SCD Bible

One week ago I started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). I also started a Stricture Heal protocol which I will detail in a later post and reference my source for the protocol as well as the products I am currently using. You can read more about these topics in my Alternative Treatments section. This will have content in the upcoming weeks. Please be patient! Things have been extremely busy for this Gypsy!

One month ago I was hospitalized for an acute small bowel obstruction after an incident with a large floret of broccoli. After 48 hours of intense agony and projectile vomiting, I ventured to the ER. This was my second obstruction in the past year. After 3 days with a nasogastric tube, the sorest throat I have ever experienced, and 5 days NPO I was determined to shake this hideous disease from my body… And hopefully without the help of TNF drugs and other potent immunosuppressants. Henceforth I am known as Crohn’s Gypsy. And I am here to guide you through my journey of discoveries, successes, and failures.

As some of you fellow Crohnies might know, the SCD is a diet backed by 50+ years of scientific and medical research. The book Breaking The Vicious Cycle, by Elaine Gottschall will teach you the science behind the diet as well as provide many convincing examples of cases where it has worked. And not just helped but CURED the patient.  This book should go home with every newly diagnosed Crohn’s, Celiacs, or Ulcerative Colitis patient in my humble opinion. However if your experiences with gastroenterologists have been anything like mine, you were probably told “There is no diet. You have to figure it out by trial and error”. Doesn’t it seem like common sense that treating a digestive disease would involve dietary modification?

After painstaking examination of the “legal” and “illegal” foods lists of the SCD, I embarked on this diet trial.  I started by buying organic produce and pureeing soups. Carrot and ginger soup has been good during this past week. I fear I will turn orange if I keep up this intake of carrots. I have also eaten a lot of eggs: hard boiled, scrambled and omelets. Many cheeses are allowed. I have taken advantage of this legal food to help get calories and because I am a cheese swine. Avocados are a good addition to the omelets and will help get some calories in. I invested in a juicer and have been having juices in the mornings with my vitamins and other supplements. I am pescatarian so my protein options are limited. I have eaten cod several nights with soup as a side dish.

After 3 days on this diet, along with the Stricture Heal protocol, I experienced a normal bowel movement. This was not earth-shattering for me, as I have not historically had diarrhea, but my BMs had not been normal since my hospitalization a month ago. I consider this good progress. I have not experienced intense carbohydrate cravings, but I have definitely suffered gas and bloating, as well as brain fog. I am hoping this is all part of a Herxheimer reaction, or “die-off” of pathogens in my gut. Today was particularly bad with a lot of gas and cramping. Gas with no place to go because of this damn stricture. It just loops back and forth under my ribcage. I presume the soup I had yesterday containing roasted peppers contributed to this gas. I eliminated this today and I’m hoping after a good night sleep I might have some relief tomorrow.

I am new to blogging, so if anyone has constructive criticism I’m happy to hear about it. I will post on my progress weekly. I also plan to discuss the supplements I am taking, as well as Stricture Heal, over the next few days. Stay tuned! Be well and keep your guts in your abdominal cavity where they belong.