Dena L. Bruedigam wrote:
>
> Has anyone had any experience with paleo type diets and ulcerative colitis?
>
> My sister has a very severe case of UC and I am trying to get her to make
> radical diet changes but she doesn't think it will help.  Any positive
> anecdotes would be helpful.
>
Dena:
  I don't know the cause of your sister's ulcerative colitis or what to
do about it.  I regret that she is so severely afflicted.
What has she been told/advised about it???

       I can share two anecdotes as you suggest.

1.   A well known doctor/friend  in our area had ulcerative colitis so
severe that he had to leave his practice. The medical care here is top
notch BTW.
       He was put on different nutritional drinks to maintain even what
little weight/strength  he had left.
       He made sure his Will was all up to date and prepared to die.
       He went everywhere [Stanford etc] and nothing worked. He read
somewhere that mb dairy products were  involved for some people.  He cut
out all dairy, including the 'nutritional drinks' and went essentially
Paleo type.  The colitis improved, his health improved, he gained
weight/strength. He eventually returned to his practice and has been
well since on that diet. Other docs called it a miraculous recovery from
death.

2.  I was very ill with chronic diarrhea that could not be stopped. It
became very difficult/impossible to work to drive etc. They did
upper/lower GI tests: found nothing. I prepared to die and told my
husband [a board certified physician/surgeon] that it was goodbye. We
were talking about it at one breakfast and I again described the
connection, I felt intuitively, with food.  He rattled the newspaper and
said..almost absentmindedly "Hmmm that sounds like allergies."
        To humor me he arranged for allergy testing with a friend/doc.
Turned out I had severe allergic reactions to Wheat,Cane Sugar, Eggs and
mostly to Yeast.  The diet involved cutting out any foods that had even
a remote sniff of those elements. The result is essentially a Paleo
diet. I ate a lot of Beefalo, some veg/salad and that's all for awhile.
I lost 50 pounds, diarrhea was gone, hives went, weakness, chronic
fatigue went. The recovery was complete and lasted a long time until the
sad, untimely death of my husband.
       I held off for a long time but gradually began to add tabu stuff
again and this led to first 'elevated blood sugar' and then to weight
gain/diabetes. I'm trying to do the same diet I had before but the
motivation is wanting and I am half-a***d about it. Am now on insulin
and have some retinopathy.

          Your sister may have a 'gluten' sensitivity as well as a dairy
sensitivity.  Has she had any allergy testing?  I know for some docs it
is still in fairyland... a fad.  The only allergies they think are legit
are the ones where you swell up and have to go to  the emergency room.
Even my husband was not convinced at first and did it [the testing] only
to humor a dying woman.
     All I know is that when I eat pretty much Paleo style everything
works right and when I don't it doesn't. There's a long list of hurts
and where do they go when I eat right????? I can't even think when I eat
the other way...which is really bad because it leaves me vulnerable to
all the doc prejudices and convictions.  At least when I can think
clearly I can take better care of myself.

Best regards to your sister. I will keep a good thought in mind for her.
Yoyo