<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> This is a summary of emails received on "Search for successful anti-diarrhea methods, medications, & remedies" a.. Extremely grateful for the many who responded b.. A few emails were lost due to worm (form of virus) which came with one diarrhea attachment (no pun intended) c.. Frequency: Number listed if more than once. ++++++++ Pepto Bismol --caplets--, four a day, ++++++ Using the juice that forms when blackberries are canned. You could make this by cooking frozen blackberries in some sweetened water until the water is dark purple. ++++++ Blackberry brandy. +++++ boil some rice in water for about 15 minutes. Use a lot of water as if you were cooking pasta. Then strain off the rice, add a pinch of sea salt & a couple pinches of sugar. Drink only an ounce at a time every 5 or 10 minutes. 1+1+ ++++++++ (2) lomotil (by prescription) is an effective product. Over the counter products include Imodium AD and Imodium Advanced chewable tablets are good products. ++++++ Kaolin mixtures ++++++++ Black tea is good +++++++ Avoid eating too much fresh and dried fruit ++++++++ amitrytilene, 75 mg a day. It's an anti depressant (I'm not depressed but he's given it to me to help stop the pain and cramps of irritable bowel and it's helped a lot). ++++++++ (4) immodium 2 tablets four times per day (I take Imodium AD every three days and it seems to keep it somewhat under control.) ++++++++++++++++ Primal Defense, recommended by my nutritionist + went on MEVY diet at the same time (meat, eggs, veggies, yogurt). ++++++++++ acidophilous (GNC brand) and L-glutamine (500 mg) both taken 3 times per day prior to meals. It really seems to have made a significant difference. ++++++++ recommend you the order this book: 'breaking the vicious cycle' by Ellaine Gottshall. It's a diet for celiac, colitis, crohn's, etc see web sites: www.scdiet.com, www.scdiet.org ++++++++ For microscopic colitis my doctor prescribed metroniazole 250 four times per day. It helped me immediately. Now I take critical daily and seem to have it under control except for an occasional gluten ingestion. +++++++ Find a health food store, and ask for Colocynthis 30 K, (by Unda) it is good for stopping diarrhea, also good is Diarrhea by Nu-Medicine. ++++++++ wild blueberries. "How do you cure colitis or for that mattert constant diarrhea (and maybe ulcers)? boil white rice in plenty of saltwater until the rice is very soft. As you probably won't be able to buy wild blueberries, soak dried wild blueberries in a little warm water (initially boil because you want to rule out any germs) and add the water + blueberries to the drained rice. Eat this by carefully chewing and drink wild blueberry tea (2 - 3 tablespoons, boiled in a cup of water, let rest for 10 min) also eat a few tablespoons of dried wild blueberries in between meals, and again chew carefully, forget the large cultured blueberries; they are not half as effective as wild ones from colder northern climates like Maine. After that with soft white rice and soft boiled carrots or fennel. remember you are not interested in vitamins, etc,., just holding food down to absorb nutrients. Minerals should be your first concern, so boil rice and soak blueberries in a high mineral content still mineral water...etc" Go to www.dadamo.com and search the archives for the entire post. ++++++++ Metamucil helps others since it absorbs water & add bulk, kind of regulating the system. This may take some of the fat soluble vitamins out of the body. Some are othered by high fat or high fiber, or just by large meals (and need to graze all day long.). Some g.f. foods: rice, tapioca, soy, canola, corn and others, can cause problems even though they are g.f. Even a trace of lactose can cause problems in some, but I'm assuming that you have done the milk elimination. Make sure none of the g.f. foods you use are not contaminated in production--Two come to mind, Kellogg's Corn Pops & Pebbles cereals & also Rice Dream beverage--brown rice syrup not g.f. You might also want to keep a food diary to see if you can identify any foods that cause a worse reaction than others. ++++++++++ I also had microscopic colitis. It did not respond to any of a series of medications: PeptoBismol, Asacol., Culturelle and Questran did nothing. Flagyl, Cipro and prednisone improved the symptoms, although they did not clear entirely, and as soon as I stopped them the diarrhea returned. Prednisone had miserable side effects. I was on it for six months, as it was the only thing that controlled the diarrhea to the point that I was not losing weight. Ultimately, I showed evidence of having celiac disease, and I went on a strict GF diet. Since then, the only times I have had diarrhea have been when I have accidentally eaten something containing gluten. My GI and I believe that, at least in my case, the microscopic colitis represented "colonic sprue." I suspect that microscopic colitis may not actually be a single entity, but a number of diseases with similar pathology. In many cases it does respond completely to a GF diet; in others PB is effective; in others, Asacol controls it. Lotronex, which is now off the market, worked very well in some people. I have been hearing anecdotally from several people that Elavil is effective. So little is known about MC that the treatment is very much trial and error and can be very frustrating. There is a chat devoted to MC at www.finerhealth.com on Wednesday nights at 9 PM Eastern. I'd welcome you to stop by. (Received from a MD) Roger Domyahn