GARDEN OF LIFE/Maker's Diet - Help

I'm just about to start the Maker's Diet and I'm wondering which probiotics to go on...Or which pills off of Garden of Life to choose. There are so many and I don't know what the differences are. Primal Defense? Anyone tried that?

Any other input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

M.

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Maya

Diagnosed with CD in Jan 07 after going to different doctors for fissures or what I thought were hemmeroids. After getting a colonoscopy they found out I had Crohns. I had no idea what the hell CD was, but once I read up on it, realized I've had mild symptoms since age 12. I'm now 19.

I have mild to moderate CD, and don't have many symptoms other than my 3 fissures, stomach pain after eating, diarreah, bloating, cramping, gastritis on occasion, and then other random health issues that are caused from CD like gingivitis for example.

I'm currently on Cipro and Entocort (3mg/3xday). The Entocort has given me lots of issues. Really puffy cheeks, the inability to lose any weight while working out constantly, lots of acne, weird hair growth, and these random stretch marks on my thighs and breasts. I told my Dr. I thought I had Cushings Syndrome, which is an effect of Entocort, but she doesn't believe me.

This site is great for support.

<3

 

I've heard conflicting reports on Primal Defense. I tried it and it initially seemed to help, then I got much worse. I recently stumbled across this warning:

http://www.jinipatelthompson.com/book_updates.php

I'd recommend Natren or Custom Probiotics.

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Diagnosed with ulcerative colitis spring 1999

Possibly misdiagnosed

 

Maintenance dose sulfasalazine

Probiotics, l-glutamine and fish oil caps

very interesting about primal defense. i'll have to check this out. also very interesting how it talked about how it can mess with your hemoglobin levels since i am dealing with anemia. perhaps i should try an experiment and change my probiotic for a while.

other probiotics i've heard from others are vsl#3.

so my reason to responding - the maker's diet. yes, it is good. it saved me from a coloectomy and gave me my life back. do a search on my name to find out threads i have written in regards to my health over the last year. i update periodically - in fact just did one a few minutes ago. i highly recommend the diet. it is intimidating but well worth it. start on phase 1. dont cheat like i initially did and go directly to phase 3 cos phases 1 and 2 look too intimidating and impossible. they are not. i did phase 1 with some restrictions for 3 months this year and then phase 2 for one month. this total detox i attribute to my new health. one word of warning though - you will detox but this is good. your energy levels will go down since you'll be off grains and sugars for like 3 weeks or so. you may experience fatigue, hunger pains, and head aches. this is normal and it goes away. tough it out. it is worth it. your body is adjusting and your blood sugars are stabilizing. how bad you detox depends on how grain dependent you are before you do this. the more grains in your regular diet the harder you detox. but do it. it opened my eyes to a whole new world of eating and gave me my health and life back. hopefully it will do the same for you.

if you have any questions let me know. best of luck!

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Crazy Harry

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Crohn's since 1993 (17 yrs old then)
been on basically every med available, currently on colozal & 6-mp
surgery in July '05 - removal of 2 inches at ileum and 8 inches of sigmoid colon (had fistula into bladder)
Nov '05 developed colonic inertia; July '06 told i needed ostomy surgery
began maker's diet in August '06 - now feeling the best ever with no symptoms of colonic inertia and i kept my colon