Diet Tips to Relieve IBD’s – Part Three

In addition to the general tips given in an earlier post, eating a high-fiber diet when your inflammatory bowel disease is under control can help keep it that way by preventing constipation, lowering cholesterol, helping with weight loss management and many more benefits.

A product or a food item can be labeled "High Fiber" when it contains more than 5g of fiber per serving. You can see a nice chart with portions on our high fiber diet page, but here are some general things to keep in mind when you’re off to the market.

Grain Products:
• Whole grain breads, buns, bagels, muffins
• Bran Flakes, All Bran, bran Buds, Corn bran, shredded whole wheat, 100% Bran and Fiber One
• Cooked cereal such as Red River and Oat Bran
• Whole-wheat pastas
• Whole grains such as barley, popcorn, corn and brown rice

Fruits:
• Dried fruits such as apricots, dates, prunes and raisins
• Berries such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
• Oranges, apple with skin, avocado, kiwi, mango and pear

Vegetables:
• Broccoli, spinach, Swiss chard, green peas and other dark green leafy vegetables
• Dried peas and beans such as kidney beans, lima beans, black-eyed beans, chick peas and lentils

Nuts and Seeds:• nuts and seeds such as almonds, whole flaxseed and even soy nuts

Diet Tips to Relieve IBD’s – Part Two

When experiencing a flare up of an inflammatory bowel disease, make food choices that are gentle on your digestive system. Try a low-fiber diet (less than 10g of fiber per day) or a low-residue diet which keeps in mind that some low fiber foods, such as dairy and coffee, can actually increase residue or stimulate bowel movement, while some foods that are lower in residue, such as blenderized bran, are indeed high in fiber.

In either case, eating foods from this list should help to alleviate discomfort and give your system a chance to heal.

Grain Products
• Choose enriched and refined white bread products over whole grains
• Plain, unsweetened cereals like Cornflakes or Cream of Wheat
• arrowroot cookies or soda crackers
• white rice, refined pasta and noodles

Fruits
• Think soft and squishy like applesauce, apricots, cantaloupe, canned fruit cocktail, grapes, honeydew melon, peaches, watermelon
• fruit juices (except prune juice)
• avoid raw and dried fruits, raisins and berries

Vegetables
• vegetable juices
• potatoes (no skin)
• alfalfa sprouts, beets, green/yellow beans, carrots, celery, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, mushrooms, green/red peppers, squash, zucchini
• avoid gas-producing vegetables from the cruciferous family--broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc….

Meat and Protein -- avoid beans and lentils and go for well-cooked, tender meat, fish and eggs.

Nuts and Seeds -- avoid them all, and foods that may contain seeds (such as yogurt with berries).

Diet Tips to Relieve IBD’s – Part One

If you are suffering from an inflammatory bowel disease, your symptoms will depend largely on what you put into your stomach. Making healthy choices can help manage the dis-ease while still making sure you get the nutrients you need.

It can be challenging to both your mind and body to change eating habits suddenly, so don’t try to do them all at once. Allow your body to adjust slowly and for lifestyle changes to become habit.

To start with, here are some general dietary guidelines:

• Drink 8 - 10 glasses of water daily.
• Supplement your diet with fish oil and flax seed oil, prebiotics such as psyllium and probiotics (live culture).
• Limit caffeine, alcohol and sorbitol (a type of sweetener).
• Limit gas-producing foods such as cabbage-family vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts), dried peas and lentils, onions and chives, peppers and carbonated drinks.
• Avoid dairy, especially if you are lactose intolerant. You may want to use lactase enzymes and lactase pretreated foods.
• Reduce fat intake, especially if part of the intestines has been surgically removed.
• Especially during a flare-up, try small frequent meals high in protein with lean meats, fish and eggs.

Next time we’ll start looking at the different diets that are useful during flare-ups, and others that are better when the IBD is under control.

Easing Symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes inflammation and sores, called ulcers, in the lining of the rectum and colon. The ulcers form where inflammation has killed off the cells that usually line the colon, then they bleed and produce pus. Inflammation in the colon also causes the colon to empty frequently, causing diarrhea.

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the general name for diseases that cause inflammation in the small intestine and colon. It can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are similar to other intestinal disorders and to another type of IBD called Crohn's disease, which differs because it causes inflammation deeper within the intestinal wall and can occur in other parts of the digestive system including the small intestine, mouth, esophagus, and stomach.

The most common symptoms of ulcerative colitis are abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Patients also may experience:
• anemia
• fatigue
• weight loss
• loss of appetite
• rectal bleeding
• loss of body fluids and nutrients
• skin lesions
• joint pain
• growth failure (specifically in children)

Most of these symptoms are subdued when SEROVERA® AMP 500 is taken regularly. The goal of SEROVERA® is to induce and maintain remission, and to improve the quality of life for people with ulcerative colitis. SEROVERA® AMP 500 has shown to reduce the need for surgery when combined with a healthy diet and constant consumption. With SEROVERA® you can rest-assured that you are taking a 100% organically certified, non-toxic supplement.

Diverticulosis and Diverticulitis

Many people have small pouches in their colons that bulge outward through weak spots, like an inner tube that pokes through weak places in a tire. Each pouch is called a diverticulum. Pouches (plural) are called diverticula. The condition of having diverticula is called diverticulosis.

Most people with diverticulosis do not have any discomfort or symptoms, but some might experience mild cramps, bloating, and constipation. Other diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and stomach ulcers cause similar problems, so these symptoms do not always mean a person has diverticulosis. You should visit your doctor if you have these troubling symptoms.

When the pouches become infected or inflamed, the condition is called diverticulitis. Diverticulosis and diverticulitis are also called diverticular disease.

The most common symptom of diverticulitis is abdominal pain, or tenderness around the left side of the lower abdomen. If infection is the cause, fever, nausea, vomiting, chills, cramping, and constipation may occur as well. The severity of symptoms depends on the extent of the infection and complications such as bleeding, perforations, tears, or blockages. These complications always require treatment to prevent them from progressing and causing serious illness.

SEROVERA® AMP 500 is powerful in relieving symptoms in most diverticular cases. It can help you minimize the risk of severe attacks by taking it on a regular basis to coat and nourish the colon.

What’s a Probiotic?

You’ve heard of antibiotics--prescriptions that are taken to kill certain germs and bacteria. But what you might not realize is that they kill friendly bacteria as well. That sets up an imbalance in your digestive system, and since this is where all the energy for your body systems are processed, it then can cause a host of other problems throughout your body. Probiotics help restore the friendly bacteria and regain the balance of your body’s ecosystem.

What are the effects of killing off friendly bacteria? A yeast infection is the most common side effect, and it can occur anywhere in the body. Women are familiar with the discomfort that comes when it’s vaginal, but yeast, more formally known as Candida, can show up in the mouth as thrush, or in any moist places on the body. Then depending on the severity of the imbalance, it may lead to digestive problems such as bloating, indigestion, constipation, or loose stools; and it has also been linked to skin problems including eczema, psoriasis, dandruff; depression and mood swings; high cholesterol, asthma, allergies, arthritis; even Crohn’s disease and Fibromyalgia.

But taking probiotics can restore health and immunity, reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, enhance the overall function of your digestive tract, and improve immune system function. Try them and see if you haven’t found the relief you’ve been hoping for!

About Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The good news is that Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a manageable syndrome that does not permanently harm the intestines nor does it lead to a serious disease. As many as one in five Americans have symptoms of IBS, but it occurs more often in women (especially during menstrual periods) than in men.

Irritable bowel syndrome is uncomfortable though, affecting one’s quality of life with cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. For some people, however, IBS can be disabling. They may be unable to work, attend social events, or even travel short distances.

Researchers have yet to discover any specific cause for IBS, but one theory is that people who suffer from IBS have a colon that is particularly sensitive and reactive to stress and certain foods, including wheat, rye, barley, chocolate, milk products, or alcohol, and drinks with caffeine, such as coffee, tea, or colas. The immune system, which fights infection, may also be involved.

In addition, people with IBS frequently suffer from depression and anxiety, which can worsen symptoms. Similarly, the symptoms associated with IBS can cause a person to feel depressed and anxious—a vicious cycle.

SEROVERA® has a natural healing ability that works gently within the intestinal tract. It may help ease constipation and prevent diarrhea, encouraging regularity. All this helps to reduce discomfort and bloating, as well as the stress associated with the discomfort. Try and see if Serovera can bring you relief.

Serovera Basics

If someone were to ask you to point to your body’s core, you would most likely touch your gut. It’s believed that 70% of the body's immune system resides in the GI-tract, so it’s easy to see how digestive problems can cause significant health issues for the whole body. When we take this whole-body approach, we want to go the root of any problem rather than just masking symptoms. Also, we want to take into account the balance of our body’s natural ecosystem.

Probiotics help us to maintain that balance between beneficial bacteria and harmful bacteria. But in conventional medicine, most common symptom-control strategies involves steroids, immunosuppressive drugs and salicylic acid derivatives such as sulfasalazine and mesalamine.

These drugs often have adverse effects including anemia, nausea, headache, dizziness, rash, hepatitis, depression, decreased sperm count or temporary infertility in males & females, easy bruising, hair loss, frequent infections and mood swings, to name a few. So many people understandably prefer the disease’s symptoms to side effects.

SEROVERA® takes a fresh and safe approach to combating autoimmune and gastrointestinal related diseases. Extracted and freeze-dried under a controlled environment from the Aloe Vera plant, it is 100% organically certified, contains zero toxins, does not conflict with other meds, and has NO SIDE EFFECTS! 98% of people who have taken SEROVERA®, testify to significant health improvement.

Our dual-pronged daily regimen of a probiotic supplement with SEROVERA® AMP 500 is especially effective at controlling autoimmune diseases and gastrointestinal disorders and restoring intestinal balance.