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Welcome to the proctitis pages. The site is celebrating its tenth year in 2010. The sole reason for this site is to share knowledge and to help others with this condition gain a better understand of proctitis, ulcerative colitis, colitis, & inflammatory bowel disease.
An especially warm welcome to you if you are a first time visitor here. I do hope some of the ideas & information I present here will be useful to you, or help you in your own quest for improved health or help you find healing. I'm always trying to add new ideas & to keep the sites content fresh & purposeful which is obviously quiet challenging. Please note that this is a "not for profit" website & remains independent from the medical profession although all relevant facts on the site have been reviewed for accuracy by a fully qualified & experienced medical doctor.
The Reasons Why??
Proctitis is a digestive condition &
one of the most
important questions people usually first ask is how did I get this
disease in the first
place?, now this is a very difficult question to answer but I have
concluded from my own experience that proctitis is the result of a
combination of circumstances.
I have discovered that a number of very important factors contribute to
getting proctitis. I would suggest that the following factors have a
highly significant influence.
1) The level of ongoing stress, especially if your suffering from high
stress levels. That is not short term stress but persistent stress
which is prolonged
over time. Obviously stress comes in many forms & some stress is
considered
normal & even healthy. But I'm talking about chronic stress or to
put it
another way, stress that is destructive if not dealt with. So it could
be stress at work, stress from financial
worries such as ongoing debit, or stress from relationships, stress
brought on from bereavement, stress from poor housing situations, etc.
2) A persons response to this stress is often to eat badly or eat for
comfort reasons, or just to eat foods that are not good for us,
for example junk food
or fast foods, or eating on the hoof or eating just to refuel as it
were. Often we eat this way without giving this much
thought to it, it just becomes a habitual way of coping. I know just
how easily
we can fall into this trap. This is especially common when we work long
hours in
our job.
3) Your emotional state, sometimes we hold in our emotions or feelings
when under stress or in difficult circumstances. We swallow back or
swallow down our negative feelings especially anger & this can be
very bad for us both not only emotionally but for our long term
physical health
too. The result can be that we often end up feeling dis-empowered,
often without
even realizing this, its just how things are, feel stuck in that we
cannot change things for the better.
4) How the body deals with these circumstances, it is my belief that
different people given the same set of circumstances or factors such as
stress get different diseases. For example someone else given the same
conditions might drink heavily or might develop a heart problem &
another asthma and so on. It seems to me that when a person gets
proctitis this is a weakness in our body
& that weakness is expressed through the digestive &
immune system. Suddenly the body is unable to deal with wheat &
gluten and
sweet sugary foods.
5) It is also possible that for some people genetic factors may also
have an bearing on developing this digestive condition.
6) The food we eat & the daily diet we live by. The way food is
grown, harvested & produced also have an influence on our long term
well being
too. It is my belief that the more we consume highly processed foods
the great the risk's of digestive conditions like proctitis
developing. I
know its a cliché but what we eat each day does have a long term
affect on our
overall health and well being, so we are what we eat its true.
What's the difference?. Your probably asking what makes my website different from the vast majority of other sites on this subject, well at the heart of this site is the in-depth knowledge of proctitis & ulcerative colitis gained some five years ago during & after my own illness. Proctitis & Ulcerative Colitis can be very powerful teachers & I learnt a vast amount about myself & about how to deal with a serious illness & how to deal with having my life turned upside down (how to face chaos). I still feel passionately that it's extremely important to share this knowledge with other people, I am very committed to giving this knowledge to others, its the best thing I feel I can offer towards helping other people heal.
This website is all about healing &
specifically
healing through a process of self help, what you know & what you
learn can
be very powerful without initially realizing. This site is all about
how proctitis can be
healed "without" the need for powerful western drugs but by using some
simple yet practical methods which are cheap & straight forwards to
use, which can be managed
by anyone
who wants to try them. I hope the information I outline here will give
others the self confidence
& courage to follow my foot
steps along a pathway back to good health & a greater sense of well
being.
What I write here is from my own direct experience nothing more,
nothing less,
its my truth about these conditions.
The Paradox of Proctitis
Proctitis is a very strange and a very paradoxical condition, its very
confusing, why! do I say this? because what I found after considerable
personal research into this condition & at the most fundamental
level lies a complete mystery. This mystery is the fact that NOBODY
knows what
triggers a profound change in the bodies immune system (nobody in the
medical profession including GP's & your local family doctor, so
called
experts, even hospital consultants and specialists). Yes! that's right
nobody really knows yet what causes these conditions.
The Medical
Professionals point
of view
If you ask doctors about what causes proctitis they will come up with
as many theories about the causes of this condition as there are stars
in the
sky. The mystery is that a profound change "does take" place or is
triggered in the bodies immune system & it is this change that I
believe lays at the heart of what cause of proctitis. In most ordinary
people, a normal western type diet includes a substantial amount of
wheat based foods such
as bread, pizza's, biscuits, sandwiches, etc. Wheat is the worlds
most common staple food, its the bed rock of most peoples diet, we take
this
basic food almost for granted its such an integral part of our daily
lives and
our daily diet. But wheat grains & all foods made from wheat (wheat
flour) contain the substance gluten, and yet it is gluten that
lies at the heart of proctitis & some of the other digestive
conditions. In addition to all this, how wheat is grown & then
harvested, stored & the
processed all add to the complexity of understanding why people get
sick with these conditions.
What Really Happens & Other Observations?
However, when you get sick with either
proctitis, ulcerative colitis & colitis one of the things that
seems to happen is that a radical change in the
bodies immune system takes place, the result is that the body is no
longer being able to tolerate (digest correctly) wheat & gluten.
The result is
frequently called "food intolerance" and where the reaction to wheat
& gluten is very extreme then its often termed "food allergy". The
severity of
this immune reaction varies from person to person, but generally
speaking once the immune system has been upset & the longer a
person goes
on eating the offending food in this case wheat (gluten) and man made
sugars the more severe (acute) the symptoms appear to grow.
From my own experience what I can say is that once the bodies digestive
system can
no longer tolerate wheat & gluten and man made chemical sweetener's
and the more a person goes on eating these substances the more severe,
the more sick you become. The result of continuing to eat
foods that contain wheat (gluten) what I term "negative foods", then
its very like eating something that will poison you. If the person
continues to
eat foods that do contain gluten this results in toxins building up
with the body's
major organs such as the liver, kidneys, colon and bowel, etc. It is
these toxins in combination with stress levels and eating a poor diet,
it is such patterns that I believe lead directly to getting proctitis.
Unfortunately our life styles often don't help us, if a person is under
substantial stress for any length of time then this seems to lower the
immune
systems ability to respond & this can add to the conditions that
lead of proctitis.
Some Common Misconceptions & Misunderstandings. ( the truth is there are no quick fixes) Proctitis & ulcerative colitis are not conditions that suddenly appear from no where over night (bang! one day you where fine and next day you have proctitis), No! these digestive conditions tend on the whole to develop slowly. Although sometimes it seems like the symptoms just creep up upon us almost without you knowing. But to get proctitis or ulcerative colitis requires that a certain set of circumstances, or certain set of conditions come together at a particular time in your life. Stressful events or stressful conditions play a huge part in us getting sick, such stress levels are not normal or good for us. What I'm talking about are stress levels that we fail badly to manage or fail to understand. Our reaction to stress levels of this kind often set off a chain of responses, such as we comfort eat when stressed or in distress. Perhaps work demands are so intense that there is no time to sit down and eat good food slowly in the way our bodies really need, we eat junk food or rubbish food & we eat this on the hoof we're on the go the whole time, we don't stop to digest our food well, this kind of eating is just fuel for the body and nothing more. Unfortunately the longer term consequences of eating this way are not good at all. This is why we are now seeing such a large rise in digestive diseases.
The myth of proctitis by infection. Let me state quite clearly here and now that you cannot, repeat cannot get proctitis from another person. Proctitis is NOT an infectious condition which means you cannot get the condition from intimate contact with another person. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply wrong, Yes! please be very careful when it comes to information written in papers or shown on websites about proctitis because its my experience that there is a great amount of misinformation or wrong information on the condition. I have been answering emails on every aspect of proctitis & ulcerative colitis for over five years and not one person in all that time has ever reported proctitis as either caught from anyone else nor via sexual contact.
Trying to make sense of the bigger picture. Any introduction or discussion on the subject of Proctitis, Colitis or Ulcerative Colitis should touch on the subject of food intolerance and food allergy, also on foods, eating and diet. When you eat a "normal" healthy diet (what ever that means for you, within the context of your culture, beliefs or community) the food you eat each day is normally digested over time without causing you any discomfort. A normal healthy diet produces No! side effects or unusual symptoms & should supply the energy we need to carry out daily activity, & supply the vitamins, minerals & trace elements the body needs. However in recent years there has been an explosion in the numbers of people (of all ages, of all classes, whether wealthy or poor, male or female) becoming poorly with food intolerance and confirmed cases of food allergy. Clearly there must be some precise reasons for this alarming increase, my view is that these statistics are due to the way food is grown & farmed, the techniques with which it is treated or handled, the way food products are stored and transported to the consumer.
Food intolerance and food allergy is a very BIG subject one which I'm not even going to attempt to cover here in any great depth. However I would like to outline to you the differences between both conditions or states as they are relevant to digestive conditions such as those we will talk about on this website.
On FOOD INTOLERANCE, is a condition which can arise completely spontaneously and without any apparent trigger (even if you've been healthy all your entire life previously). Food intolerance can take many forms but it commonly starts off as a mild upset or mild reaction to something specific in the diet, and is usually related to a specific form of food such as wheat, dairy products, or nut's or nut related products. (these are amongst the well known one's but there are many others too). By upset I mean specifically that eating a particular food repeatedly causes the same response each time i.e. is not a one off upset such as that caused eating bad food or food which is past its best condition. I'm talking about an upset which is repeated consistently when that specific food is eaten. Food intolerance is when the bodies normal immune response doesn't work correctly or is upset in some way, this means that a specific food which the body dealt with before now upsets the system. This can be thought of as like a low level poisoning of the body (the body and its reaction/s against the specific food produce toxins), therefore the more this upset or intolerance is ignored the worse the intolerance becomes. If the symptoms of the food intolerance are NOT ignored but acted upon and the negative food is no longer eaten symptoms reduce noticeably over time.
On FOOD ALLERGY, can be thought of as the next level or stage of reaction to certain food or foods. In other words if food intolerance is permitted to go on unchecked or is ignored for whatever reason then the likelihood of this condition becoming chronic & turning into food allergy is very real. Allergy is a deeper and more complex immune reaction to that specific food or foods, allergy can become severe and deep seated. So it goes without saying that food intolerance should not be ignored & should be treated as soon as possible, it also goes without saying that if food intolerance becomes allergy then healing and treating it is going to be both more time consuming and more difficult (but both states i.e. intolerance & allergy can be treated with the correct approaches). Its worth telling you that the vast majority of emails I receive daily from this website are from people who fall into the category of food intolerance.
Proctitis or Ulcerative Colitis are difficult conditions to deal with especially if you have never had any serious illness's or disabling diseases before in your life. Getting Ulcerative Colitis and Proctitis came as a terrible shock to me a few years ago and it was a very distressing experience, one full of confusion and a sense of disempowerment. What made the situation far more difficult was the amount of confusing information from doctors, health professionals, and other well meaning people. Fortunately I tended to trust my own feelings and ideas which lead me along a path to real and deep healing, and this site is an attempt to share information about that healing process. A healing process that isn't owned by me but was perhaps rediscovered by me, thus I wanted to share this with other people so that they too may gain the same healing and benefit's that I enjoy today.
One of the biggest problems with Proctitis & Ulcerative Colitis is that practically all the doctors I spoke to had their own ideas or pet theories about the causes and the best ways to treat these digestive conditions. I frequently get asked what causes Proctitis or Ulcerative Colitis? but the truth is that seen from a scientific point of view (from a western medical point of view) nobody can tell you. The doctors actually don't know themselves, they all have theories but that's all they have, theories. In my opinion the problem is that what causes of these conditions cannot be scientifically measured (the root causes are not measurable), I have come to my own conclusions which are as follows. Proctitis & Ulcerative Colitis are caused by a combination of factors (multiple factors or multiple causes if you like), these factors are the result of a set of very specific circumstances in the persons life.
These factors can be generally identified as a) Stress, by which I mean a level of stress in a persons life which is detrimental or bad for them either short or long term b) bad eating or bad diet or eating the wrong foods due to stress such as lack of time c) A person might have family or genetic factors that influence the condition, i.e. others in your wider family may also have digestive conditions and over several generations of family members d) most people have some aspect or system of their body where a weakness will become apparent if enough stress is placed on that person. For example with some people the stress on them comes out as a heart condition or strokes in extreme cases or in others the stress's show up as respiratory problems like asthma. For people like you and me the weakness in the wider systems of the body come out as digestive problems. OK fortunately the good news is that healing is quite possible.
Proctitis & Ulcerative colitis are highly treatable conditions if the right approach is used. These conditions can show remarkable improvements and healing through the use of the correct diet and consumption of the right foods. The approach I outline on this website has been tried and tested by myself and by other people. Other people have proved beyond any doubt that with the right advise and guidance this healing approach works and shows highly positive outcomes. This website offers I hope practical guidance on how self help can be used to start a healing process.
I think it would be reasonably safe to say that not matter how well meaning or kind most medical professionals are they probably wont have or have little experience with proctitis or ulcerative colitis and wont known how diet can be used as a treatment and curative, so most family doctors, or GP's or even hospital consultants wont mention diet to you as having much or any importance in your healing. If you have proctitis, or ulcerative colitis or colitis then its extremely important (vital) to eliminate wheat & wheat products (those foods that contain the substance gluten) from your diet. Gluten (wheat) is VERY strongly implicated as being a causal factor in the development of symptoms in cases of proctitis, ulcerative colitis and colitis. But its only one of a collection of factors, its a combination of factors that join together under certain circumstances that lead to the the formation of these digestive conditions.
This is now the fourth successful year this website has been available on the internet. I'd like to tell you briefly about this site because I believe that its useful to know how & why such a site was created. Several years ago now I became very sick with ulcerative colitis & also proctitis and through many twists & turns of my own story I managed to find a process which lead to healing myself. I remain completely free of my previous symptoms and have had no flare up's in over two years, and all this without any drugs. So this website is a personal creation & draws on my own knowledge of how to deal with both of these conditions, I have drawn on those years of knowledge & research to make this site what is has become.
I'd like to express my continued thanks to everyone who visited the proctitis pages in the last months & years, this site has been a phenomenal success and I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams that so many people would be interested in what I had to say and to share. I remain committed to supporting the site & ensuring it remains a good source of quality information for anyone with these conditions.
Here are some points that might be helpful?
Proctitis & Colitis & Ulcerative Colitis are conditions that have a major & direct impact on your digestive system, however these conditions can be difficult for doctors to diagnose (to tell you exactly what you have) correctly. This is because it's very common for the symptoms of one condition to overlap another illness which has very similar symptoms. Making a precise diagnosis between say colitis & proctitis much more challenging. Sometimes these distinctions between one condition and another are purely technical anyway even for experienced doctors.
Another one of the problems associated with both ulcerative colitis & proctitis is that these conditions can flare up once again (symptoms can re-appear at a later date) if the diet is not managed well.
This is why in most people who are suspected of having Proctitis & Colitis & Ulcerative Colitis the doctors & health professionals will require you to under go an internal examination usually using Sigmiodoscopy or Colonoscopy ( a flexible telescope to look inside your digestive system). This is the commonest method for establishing a firm diagnosis of your condition. This is important because without a formal diagnosis you will not know with any certainty exactly what you are suffering from. And without this diagnosis its extremely difficult or almost impossible to start any treatment or gain any healing. And in the vast majority of cases these conditions are highly treatable with the correct approach.
One of the strength's of this website which makes it different & unique from others is that I wrote these pages from first hand experience of proctitis & it was my intention that these pages offer ordinary people a source of useful information, reassurance through clarity of facts, and for anyone who is will to try & to trust me a path to self healing (but this requires self help). This site is for anyone who has ulcerative colitis or proctitis. Or for anyone who have symptoms but have NOT yet been given a formal medical diagnosis by a doctor. This also includes the broad term inflammatory bowel disease (I.B.D).
It remains my belief that sharing information & experience is the most powerful & highly effective way I have found to directly help other people, If you've never been seriously ill and become sick with one of the conditions I've talked about you might be quite poorly, you might be feeling completely at a loss too understand what's happening, or you might just be feeling stuck or confused. You might be in pain or having bleeding and so on. Finding out how to deal with this condition & it's various symptoms can seem rather daunting at first but helping you gain a better understanding of what you face is what this site is all about.
I found that at times what I needed most was a friendly kind and calm person to just plain the sheer fact's of this condition to me but in a non patronizing fashion, free from medical speak. I created this site to do just that and because I spoke to so many people who gave me bad or unsound information because non of these people had ever had this condition themselves (they meant well but without first hand experience their efforts where not useful to me, bear that in mind too). Not all information about these conditions is good quality or is not helpful too you personally, so it is important who you discuss your condition with if you are seeking healing.
This is important because it can seem that there are very few alternative options to dealing with these conditions, particularly if believe what most doctors will tell you!. Actually the options for treatment & healing these digestive conditions are wider than the first impressions offered, once again this is exactly what this site is all about as you will see in the following pages.
The colon or bowel is an organ & is made up of a number of layers:-
The Lumen - interior channel. The channel through which food and digestive material passes.
Mucosa - Cells lining channel. The mucus membrane that stops acid from destroying the wall of the digestive system
Muscle layer-this next layer is responsible for the rippling action called peristalsis that helps move digestive products through the colon.
Adventitia-rich in blood vessels & lymph vessels. Ensures that the colon is well oxygenated and keeps the organ alive.
Muscle layer-next layer. Basically the same as the other muscular layer above
Adventitia-Outside Wall. Yet more blood vessel rich tissue.
The anatomy (structure) of the adult digestive system. Understanding the basic layout & anatomy of your own digestive system can be rather useful when trying to understand what condition you have and where inside the problems exists.
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Liver, produces Bile (stored in the gall bladder) produces & stores absorbed nutrients. |
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Small intestines, completion of digestion & absorption of water & minerals. |
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Large intestines, absorption water, sodium & minerals compacts waste. |
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Rectum, Far End of Colon & a final collection point for semi-solid matter. |
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Anus, Sphincter, the muscular opening through which waste products of digestion pass via deification. |
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)- Ulcerative Colitis / Proctitis / Crohn's / Diverticultits
Colitis / proctitis - Root cause remains unknown but thought it maybe due to an abnormal immune response to certain foods, substances. Inflammation is initially confined to the Muscosa & is continuous (rather than patchy as in Crohns disease). The Mucosa becomes swollen & red with small bleeding points (legions) & eventually ulcerate causing bleeding & diarrhea. Includes a strong Gluten intolerance (i.e. wheat products).
Crohn's Disease - Maybe also be due to an abnormal immune response can affect any part of the tract but usually terminal ileum & ascending colon. It causes patchy inflammation affecting all layers of the bowel wall & is thus more prone to causing abscesses, fistula formation or bowel obstruction. Main symptoms are pain & fever & weight loss rather than diarrhea.
Diverticula Disease or Diverticulitis - Is associated with chronic straining at stool and a low fiber diet usually in older people. It affects the colon & presents with pain & wind and constipation. Diahorea & may be small amounts of bleeding, it is due to small heirnations of the mucosa into the muscle coat of the bowel causing faecial stasis & maybe low grade infection.
Coeliac Disease - Abreaction to wheat or wheat products, absorption of vitamins is poor, affects immune system.
Other causes of bleeding from back passage - Note non of these make you feel poorly.
Piles - (hemorrhoids) is accompanied by soreness & itching around the anus. Bleeding is from enlarged veins around the anal margin. Bleeding usually follows defecation (which may be difficult because of spasm of anal sphincter) usually accompanied by constipation rather than diahorae. No system symptoms.
Polyp - May be cause bleeding with no other symptoms.
Tumor - May produce bleeding alone or may be accompanied by a change in bowel habit, may be weight loss.
You will probably go to your local family doctor with a combination of symptoms such as tiredness, persistent abdominal pain, increased amounts flatulence & increased need to go too the toilet, also probably loose stools, possibly bleeding (often at the end of the motion) & increased mucus production (also with the stool).
It is normal for the doctor to refer you to your nearest hospital & to the nearest available consultant or specialist, such as a gastroenterologist (specialist in gastric diseases). It's also normal for a blood sample to be taken & tested to exclude the possibility of conditions such as anemia. You may well be given an appointment for the doctors to perform a sigmiodoscopy or colonoscopy (fibreoptic telescope via the anus to see what is happening to the bowel wall & sometimes a small sample of tissue called a biopsy maybe taken).
Before the internal examination can be performed the bowel is first emptied by "bowel prep" which is taken orally as a fluid. After the examination you should be recalled a few weeks later to discuss your biopsy / examination results. If colitis / proctitis is diagnosed you will be offered something like NSAID's (that's non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs to you and me!) or steroids either orally or as an enema for acute (if symptoms are sever) treatment & an aminosalicylate such as sulfasalazine. Other drugs such a Asacol maybe offered too.
Dietary advice may or may not be offered, but I have always felt diet to be of central importance.
I developed the symptoms of colitis / proctitis over two years ago & have been refining and developing my knowledge and ideas on the subject of these conditions ever since. I am now completely cured and remain symptom free & would like to share my ideas & knowledge with others on the self healing process.
Some basic principals to share with you.
1) If you have symptoms that you've never had before, (such as bleeding with the stool or acute pain in the abdomen after eating food) don't delay go and do something about it. Get yourself seen by your local family doctor and get a confirmed diagnosis before you do anything else.
Don't put this off, if you delay your symptoms might be far harder to treat in the long term (this is especially true for men, some of us are very bad at taking care of our health & only finally go to a doctor when desperate with pain or severe symptoms which can no longer be ignored).
2) The more you can begin to accept the idea that you are in fact responsible for yourself & your symptoms (and your health) then the more this can help you to effect positive change.
3) Don't dupe yourself? It's vital that your honest with yourself about what you eat & how you eat (this cannot be stressed enough!). There's no point in saying I have no idea what I eat that's making me feel sick, if your stressed out & eating 2 big Mac's every day (come on don't its obvious).
4) If this works for you on a practical level then write down or make a listing of all foods & drinks in your current diet. Once you've made a list look at what you eat regularly & think about why you like certain foods over others. Is your diet dominated bye one type of food or meal? Next give some thought to what these foods are & what they might contain. You may need to eliminate certain substances (wheat or wheat products, sugar or anything containing man made sugars in any form).5) The main aim of the above listing is to help you identify foods or substances in your diet that actually might make your symptoms worse or may in-fact be the cause of your problems.
6) Fasting, this is a subtle yet deep & powerful self help technique and can be undertaken by most people with good preparation and a little care. ( I recommend only 4-5 days minimum for the average person without previous fasting experience & but upon 10-14 days recommended for those with previous experienced in the fasting process). Also see the notes on Aflotoxins.
**The longer duration fasting is highly recommended for people who have had the condition for a long period. Why? because the detoxification needs more time to reach deeper levels of the organs & body than If you've only had symptoms for a few weeks only. Requires a deeper detoxification.
7) Finding the limitations of your new diet. This means introduce new food items into the diet with care one at a time after you have completed the fasting process (detoxification) so you can identify harmful substances or foods. You should be able to identify which foods are harmful as they produce abdominal pain for example. After a while you will learn to distinguish negative foods even when you first put them into your mouth, this is because after fasting most people become highly sensitized & can tell harmful foods or substances almost immediately. Especially were gluten is concerned.
6) Review lifestyle & emotional issues. Diet may not be the only area of your life that might need to change in order for you to get well again or regain your energy. You may find it's helpful to take a long hard look at your lifestyle. You might well need to make changes (possibly even big changes?) You might possibly need a change in career or job so as to reduce your stress levels for example. Or you might need to renegotiate your child care arrangements or who does the school run or collects the kids from school, etc. that can help to bring you back into a more relaxed, less stressed and therefore more balanced lifestyle. Proctitis is always a sign of us being out of balance with ourselves (that's why we get sick in the first place because we are out of balance!).
7) Other therapeutic substances or treatments. There are a number of treatments that can be used to help reduce symptoms that I have found useful. Such as Aloe Vera juice, etc.
8) Patience / Time scale / be consistent & be persistent. Proctitis can be very effectively healed but I wont pull any punches, it takes time, it takes commitment and finally it does take determination to stick to the gluten free sugar free diet. But it can be done, I have now helped numerous people achieve good healing results so its completely possible.
Help!! where do I start?, The first thing that I did was to embark on a 2 week long fast. I was very poorly & this process of fasting struck a chord with me. It made profound sense as the right thing to do, as I did not feel like eating at all. Here my body was telling me "No food please!!" that was because my digestive system required a total rest. When you stop and think about it, the digestive system is an organ & how many times a year, a month, a week or a day does it get a prolonged rest.
How to fast & why?, Fasting is VERY important in the first stages of the healing process. If you have never done a fast before, it probably sounds like a very daunting prospect. But if you are very poorly & off your food with the symptoms of proctitis perhaps it doesn't sound so mad. However, although I fasted for the full 14 days (that's because I am experienced in this process) you may not need to go quite as long as this. But if you are quite poorly then its quite good if you can do this.
Fasting! what does that mean. The fast I am suggesting involves fluids only & no solids. I used the following juices: Spring water, juiced celery, juiced apples (organic if you can afford them), juiced carrots again organic if you can afford them & can get them. The juice can be varied a little from day to day with the addition of Soya milk to create a milkshake like drink. The juices replace the meals at meal times but that's not a hard & fast rule. Drink as often as you need.
When you fast you should do this with the full knowledge of other people around you who can be supportive of you and what you are trying to do. Fasting will cause you to slow down so don't even think that you can go back to work and do a full days work on top of fasting. Fasting is not that sort of process, you should set aside how ever long you need for the fast and possibly slightly longer. 7 days or 10 days etc.
The purpose of the fasting!, I know not eating sounds strange (especially in our western culture) but fasting does seem to have a profound affect on the body. From my own experience what I can tell you is that fasting was a huge turning point in my getting well again. It seemed & felt like all the toxic substances that had built up & collected in my body where being flushed out of my system. I felt a whole lot better by the end of the 2 weeks of not eating. (although it did not do much for my appetite).
Below is the new updated printer friendly version of the food list, it is now split into two parts for easier printability (as requested) The table shown below is an example and is meant mainly as a guide & is not a complete or definitive listing.
Food List 1 of 3
Food List 2 of 3
Food List 3 of 3
Additional Items of therapeutic or medicinal value I have found helpful in the treatment of colitis or proctitis. The following are recommended especially during acute phases or if symptoms return or the condition relapses.
Acidophilus tablets commonly found in most good whole food stores or some health shops, helps maintain good bacterial conditions in the gut.
Papaya Enzyme, this usually come as black chewy tablets. Don't be put off by the color, they may not look very appealing but the taste is pretty neutral. (from a good whole food shop or some health stores). Definitely provides a positive effect on the gut when you don't feel like eating or in the acute stages of the illness.
Vitamins, are important because if you are not eating much in the way of solid food & loosing blood there may be some small risk of developing anemia.
Aloe Vera Juice, The juice of the Aloe Vera plant, it has powerful properties that can be used in your healing process. The juice can be taken as a drink & I found it especially good when I had no interest in food, & when my guts felt like they where on fire with pain. At first the taste is a little strange but after the first few drinks it became quite enjoyable.
The juice can be used for enema's & I am told it does provide powerful healing qualities. That can be used for healing the lesions & thus the bleeding (symptoms) in conjunction with the diet of positive foods. You will need to purchase or source an enema kit, these are usually available from a surgical supplies company or a pharmacy (Boots the chemist in the UK). Aloe Vera juice is a totally natural product & I am told that it is a more effective method than some of the drugs prescribed for rectal use by GP's or hospital doctors.
Gluten and things you should know. Gluten is a protein found in wheat & wheat products (also found in other foods & grains like Oats, Barley, Maize or Corn) gluten is commonly found to be a substance that people who become poorly with IBD, colitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease & Ceoliac disease have a REACTION TOO!! or develop an intolerance too. You definitely need to be aware of the effect that gluten or foods containing gluten may have on you. This reaction to Gluten also may affect your immune system too.
Having proctitis can be a very lonely & miserable experience, remember you cannot eat 50% to 70% of what is considered a normal diet by most people in our culture. Lonely because it's not a condition that's at all easy to talk about. Its easy to feel ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, depressed, etc. Especially as proctitis involves becoming mindful of your eating habits & your toilet habits, and so forth.
There is, in my mind a very strong emotional aspect to what causes proctitis, again I cannot stress just how important it is to be able to talk about YOUR feelings if you have this condition. The support of someone who can either listen to you & how you feel or someone who can be a confident for you. This is a very valuable part of your healing process.
When very poorly with the acute stages of the condition its easy to feel desperate or despairing, depressed and its hard for other people to fully appreciate how difficult proctitis can be as an experience.
I even experienced at one point the fear of eating anything for fear of making the symptoms worse but admittedly that was pretty extreme and only lasted a short time.
Getting the diet to work for you is going to be very much a trial error experimental process. Some foods will naturally be fine & cause no problems at all, however some foods are going to be symptom causing & make life uncomfortable for you. The positive food & negative food list above is an example of specific foods that I have learnt work or don't work for me.
Generally avoid things like Alcohol, sugary drinks like Pepsi, Avoid extremes like strong curry's, foods which contain chili's, avoid temperature extreme's like chilled drinks, or ice creams. Bananas are full of gluten & also have high sugary content (not good!). Chocolates & sweets (not good!). One surprise was egg's the yokes contain proteins or glutinous substances that made my symptoms worse. Another surprise was "Rye" (as in rye breads or crisp bread "riveta") my system could not tolerate this at all.
The Theory of AFLOTOXIN'S. One theory that has been put forwards for causing the symptoms of ulcerative colitis, proctitis & other digestive diseases that seems very possible. Wheat & other grains that have been stored for a period of time under less than perfect conditions (dampness or high humidity) form a fungus, this forms "Aflotoxin's" that literally poison the body. Those people who develop digestive conditions may be experiencing an allergic response to these aflotoxin's. If this where to be proven then the fasting process that is recommended by myself & others would make even more sense as part of the healing process. As a method of riding your body of such poisons (like aflotoxin's).
To date I have found that the best way to manage, maintain or heal proctitis has been to catch the condition early. Next I treated myself through a process of fasting (detoxification) & then moving careful onto a new diet made up ONLY of the positive foods (gluten free). The next phase of my healing was sought by care of a traditional Chinese doctor, she successfully treated me using traditional herbal remedies. I must point out that I had proctitis more than three years ago now & am healed and free from any symptoms. I was very sick when I started this process of exploration, learning & healing. Finally it should be born in mind that all the symptoms of proctitis can return (relapse) if your diet is not carefully managed. A good quality of health can be gained through a careful diet & possibly herbal treatment too. The final stage of any healing is reached when the condition can be managed using diet alone, also be aware that a gluten free diet helps protect against flare up's & relapse's of the condition.
I myself am not a medically trained doctor & therefore the information given on this website is an expression of my own views, opinions, experience and conclusions. The information given on this website is however given in good faith and is drawn directly from personal experience and the knowledge gained from this. You will have to take what I say on trust, that the information given here is from my own experience. The motivation is to share this information for the benefit of others. I do not make any cast iron guarantee's about how a diet or fasting may work for anyone person & so nor can I be held responsible for the outcome/s of any healing process undertaken. However I can confirm that all of the information presented has been thoroughly checked bye a fully qualified & trained medical professional. Much of the knowledge and advise has had independently confirmation bye third parties.
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I was successfully treated by Dr.L.Zhao (MBRCP) consultant of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The Leeds Chinese Medical Center,
Address: 217 Stainbeck Road,Leeds,LS72LR.
Tel (0113) 288-6688/288-8866 or fax (0113)268-1229 Website http://www.cmauk.org
The Maywa Clinic, Address: 390 Kirkstall Road, Leeds, LS4 2HQ, UK.
Tel (0113) 278-6688.
Website http://www.maywa.co.uk/
I would like to express my sincere thanks for the help & support from the following people:
Dr.Verity Lacey who is a trained Anesthetist & General practitioner (now retired) based in Leeds for checking the medical content & terminology used on this website.
Dr.L.Zhao for her incredible kindness & wonderful care & treatment, which I will never forget & will always be grateful for.
Dr. Mark Le Bell, USA.
Mr & Mrs R & H Hiesler, LA USA.
This website is dedicated to my father Dr.Len Ratoff (MBE) he gave more than thirty years of dedication, hard work & caring, working for the NHS as a family doctor and to the people of Toxteth Liverpool. Died suddenly on the morning of the 9th February 2000 aged 70 years.
http://www.provamel.co.uk/ (makers of Soya milk & other Soya products)
http://www.orgran.com/ (makers of gluten free food products highly recommended), Based in Australia but export too at least eleven countries. Also Orgran (UK).
http://www.essential-trading.co.uk/ (UK only) suppliers of gluten free products including rice flakes,etc
http://www.suma.co.uk/ (UK only) major suppliers of whole foods & gluten free products.
http://www.clearspring.co.uk/ (makers & suppliers of macrobiotic & Soya foods-Japanese products)
http://www.imaginefoods.com/ (makers of sugar free deserts, gluten free & other specialist foods)
Here are just a few starter idea's if your new to a gluten free diet. (also see gluten free recipes page).
NOTE:- Stick closely to the gluten free diet is very important but what makes the diet challenging is finding & keeping the variety, so that your diet doesn't become boring or too plain. Remember with this condition making food appetizing is quite important otherwise the appetite slips easily again. Basically with a gluten free diet you have to be creative & use your imagination. I have found a gluten free diet to be delicious, nutritious and full of variety and very healthy too.
My Thanks to the staff at AQL Limited for their continued support & hosting of this website.
AQL Ltd are a professional web hosting & IT services company.
