The book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle"

[Donna]

Has anyone here tried the diet in the book " Breaking the vicious cycle"? It's a very strict diet for those who suffer from intestinal diseases, from crohn's to chronic D. A friend of mine who has crohn's gave me the book to try and get my system back to normal. It's been 54 days since my second round of flagyl. I was feeling great but these past few days have been iffy. I had indulged my self with yummy food and the next day I was loose and went severel times. The following days i've been cramping and loose again 2-3 a day. Is it IBS? or am I parinoid like the rest. I'd like to know if the diet would be worth a try to fix the IBS if that's the prob.
I'll go to see my Dr, but it's an extra long weekend this week here in Canada. Sorry for being lenghty but I haven't found any info about the book. Keep up the good work everyone, we'll all get through this oneday!!

I pray everyday for my health and that of others!!

[Nancy1]

The daughter of one of my friends has ulcerative colitis. She was doing so badly that her docs were talking about removing her colon until she went on the diet from the book you mention. She is doing much better now, with no more talk of colon removal.

I don't know anyone who has done that diet during or after cdiff. Often what I eat can cause me problems for days and even weeks afterward, and I am more than 2 years post-cdiff. I would guess that is what is causing your problems. So it may not be IBS. I call it a "new normal."

[supersmurf]

Hi Donna,

I followed the diet in breaking the vicious cycle for quite some time and I still am somewhat careful about what I eat - especially gluten and sugars (I had c-diff in 2006 for 6 months) - I also took a lot of naturopathic supplements in addition to the Vanco tapering - it took me about a year before I started to feel normal again but I can safely say that two years later I am pretty much completely back to normal, although I am a little more sensitive intestinally than I was before c-diff. I think our modern, ultra refined diets are very hard on our digestive tracts and when there is an infection like c-diff present it is only adding insult to injury when we force our intestines to deal with foods that it cannot process properly. I really felt as if the diet helped my body to heal and to fight the infection - my naturopath agreed, although she did make some minor modifications to the diet, however the mainstream docs did not feel the same and thought I should not matter what I ate.

I hope you are feeling better soon,
Sharon

[Donna]

So I checked the official website for the book and it says there that this diet won't work while infected with c diff because it has "claws" that adhere to the intestinal walls and it's such a strong bug. Further searching on this site suggests that the bug feeds on our intestinal cells anyways not the food we ingest. But maybe it would help with post infectous IBS. I'll do some more research. It's always good to check with a Dr first before trying such a diet, it's really restrictive.

[kcarlton]

Hi Donna,

Did you go the pecanbread.com website? Also, there are two yahoo groups for this diet - pecanbread and BTV-SCD. Both are very helpful.

I was wondering which "official website" you went to that said the diet won't work if you have C. Diff.

Thanks,
Kristina

[Donna]

Hey there. So the site I'm refferring to is by the lady who wrote the book, Elaine Gottschall. www.breakingtheviciouscycle.com

It did say that it won't work while infected becasuse the bug has claws that adhere to our intestinal wall, plus I read else where on this site that c diff feeds on our intestinal wall cells not on the food we eat, but I'm wondering if it would help with healing after we're in the clear, you know with the IBS symptoms ect. Do you have any knowledge of this diet?

Sorry I didn't get back right away, my youngest daughter now has a kidney infection again, so antibiotics are in our lives again!! I hope and pray she'll be ok, so far she's been good everytime she goes on the meds.

Let me know what you find.