Overcoming Ulcerative Colitis | The Exam Room 

13:50 The most hopeful part of the interview

I have UC for 3 years now. And I was a vegetarian before for almost 8 years. What I found out is, that dairy products for me are great! I made a test after a flare up to see how my intestinal flora is doing. I found out I had very low levels of lactic acid cultures. I don't have lactose intolerance, so I drank kefir, and used many dairy products in my cooking schedule, such as milk, cream, sheep cheese and sour cream. After 6 months in remission I tested my intestinal flora again. The lactic acid cultures were normal. So from my experience dairy products are very important. In future I want to start a study for cortisone. Researches found out only 20% of UC patients need cortisone, the rest could be on mesalazine or other ASS medicine. In fact I had a flare up with 2300 calprotectin and went down to 350 in two weeks, taking mesalazine only in oral form. As my flare up didn't change for weeks and stayed at 350 calprotectin, I took additional suppository. It took also two weeks, the flare up was gone! I was recommended to take cortisone by my gastroentologist! Why I want a long term study for cortisone: The idea came after seeing so many people got worse with the years, even it started harmless for the most with UC. No fever in flare ups or heart rate increase, most have round about 5 or 6 bowel movements a day. But after years the disease increased and soon they had to take cortisone for weeks or months. I also found out, that J.F Kenedy suffered from a condition that was undeniable UC. He took cortisone, but in very high dose. He suffered from osteoporosis, but more importantly from adrenal gland insufficiency! Cortisone is a precursor of cortisole, the stress hormone, which is gained in our adrenalin gland. So what happens in the body if you put more cortisone in you body? Your body produces less and if you take higher dose, it could stop the production at all! We can observe the same procedure with heroine, which inhibit the production of serotonin, also a hormone! In fact what happens with the body is, that the body can't cope with stress anymore, as cortisole is the stress hormone. And UC flare ups comes with stress! My first flare up started with this symptoms: - high increased heart rate - fever for 8 weeks - 12 bowel movements a day - constant blood loss and anemia - migrane and later on cluster headache - high abdominal pain up to 15 hours (I had less pain in the evening and night) 3 years later my flare ups symptoms are: - 3 - 4 bowel movements (sometimes diarrhea, but sometimes fully normal) - sometimes diffuse pain, but only before I went to the bathroom Thats all! I take only mesalazine. What I eat: - Potatoes - Sweet Potatoes - Zuchini - Pumpkin - Egg Plant - A bit tomatoes (not much) - Pomegranate - Oranges - Bananas (a lot of them!) - Joghurt (with low sugar) - Dairy products except cheese that includes emulsifiers - Raspberries - Blueberries - Rice and Rice Noodles - Rice flour - Nuts - Chickpeas I avoid: - Sugar - Wheat - Alcohol ( 100%) - everything that is hot flavoured, one exception is black pepper - everything that is not fresh and comes in a colourful package Since my diagnosis I cook for myself every day and yes it takes a lot of time in the beginning, but once you get the routine, its not that time consuming anymore. My future plans: - exange mesalazine to Escherichia coli medicine in remission. That way I have a guarantee I wouldn't be immune one day to mesalazine. - discontinue to take my birth controll pill as it could be an additional factor for the flare ups - do more exercises for coping with stress - continue with sports - continue finding new recipes for cooking and baking with UC

I had almost the same experience. It would have killed me if I hadn’t had surgery. There wasn’t a minute of the day when I wasn’t in terrible pain. I became vegan 5 years later. My health improved within a month. I had lingering arthritis even though my colon was gone. Once I became vegan, the arthritis went away. I wish I had known about plant-based eating way back before. It was just so long ago. I knew nothing about it back then.

This condition sounds like an absolute nightmare. I’m happy for her than she found the path out of it!

So excellent! I had UC myself and went WFPB in 2017. I jumped in with both feet and dropped my medication at the same time to give my body every chance of healing without distraction. I could tell I was heading into a flare-up and within 4 days my cramping literally stopped and I’ve not had a flare-up since. It’s miraculous what real food can do for the body! My ophthalmologist son (also WFPB) uses my story to encourage his patients to consider improving their health with food any chance he gets. Love it!

Thank you for shaping. I've been diagnosed in April 2019 and they started me off with 12 tablets Asacol and Prednisone, which took a while, but worked. My 2nd flare-up was in August 2021 and Asacol and Prednisone alone did not work on it's own anymore. Many Dr visits and medications, I finally got better. Then September 2023 my next flare-up and symptoms got worse and tougher to get over. I decided to stop all medication and focus on eating the rights food. Within 3 weeks my symptoms significantly subsided. I'm going to adopt this new lifestyle on a permanent basis, and hopefully don't need to take any medication ever again.

Thank you, Debbie, for sharing your very well-reasoned narrative. It makes sense that good books can illuminate for us the benefits of whole foods that are mostly plants, such as How Not to Die. I also found Dean Ornish's early book on reversing heart disease to be amazing back in the early 1990s. Now there are so many excellent books like Caldwell Esselstyn's books on reversing heart disease that show us whole food plant based eating makes sense for our health. It is frosting on the cake that this also helps to reduce the rate of climate change emissions and ends up leading to less animal pain and suffering. Many thanks to PCRM and The Exam Room for another insightful presentation well directed and elicited by Mr. Carroll! As Dr. Kim Williams points out, the more that people choose to give themselves this healthy lifestyle, the more our nation and our world will save money from Medicare, Medicaid, and other taxpayer funded programs. So glad that Medicare now funds Dr. Ornish's heart care program for those with advanced heart disease!

Thank you Debbie, you are so inspirational, I love when people get so excited about the food they are eating

I am vegan, but found adding the following helped me resolve UC: Peppermint to slow peristalsis, wheat grass, and butyrate to feed the endothelium and close the leaky joints between the cells.

Thank you for sharing your story. I've shared the link with my daughter who has Crohn's. She has managed it better with diet than doctors have with medicine. She still has issues and flares, tho, so hopefully this will be the key that opens the final door to full healing. You are a blessing!

I love this video!!!! I have been vegan/plant based for 7 years. This video is going to help my good friend with his UC. Thank you 🙏🏼

I suffered from UC for eleven years before having my colon removed. Became plant-based one year post surgery and wish any of my gastroenterologists had known the connection of food in/food out. More power to you, Debbie! Congratulations!!

This was some wonderful information. Thank you both so much!

Thanks for sharing your amazing story!!!

Thank you for sharing!! My son suffers from UC and I am trying to encourage a wfpb diet. Going to share this interview with him.

Thank you so much for this great episode. I so appreciate you sharing your experience and hope that I am as lucky as you. I really want my "lifestyle" to provide better health. (I agree the word diet is a loaded term.) Your enthusiasm and vibrancy are convincing. Wishing you and your family continued excellent health.

Thanks for interviewing Debbie. I'm happy for her, and in some ways, her journey mirrors mine. I was diagnosed with IBS in the early 1990s when I was in my early 20s. Unfortunately for me, even going vegan and then later wfpb, oil-free and losing weight, water fasting and even taking antibiotics for SIBO hasn't helped me. I've even read and tried Dr. B.'s program, but no luck. Now I"m trying Dr. Goldner's smoothie shred in the hopes that blended green smoothies might help me with my symptoms, but I have my doubts. If you know of someone who has conquered IBS with a WFPB diet, I'd love to hear their story. I know IBS is in no way as severe as IBD, but it does chip away at a person's quality of life, especially after decades of trying different diets in a failed attempt to get symptom relief. I even gave up coffee, and that didn't help either. Thanks for being here and spreading the vegan word. As a vegan for more than 20 years, I love all that PCRM does to promote a vegan, WFPB lifestyle.

Thank you for this!! It was truly helpful

Very inspiring. Thankyou.

It's a very terrible disease, my 15 years old boy has had it for 8 years. His doctor just said that the medication that he is on will be his last hope, after that only, surgery and I said No, surgery is not on the plate at this point. So I started a strong diet and fasting with him, yes he lost weight, but let me tell you, it worked and I believe he is in remission, no more going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and dropping from 7 trips to 1, just go before school, I guess a precaution. I think I will make a video and post it, I just don't know how that works.

Thank you and Debbie for posting this interview. I was recently diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and I am a 1st year medical student. Can you please enquire if I can connect Debbie directly. Thank you

It's so confusing to know what to eat as a UC patient. Some people recommend a carnivore diet. Others say eat a vegan diet. My gastroenterologist suggested a Mediterranean diet. (Nobody suggested the 'standard american diet'.) I guess the answer is to use trial and error to find out what works best for you. For me, remicade saved me from surgery. As for diet, I drink homemade kefir from raw unpasteurized whole milk each day. I also drink chicken bone broth. And I drink a large glass of water first thing in the morning. For food, I eat steel cut oatmeal, eggs, sardines, rice, steamed vegetables, blueberries, and anything else that looks healthy and easy to digest. I was released from the hospital at the end of March. Since then, I've gained 20lbs, and I'm getting better each day!

I got a similar story. Be glad to be interviewed if you want.

Great testimonial, thank you both!

Inspirational !! Thanks !!

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lol peanut butter rice haha gonna give that a try for sure! ❤ I'm making basmati rice atm I needed a hummus recipe so thank you soo much ❤

A great topic not talked about enough. I have UC 14 years now.

I had uc for 12 years and it has been going through hell. Yesterday I had two drs advising different dr Berg says no vegies and another said plant based diet. I just tried evinature qd1 and cur1 that seem tohave made a difference but I am going to try this diet as well.

Love her story. I was diagnosed in April and was told I would have to be on Humira the rest of my live. I went full wfpb and am medication free. I was wondering if there are any vegans out there that got UC or Chrohns, to see if it's more genetic or diet 🤔

What exactly food Debbie is eat,maybe she can help us whit some recipes

Been taking 81 mg aspirin since the late 90's before i was diagnosed with uc in 2016, I wonder if the aspirin caused uc. Been taking sulfasalazine, suppositories, and budesonide, but always have dark red blood clots in my bowel 2-3 times a day. ???

it is helping myself too

Any foods you avoid besides meat, dairy, and gluten? Are you on any daily medication now?

Great job! Thanks for sharing!

Can you guys do a segment on fibroids

Geweldig!

21:26 when she suggested peanut butter in rice lmfao

Thank you!!!! 🙏🏼

I also overcame ulcerative colitis on a vegan diet. Actually I had pancolitis the worst form of ulcerative colitis. The way to do it is to eat a varied vegan diet, I have now started to eat OMAD vegan diet where I have a eating window of 1-2 hour and my digestion is now perfect.

Bravo!

UC is the worst. I seem to have developed mild UC even after eating plant based for over 6 years. I suspect it's due to an intolerance to wheat protein isolate in many of the mock meats that I consume on a weekly basis... going to be tough to say goodbye to wheat. :(

Peanut sauce in Asia is very common..

20:20 What her diet is like today

The problem is it’s not science. She may have had other factors that triggered remission not just diet.

Peanut butter and rice is a common dish in Zimbabwe.

Great show!!! Thank you. I will be passing this on to my wife who has UC. Maybe I can get her to go vegan like me. :)

Do you drink alcohol?

The poor factory farmed animals are also pumped full of antibiotics which is bad for people. I'm vegan because the way animals are treated is incredibly cruel. Pigs are confined in sheds, mothers pigs with no room to move at all, for all their short lives, then gassed to death, which is revoltingly painful and cruel, I have seen the footage from many whistleblowers. I grow my own potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, greens, strawberries and herbs etc all organic and pesticide free. Glysophate (roundup) on crops, especially wheat crops, etc cannot be good for gut microbiome.

I'd really like to know if she is still gluren free. I have a hard time imagining a vegan life without bread!

What she said she uses cheese that is animal product So thats ok?

Ok a minimum of 4 diet sodas a day, and its animal products fault?! Idiots

Get smoked paprika from magic plant farms.

Yet another person confusing removing processed foods and confusing it with the vegetarian diet being the reason they got better 😂😂😂😂😂😂