really help and I notice a massive reduction in blood the day after.

I'm currently on supps too for zinc and take slippery elm and glutamine daily.

I also cycle ALOT and I am finding that it's becoming harder to recover. Some days I finish a ride and I have to sleep straight away. I find after a ride the wind builds up and I am gassy all day. Think I may have to give it a rest for a bit.

What a joyous disease this is. For the guys mentioning I sound depressed. I'm not at all, always in high spirits and won't let a little thing like this get me down.

6 balasalazide/day is not the max dose so why is your GI not upping to 9/day before going onto stronger meds?

I also agree that upping mes. enemas to every night is called for until bleeding subsides and perhaps a suppository daytime. There's no good reason not to do all these things and continue diet exploration.

hh...are you not wanting to up the enemas to nightly?
Definitely do that.
and, if you have supps, use one during the day as imagardener suggested.

I don't know anything about the SCD, but you're flaring, so definitely deal with that issue regardless.

Were you on another oral 5ASA before the balsalazide?

q