Some Differing Perspectives...

I got a comment on the IC Network Forum from someone who didn't agree with what I was doing to heal my body. I find the IC network to be my 'Frenemy', so to speak. I feel like much of my thoughts and views are censored greatly there (as many of my posts have been edited or outright deleted by the moderators there). They have all kinds of legal rules that they are bound to, and I do try to adhere to those rules since I see myself as a guest in someone else's house. Honestly, it is the ONLY reason why I started this blog...to be able to speak more freely about all my 'crazy' ideas including RAW milk (gasp!) and grain free eating (AHHH!) :).

But I keep going back to the IC network because I feel like that is where you can find the most desperate people who are suffering the most from IC. I myself spent countless hours there when I was first diagnosed. My userID there is minharopaola and later minharopaola+ (some kind of computer glitch happened to my first user ID). Look me up. You will see how I started very naive and clueless about what my healing journey would entail. I was naive enough to thing that by just going Gluten Free, I would get better. HA! :)

Anyhow, back to the comment that differed from my experience. Here is what was written:

"This thread is about a year old, but I came upon it and wanted to pipe in...Im with you! 

When I first had IC symptoms in 206-2007, after some frustrating visits with doctors etc. I tried the alternative route ..I too bought the many supplements, I travelled to Phila. PA for 2 weeks to have dally acupuncture, and tried the various anti-inflammatory diets.Im the LAST person who should be doing those diets, as Ive been underweight my entire life, having to eat lots of food from every food group just to maintain a normal weight of about 112 to 115 at the most.This is my genetics. 

These diets scared me, but my symptoms were so bad, that like you I'd do anything to rid myself of that constant urge to urinate...Well several dollars and months later,

(after eating a diet of veggies, meats, fish and the allowed fruits...and giving up gluten and many carbs-(something my skinny body needs) I found myself 20 lbs skinnier, yes only about 95 lbs at 5' 6' tall!, with no improvement in IC symptoms whatsover.

All I had now was lots of confusion about what was "safe" to eat and a brand new case of anxiety! I lost my hips, my butt and all my natural padding.. and cushioning around the pelvis.

Soon after I developed pain with sitting (in sit bones).. diagnosed as Pudendal Neuralgia .we tried everything imaginable to get me better,but nothing worked and my anxiety (which is a genetic factor for me) was sky-high and still is. I blame it partly on all this contradictory diet stuff espoused on these sites.

such as if we don't follow the Paleo type diets we are bound to develop other" inflammatory conditions.".. Since I now I have PN I wonder if its all true! so confusing . Since Im still so sick it haunts me. I eat much more variety these days but haven't been able to gain back much weight due to worry.

In reality Im an intelligent woman, I had agreat corporate career with IBM -- in my pre-mommy days, and now my hubby and I are raising 3 great loving and successful kids,so I should know better than to let this diet stuff traumatize me.

I now have a pain pump (which has not worked yet ) and seems to make it harder for me to urinate. 

I know you have one too and Im so glad its helping you.

In my case, the surgeon placed the darn thing right over my poor bladder as Im very tiny, It seems to get in my way when I pee, aggravating my original problem.

We are giving it a bit more time and then we'll see.

Long story short --Stress management is something I need the most-- to get well!

I wish there was an "alternative" somewhere in between western and alternative medicine. I was taught growing up' by my dad, "everything in moderation" So true!

Its hard for me to believe that in order to get well I'd have to go on a diet that extreme. The majority of Americans are overweight these days, hence all the fad diets.

But its just not an option for me.. and rest the of the skinny folks out there. We would be in the hospital with malnutrition or worse.

Hearing such dietary info makes me think I'll never get well, but there's got to be a better way for me.

Again thanks for being the voice of reason in this long thread!

Good luck!

Kathy"

Thx for posting your opinion..It was the voice of reason amongst everyone esle...

My response:

Hi Megad,

Thank you so much for stopping by and thank you so much for your comments. I'm so sorry you have struggled so much and that now you're on a pain pump that doesn't work. It's an awful awful disease.

Donna is always a helpful 'devil's advocate'  to the different comments I've posted. I've always welcomed her and anyone's input that differ's from my experience because the whole point of my posts is to share experiences and knowledge. Clearly going grain free isn't right for everyone.

But to speak from personal experience, I have never been obese, and I did loose just a little bit of weight going grain free, but nothing like getting down to 95 lbs. That's very low. Hugs girl. I don't think anyone would begrudge the incredible relief from pain that going grain free has brought me. I was even off of milk and eggs for a long time because those would cause immense bladder pain within 30 minutes after consuming.

But your comment actually prompts an important point...I 100% think that grains are essential, and as the Bible says 'the staff of life'...going on the grain free diet (at first it was the autoimmune protocol diet, and now I've transitioned into the full GAPS diet) has allowed me to slowly heal my gut and it's beneficial bacteria. Today, I'm drinking raw goats milk (I selected this milk because it's easier digested...goat's milk digests in 30 minutes and cows milk takes 3 hours! Wow, right?) and I'm back to eating pasture-raised eggs. I hope to once again eat properly prepared grains in the future. True Paleo people never hope to eat grains again because I think being Paleo is a life-style (much like vegans are life-long vegans). But my goal is to heal my gut and eat according to the principles of the Weston A Price foundation.

When I first started this post way back when [it's actually longer than a year because my "Part I" posts is even older  ], I was in horrible pain, Seriously horrible pain. You all know what I'm talking about.

Today, I am literally 90% better. But please be mindful, I'm absolutely not making any recommendations for you or for anyone else. I just know how helpful it is to share my experience and to be responsible with my follow up so that others can track one girl's POSITIVE healing experience with IC. I actually feel 98% better as far as symptoms go, but I will consider myself 100% cured when I can eat a variety of properly selected/prepared foods, including grains.

My healing trifeca has involved...
1. Diet...some sort of grain free eating (again, at first it was the AutoImmune Paleo diet, now it's the full gaps diet, and soon I will start hopefully reintroducing grains)
2. Homeopathy for my chronic and acute problems (so I'm on homeopathic remedies for my IC and dermographia --itching skin, and whenever I get sick with something like a bladder infection or strep throat--ALL OF WHICH I HAD! I will go to the doctor, get the diagnosis/culture, then I fill the antibiotic prescription, and then I work with my homeopath on treating the illness completely free of antibiotics. So far my family and I have an ever growing pile of unused antibiotics. I also make sure to go back to my doctor for another culture to make sure the infection has cleared, and it always has. To me and my IC, I have learned that antibiotics load the gun, and my genetics pull the trigger. The Mayo Clinic told me point blank that my dermographia--all over body itching autoimmune disease--was caused by antibiotics!)
3. Live blood analysis where the doctor/practicioner looks at my blood live under a microspcoe, and based on how my blood is behaving he has prescribed me specific supplements to help me continue healing. I'm taking a total of 2 supplements right now (digestive enzymes and adrenal support), and the rest of my nourishing comes directly from the high-quality food I eat. I agree with you, Megad, that too many supplements is a waste for me and my IC. The live blood analysis doctor I see is in Arizona and people can find him if they type in 'Grant Divine Nature' [I will be making a post about this topic in a week or so...more to come]

Anyhow, thank you so much for stopping by, Megad. I hope you can find relief to your pudendal neuralgia. I don't know much about that so, I don't have any ideas for you. But I hope you can find healing. Please don't give up! I know our bodies can heal themselves if we prod them in the right direction...but the 'right direction' can mean so many different things for different people that it is very hard to figure out. I know. 

I send you my sincere best and good wishes,
MP (Paola)

This is a long blog post, I understand that, but I think it's important to bring in 'the other side' of the argument. Healing is so different from everyone. If you look at my 'checklist' page on this blog, you will see that I list pudendal nerve issues as a possible root cause for my IC, which I explored with an excellent chiropractor for over a year. When I finally concluded that my PN was fine, I moved on to more gut-healing strategies. It's so hard and slow to figure out what the root cause is, but if you go grain free and you experience ABSOLUTELY NO RELEIF, I think you may be barking up the wrong tree? But what do I know!? I'm just a girl who has IC who is 90% better and who is sharing my journey with others.

You are the master of your body. You know it better than anyone or any doctor. And if you don't, you should.

I truly believe that we can completely heal from IC, if you can just find the right place to point yourself. Maybe it would be through doing the vegan-based detox that my friends on the IC Facebook group are doing (more info here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealedIC/), or maybe it would be to find a great chiropractor to help release your PN? Or maybe it would be to heal your gut?

Hopefully my story is helping you sort things out.

But I do have one bold statement to make. How many times have you heard of allopathic (traditional) medicine curing a chronic disease like IC? Never. Literally never. But how many times have you heard of natural medicine healing these? The stories are out there. They are there. Stick with it. Natural healing is the way to go if you want to reverse your problems. 

Hugs everyone. We really can heal this.

Great questions from an IC friend...

The other day, a fellow IC friend of mine emailed me a lot of great questions. I spent considerable time answering his questions, and I thought I would share these with you...

In a nutshell:
For me, the most important thing that I must do is protect my gut bacteria and regrow it. I must do this at all costs. In the past, I have done BIG detoxes (mainly I went on a Juice fast,  a Candida cleanse and 3 colonic sessions). But now that I did the BIG CLEANSE, I focus on maintenance cleansing by gently cleansing my body. I take Bentonite clay each night before bed, and I take REGULAR detox baths, alternating between an epsom salt bath, an apple cider vinegar bath, a kelp bath, and a baking soda bath...I do each individually, not all at once. Currently I'm in the process of saving up to buy a at-home Infrared Sauna (that has low EMF's) so that I can do sauna detox 3-4 times a week from home. 

But moving forward, now. I do believe in detoxing, but I do not think it is the magic bullet or the one solution to my IC. Many people do find huge success in eating a all-raw vegetable diet. More power to them. I think it's wonderful that it can help their IC, but I don't think it is how I can fully heal my IC. After reading Vasey's book on an Acid Alkaline diet, I went on a grain-free vegan diet for extended months in the past, and I decided to stop the diet to move forward in my own healing).

So I believe in healing the gut. Each morning, I drink bone broth. The homemade bone broth that I make is cooked in a pressure cooker for 8 hours (I add a 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the bones to help it cook, and I add water to the broth throughout the 8 hours). I love pressure cooking all things meat...it's a great "git-r-dun" pot. I drink a big cup of this broth each morning. It is the fatty, gelatinous quality of the broth that helps HEAL and SEAL the leaky gut, which is the root  cause of any autoimmune condition.

I also do eat grass fed meats, organ meats (like liver) and poultry. I eat lots of eggs and raw milk. All of these have special gut-healing nutrients. The raw milk in particular helps reculture the gut with good bacteria, which is essential. We do NOT eat grains. Grains are highly acidic, stress out the gut due to their anti-nutrients, and can cause leaky gut if they contain gluten. Grains include wheat (and the gluten in the wheat), barley, rice, quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat, and more. I eat 0 grains. This helps our body stay more alkaline (but again, I eat meat--which is acidic--, so I'm not obsessed with alkalinity). Because we don't eat grains, we eat A LOT of vegetables. I will often juice carrots, leafy greens, cucumber, celery and more into a liquid drink to accompany dinner. In the summer time, we participate in a farmer's coop and we receive 4 LARGE bags of organic vegetables each week. We eat ALL OF IT each week. So we eat a lot of vegetables.

I believe that this part anti-inflammatory diet, part alkaline diet, and a mostly gut-healing diet is key to reversing and curing my IC.

As far as supplements go, I take the following:
1- Grassfed Gelatin/Collagen (in powder form, mixed in water)...this helps add to the bone broth I drink regularly
2- I drink 2 tablespoons of RESISTANT STARCH in the morning.  Resistant starch is a type of starch that only gets digested by the large intestine. The large intestine is where most all of the GOOD GUT BACTERIA resides. There is much research on resistant starch, and let me suffice it to say that it is a great way to help regrow the good bacteria you currently have in your gut. Note: I use plantain flour (from the bananas) as my form of resistant starch. Other people use potato starch. DO NOT USE  just any starch like corn starch or arrowroot starch. You must find a resistant starch that you like and use that. I stir 2 TBSP of my plantain flour into cold water and drink it fast (because it does not taste good). It must be prepared in cold water. If you warm up the starch (i.e. to use in your cooking), it no longer is resistant starch because cooking it breaks it down and makes it easier to digest...and you don't want that. You want it to make it to your large intestine.
3- Bentonite Clay- A few Tablespoons in water in the morning.
4- Fermented Cod Liver Oil (FCLO). It has many good immune building qualities. You can spend a day researching this supplement alone. It has lots of Vitamin D3, which all of us ICers are deficient in. Don't even bother getting your blood work done. You're are for sure diffident in it (ok, maybe do get it checked, but I'm still right!) Actually, almost everyone in the world is deficient in D3, but especially people with autoimmune conditions. When I take my FCLO, it burns the back of my throat a bit, but this is normal. I just chase it down with a nice tall glass of raw milk.
5- Vitamin K Butter- This is butter made from cows that eat rapidly growing grass. It is REALLY good for you, and again, you can spend a whole day researching this alone. But in a nutshell, trust me. Good for you.
6- I eat a high fat diet, full of lard (like bacon fat, not the synthetic Franken-Crisco or Canola oil that people buy), coconut oil, butter, and more. I know this sounds scary and that I would be giving myself a heart attack, but to their astonishment, my doctors at the Mayo Clinic said that my good Cholesterol is SO HIGH that they think I'm the last person on earth to ever have a heart attack. Imagine their surprise when I told them I ate a high-fat diet full of butter, real cream, and lard! A great place to learn more about this and break up lies about 'low fat diets' is to watch the following video on YouTube: The Oiling of America.

It blew me away. Low Fat Diet = Chemical Crap Fest
7- Because I have a histamine-based autoimmune disorder, I don't do well with any YEAST products (yes, the yeast in bread, but there are lots of other things that have yeast in it like vinegar, ketchup, and any naturally fermented vegetables like Sauerkraut). For this reason I DO NOT eat many fermented vegetables yet, but hopefully I can tolerate this someday soon. I do take little bites here and there without any bladder repercussions, but I'm not ready to take risks. I hope to eat naturally fermented vegetables so that this food-which is rich in good beneficial soil-based bacteria-can help regrow my gut bacteria.
8-So since I can't have naturally fermented vegetables, I take a probiotics called Bio-Kult. It has a VARIETY of probiotic strands and this is good.
9- I also take a probiotic manufactured by Divine Nature in Mesa, AZ. This probiotic in particular is encapsulated in an ENTERO CAPSULE. Entero capsules are better than the traditional gelatin pill capsules because they survive the acidity of the stomach and will end up dissolving in the large intestine, which is EXACTLY where you want your probiotics to go.
10-I take adrenal remedies because my adrenals are WEAK. This is typical with most ALL IC people. I bet you money that if you have IC your adrenals are weak. This supplement is made from food-based ingredients that are organic and pure. Best supplement quality supplement I've ever seen so far.
11- I take time to bathe each evening, meditate, pray, and relax. Relaxation should be considered a 'supplement' :)
12- Homeopathy has been incredible for my IC. Meddorhinum in particular is a Banerji Protocol for Interstitial Cystitis. I have improved greatly with this remedy. I have also used a few other remedies like Bovista to heal food intolerances, Nat Sulph to help with the dermographia (itching skin) that I currently deal with [but is much improved!], and cantharis when I'm having a flare (which is rare, but now only occurs when my menstrual cycle is peaking-ovulation/menses).
13- I believe it is CRUCIAL for IC people to understand how to treat a bladder infection without antibiotics, otherwise you are only taking 1 step forward and then 100 steps back when you get another infection--which is inevitable to happen as our bladders are compromised. So I believe learning homeopathy for cystitis is crucial. I do the Banerji Protocol or bladder infections, and it has worked magically for me. I will post this protocol on my blog soon. I also think it would be more than prudent to learn homeopathy for other conditions where antibiotics may be necessary, like strep throat. I had this myself a few months ago, and I was so grateful to have homeopathy in that situation. Avoiding antibiotics is HALF THE BATTLE.

Look at this list above. How many non-food items are there on this? Technically 3: Homeopathy, Probiotics and Adrenal supplement. That's not that many. Food is healing. I repeat, food is healing. Better yet, the RIGHT food is healing.

To answer some more of your other questions:

How are you doing Paola? I've never been so well bladder wise. I'm now eating a lot more food with almost 0 bladder pain. Currently, my bladder gets worse right after I ovulate and just before/during my period. This ends up being half of each of my menstrual cycles. But the other half of the cycle, where my hormones are more steady, I have never felt better. I have many days--during that 1st half of the month--where I feel almost completely normal.

How long have you had IC now? For 4 years, since 2009

How much are you improved with all the dieet and supplements and stress management?  I would say I'm 80% better. If my entire month was what the first half of my cycle feels  like, I would say I'm 98% better. But I'm now working on getting my last half of my menstrual cycle better.

Do you feel like your bladder lining is better healed? Yes. Absolutely. I had a surgery to repair a hernia in the abdomen, and my urologist looked in my bladder at that time. There were MINIMAL signs of IC. I'm much better, as proven by the cystoscopy!

What did the most for you? Homeopathy and diet.

Stress management? Yes this helps a lot, but I have 3 young children so my life tends to be stressful. I do take time to relax in a hot bath, meditate, and pray each night.

Exercise? What are your toughts on excercise? Great question. Exercising helps alkalize your body (if it is not too intense--otherwise I believe it can make your body more acidic due to stress) and detox it (through the sweating). I chose to exercise mildly (walking/chasing the kids/gardening)  in order to stay healthy, but I no longer do rigorous exercise like I have in the past. In the past, I was a real athlete, and competed in 3 triathlons (I swam one mile in the ocean!), I've done 1 half marathon, and dozens of races. But today, I want to focus on healing and not excessing. So I keep this to a gentle minimum. I think it's important to keep anything I do to my body on a gentle level to promote healing and rest.

What about Omega 3 Fish oil? I do eat fish every week, so I benefit form it's wonderful anti-inflammatory Omega-3's. But my Cod Liver Oil gives so much already that I don't stress about consuming lots of wild-caught fish. My weekly fish-dinner is plenty!

Do you eat bread? I do not eat bread, not even paleo bread [grain free bread]. I occasionally make muffins out of coconut flour and eggs, mixed with honey and some fruit like bananas. But this is a treat, not a common thing.

Do you eat eggs? I used to be VERY intolerant to milk and eggs, so be careful with these if you have IC and if you have not healed the gut very much. I did not eat these for years, but recently with the use of the homeopathy and perhaps with the bone broth, I have been able to safely reintroduce these into my diet. It is wonderful too because RAW MILK and pasture-raised eggs are so healthy and helpful to repair your body!

I know there is a lot of food involved in my daily life. But literally, Food Is Medicine, and it SHOULD take up a large part of my day.

Xoxo,
Paola

Look what I found!

Someone else who healed their IC by following a diet that heals the gut (WAPF- Weston A. Price diet).

Read more here...they're just a bunch of threads, but watch for what JaneS says. I'm going to try to get her to do a guest post for me. :)

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/967319/i-broke-my-bladder-inducing-interstitial-cystitis

I know you're out there...

I know you're out there...Even though you guys and gals aren't commenting on my blog! :) I see that I get hundreds of visitors here every day. Maybe I'm helping someone!


Hi! I got an email from a fellow IC-er and I thought my response to her may be helpful to you all. I know I post so many posts in the IC network, so I think the following information will be a great 'summary' of what I'm doing to heal my IC...(drum roll please...)


----------

I'm a strong supporter of the Weston A. Price diet. I did not just 'believe' in them haphazardly. It was through all my research that I later found them, studied them, and saw that they were in agreement with all I learned.

If you go to the Weston A. Price foundation's website, you will learn and read so much. Barring food intolerances, I eat according to their principles. So for example, I'm not able to tolerate any grains as of now, but I hope to be able to do so in the future. The autoimmune protocol diet that I've been doing over the past couple of years is a close cousin to the Weston A price diet; I just stuck with the AIP Paleo plan because it automatically excluded all of the foods I was intolerant to. The AIP diet had go-to recipes for me and it made my life MUCH EASIER as I navigated food intolerances. As I healed my gut (how? read on), I've recently added 2 very exciting ingredients to my diet: eggs and raw unpasteruized milk.

So here is my plan in a nutshell to heal my gut right now:

1. Eat lots of gut healing foods. This includes fresh bone broth. The fatty and gelatinous qualities of the broth will help to heal and seal the leaky gut. My family and I eat a nice soup each week made from this broth, and I drink a large cup of it in the morning. My secret ingredient to making my broth taste divine is to add 1/2 a cup of raisins to the broth as I'm simmering my bones/meat. It makes it taste superb. I promise. I'd invite you all over to try it if I could. You'd be a believer! :)

I have learned to can my own broth so I don't take up freezer space. It's nice to not have to thaw yet another ingredient! :) I found the big 1/2 gallon jars at Walmart (left)...they save a lot of space too!

2. Protect the gut flora, at all costs. I've spent countless hours learning about alternatives to antibiotics. Most recently, I have arrived at the incredible, and very reputable medicine of homeopathy. I've faced 2 bladder infections and one very serious strep throat infection ever since I 'swore off' antibiotics, and I've been able to treat each fully and completely with homeopathy. I have the before labs and after labs to prove it. I am currently taking an online course with a lady named Joette Calabrese called "the Drug Free Family". This has been instrumental in helping me devise a real plan to avoid antibiotics. I feel like I'm really learning the discernment needed in order to know when I can treat me/my family via homeopathy and when I will need to actually seek medical intervention and possibly antibiotics (in life-saving, heroic circumstances). I no longer make fear-based decisions to rush to the doctor and get stuffed with prescriptions. I know have the tools I need to make meticulous choices regarding my health and my family's health. I am in charge, and I don't just run to the doctors office for every little ailment. But, as I've said before, I'm grateful for these amazing doctors and their antibiotics should I need them in life-saving, heroic circumstances.

I now own 2 kits of 100 remedies each. The 1st kit is in 30 potency and the other kit is in 200 potency. I feel very prepared to make decisions and deal with my family's health. Discernment is key, and I'm growing more confident each day!

3. Rebuild the gut flor via probiotics, digestive enzymens (which aid in breaking down the food, thus giving the probiotics a break), eating pre-biotics (in particular unheated potato starch), fermented veggies (I don't tolerate beneficial yeast very well, which is in fermented veggies/kombucha/kiefer etc, so I'm going slow on this), and raw milk and raw milk yogurt.

I think my fermented veggies look pretty in their jars, just like these ones.

4. Maintaining my REAL food anti-inflammatory diet which includes lots of organic vegetables, grain-free meals made from scratch, soaking and dehydrating nuts/seeds, homemade yogurt, and eating minimal sugar (even honey!)

This is an actual picture of last night's dinner: home made 'tortillas' made from eggs and coconut flour (they are light, fluffy, and a rave with my family), shredded pasture-raised organic chicken, raw cheddar cheese (we get ours from an Amish farmer), homemade organic guacamole, organic cilantro, organic onions, plain homemade raw milk yogurt as a sour cream, and extra garlic for good immune boosting properties. Dessert was fresh organic orange wedges. It was a modern farmer's dinner alright!

5. Homoepathy for my CHRONIC illness (not just acute). So yes, I'm doing homeopathy for my acute problems (strep throat/bladder infections and the like), but I'm also doing it for my long-term IC issue and body itching (dermographia) autoimmune problem. I'm working with my Joette Calabrese on this, and I'm following the Banerji Homepathic Protocols (which my homeopath knows). For me, diet and gut-healing alone was simply not enough. It wasn't until I added homeopathy that I was able to actually start reintroducing foods. It has significantly sped up my healing. If you look through my previous posts, you can find 1-hour video that discusses what homeopathy is and how I'm using for both acute and chronic issues.

This is a picture of my homeopath Joette Calabrese (middle) with Dr. Prasanta Banerji (Left). She has done fellowships in India with Dr. Banerji learning his amazing form of homeopathy that has been clinically proven to cure even Cancer. She does Skype appointments.

So this above information is my current plan. Most of this I have learned by reading the information from Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF).

I was also asked to share some good books to read: 
I don't think they actually have one single 'book' you can read. Much of my above plan was pieced together myself. I just kept finding others (WAPF people/Paleo people/ GAPS diet people) who each had very similar plans to address their chronic autoimmune issues. But a few books do come to mind:

The Weston A Price foundation has a great recipe book that has lots of ethnic foods which promotes great guts and healthy digestion. Intertwined is in this book is a lot of WAPF information.

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Another great book is GAPS diet by Natasha Campbell McBride. Technically, I am on the GAPS diet because I eat soaked nuts, milk (raw), and eggs but follow a grain-free diet. The GAPS diet is a  cousin to the Weston A Price foundation, and it is actually the diet that WAPF promotes for those who are suffering from Autoimmune diseases.

The GAPS diet by Natasha Campbell-McBride

Finally, another great book is the THE PALEO APPROACH by Sara Ballantyne. Sara Ballentyne is not necessarily a WAPF person, but much of the paleo principles are Weston A Price principles. They believe in drinking bone broth to heal and seal the gut, they believe in a grain-free diet, and they believe in good gut flora. So People who are Paleo or Auti Immune Paleo (AIP Paleo) pretty much another cousin to Weston A Price.  I think the main difference is that people who are Paleo choose to never again eat grains ever again in their life, ever. However, someone like me (a diehard WAPF) believes that good, organic, soaked and sprouted grains when prepared properly are good for you and that you should eat them in great moderation. I cannot eat these right now due to the gut troubles, but I'm not going to give up until I can eat a more diverse diet (and as a result have reversed my IC!). I hope to become a full WAPF.

The Paleo Approach by Sarah Ballantyne

I just wanted to give you a quick 'recap' in case you weren't able to read the dozens and dozens of messages I've posted in the forum! Ha. I just really want this info to get out to anyone who is interested in healing IC via gut healing. I hope I'm not the only one who experiences massive success from my plan. I think that I found the root of my IC problem...and I dare say this is the same for many others.

PLEASE PLEASE stick around on my forum, and post comments to anything interesting you experience/find.

Xoxo,

Paola
Paola