I am not allowed to post a link yet but I found the people on the Crohns Disease Forum very supportive and informative. If you search Crohns Disease Forum the website comes. I haven’t been on in over a year but I would imagine the culture hasn’t changed too much over there.
Hi Pascal,
All forms of light yoga and meditation will certainly not hurt your condition and would be beneficial to you both physically and emotionally, helping you deal with the stress you’re probably having from that terrible disease. More importantly though is nutrition. You should consider intaking foods that reduce inflammation and avoid those that cause it. White complex carbs (rice, bananas, potatoes, bread, sugar etc) are notorious for causing inflammation so you should steer away or reduce those. Foods that reduce inflammation greatly are things like Salmon, raw garlic, ginger and turmeric. Almonds and avocados are also great for your condition as the high Vitamin E content is very healing to the gut. You might want to try soaking some blanched almonds overnight and then blending them to make almond milk. Throw away the pulp as this may irritate you. Add some Papaya (Paw Paw) and half a tsp of turmeric to the mix and some stevia to sweeten it if you must. Nutritiondata[dot] com is a great website to use as it tells you how inflammatory or anti-inflammatory foods are.
Good luck and I hope you feel better soon 
I concurr a lot with what Aviatrix said. Think yoga for stress relief though I’d add to avoid any poses that are “crunch” like, that put a focus on the upper abdominals, though with most stress relief yoga you probably won’t see much if any of that. I’m not a yoga teacher/expert or anything, just my experience/thoughts. Check your private messages.
Aviatrix,
I’ve been enjoying your nutrition related posts. You mentioned above that vitamin E is very healing for the gut. Can you please point me to some quality sources that showcase that?
Thank you!
Hi David, I’m sure you could do a google search yourself and find lots of quality sources that showcase that. Vitamin E is naturally healing and is often use to help soothe and heal gastritis, peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis and lots of other stomach ailments as well as other areas of the body. It’s fantastic for your skin especially and it neutralises stomach acids. Sorry, but I don’t sit here doing research and then post. I post what I’ve researched moons ago and am here to pass on the knowledge and hopefully help others. I suggest anyone that reads my posts (or any other posts) do their own research before seeking advice from anything that’s mentioned in any forum. I’m a huge health nut and big on natural remedies and yoga goes hand in hand with good nutrition. Yoga is very helpful in eliminating toxins but with good nutrition, there’s less to eliminate and one is less likely to fall ill.
Hi Aviatrix,
I did research vitamin E and wasn’t able to find any scholarly articles or reputable sites that showcased its digestive health virtues so I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I have lymphocytic colitis and run a community for people with inflammatory bowel disease so we’re always looking for new information.
And why would you want to neutralize stomach acid?
Hi David, I had Gastritis for a year after I was hospitalised from a breathing problem due to a rib injury. The quacks told me it was stomach related and put on medication which caused it. I cured myself with nutrition when the doctors couldn’t. I was in and out of hospital, I couldn’t eat anything. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t even drink water and was on a drip. In the meantime, the doctors kept increasing the dose of the medication that caused it (PPIs) I finally gave up and decided to take matters into my own hands. A naturopath put me on the right track but I ditched her because she was far too expensive. I already had a good understanding of nutition and so I used my knowledge as well as the knowledge I gained from her and slowly fixed myself up.
When one suffers from an inflammatory bowel disorder like Crohn’s, Gastritis, Colitis, IBS etc, the inflammation stops absorption of vital nutrients so the person’s condition often deteriorates. Furthermore, the lining of the stomach becomes perforated (leaky gut) and they end up with bacteria, fungus and other no nos in the blood stream further complicating the issue and making them acidic as a whole… they end up with stomach acid in the blood stream as well. The thing they need to do in this case is to heal the gut and to do this they must reduce the inflammation and take plenty of nutrients to help the body heal itself. I went on a 30 day juice fast (something I do routinely every year anyway). I juiced on mainly fruits and veggetables (organic) to get as much nutrients in my body as possible and I supplimented on Zinc, Vitamin E, B12, and all the things I couldn’t get from not having animal proteins. After the juice fast, I was feeling much better and then went onto blending instead of juicing for a couple of weeks and slowly introduced proteins back into my diet. It took a while to fix what conventional medicine caused but I got there. Before I began this, I had turned from a healthy fit and very active person to a frail, weak person of skin and bones. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t lie down (as I still had the rib injury that they didn’t diagnose) and I was close to carking it. Nutrition saved my life… I saved my life. Health is not a privillege, it’s our right but if we abuse our body and treat it like a cess pool, we lose that right. We have to feed it what it needs to heal, whether it’s nutrients, the sun, yoga and meditation. (By the way, the best way to get vitamin D is to look at the sun for 5 minutes in the morning through filtered trees).
As for nutralising acids, when your stomach and gut is inflamed, acid irritates it further. It’s important to nutralize the acids quickly after digestion and it’s also important to minimise acidic foods to allow your gut to heal. However, you don’t want to take acid blocking medication because that will make the issue worse over time (that’s what caused my gastritis). If you’re on PPIs and I suspect you might be with your condition, then you’ll probably find that you’re very acidic, despite taking the acid blockers. This is due to gastrin levels rising dramatically.
Anyway, back on track (I’m all over the place because I’m in a hurry), once the stomach lining or your gut is healed, then the person can go back to eating some acidic foods, but not too much as they don’t want the problem to return.
Hi Aviatrix, I’m not on any PPIs, I’m healing myself with nutrition and other holistic means, like you.
You mention the best way to get Vitamin D is to look at the sun through filtered trees in the morning. Where did you read or learn this as it goes against everything I’ve learned. And I’d still love a source for your vitamin E assertion. My other forum receives over 100,000 unique visitors a month with digestive problems so you’d be helping a whole heck of a lot of people. Thanks
Hi David, as I mentioned before my main source was my Naturopath. She cured a friend of cancer so she knows her stuff. She was just way too greedy for money. I spent around $3000 per month with her so you see why I had to give her up after a few months. She made me go out every morning and look at the sun directly through the trees for five minutes. She also made me tap my thymus gland three times a day to boost my immunity. lol, I looked pretty ridiculous each morning under a tree looking at the sun tapping myself but she did heal me.
As for the Vitamin E, the avocados and the almond milk really soothed my stomach each time I had it and I know Vitamin E is healing and is used for burns etc. Also the avocados are anti-inflammatory and the omega fatty acids were beneficial too. I was severely malnourished from having Gastritis for over a year so I had to pump myself with lots of nutrients. I know with any inflammatory bowl disorder, it’s difficult to absorb nutrients, particularly fat solubules like Vit E, A, D and I think K. It’s just food and vitamins so it can’t hurt to try, just don’t overdo. I had to because I was close to fading away.
I just love sharing what I’ve learned from her and my experience because most people can’t afford to see a naturopath and pay that sort of money and conventional medicine just covers up the problem without looking for the source of it.
Ok, I found the documents that she gave me so I’ll snap some pics of the bits I mentioned about the sun, the thymus gland and about Essential Fatty Acids in general. Be back soon
Ok, just so you know I’m not making anything up, here goes:
{3 urls were here but I’m not allowed to post them till I’ve made 15 posts… damn! lol}
I’ve got a huge booklet from her with similar documentation and every session I did with her, she’d give me something else and we’d discuss it heavily because I always wanted to know “what this does” and “why am I taking this” lol. I learnt a fair bit from her but I’ve also been big on health and nutrition for years and years and have been studying and practicing (a variation of) natural hygeine for years. Proper food combining makes a huge difference to digestion and physical health. Yoga is a massive part of my life too and I’ve been doing mainly Ashtanga, Iyenga and Ki Yoga for years. I also grow a lot of the stuff I eat, particularly herbs, and eat a lot of organic food.
David, what is the name of the forum you mentioned above, maybe I can pop in some time?
I’ll go and post a bit and come back haha
[QUOTE=Aviatrix79;70317]David, what is the name of the forum you mentioned above, maybe I can pop in some time?[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the link David, I’ll check it out later tonight.
Here’s my three links:
As I said, she’s a reputable naturopath here in Aus but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to be posting this. I might remove them afer a week.
Thanks. I think you misread or misinterpreted the “look at the sun” one. She isn’t claiming it’s the best way to get vitamin D, just that it would provide some. The closer to noon, the more vitamin D is produced.
No she said it was the fastest way to obtain it naturally, rather than through the skin. We had lengthy discussions. She also had me on Vitamin D3 in liquid form but she said to also look at the sun as the liquid dosage takes a while to kick in. She also had me putting it under my toungue and everything she prescribed, I took way more than the recommended dosages on the bottles because I was severely malnourished. I also remember discussing why so many people here in Australia suffer from Vitamin D deficiencies when we live in such a warm sunny environment and she blamed the skin cancer foundation for making us “slip slop slap”… slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. Low Vitamin D levels contribute to cancer developement so it’s a little ironic isn’t it? We should stay out of the sun in the hottest parts of the day (in summer) but like everything in this world, we need the sun to grow and to prosper. We shouldn’t get too much sun but 20 minutes of skin constant a couple of times a week is sufficent… or, 5 minutes through the eyes a couple of times a week. Again, she made me do it every day because of the severity in my condition at the time.
I just read your link and I see where you’re coming from but in Australia, we’re close to the equator and we end up like lobsters if we’re in the sun too long between 11am and 3pm during summer. Winter of course is different. No one goes out in winter but we go to Bali or up north instead.
ETA: I think you misunderstood what I meant by the fastest or best way of getting the Vitamin D. It’s a fat soluble and as I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s not as easy to digest as other nutrients. In a case where someone has Gastritis or basically any inflammatory bowel disorder, the best way to obtain the Vitamin D is through the eyes because it’s very difficult for them to digest it. I hope it’s clearer now.
Vitamin D is not synthesized by staring at the sun. It’s UV light on the skin.
If you’re going to take part on Crohnsforum.com you really need to fact check your information and source it from reputable sources or scholarly articles. We’re much more scientific in nature there. I often let such things slide here but will not over there. I am extremely protective of them. Thank you
Ahh, if that’s the case then bugger them, and you… they, and you can pay $3000 a month with a nuturopath and I have work to do. See ya!
I wasted my time digging out all my documents. I was going to summarise everything for them and you but if my effort isn’t appreciated, what’s the point. I came here to help people not school them. They can do, and you can, do your own research just like I did.
Goodbye!
Also it doesn’t seem like you’re protective of them. If you were, you’d want them to be cured. You’re protective of your ego and “being right”. LOL, I don’t have time for this crap. I’m not a naturopath. I don’t have references to text books. I have experence and advice from someone who had references to text books. If I had the references I’d be a naturopath myself charging people $3000 a month. Instead I offered to pass on this valuable information FOR FREE, at my expense because, I am bloody busy and have already used up my work time on this and blabbering about stupid references. It’s always the case with these idiotic forums. I’ll go on my way and help people individually when I can. In a forum I could do it once and that information stays. I am not subscribing drugs. I do not work for a pharmeceutical company trying to flog my products. I simply was going to lay down my case, tell my story and my journey to recovery and people could have decided for themselves if they wanted to try this or try that… in any brand name. But instead I copped smartarse comments from you and you finished it off with “I want to protect them”. Rubbish. You don’t want anyone healed because your forum will be useless just like doctors don’t want their patients healed because their services will become useless.
People are disappointing and I feel sorry for the people I could have helped. They can blame you and your stupid references.
Have a good day!