New diets for Leaky gut, UC, RA?!

Well it might depend where the gut is leaking, if small intestine, then.
Try 4 to 8 oz of orange juice if you can handle it, use the from concentrate type
to get more of the naragenin.
This is with every meal, it stops endotoxin translocation, which activates TLR4.

If in the colon then another story.
You can try and make more mucin using NAC,glycine, theronine, which will also raise
glutathione and GPx levels, also supplement with selenium 200 micrograms a day/max.
Glycine up to 10 grams a day, theronine 1 gram.
Or if you can handle it whey protein say 25 to 30 grams/day plus theronine, and glycine,
this is to make more mucus, still need selenium for glutathione and
GPx.

What you also will be doing is lowering peroxide levels,even in the joints,
you could also supplement with some zinc and vitamin D.

Whether any of this really works you would have to try it and look
for improvement or adverse events.

As far as the resistant starch goes, the person on the arthritis forum
is taking a huge amount, not sure if our guts can handle that much.

Old Mike

I have extraintestinal symptoms when flaring and the only way I know to end the arthritis, etc., was to end the flare and get into remission. The arthritis ended very quickly. Rectal meds added to your Sulfasalazine may help to get you into remission. A good diet is keeping a food diary (don't be surprised if gluten turns out to be one of your problem foods).

Diet and supplements alone were not strong enough to end my flares, but they do a great job keeping me in remission. My first major flare in 2010 lasted a couple of months before I knew anything what to do about UC. Since then I have had 2 major flares lasting 3-4 weeks. Both flares were caused by extended periods of sloppy eating.

I am allergic to the milder meds such as 5-ASAs and I refused to take pred or immunosuppressants. But fortunately I found that antibiotics (Flagyl) can put me back into remission very quickly. I took Flagyl with lots of probiotics and try to get off it as soon as possible. Flagyl alone has been known to encourage C Diff infections among other side effects, since it kills both good and bad bacteria.

Thanks for all your replies!
Soynomore - what diet do you follow? Leaky gut is the concept that the damage to the gut walls allow particles in the bloodstream causing a immune response. In my case the RA.
Alice22 - my RA started about 6/7 years after my UC which I think could be do to this leaky gut. My UC onset was came a month after courses of antibiotics due to mumps & laringitis & kicked off after food poisoning. I'm hoping diet can aleiviate symptoms. Worth a try.
Iamcurious - I'm glad diet is working for you. I've been a bad eater, never taken my diet seriously or into consideration as I've always been told it's not related by doctors. But surely it must have some effected.

Mia,

I started SCD to manage my spinal arthritis more than my UC actually. My UC is mild to moderate and mostly in remission, but I was told that the arthritis could be a sign of poorly controlled UC, so I thought I'd see if diet could help (I also really wanted to avoid biologics, whether that's sensible or not). I can definitively say that diet certainly helps, but isn't a panacea. I'd say diet plus the supplements I take help reduce pain and stiffness by about 60-85% depending on how strict I am. The few times I've totally cheated on the diet I've had a debilitating flair of the arthritis (and a worsening of digestive issues).

Lately, the mix that seems to work is SCD plus the homemade yogurt, coconut kefir, curcumin and wild oregano oil. Frankly, when I regularly take wild oregano oil (which is effective at killing gram negative bacteria) I can even deviate from the SCD a little bit, making me think my big problem isn't just leaky gut but is an immune response to the dysbiosis associated with UC. I'm sort of anxious about regularly taking oregano oil as I wonder what beneficial bacteria it might also be killing, so I tend to save it for after a restaurant meal where I'm not sure I was as strict as possible.

I'd say it can't hurt to try diet modifications and see whether they help. You can try a strict elimination diet (start with just chicken and carrots for a few days and then slowly add things in) or you can try paleo, GAPS, SCD, etc. Phoenix Helix does a handy summary of the various diets recommended for auto-immune disorders.

I'd also add that I think there's a weird aspect of the online world of people who advocate diet to control AI diseases, which can give you the impression that if diet isn't helping you, you're not being strict enough or you need to stop eating seeds, or some other failing on your part. That's clearly not the case. Diet doesn't work for everyone, so if it seems like it isn't helping, it probably isn't.

AS is a major challenge and the truth is you have to pick your balance of risks, and the risks of meds compared to the risk of poorly managed AS might be the only choice you have. Give diet a try, but if it isn't working, there are other options that might seem less worrying once you know you've exhausted all other options.

Post Edited (FSLondon) : 4/24/2017 6:28:50 AM (GMT-6)

I do see a rheumatologist. He's been happy to monitor me and has said the decision to treat is made based on my qualitative assessments of pain and functioning. For the spinal arthritis the rhematologist said that Humira is the only drug that seems to help. He used to feel quite relaxed about prescribing it to younger relatively healthy people, but now says he's a bit more hesitant as the incidence of problematic infections seems to be about 5%, which he considers high.

I take balsalazide and azathioprine for my UC and have for years. I've been in remission for years as well, but always had watery stools and some pain after eating. That has gone away on SCD.

In my case trying diet has helped, for now. It has also made me feel like I've tried everything I can and if it stops working I think I'll be less upset about taking Humira knowing it's my only option. Good luck. It's very hard I think.

I have migratory arthritis associated with my UC. It began about 8 months into first developing UC. It presents mostly in my peripheral joint but has landed in my neck before. Worst 2 weeks of my life. It doesn't seem to be very closely associated with GI symptom severity.

The SCD diet has worked wonders, though. No joint 'flares' since I began the diet a few months ago, plus my gut feels MUCH better. I would definitely give it a shot, what have you got to lose? (except pretty much all the yummy food ppl crave and even possibly a few pounds lol)

Mia, on the diet, it is an adjustment, but if you like to cook, it's not that hard (and is definitely a spur to creativity as a cook). I would also say at the outset, I'd keep the amount of honey and nut flours you eat relatively low. I tolerate both well now, but at first they weren't great. I tolerate butter and hard cheese (especially unpasteurised) with no problems--in fact my gut loves both. But many find dairy tricky as well.

A couple of tips--roasted carrots sliced lengthwise and roasted rutabega (swede here in the UK) cut into thick matchsticks make surprisingly suitable and tasty substitutes for french fries or other potatoes. Cauliflower is a tolerable rice or mashed potato substitute (and mashed rutabega is actually tasty). I don't much like zucchini noodles, but butternut squash noodles work very very well in a fake ersatz cold sesame noodles. Thinly sliced roasted eggplant is also a nice alternative base for tomato based pasta sauces. If you slice it thinly enough it gets almost crispy.

Read all labels. It's depressing and strange the foods that have added sugar that don't need it (mayonaise! mustard!). Even if I eventually go off of SCD I won't go back to eating mustard with sugar in it.

"I'm terrified to start the TNF blockers just yet."

What exactly scares you about the tnf blockers? I've been on remicade for 3 years without experiencing a side effect from it. I have experienced remission as a consequence of remicade though. A lot of folks are initially scared of rare (less than 1 percent of patients experience) side effects of biologics when the mesalamines have equally rare and bad side effects (liver damage, heart or kidney inflammation, and various blood anomalies). The benefits far outweigh those small risks.

The diets did nothing for me, some have a little help from diets, and some have found remission. Give it a fair shake and if you don't experience a benefit then don't be afraid to go the tnf blocker route. There's no guarantees.

it's not like everyone who finds remission, attains it through a certain "diet", they find out which foods work and which ones don't - and by that rule, there would be thousands of "diets" out there -

folks who say diets didn't work for them, just didn't find the right one - just like with drugs -

Soynomore -
Your right diff meds work for diff pple & diet is individual also. Everything should be tweaked to the individual.
I've been looking into l glutamine, I've read it's benificial for leaky gut. How has it been for you, & how much did you start on.
Louiseluck - I've never been a smoker, but I've heard about this. TBH I have been tempted in the past to see if it would help things lol. Some have said even nicotine patches have helped. 🙈

Hi Quincy just say saw this.
What is LDN?
I do need to find a gd probiotic & digestive enzyme just reading up on it all before I decide. If you have any recommendations that would be great.
I can tolerate mesalimine. Was on asacol for a long while before I was switched to sulphasalazine to treat both UC & joints.
I have pan colitis though so not sure if rectal meds will help. Only knew of the pred foam. Didn't know there was another type.