A doctor prescribing an NSAID for an IBD patient needs to have their head examined by someone other than their own ass.

SOURCE: Wikipedia.org

IBD Talk are posts featuring the random online writings of director Reid B. Kimball as he talks to others about inflammatory bowel disease and the use of effective, alternative natural treatments for them.

Like many of you, I am eagerly awaiting when my documentary will be done. I can’t wait until I can share it with the world!

So many of you have given me much needed support in terms of time, money, and information. The real pay off will be when you get to see the finished film!

It’s taken me about two years to develop the film. A huge challenge for me has been figuring how to structure all the interviews and other footage I gathered into a story arc. Neal Miller is a local film producer and he came up with a great story arc for my documentary.

I believe that with this story arc, I have done most of the filming I need and have decided to give myself one more year of development on the film.

It is my goal to have the film finished before the end of 2012!

Here’s hoping I do just that.

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.

Many of us have experienced fiero while playing Tetris. You are struggling to keep the stack from building, all hope seems lost, but then suddenly you get a lucky streak of exactly the right pieces and WHAM! BAM! CA-CHING! The stack is drastically reduced and you throw your hands up in the air, yelling with excitement!

And then the stack builds up again, forcing you to hurriedly return to the game.

This whole thing that I’ve been doing since 2004 feels like a game of Tetris to me.

The IBD Healing Journey is like a game of Tetris because before you can fit that long straight block in the perfect spot for a big score, you need another shape to clear rows above.

But until you can clear the space above, the empty space down below is screaming to be taken care of. You fantasize about how much better things will be, if only you could fill in that empty space!

It’s one of many missing pieces to the puzzle to your healing journey. That’s how it feels to me.

Maybe it’s the digestion of fat. Or the tolerance of probiotics from yogurt. Or that medical marijuana for all its pain numbing properties, also makes you paranoid.

Whatever it is, the anticipation is driving you mad. Because, if you could do that one thing, digest fats, tolerate probiotics, and so on; all the other pieces could fall into place. Your health could be so much better than it is right now.

Where is that damn ‘L’ piece already!

In my case, sauerkraut has been highly recommended for me many times for its probiotics and enzymes. However, every time I tried it, my acne would flare to ridiculous, embarrassing levels and I would throw out the jar feeling defeated.

Since starting Low-dose Naltrexone (LDN), I have noticed that my acne, while not perfectly clear, is dramatically better and well controlled. The other day I decided to try sauerkraut again.

And you know what happened?

Nothing, no major acne flare!

After all these years, I realized that LDN is a major piece of the puzzle that I have needed. It fits beautifully. Huge points galore! Plus, the Sauerkraut is looking like a new piece of the puzzle that will fit in without any problems.

The IBD Journey is like a game of Tetris because each treatment is a puzzle piece that will fill in your health gaps and give you the freedom to tackle other health gaps that are deeper down the stack.

It can take years of research, and trail and error, but once that space is filled in, the anticipation that was driving you mad bursts into a feeling of fiero.

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.

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.

I am no fan of conventional medicine, but I am a bigger fan of everyone having easy access to their treatment of choice. The FDA and the insurance companies that restrict or deny people their right to access treatments are on my shit list. And because I have Crohn’s, you don’t want to be on my shit list.

IBD Talk are posts featuring the random online writings of director Reid B. Kimball as he talks to others about inflammatory bowel disease and the use of effective, alternative natural treatments for them.

Lauren Bruno is a young woman who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis as a young girl. After seeing Mike McCready of Pearl Jam perform (has Crohn’s disease), she was inspired to write a song dedicated to the IBD community, called Red Balloon. She was able to collaborate with Mike McCready to produce the song and the two made a music video seen below.

Lauren Bruno has continued her fight with ulcerative colitis and her music career. Tonight needs a little help from us. She entered a contest to win support and funds to help produce her first full album with her band, Les RAV. She needs votes to place in the top 4 in order for her band to receive substantial support in producing more music.

Please, take a second and vote for Les RAV. Tonight is the final night of voting.

If you live in Canada, access the video here.

This is a funny clip from The Colbert Report about vaccines and then fecal transplants. I enjoyed the digs at the pharmaceutical industry the most, but had an issue with one particular part in their editing.

They cut to a woman talking about the fecal transplants and then cut away before she finishes what she says and it may lead people to believe that patients drink the fecal transplant. Judging from the sound of the audience’s reaction, I think they all did.

Yet, this is not true at all. She most likely is talking about using a nasalgastric tube that goes directly into stomach to deliver the fecal transplant. It can also be delivered via a colonoscopy, which isn’t discussed in the video.

I’m very upset that a news organization dedicated to the high standards of truthiness would leave out these important details and mislead viewers.

OK, OK, I know it’s a comedy show and I love The Colbert Report for that reason.

If you want more info about fecal transplants, also known as microbiota transplants, human probiotic transplants and bacteriotherapy, you can read my two part series on them. In the first part I give some background on ulcerative colitis and in the second part I talk about how fecal transplants just might be a cure for some people.

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.

Dean Ornish speaks for three minutes at a TED conference with the important message that your genetics are not your fate. It’s your lifestlye, which can change the expression of your genetics (epigenetics) that determines your fate.

It is a myth within the IBD community that it is a primarily genetic disease and there’s nothing patients can do about it. This myth needs to be wipe out out completely. It is contributing to the needless suffering of many.