Counseling Sheet

Agatha M. Thrash, M.D.

Preventive Medicine

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Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory disease of unknown cause, which involves all or part of the colon. It has periods of getting worse and then getting better or even entirely well for a while. The disease is slightly more common in women than in men. One study demonstrated the most likely time for the onset is between 16 and 20 years of age. The incidence is lower in southern climates than in northern, and it is rare in African-Americans.

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Symptoms

• Diarrhea
• Abdominal pain of a cramping nature
• Rectal bleeding
• Weight loss
• Weakness
• Fever may be present.
• Malnutrition with weight loss and anemia are common.
• Abdominal tenderness is most common over the left colon but may be present in any part of the abdomen.

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Recommendations

Lifestyle  

The first thing must be a program of regularity, going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, getting exercise out-of-doors every day, sleeping in well-ventilated bedrooms, keeping the extremities clothed well and no tight bands around the abdomen.

Diet

The second thing is to control the diet quite precisely at first, using only pears and well cooked millet, three hours of simmering time, or overnight in a very good crock pot, one that cooks not only around the edges, but also in the center. The pears should be canned or dried and subsequently stewed or frozen. Use fresh only if very ripe. Do not put anything on either the millet or the pears, except for a light sprinkle of salt on the millet. Take small bites, and chew until the food has turned into a fine cream before swallowing. Juice must be rolled around in the mouth until thoroughly warmed and mixed with saliva (the same with frozen foods).

After three days of nothing but millet and pears, begin with apricots, or apricot nectar, dried apricots, frozen, or canned. Use fresh only if very ripe. After two or three days of that, decide which foods make you feel better, the pears or apricots. If you are doing well on both (bleeding diminished, number of stools per day diminished, pain diminished), add a few other things to the diet, starting with okra, pumpkin or squash, carrots, beets, turnips, rutabaga, well cooked collards (45-60 minutes), or other greens. You may have some tapioca, and some of the South American root crops, such as cassava or yautia. Add each of these foods one per day, using no seasoning or flavoring except the lightest sprinkle of salt.

Study a list of the Top A Diet (allergy), which includes a listing of those foods one is most likely to be sensitive to, and certain foods that one can generally expect to eat after the first week. Start liberalizing the diet from that list of foods.

Expect to lose a pound or so at the beginning, unless you eat quite heartily.

Herbs

Take a number of herbal remedies, the first being charcoal. Take a tablespoonful of charcoal powder stirred in a bit of water with each loose stool. If you cannot obtain charcoal locally, you may order it from Country Life at (706) 323-9194. Also take slippery elm tea, one cup full three times daily, about ten minutes before meals.

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‍Summary and Instructions

• Two or at most three meals daily, composed only of millet (boiled three hours) and pears (fresh canned or dried), for three days, then rice (boiled three hours) and pears, rice and apricots. Then after a week, start the Elimination and Challenge diet (Top A). Use a gluten-free diet, not a crumb of wheat, rye, oats, or barley. Carrots and carob should be tried, at least one whole carrot a day, and at least two tablespoons of carob powder a day, for the first month on the Top A diet.
• Make sure to chew food very well, even soups and juices should be swirled in the mouth a good while to mix saliva.
• Avoid overeating, compulsive eating, and never eat off schedule or between meals.
• Avoid all things that would be bowel irritants (such as coffee, teas, colas, and chocolate, even when caffeine free), alcohol and all carbonated beverages, vinegar, anything that is hot when it is not hot by temperature (such as spices, horseradish, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves), sugary or salty foods, all fried foods and those made with free fats (margarine, mayonnaise, cooking fats, salad oils, nut butters not made with a blender or simple seed mill). Learn to read labels carefully.
• Mealtimes, exercise times, study times, and bedtimes should be on a very regular schedule.
• Avoid stress and highly emotional situations. A good neutralizer of stress is outdoor exercise to physical tolerance. Do not overdo, as this can increase symptoms; but get some physical exercise every day. Wear warm clothing on the extremities to avoid internal congestion.
• Use distilled water, well water, or purified water, but no tap water.
• Use a totally honey- and sugar-free diet, and no vitamin or mineral supplements of any kind. Avoid all additives, flavorings, colorings, even natural starch, gels, gums, sorbitol, whey, caseinate, lactate, mono-, di-, and triglycerides, baking powder, bicarbonate, phosphates, phosphoric or citric acid, conditioners, etc.
• Learn to relax. Sit in the sun whenever possible, both to relax as well as to get the healing benefits of the sunlight. Take a 30-minute nap before lunch daily, and get seven to nine hours sleep at night.
• Full body massage two to three times a week is helpful.
• Avoid the use of drugs of any type. A number of drugs can exacerbate ulcerative colitis. Cortisone type drugs do not favorably alter the course of the disease; however, complications related to corticosteroid therapy include osteoporosis, negative nitrogen balance and electrolyte imbalance, hypoglycemia, peptic ulcers, cataracts, pancreatitis, increased cancer risk, and a host of other disorders.

Hydrotherapy

• Fomentations to the abdomen once a day for 20 minutes with a hot foot bath.
• A hot retention enema given at about 109 to 110 degrees of goldenseal tea and pectin mixed. You can get the crude pectin with the vitamin C in it, such as we use for canning. Put two teaspoons of pectin in one cup of goldenseal tea made with one teaspoon of the goldenseal powder to one cup of hot water. (Goldenseal is an astringent and pulls tissue together for healing. Pectin breaks down to acetic acid and butyric acid, which immediately convert to acetate and butyrate, both of which nourish the bowel lining.)
• A cold sitz bath for 15-30 minutes with a hot foot bath may decrease diarrhea.
• Inflammation may be treated with a charcoal compress made with strong hops tea instead of water. It should be applied at bedtime and left on all night. Drinking charcoal slurry water, three to four glasses a day is often very helpful. Make the slurry water by stirring a tablespoon of powdered charcoal into a glass of water, allow to settle, and then drink the supernatant fluid.
• Apply a cold compress for one to five minutes by simply wringing a large towel from ice water.
• A group of patients treated with artificial fever therapy (treatment has been used successfully in some viral illnesses), all demonstrated improvement with a marked decrease in the number of stools per day, decreased rectal bleeding, and an increase in appetite with weight gain. The patients were given 2-1/2 hours of treatment with rectal temperatures 104-105 degrees Fahrenheit three times weekly with an average of about twelve treatments per patient.

Herbal Remedies

• Pectin by mouth. Put one tablespoon of crude pectin (canning variety) in a cup of water and stir it. Take three doses per day.
• Two goldenseal capsules three times a day.
• Two enteric coated peppermint oil capsules (Mentharil is one brand name) as needed for abdominal cramping.
• One half teaspoon of licorice powder to one cup of water per day (for its salt retaining or steroidal effect).
• Charcoal, one tablespoon of powder stirred in water, with each loose stool. Take at least an hour before or after meals and other herbal remedies.
• Slippery elm tea, one teaspoon in one cup of very warm water. Take one cup three times a day at usual mealtimes, even if skipping the meal.
• Aloe vera, one - two ounces once or twice daily just before meals.