Burli said...
I'm trying to learn--I use the information in here to help me. I am not just going to say..."I'm glad the chocolate helped you..." I'd rather say "please tell me more so I can understand if it actually helped and why it helped. I've been hurt (physically) in here over the years trying what others did and I just won't do that anymore. I sometimes feel like I'm being bullied into just saying..."oh, how nice for you that it worked"
Is this just a support group or am I allowed to question?
at
I can say that I feel the same sometimes about
being bullied into saying "oh, how nice for you that it worked" as well. This board places a silly level of "overbearing fake kindness and strict manners" to such a degree that it's gone past it's intention and has become a distracting nuisance. I don't mind debates as long as it doesn't include irrational emotional opinions. Hence I don't post here much as a result.
If you want to know where my head is at with this chocolate thing, I must admit I was actually hoping that my experiment would be a wash as a best case scenario. I had suspected the increase in nitric oxide would diminish all the benefits. Plus I was looking for any signs of new bleeding. But I was curious when I read about
the anti diarrheal aspect of the chocolate and the incredibly high antioxidant load and it's serotonin boost and felt it might be worth a try in small doses. I was mainly wanting to see if and by how much the stool would firm up if at all. Knowing full well that normal chocolate and milk chocolate and the likes of hot cocoa will give even a normal person the "hershey squirts" i proceeded with caution. What I found was it's best to take it in the morning as the small amount of caffeine in it might induce some to have an "urge" to go. What a great way to wake up and start the day-with chocolate instead of coffee (for those with constipation dominant colitis). Yes, even in remission many still have signs of IBS which can wane from "D" to constipation, seemingly with a mind of it's own. I wanted to see which way I'd go good or bad. I can induce remission fairly easily so the risk for me was worth the experiment. I have to say I've been surprised that I haven't spun out of control. I've even upped the dose of chocolate to a high degree to purposely see if I could really mess things up. NADA. I am more stable than I thought. SO much so that my stools have become even firmer and I've become regular in the mornings if I want to with the inclusion of about
a 1/2to 3/4 bar of dark chocolate to get things moving, as I've never been a coffee drinker. I must say a bit cautious as the Nitric oxide aspect has me a bit concerned. If you want to read up about
the connection of iNOS and colitis here are a few links :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=14665440&ordinalpos=19&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17879278&ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=10484382&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=11440827&ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=9041266&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus
Now nitric oxide can be both harmful and helpful to UC depending on type and
location of action.
I can do these experiments on myself because I'm in a pretty solid stable place right now. Before doing such an experiment I was convinced after reading all the material I could find on nitric oxide and colitis that chocolate would be BAD. MY experiment results so far seem to show that very small amounts are tolerable and can actually do some good. I haven't had chocolate in 7 years. Now I know I don't have to go without as long as I watch myself. Expanding our food and snack choices wisely is a worthwhile endeavor.