Healthy Gut Diet

[Dawzelle]

I've recently read an article about this in a supplement in the Mail and googled it for more information. I've recently started drinking Actimel first thing in the morning and noticed a difference with my mouth not being so dry and sore so wondered if completely changing my diet might also make a difference: I hold my hands up to regularly eating a lot of junk food. Has anyone tried it or know someone that has? I'm really lucky as I'm not at the point where I have to take any meds and I'm keen for things to stay that way for as long as possible.

[Hidden]

Hi. My son has mixed connective tissue disease, diagnosed age 10. He is now 13 and has been following an autoimmune paleo diet for the past 18 months. Since following the diet he has come off all of his medication and is looking really well. He is like any other boy his age now. I can't stress to you too much how important your gut health is in relation to your immune system. You should definitely try diet as a means of controlling your symptoms and preventing any further deterioration. We started by eliminating gluten and dairy. Soon after this we stopped all grains completely. We don't buy any processed foods at all now and fill up with organic meat and fish and loads of vegetables. You should definitely look into it. The paleomom website is a good place to start if you are interested.

thepaleomom.com/

Also finding a good functional medicine practitioner to help you would be useful.

Good luck.

[Dawzelle in reply to Hidden]

Hi LizzyCee

Thanks for all the information. As luck would have it, I've been visiting a friend this week and her son and his partner follow a very healthy diet and have said not to do it all at once or I would get withdrawal symptoms.

I did say I'm not on meds but I forgot I take Lansaprazole for reflux which I'm trying to reduce as my Rheumy put me on quite a high dosage. My thinking is, if I get the gut right the reflux should stop as well.

Are there many functional medicine practitioners around? I've googled them and most seem to be in and around major cities like London and Manchester. I live in the South West.

Thanks.

[SVBO in reply to Hidden]

Dear Lizzy, I was so happy to read your post in August! Very pleased for you and your son that he is off his medication - so there is a hope for my daughter too! We have been on Paleo diet for the last 6 month now. We are off Steroids and plasters for Raunauds. The only medication is left - Metotrixade ingection onece a week. She put on a bit of weight on which is great as she was underweight for a long time. It is a big deal for us as it is difficult to put on weight with this diet, her skin and joints are better. In fact today we noticed that she can do sit-ups again and can sit on her heels and can sit in "lotus" position which she couldn't few month ago. So we believe that diet is deffinately working. Can I ask you, when have you stopped taking Metotrexade? Was it your doctor's decision or yours as he was symptom free? I am asking as I wish we could stop at some point as well. Through my Instagram page I got in touch with so many people with scleroderma all over the world but most of them are adults. There was another mother in Canada whose daughter was diagnosed at 15 and refused Steroids and choose diet instead. Now her daughter is 25 symtom free - which is great too! Traditional doctors do not belive it sadly (at least the doctors we had met) but we do...

Thank you again for shearing good news with us.

[Hidden in reply to SVBO]

Hi SVBO,

It's great to hear your daughter is improving. My son has been off methotrexate now for almost 7 months. It was stopped in March which was a joint decision between us and his consultant. He had been gluten free for 10 months, dairy free for about 8 months and on the AIP for about 3 months. He was well established on medication well before we started the diet so it was pretty obvious that it was the diet was working for him as his symptoms really improved when we started to change the way we ate. As his symptoms improved, he started to get more side effects from the methotrexate (mainly sickness) which I think was a sign that his body didn't need it any more. He had previously had very few side effects for 2.5 years of taking it. I asked his consultant if we could reduce the methotrexate due to side effects and he suggested stopping it. His autoantibodies are still raised but have reduced slightly. We are due to have them checked again in 2018 so I'm hoping they will be reduced further by then but it is very slow. As long as he is symptom free though, that's the main thing. His consultant has been very open minded about the diet although I think he was a little sceptical too. I think he was possibly expecting him to flare up but he hasn't. I really hope this continues.

We have reintroduced a few foods now- tomatoes, eggs, nuts and beans. This makes life so much easier as I can now bake banana bread with almond flour and eggs and do casseroles, curry or meatballs with tomatoes so they are more tasty. I've seen your beautiful meals on instagram but my son wouldn't eat the fruity sauces that you make, so his food has sometimes been difficult to make flavoursome.

I think recovering fully from something like this could take years and we have to be very patient.

I'm sure you will know when your daughter is ready to try stopping the medication and all you can do is discuss it with her doctors, hopefully they will be open minded, although many are not!

I wish you all the best for the coming months. Hopefully you will be off the meds soon too.

Lizzy x

[Bean82]

Hi! I recently found a study carried out in (I think) Sweden that showed a positive result for scleroderma patients who had changed their diet.

I didn't fancy the yoghurt but did find that Holland and Barrett do a choco ball equivalent!!! I've also cut down on saturated fat, dropped alcohol intake and generally increased the healthy!

I've seen an increase in energy levels, whether it's the healthy food having an impact on the condition or just a change in lifestyle generally, I couldn't say but it's a good thing.

Have to say it was and is hard to stick to, so best of luck and if you get any yummy recipes, please do share!

[SVBO in reply to Bean82]

Hi Bean82, if you have an Instagram account pls check mine and borrowed simple and yummy paleo recepies on paleocookmum UK

[tall-tim]

Hello Dawzelle,

My radical suggestion is to cut out as much wheat, gluten, sugar and cow's milk products as possible, also stop to drinking alcohol and smoking. Life and health will shine under a different, clearer light.

I can recommend the green lentils sold by Morrisons in their range of pulses as good for the guts. I have started consuming sheep and goat's milk yoghurt without ill effects. Our digestion is a vital foundation of our life maintenance system. We tend to focus on what we enjoy eating rather than what our body needs for optimum functioning.

Here's to your brighter future!

[Dawzelle in reply to tall-tim]

Thank you tall-tim, I'm already cutting out bread as I struggle to swallow it, the only sugar I have is in fizzy drinks which I know I have to cut down on even if they are the Zero sort. Cow's milk will definitely be a problem though, what would you suggest as an alternative? Would soya milk be okay do you think?

I don't drink very much alcohol at all as it makes my mouth even drier than it already is and the smoking got knocked on the head about 40 years ago.

I am really determined to do this now.

I've ordered the Healthy Gut Diet book and a recipe book to go with it so yes Bean82, if I come across any yummy recipes I'll be more than happy to share with you all 😊

[tall-tim in reply to Dawzelle]

Hello again Dawzelle,

Re. milk substitute, I think rice milk tastes much nicer than soya milk, and I find it more digestible than it and almond milk. Also, it doesn't curdle in hot drinks. I get it from Asda, where they often have a good deal on offer, e.g. but three for £3. My favourite is vanilla flavoured.

I'm sorry to hear about your struggles with bread. How frustrating! I eat rye bread if possible, even the dark brown/black continental variety, but you may find this too rough.

Asda do cans of a delicious, cheap (£0.35) lentil soup, which is liquid, digestible and can be used as a base for other meals. They also do cheap, Rankin's 'Irish potato slims' with 90% potato - easy to swallow. Tesco do even tastier own-brand ones (£0.50 for four) in winter time.

My 'drug' of choice is strong black chocolate, over 70% strength. It's something I look forward to. I find Morrison's 72% has the best flavour.

There's a baked soya bean and lemon juice recipe somewhere you could discover.

I use shredded leeks instead of onions, as I find the latter indigestible.

Hope I have given you some useful leads.

Tim

[MilkMaid in reply to Dawzelle]

Hi Dawzelle

Rather than cutting out cows milk, try changing the type of cows milk that you drink. Not all cows milk is the same. I would recommend that you try A2 milk produced from Guernsey cows which is high in Omega 3 and is an A2xA2 milk. It is much kinder on the body and even people who claim to be lactose intolerant can normally drink this type of milk with no ill effects.

[Dawzelle]

Hi Tim

That's brilliant information, thank you.

My eyes really lit up at the mention of chocolate, I'm a bit of a chocoholic but recently chocolate hasn't tasted the same 😟

I've come across a recipe for 'Breakfast Bread' which I'm going to give a go this weekend. I'll let you know if it's any good.

Sandie

[Hidden]

Hi Dawzelle, really pleased you are looking into the diet changes. For my son we have cut out all grains completely, except white rice. So that means no bread at all. As soon as we did this we noticed a marked improvement in his health and he started gaining weight again. It is tricky but we are in a routine now. Breakfast was a challenge initially but now he has either fruit with raisins or some meat with vegetables. It takes a bit of getting used to and i do feel like I'm constantly cooking or at the supermarket. He used to have reflux and belly ache and belching which all have totally resolved.

Sounds like Talltim has some great suggestions but the only thing I would question is rye bread. Is that not full of gluten??

If you are going to try a strict autoimmune protocol, I would avoid soya too.

Also if you are cutting out loads of stuff you will need to replace it with big portions of veg to make sure you still feel full and to get loads of micronutrients that will help you heal. We get through so much veg now. Also if you try an elimination diet, it will be hard but you will be able to add food back in gradually when you are feeling better.

Look at autoimmunewellness.com for some recipe ideas. My son likes the Moroccan breakfast skillet. Use your freezer loads to help you. Do loads of batch cooking of recipes you like and freeze it. Avoid all processed food and cook from fresh ingredients, organic if possible.

Regarding functional medicine practitioners, if you can't find one in your area, you may have to travel but there is so much information on line about all of this you can change your diet yourself. They can offer stool tests to assess your gut bacteria and food intolerance blood tests etc. We haven't gone down this route yet as we have had a good response without but I would definitely consider it if there was any deterioration in his health again.

One other thing. Probiotics are very important to replace healthy gut bacteria. Is actimel dairy based and high in sugar?? Coconut collaborative yogurts are nice and dairy free. And they do a chocolate ice cream with live cultures in too. Someone I know has recommended a product called Biogaia Protectis which is drops for babies but can be used in adults at same dose as suggested for babies. It's full of good bacteria and you can get it on Amazon.

It is very daunting when you first start but if you work hard at it, it will become your new normal.

Wishing you the very best of luck. And use this forum for support if you need it. Xx