Ulcerative colitis

I'm sorry you were diagnosed but if there is a silver lining in all this, it is that you now have a name to your suffering and you can now focus on the proper treatment to feel better.

As far as medication is concerned, I am no doctor so I can only speak on my personal experience. I am currently on Xeljanz, and that has been a life saver. I tried all the biologics and they didn't offer me much relief. Prednisone was always given to me when I would flare badly and it also always made me feel so much better but the side effects were hard to deal with.

As far as diet, everyone is so so different with what foods they can tolerate. Again, from my personal experience, I stay away from dairy, wheat, tomato sauce, garlic, spicy foods, processed foods, corn, cruciferous veggies. Overall I eat a lot of fish, organic and just unprocessed food. That is when I feel my best. I would look in AIP diet and LOW FODMAP. Try it out and see what works for you. You have to individualize diet. Also, I found that taking a probiotic was so helpful for me. Along with other supplements like multivitamin, vitamin d.

Also here are some articles you might find helpful:

https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/diagnosis-insight
https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/treatment/treatment-type-ibd

If you click our menu on the top left, you will see a drop down with a ton of information. I would browse and familiarize yourself with it. The more you educate yourself, the better you can help yourself ♡

I hope this helps some.

Elizabeth (team member)

Hi sorry to hear that you have been diagnosed with IBD but it is also a good thing, now you know what you have.
Medications are a hard thing to get right sometimes, but for me in the beginning I tried many finally weeding them down to prednisone and Salofalk (5-ASA). The combination worked best for me in the beginning. Luckily nowadays there are biologics that work fantastically. I have been on Remicade (infliximab) and now I am on Humira (adalimimab). As soon as I started taking the biologics, I started feeling better.
Diet is tricky like mentioned and everyone is different. Many of the books I read didn't work for me. I recommend keeping a food diary to see what makes your symptoms worse and then avoid those. For me, certain dairy, many vegetables, fruit, etc. I can eat yogurt though. I get my protein from chicken, fish and peanut butter (I eat a lot of peanut butter). I also have to cook vegetables down so they are soft. For fruit, I need to peel them because the fiber is in the peel and if I don't it just goes right through me.
I need to take vitamins but because of inflammation and the inability to absorb them, I take them sublingually (under the tongue). Vitamin D and B12 especially. I also take a multi as well as iron and vitamin C.
It's hard and it's a lot of trial and error but eventually, it becomes second nature. I highly recommend the food diary.
Take a look at these:
https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/food-diary

https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/forums/food-diary-to-manage-symptoms

Let us know how you get on!
-Vern Crohns/IBD Team Member

hello, and welcome to the community! In terms of medication, it really would be best to have a healthcare professional, preferably a Gastroenterologist, weigh in on that. It might be a case of the first treatment helping no end, but it might also be a case of having to try a few to find the one that is best for you.
As for diet, there has been more research into diet recently, and the outcome says that the Mediterranean diet is a good one for people with IBD. IOIBD guidance released in 2020 said that people with UC should increase foods containing omega 3 oils, and decrease foods containing red/processed meats, dairy fat, palm/coconut oil, saturated and trans fats, carrageenan, artificial sweeteners, maltodextrins, and titanium dioxide. However, people with IBD have very different tolerances. There is no one size fits all. One person's "safe food" can be another person's enemy! And whilst fruits and vegetables are obviously very good for us, things such as strictures and diarrhea can make it very difficult to tolerate them!
- Sahara (team member)