Sometimes you have to listen to your gut.
Experiments
Health Update – March 2012
Mar 31st
My last update was December 29th, 2011. I am long overdue in letting you all know how I am doing.
Since then, my bowel movements have been up and down, like a roller coaster. One week I’d have 1 to 3 movements of diarrhea then the next I would have solid bowel movements (BMs). I have found that eating homemade fermented yogurt, as usual is what helps me a lot.
I also experimented with Low-dose Naltrexone a little. I think it helped me enjoy all the bad food during Christmas, but eventually it was too much for the LDN to help. That’s when the roller coaster of symptoms started. Soon after the start of the symptoms, I ran out of LDN.
Then a month later I had a research study to participate in that required I eat food according to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. After I finished sending my last stool sample to the study, I got back on LDN. For the month of March I did fantastically well.
Though, on March 28th I had a couple bouts of diarrhea and then the next day I was back to normal and have been since.
I’ve been very happy with the LDN. I have not had any changes in my sleep either positive or negative that I have noticed. My skin however, is really clear, something to celebrate on its own for me as I have struggled with acne since a teen. I believe my acne and crohn’s are related to intestinal permeability.
When I had the D on the 28th, I didn’t panic at all. I had looked at my data and found that I was steadily making improvements over the long term. When I look at the long term improvements, a setback on a given day doesn’t bother me. It will have to be weeks of daily setbacks to change the direction my health is headed in before I start to worry. It’s important to see the long term trends and not the daily roller coaster ride.
It Feels Like Tetris
Jan 13th
Among my video game design colleagues is an Italian word we use often called “fiero”. It describes the sudden rush of happiness we feel when we triumph over adversity.
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GITracked Looking for Testers
Jan 11th
Tracking data about my GI symptoms and overall health is one of the most effective tools in improving my health. Though, half the battle is finding the time and easy to use interface to input the data I want to capture. The other half is analyzing that data to create meaningful insights and practical steps to act on.
Ari Goldsmith, a strong supporter of WANTED: Crohn’s End, developed software to allow you to track your GI symptoms using your cell phone and text messaging (SMS). He is looking for any and all feedback on how to improve his software, called GITracked. Get it? GI tract turned into tracked because you track your data!
Go ahead, test it out and let Ari know what you think of it.
Health Update
Dec 29th
I have been taking Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for a couple weeks. The LDN is showing to be of benefit, but is not a magic bullet. I was able to willingly cheat a lot over Christmas break without any serious draw backs. No diarrhea and my acne did not flare much, I think it’s the LDN.
I was super surprised and happy I was able to eat my mother’s apple pie, pizza, a few bites of a Cannoli, some sort of lemon sugar powdered pound cake-like cookie, and sugar powdered truffles. Typically, if I get diarrhea from eating poorly, it happens within 24hrs, but that didn’t happen this time.
While traveling and getting home Tues Dec. 27th I ate too many amazing Specific Carbohydrate Diet legal “Date Brownies”. I’ve had 2 days of diarrhea, Wed & Thurs (today). But I will stop eating those treats and get back to normal in a day or so.
Survey: SCD Didn’t Work for Me
Nov 20th
My name is Reid Kimball, a Crohn’s disease empowered patient and documentary filmmaker who would like to know why the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) does not work for some people.
This is a survey of 10 questions to collect information that can help people learn why SCD doesn’t work for some people.
If the SCD didn’t work to bring your condition(s) into remission, please consider spending just a few minutes to answer the 10 questions below. Your answers will help the SCD community to help others who are struggling with the SCD.
If SCD did work for you, please do not answer these questions.
Thanks for your time and I hope you find health and wellness if you have not yet found it.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
The Truth Within
Nov 6th
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you.
Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time.
If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.
-Ghandi
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you.
Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time.
If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.
-Ghandi
Experiment Results with Breads
Sep 5th
WARNING: Too Much Information (TMI) Zone Ahead!
Before I begin, I should make clear that since 2004, after starting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I have avoided eating bread like the plague.
After my experiment with the white rice, which confirmed I cannot digest it very well, I decided to try eating various breads.
I fully expected to have diarrhea soon after eating white bread. But for about two weeks from August, 19th to September 2nd, I ate highly processed breads, full of terrible ingredients I can’t even pronounce, organic white bread with minimal ingredients and organic, minimal ingredient whole wheat sourdough bread.
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