Colitis

Overview

Colitis is a chronic inflammation disorder of the colon (lower intestine) that may cause severe health problems in addition to a significant negative impact on an individual’s overall quality of life.

Symptoms

Colitis symptoms vary, and can include anorexia, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, fever, flatulence, and/or unhealthy weight reduction. In some cases, intestinal bleeding also occurs due to ulceration of the intestinal lining, and can result in bloody diarrhea. Colitis is compounded by the fact that it can frequently result in poor absorption of nutrients, resulting in nutritional deficiencies that may further worsen symptoms. Health sapping autoimmune responses also occurs as a result of colitis. This is because when one has colitis, cells split off from the intestinal walls and the immune system responds as if they were invading microorganisms. In addition, colitis is often accompanied by leaky gut syndrome causing undigested food contaminants to enter the blood stream which the immune system again identifies as dangerous invaders. Such autoimmune responses may further debilitate people suffering from colitis, leaving them fragile, frustrated as well as susceptible to anxiousness and depression.

Causes

Colitis can be caused by a variety of elements, including poor diet and nutrition, food allergies, unbalanced levels of muriatic acid, reduced immunity, bacterial infections, lack of exercise, “leaky gut,” syndrome, pharmaceutical drugs, and stress.

Diet and Nutrition: One of the main causes of colitis, as well as other intestinal disorders, is a diet high in commercially processed foods, processed carbohydrates, harmful fats, and one that contains an abundance of chemical additives and preservatives while lacking sufficient amounts of fiber. Such a diet, which sadly is all too typical in the United States and other developing countries, not only places a huge burden on the gastrointestinal system, it can also result in serious nutritional deficiencies. These factors combined can lead to excess acidity in the GI tract, heartburn, poor assimilation of nutrients, buildup of toxins, and autoimmune reactions, which can cause the colon to become inflamed and ulcerated.

Food Allergies: Food allergies, while often overlooked or wrongly diagnosed by conventional physicians, tend to be another standard reason for colitis, as well as many other conditions. If a person suffers from colitis, or any other intestinal disorder, it is crucial that they be tested for food allergies and sensitivities. Common allergic reaction-causing foods consist of milk and dairy products, wheat, gluten (a component of wheat products), corn, and dark chocolate; although any food has the potential to cause food allergies.

Imbalanced Muriatic Acid Levels: Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is secreted by the stomach to aid in the digestive function of food. Many people are afflicted by a lack of HCl production, which is responsible for impaired digestion and poor absorption of food nutrients, and can eventually affect the colon, where colitis occurs. Likewise, an excess of HCl production can result in a state of over-acidity, causing acid reflux, flatulence, as well as ulceration of the colon coating.

Impaired Immune Function: Impaired immunity may also cause or contribute to colitis, as well as other GI disorders because of the relationship between diminished immune function and poor absorption of nutritional elements. In addition, poor immunity can also result in an increase in toxins within the gastrointestinal tract, as well as cause autoimmune responses that attack the cells of the intestinal coating, leading to ulcers and irritation. Autoimmune responses have been shown through research to be linked to both colitis and Crohn’s illness.

Infections: Infections caused by germs, fungi, and parasites all adversely affect general gastrointestinal health. In addition to liberating toxins into the GI system, infectious organisms can cause autoimmune reactions, “leaky stomach” syndrome, poor absorption of nutrients, as well as dysbiosis, or over growing of harmful intestinal flora such as Candidiasis.

Lack of Exercise: Failure to exercise regularly can result in reduced production of digestive and pancreatic enzymes, and hydrochloric acid (HCl), all of which are necessary for healthy intestinal function. If lacking, a wide variety of gastrointestinal disorders can result.

“Leaky Gut”: “Leaky gut” syndrome refers to a condition caused by damage to the stomach as well as intestinal coating, specifically the mucosa. As a result of this harm, undigested meats, and numerous microorganisms that normally stay within the GI tract enter into the bloodstream. This in turn, causes the immune system to overreact, producing antibodies that attack the cells of the intestines. As well as GI disorders, “leaky gut,” syndrome has additionally been linked to rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and ankylosing spondylitis.

Pharmaceutical Drugs: The following drugs can all cause and exacerbate numerous gastrointestinal disorders, including colitis: Accutane, Alka-Seltzer Antacid as well as Alka-Seltzer Pain Reliever, Anturane, Genuine Bayer Aspirin, Bayer Plus Aspirin, Bayer Normal Strength Enteric Aspirin, Bufferin Analgesic Pills and Caplets, Ceptaz, Clinoril, Cuprimine, Ecotrin Enteric Aspirin, Feldene, Ilosone, Lamprene, Leukine IV Infusion, Lopid, Marplan, Meclomen, Novantrone, Paraplatin, Piroxicam, Prokine I.V. Infusion, Retrovir, Rynatuss, Supprelin Injection, Suprax, Ticlid, Tolectin, Toradol IM Injection, Trecator-SC, Trilisate, and Voltaren.

Stress: Chronic and poorly managed stress has a direct effect on the intestinal system, and elevated stress levels have long been linked by medical research to a wide variety of GI disorders, such as colitis, because of how tension results in elevated acid manufacturing and impairs overall digestive function.

Natural Cures

Ayurveda: Ayurveda physicians treat colitis by teaching their patients how to better manage stress, using tools such as deep breathing. In addition, they screen for food allergies and unwanted organisms, create diet programs tailored to every patient’s specific metabolic needs, and utilize herbs as well as nutritional supplements, such as acidophilus (to protect against dysbiosis), boswellia (to reduce inflammation), cumin, garlic, ginger, and fish oils, a rich source of omega-3s, which have been proven to act as natural anti-inflammatory agents.

Detoxification Treatment: To relieve inflammation of the GI track, think about administering an enema 2-5 occasions per week with a solution containing butyric acid. (Add 1 tbsp. butyric acid to 1 quart of warm water.) Butyric acid helps to heal inflammation from the intestinal wall space.

Diet: Because what we eat plays such a key role in the curing as well as prevention of Colitis, we have included this broadened article The Organic Cures Healing Food Plan, which can be printed out for a simple reference.

Changing your diet

Choosing to upgrade to a healthier diet is among the most life-changing decisions you can make, and something that in this day and age is essential to both prevent and reverse sickness. This means choosing to eat a variety of foods aimed specifically at healing and avoiding those meals that can undermine your recovery process or cause stress to your digestive system. Natural healing foods taste delicious, and have a higher degree of nutrients as well as energy than the typical foods eaten on the standard American food plan.

Be Patient

Throughout the first month or two, allow for the gradual transition from your typical way of consuming, to an organic whole foods plan. Be gentle, yet ruthless with yourself, realizing that what you eat has a significant effect in your energy levels, your general health, as well as your ability to recover.

What to Consume

Vegetables

Eat the freshest natural fruits and vegetables available, with a strong emphasis on steamed, raw, or even juiced darkish leafy vegetables such as kale, collards, chard, bok choy, spinach, along with other regional vegetables. Choose from a broad range of vegetables, rotating your selection as well as experimenting with a multitude of fresh periodic produce. Broccoli, squash, tomatoes and avocados are great basics. Use lettuces of every color and form to create salads of great variety. Eat as many raw and lightly steamed vegetables and fresh salads as you can absorb.

Note: For anyone with digestive problems such as Colitis, pureed vegetables are an excellent option. Eating blended foods is less work for the body because your meals are already partly broken down. Although it is unneeded to chew blended food, it is still important to move each bite of food around in your mouth prior to swallowing to activate saliva’s role in digestion.

Meats

Enjoy a fist-sized serving of protein for each meal, which translates to around 2-6 ounce of ideally organic proteins. Non-vegetarians might choose from free-range poultry, preferably turkey, wild-caught fish which is low in mercury, and lean bison, lamb, and cow. Depending on your individual needs, consider limiting your consumption of organic red meat to one helping every four days. It is crucial to only consume red meat that is organic, due to the toxic build up stored in the fat of meat. Fish such as blue seafood, cod, Greenland halibut, mackerel, and wild-caught salmon are excellent sources of both wholesome protein as well as fats. Avoid the following: Farm-raised salmon, because of the antibiotics and chemical dyes they include; tuna, which is high in mercury; and seafood, which contain a high degree of contaminants.

Excellent organic vegetarian protein sources include free range eggs, tempeh, occasional tofu, legumes and beans, especially red dried beans, French green lentils, and black, aduki and mung beans. When preparing beans for best flavor and simple digestion, we recommend soaking them overnight in purified water, draining and then rinsing the beans prior to cooking. Small servings of drenched and rinsed nuts and seeds, such as hemp, pumpkin and sunflower seeds are specifically beneficial. Flax seeds make great additions to smoothies, and also can be ground as well as dehydrated, or even low-heat baked into delicious crackers.

Complicated Carbohydrates

For sustained power, eat complex carbohydrates such as legumes, red potatoes, yams, and whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat or millet. We suggest limiting your overall carbohydrate consumption to 30% or less of the foods you eat at mealtime. This means increasing your vegetables as well as protein quantities if necessary, in order to balance out the complex carbs.

How to prepare and season your food

Steam vegetables in purified water until somewhat tender, or lightly sauté in avocado oil, water or shoyu. Enjoy homemade soups, and try pressure cooking for speed as well as nutrient retention, especially when tinkering with legumes as well as beans.

Ocean Salt is an important addition to the diet, and should replace commercial or refined table salt. Additional seasonings include a multitude of fresh or dried herbal treatments, gomasio, powder or chopped sea veggies, such as dulse, and other interesting powders or shakes and condiments found on health food store shelves. Garlic, ginger, cayenne, chili and all other types of peppers, and onions can be used regularly for their great flavor and immune-improving properties.

The preferred oil to cook and/or bake with is uncooked, organic avocado oil. Extra virgin olive oil, high lignin flax seed oil, or hemp seed oil can be drizzled on steamed vegetables, cooked whole grains, and used as the base for homemade salad dressings. Many health stores have an uncooked nut butter called tahini, which consists of pureed sesame seeds; tahini is a delicious healthy plant fat, and makes a great base for salad dressings, dips or spreads.

Dietary Boosts

Live Cultured Foods

Live cultured foods are a delicious and valuable add-on to your diet plan. Eat raw, live cultured vegetables such as unpasteurized sauerkraut, kim chi, and cultured dairy products such as yogurt as well as kefir. Be sure to choose organic dairy products, and choose raw dairy whenever possible. (Look for the soon to be completed recipes with regard to Kefir and yogurt making.)

Vegetable Juices

Freshly made vegetable/ fruit juices add an effective nutritional boost to your food plan. Juice produced from a wide variety of vegetables are delicious, and essential to recovery, and a great preventative tool when utilized as a continuing supplement to any diet plan. See recipe section for ideas.

Sea Vegetables, Asian Foods and Broths

Asian foods such as miso, ume plum, and a wide array of sea vegetables are fantastic nutrient rich foods. Ocean vegetables vary in flavor and texture, making them fun to experiment with. Miso makes a delicious flavoring in greens dressings, dips, sauces, spreads, and as the classic, miso soup.

Healing broths are packed with delicious life-enhancing minerals and may be sipped like tea or eaten as soups. Make a delicious vegetable broth simply by cooking an abundance of clean organic vegetables in pure water. Miso soup, strained vegetable broth, broths from the seaweeds wakame, hijiki, and kombu, and fish and meat broths, are easy to digest, which makes them especially valuable for any bloating.

Water

Throughout the day, drink plenty of pure filtered water. Avoid drinking – as well as swimming, and taking a shower in – unfiltered tap water, as plain tap water contains chemical toxins and pesticide residues that can settle in high concentrations within our organs.

Allergic Reaction Testing

Get tested for potential food allergies and sensitivities, and avoid all meals to which you’re allergic or even sensitive. Common allergy-causing meals include milk and all dairy products, soy, chocolate, corn, and wheat products. Consider a rotation diet or even elimination diet in order to further reduce the likelihood of food allergies, especially if you can’t get tested right away.

What to Avoid

Processed Sugar , Flour, Artificial Food, Soya Foods

Eliminate all processed sugar and sugar products, simple carbohydrate foods such as commercial white flour found in white breads, bagels, muffins, pastries, cookies and pastas. Also consider omitting whole grain, whole wheat and whole wheat byproducts from your diet for many months. Whole wheat is a highly allergic food, and can be the root of a wide variety of digestive system troubles. As the weeks go by, notice if you feel better; if yes, consider eliminating whole wheat for a year, giving your aggravated digestive system a long earned break. Selecting alternatives such as spelt, kamut, and rye will give the body a rest from eating whole wheat and can offer a major energy boost.

Choose to eat a minimum of processed soy products. By far, the best of all soy meals are fresh or frozen edame and tempeh, the fermented soy product that is actually less prepared and easier to digest than other soy products. Stop eating all “junk” and processed foods, as well as just about all foods that contain artificial ingredients, additives, colorings, flavorings, and preservatives (such as carrageenan, BHA, BHT, salt nitrite, sulfites, saccharin, artificial sweeteners, and cyclamates).

Inorganic Dairy, Excess Caffeine or Alcoholic beverages, Hydrogenated Fats

Stay clear of inorganic milk and dairy products, including yogurt and cheese. When consuming dairy, always select organic milk products, and if possible, in the raw form. Toxins are stored in fats, so choosing natural is especially important in the case of dairy and beef.

Minimize your consumption of coffee and other caffeine dependent products, for example soda and coffee. Avoid commercial non-herbal teas, and excess alcohol. Do not consume saturated, trans- hydrogenated or partly-hydrogenated fats and oils. Margarine and shortening are made from these and should be eliminated.

To minimize symptoms of colitis, eat little meals throughout the day, rather than following the traditional three large meals per day regimen. To protect against colitis, make sure that your diet consists of abundant amounts of natural dietary fiber, but if you already suffer from colitis, avoid fiber-rich meals, as they can further irritate the intestinal tract lining, making your signs and symptoms worse.

For many plagued with colitis, the raw meals diet might be extremely advantageous; for others, raw food may not be the best choice. Each person responds in a different way based on their individual chemistry and the depth of the situation being healed. To learn more, find out about the Raw Food Diet plan. You can print this full article for simple reference. Several books are available to give you a bigger overview of exactly how eating uncooked and live foods might be the perfect recovery path. (See the recommended publications section.)

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet – A dietary strategy that has been discovered to be effective within the majority of colitis cases is known as The Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It had been developed by Elaine Gottschall, M.S., in order to help her four year-old daughter heal from colitis symptoms, and is based on the research of the late Sidney Haas, M.D., who discovered that the majority of gastrointestinal problems are caused by an imbalance of carbohydrates in relationship to the microorganisms that naturally occur in the gastrointestinal tract.

According to Dr. Haas, when this relationship becomes out of balance, the microorganisms become uncontrolled and discharge toxins, leading to poor absorption of food, and especially poor digestion of carbohydrates, a staple of the traditional western diet. To reverse this trend, Haas, and later, Gottschall created the rigid dietary regimen that comprises the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Based on her study of hundreds of patients with serious gastrointestinal problems, Gottschall finds that the diet can deliver complete outcomes in as little as 3 weeks, but only if it is totally adhered to. The eating guidelines are as follows:

Avoid: All prepared, smoked canned or breaded meat, seafood, seaweed, prepared cheeses, seed products, potatoes, yams, parsnips, chick peas, bean sprouts, soybeans, mung beans, fava beans, as well as just about all cereal whole grains in any form, including flour. Avoid milk, and all products made from whole milk, dried whole milk powder, buttermilk or acidophilus milk, commercially prepared yogurt, sour cream and frozen treats. Do not consume soymilk, instant tea, coffee, coffee alternatives, beer, cornstarch, arrowroot, dark chocolate, carob, bouillon cubes, instant soup bases, any item made with refined sugar, agar-agar, carrageenan, pectin, ketchup, molasses, corn and maple syrup, and any flour made from dried beans, and baking powder.

Consume: Fresh or frozen, preferably organic meats, poultry, wild caught seafood, organic eggs, organic whole milk and products made from organic milk such as cheeses, homemade yogurt prepared at low temps, as well as dry curd cottage cheese. Select from a wide variety of freshly prepared, ideally organic vegetables. Vegetables and fruits are the main stay of this food plan. Do not use canned foods with the exception of sodium-free canned red salmon, white albacore tuna or sardines, and only sometimes. Daily juicing with fresh green vegetables is an important addition to healing while offering heavy nutritional nourishment. With this and all illness, providing yourself with abundant supportive nutrients is essential.

Follow this diet provided your signs and symptoms persist. Adherence can be challenging, but maintenance is essential to obtain the desired results.

Herbal Medicine: Useful herbal treatments include agrimony, bayberry, lavender, geranium, goldenseal, lemon balm, marshmallow root, peppermint, plantain, wild yam, and valerian. The traditional herbal remedy Robert’s Formula is also recommended, and includes comfrey, Echinacea, geranium, goldenseal, marshmallow extract, poke extract, slippery elm, and wild indigo.

Homeopathy: Useful naturopathic remedies consist of, Aloe, Allumium sativa, Arsen. Alb., Belladonna, Cantharis, Colchicum, Merc. Sol.,and Nux vomica.

Hydrotherapy: Hydrotherapy is the process of using water, ice, steam and alternating between hot and cold temperatures to maintain and restore health. Remedies include full body immersion, steam baths, saunas, sitz baths, colonic irrigation and the application of hot and/or cold compresses. Hydrotherapy is effective with regard to treating an array of conditions and can easily be utilized in the home included in a personal-care program. Many Naturopathic Physicians, Physical Therapists as well as day health spas use Hydrotherapy as part of their treatment. Soothing baths 2-5 nights per week can help to relieve symptoms of colitis, as can sitz baths, and alternating cold and hot water compresses placed over the abdomen.

We suggest a number of at-home hydrotherapy treatments. Make sure you seek the recommendation of your alternative health care practitioner before undergoing these procedures to make sure they are appropriate for you.

Juice Therapy: Useful juice remedies include aloe liquid; wheatgrass liquid; cabbage, pawpaw, and carrot juice; carrot and apple juice; as well as carrot, beet, and cucumber juice

Lifestyle: If you smoke cigarettes, stop, as well as avoid contact with secondhand cigarette smoke. In addition, learn to effectively deal with and manage stress. Also try to exercise regularly.

If you are presently taking pain killers or additional NSAIDs, think about replacing them with safer, more effective natural remedies.

Emotional Aspects: Colitis, along with just about all digestive disorders can be triggered through unexpressed feelings, especially frustrations that are stored in your gut. If you are not comfortable expressing verbally or through physical movement, these emotions can settle into the body as discomfort in the gut. Withheld emotions are a common cause of Colitis, so it is valuable to embrace the nature of your Colitis by asking yourself if your emotions are expressing themselves via your bowels.

If this is indeed the case, look for support from a trusted or highly recommended source, to support a deeper understanding of your emotions. Emotional expression goes hand in hand with actual expression, and the movement choices can be highly useful, especially movement therapies such as NIA or Yoga Treatment.

Nutritional Supplements: Useful nutritional supplements include vitamin A, beta carotene, ascorbic acid, calcium, the mineral magnesium, potassium, and zinc, taken with a multivitamin pill/multimineral formula. Essential fatty acids, especial Ω-3 oils, are also recommended.

Tension Management: Understanding how to decrease and correctly manage stress is important for helping protect against colitis. Stress reduction techniques are also very helpful for dealing with emotions such as anger, depression, and hopelessness that can exacerbate symptoms. Alternative health practitioners help their patients accomplish stress reduction through the use of numerous mind/body medicine techniques, for example biofeedback, hypnotherapy, and relaxation exercises. Deep breathing is another type of stress management that can be helpful. There are many methods to meditate. Among the easiest is simply to sit comfortably in a chair with your eyes closed as you focus on your breathing. Do this for 5-10 minutes twice daily and gradually extend every session to 20-30 minutes. To enhance your time and efforts, concentrate on psychologically repeating a peaceful expression each time that you inhale and exhale, permitting all other thoughts to arise and pass without getting involved in them. At first, this may seem difficult, however with committed exercise you will eventually find yourself capable to do this while experiencing higher degrees of calm and serenity.

Alternative Professional Care

The following therapies can also help to prevent and relieve colitis: Ayurveda, Psychophysiological Feedback Training, Neurotherapy, Bodywork (Feldenkrais Method, Reflexology, Shiatsu, Therapeutic Touch), Craniosacral Therapy, Environmental Treatments, Enzyme Therapy, Fasting, Blossom Essences, Led Imagery, Hypnotherapy, Mind/Body Treatments, Naturopathic Treatments, Neural Treatment, Osteopathic Treatments, Oxygen Therapy, Qigong, Tai Chi, Chinese medicine, and Yoga exercise. (See Resources for additional information regarding these and other Alternative Treatments)