Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Cure for Ulcerative Colitis

I believe there is a cure available to everyone suffering from ulcerative colitis. The cure rate is 90%, at least according to one study by Dr. Wolfgang Lutz. It involves no medications, no surgeries, no risks, and no cost.

This cure is simple -- limiting the total carbohydrates consumed to 72 grams per day. While this is simple to understand, its not simple to do. For one thing almost all foods offered are high in carbs. And there is not a lot of support with either the still-recommended-but-outdated food pyramid or the general consensus that the low carb diet is a tried, but failed, diet fad. Oh, and of course there is the addiction to carbs. (Which is probably the biggest obstacle.) But there is just too much research out there to ignore; research that collectively shows that reducing carbs can help with many health issues. An in-depth review of this research is summarized by Gary Taubes in "Good Calories, Bad Calories", a book that challenges some long-held beliefs.

While I am not surprised that eating healthy would cure a digestive disease, I am surprised at how few with ulcerative colitis are aware that there is a potential cure. My daughter was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, but she was not encouraged to eat healthy by her doctors. I don't know why. I am guessing it is because medical school does not promote nutrition. Also, it takes time before you see results for ulcerative colitis. That's the bad news. Read on for the good news.

In the book "Life Without Bread", written by Christian Allan, Ph.D., and Wolfgang Lutz, M.D., there is one study by Dr. Lutz for patients with ulcerative colitis that I think you will find astonishing. Here is an excerpt from the book:

"Even though ulcerative colitis responds to low-carbohydrate (72 grams/day) nutrition, its course is not as rapid as that of Crohn’s disease. However, very positive results have been observed using the low-carbohydrate diet for ulcerative colitis patients.

Of the first 74 patients treated until 1979 with a low-carbohydrate diet, approximately 60% were without complaints after two years. They had normal laboratory values and normal rectal mucosa. The remaining 40% took longer to stabilize. Some of these patients required up to 8 years until the bleeding stopped, iron levels normalized, and diarrhea and abdominal pain subsided.

Whoever believes they can get rid of their colitis in a few months is mistaken. But one has to see the success of the diet in relation to its alternatives; there are none we know of that can give these overall results."

What is amazing is that 90% of all the patients were without symptoms after almost 8 years. (I can't help but speculate a possibility for the lengthy time-frame is that carbs are incredibly addictive, and it is not easy to always limit carbs to 72 grams a day.)

This is exciting, especially since eating healthy and reducing carbs cured my daughter. In April 2002, we discovered blood in my daughter's stools. Anne (I am using her middle name for privacy) was only six years old, and after extensive tests she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. She was put on Asacol and given predisone when there were flare-ups. Over the next year she would go into remission for a few months, but then the symptoms would return, worse than before. On October 3rd, 2003, she started having pain in her joints, as well as quite a bit of blood in her stools, and was given prednisone for several months.

I remember being told early on by Anne's pediatric gastroenterologist that Anne will likely have progressively worsening symptoms, and then need to have her colon surgically removed when she became about 16 years old. Apparently the average time a person deteriorates to needing this surgery is about ten years from the initial diagnosis.

I couldn't accept that. At about this time the "SuperFoods Rx" book by Steven Pratt came out, listing the 14 super foods for health. It is an excellent book and easy to understand. I focused on those foods that decreased inflammation, which is the essential problem with Anne's disease. So we started a new regime of slowly switching our food choices to the most healthy foods. We didn't know it at the time, but these foods are also low in carbs.

The biggest changes we made are those that we still practice today. We frequently eat smoothies in the morning -- plain yogurt with frozen strawberries and blueberries mixed in the blender, salmon once per week, tuna once per week, oranges, turkey, no pop, very little fruit juice, and rarely eating at fast food places. We are also now having her take 2 fish oil pills and one vitamin D (2000 mg) pill.

Here are four basic rules we all follow, even thought Anne is the only one in the family with ulcerative colitis:

1. Limit the total carbs per day to 72 grams of carbs. While this is not always possible, this is the overall goal each day.

2. Eat more protein with each meal to reduce the craving for sugar and junk food. One rule of thumb is to divide your weight in half, then eat that much protein grams per day. For example I try to eat 25 grams of protein for each meal, or a total of 75 grams per day (see the "Potatoes, not Prozac" book). We love the whey protein shake from Trader Joes.

3. Eat more non-inflammatory foods: wild-caught salmon and tuna, spinach, broccoli, oranges, yogurts, blueberries, organic strawberries, for example.

4. Drastically reduce omega-6 foods such as soybean oil, found in Miracle Whip, and eat more omega-3 foods such omega-3 eggs and grass-fed beef, etc.

Because the foods we eat are based on a lifetime of habits, it will take time to make these changes. You don't want to get frustrated, so be sure to find foods you like, and plan on making small changes at a time. See Dr. Weil's web site for a customized health plan.

The result of all this? Anne has not had a single flare-up of her disease since October 3rd, 2003. She has not been on preventative medications for over two years.

Please don't dismiss this as luck or genetics. Anne was getting progressively worse, not better. While she needed to be on medications for some time, we were very determined to eat healthy every day. We have worked too hard for this to be dismissed. My hope is that others will see the potential and decide to try to reduce their simple carbs.

We are still scared, since we don't eat as healthy as we would like. Anne still eats ice-cream, candy, cookies, etc. It is just in moderation to the extent possible, which is pretty difficult given all the holidays, celebrations, and basically unhealthy school lunches. But we will keep trying to eat healthy.

Happy 6th anniversary of good health, honey. Let's hope others with this disease can say the same, soon.