# Newbie in remission using Inulin



## Becky5653

Hi Everyone, I am new here. Just wanted to tell my story quickly. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2009. I suffered with it for a year before I went in for help because I didn't have health insurance.(Husband is self employed and insurance was too expensive for us at the time) But when I got diagnosed, I didn't want to believe it. I also didn't want to take the drugs. I figured that there had to be some natural way to make it go away. So I tried taking lots of probiotics every day. I would swallow like 10-15 pills at every meal. Well, it helped very slightly, but not much. I also tried eating yogurt for the probiotics, and that didn't help. I tried avoiding dairy, but that didn't help either. It seemed like nothing that I did helped. Just when I was about to give up and go on the drugs, I happened to buy some store bought kefir. I drank that, and the whole night I had a lot of gas. (sorry if TMI) I was in pain the whole night because of that, but the next day I didn't have diarrhea one time! And that was saying something because I usually had to go 10-15 times a day or so. So I looked at the empty kefir bottle to find out what was in it. It turns out that it had something called Inulin in it. It is a soluble fiber that the beneficial bacteria in our guts love to eat. It is actually called a prebiotic, because it feeds the beneficial bacteria that are already inside of us, as opposed to a probiotic which attempts to put bacteria into us by pills. ( I did a lot of reading about it) Inulin is in beans(which is why they are the magical fruit and make us toot  they get it from Jerusalem artichoke and refine it out into a white powder, and sell it as a supplement. (I don't sell it, I just buy it) It isn't an irritating fiber to our intestines, like veggie cellulose is, because it dissolves in water. If you have ever wondered why babies are so gassy when all they drink is milk, it's because there is a type of soluble fiber in breast milk that is called trans galacto oligo saccharides, look it up on Wikipedia....lots of interesting info on it there. I won't include it here. But I didn't take GOS-it's shortened name. I took FOS(fructooligosaccharides) that's what Inulin is. The reason I am posting this is because I feel guilty that I am back to normal and there are people who are really suffering with Crohns. I feel that I should take the time to at least tell people what helped me. IF they try it and it helps them, then I will be happy. I am afraid that I sound like someone who is trying to sell a product...but I am not. A number of different companies sell Inulin, and as far as I know, the quality is about the same. I don't recommend any one company over the other. Or a person could eat beans to get the same effect-lentils have the most fiber of all the beans. One warning for anyone who might want to try it. Inulin is so good at firming up the stool, that for someone who has had an inflamed colon for a long time-they might have strictures-which are very narrowed parts of the intestine. (I actually had this, at my colonoscopy I had a stricture right at the terminal ileum of 7mm.) The doctor couldn't even get his instrument in there to get a biopsy of the small intestine) anyway, taking a lot of Inulin at once may produce stool that is too big to fit through the stricture, causing the person to have a blockage. So it would serve the person well to take a very small dose at first, like 1/2 a gram per day, and gradually increase it. The inulin will actually soothe the irritation because it is food for bifido bacteria(the good kind) they digest it and produce butyrate and gas as waste, and butyrate is actually the preferred food for our colonocytes.(colon cells) I was able to not go on medication, and within 3 months at 8 gram per day I was having one normal stool per day. And I could eat anything I wanted-except artificial sweeteners. They all upset my stomach.  I waited for 3 years to see if it continued working before I recommended it to anyone, and so far so good. I have been able to lower my dose to a tsp every other day ( I mix it with hot water or tea and drink it).  I am kind of afraid to stop taking it all together because I am afraid the Crohn's will come back, but I have forgotten it for a couple of days with no ill effects.
Well, I hope my post doesn't get deleted because someone thinks I am a spammer. I am a real person who this happened to, and hopefully this will help other people, too. I even recommended this to my cousin who had chronic diarrhea because she had her gallbladder removed, and it helped her too. But she didn't need half as much as I did to become regular again, and she had been having diarrhea for 6 years,  and the doctors told her that there wasn't anything they could do for her!  So even though doctors are smart, they don't know everything.  Well thanks for reading my post, and take care.


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## Becky5653

Well, I guess I didn't tell my story too "quickly". Sorry so long, but I had to get everything in that I felt was important.


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## Astra

Hiya Becky
and welcome

I've moved you, you were stuck in someone else's thread, this way everyone will see you!
Sounds good what you've been using, a bit like Questran, or Fibercon, or Metamucil?
I've never tried any of these, but I've read about them on here.
Good luck xxx


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## assi

hi becky,
so nice to hear the inulin helped you,
i have ulcerative colitis and because of your success story i bought
2 bottles of inulin,yesterday i took 3 spoons of it in a drink and this morning it gave me unstopped diarrhea.
could it be?
i thought it should make your diarrhea go away..
whats the quantity you were taking and how soon did you notice results??

thanks


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## helena101

Becky, I'm so glad that the prebiotics helped you and you are able to be well without medication. I am hopeful that I may be able to achieve this myself some day... 
Assi I think the problem with prebiotics is that they are food for ALL bacteria in the gut, not just the good bacteria, and since with IBDs we have more bad bacteria than good, it is possible that the inulin, for you, just served as extra fuel for the bad guys, rather than the good.... Maybe a good first step would be to try a probiotic (friendly bacteria) that also contains inulin in it? There are a few brands of probiotics that also contain inulin, though I can't remember which ones offhand....


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## assi

thanks,i havent stopped using the bathroom today
i think ill just stop inuin.
i take vsl3 for months already

thanks


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## helena101

I think that's the right thing to do, it really didnt seem to agree with you...


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## Joshua Naterman

Assi: I have two comments for you.

1) You started off with a high dose. This will cause a lot of problems, including diarrhea, because your bacterial populations have not adjusted their numbers to adequately process as much inulin as you consumed. Any time you start taking something like this, you need to start off VERY slowly and give your body time to adjust. Remember that you are growing a healthier population of gut bacteria, and that they are what will be directly responsible for helping your symptoms. The inulin is simply food for the bacteria, and if you give yourself more than they can eat right now you will have diarrhea.

Suggestion: Start off with 1 mL per day, and increase 1mL per day every week. So week 1 is 1mL per day, perhaps divided into two doses.
Week 2 is 2 mL per day, again divided doses.
Keep doing that until you hit 7-10 weeks, and you'll find out what your optimal dose is for controlling your symptoms.

2) You may want to try Kefir. My 82 year old father has been symptom free for several years now, because he started using the Kefir that I make at home. I don't use grains, I just use fresh milk and a small amount of store-bought kefir. You can always just use storebought kefir, again starting with small amounts because they often have inulin added as a thickener.

I'd use a similar process to suggestion 1.


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## Beth Fields

Becky5653 said:


> Hi Everyone, I am new here. Just wanted to tell my story quickly. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2009. I suffered with it for a year before I went in for help because I didn't have health insurance.(Husband is self employed and insurance was too expensive for us at the time) But when I got diagnosed, I didn't want to believe it. I also didn't want to take the drugs. I figured that there had to be some natural way to make it go away. So I tried taking lots of probiotics every day. I would swallow like 10-15 pills at every meal. Well, it helped very slightly, but not much. I also tried eating yogurt for the probiotics, and that didn't help. I tried avoiding dairy, but that didn't help either. It seemed like nothing that I did helped. Just when I was about to give up and go on the drugs, I happened to buy some store bought kefir. I drank that, and the whole night I had a lot of gas. (sorry if TMI) I was in pain the whole night because of that, but the next day I didn't have diarrhea one time! And that was saying something because I usually had to go 10-15 times a day or so. So I looked at the empty kefir bottle to find out what was in it. It turns out that it had something called Inulin in it. It is a soluble fiber that the beneficial bacteria in our guts love to eat. It is actually called a prebiotic, because it feeds the beneficial bacteria that are already inside of us, as opposed to a probiotic which attempts to put bacteria into us by pills. ( I did a lot of reading about it) Inulin is in beans(which is why they are the magical fruit and make us toot  they get it from Jerusalem artichoke and refine it out into a white powder, and sell it as a supplement. (I don't sell it, I just buy it) It isn't an irritating fiber to our intestines, like veggie cellulose is, because it dissolves in water. If you have ever wondered why babies are so gassy when all they drink is milk, it's because there is a type of soluble fiber in breast milk that is called trans galacto oligo saccharides, look it up on Wikipedia....lots of interesting info on it there. I won't include it here. But I didn't take GOS-it's shortened name. I took FOS(fructooligosaccharides) that's what Inulin is. The reason I am posting this is because I feel guilty that I am back to normal and there are people who are really suffering with Crohns. I feel that I should take the time to at least tell people what helped me. IF they try it and it helps them, then I will be happy. I am afraid that I sound like someone who is trying to sell a product...but I am not. A number of different companies sell Inulin, and as far as I know, the quality is about the same. I don't recommend any one company over the other. Or a person could eat beans to get the same effect-lentils have the most fiber of all the beans. One warning for anyone who might want to try it. Inulin is so good at firming up the stool, that for someone who has had an inflamed colon for a long time-they might have strictures-which are very narrowed parts of the intestine. (I actually had this, at my colonoscopy I had a stricture right at the terminal ileum of 7mm.) The doctor couldn't even get his instrument in there to get a biopsy of the small intestine) anyway, taking a lot of Inulin at once may produce stool that is too big to fit through the stricture, causing the person to have a blockage. So it would serve the person well to take a very small dose at first, like 1/2 a gram per day, and gradually increase it. The inulin will actually soothe the irritation because it is food for bifido bacteria(the good kind) they digest it and produce butyrate and gas as waste, and butyrate is actually the preferred food for our colonocytes.(colon cells) I was able to not go on medication, and within 3 months at 8 gram per day I was having one normal stool per day. And I could eat anything I wanted-except artificial sweeteners. They all upset my stomach.  I waited for 3 years to see if it continued working before I recommended it to anyone, and so far so good. I have been able to lower my dose to a tsp every other day ( I mix it with hot water or tea and drink it).  I am kind of afraid to stop taking it all together because I am afraid the Crohn's will come back, but I have forgotten it for a couple of days with no ill effects.
> Well, I hope my post doesn't get deleted because someone thinks I am a spammer. I am a real person who this happened to, and hopefully this will help other people, too. I even recommended this to my cousin who had chronic diarrhea because she had her gallbladder removed, and it helped her too. But she didn't need half as much as I did to become regular again, and she had been having diarrhea for 6 years,  and the doctors told her that there wasn't anything they could do for her!  So even though doctors are smart, they don't know everything.  Well thanks for reading my post, and take care.


What brand of Inulin did you use? I am taking Prebiotic Probiotic Fiber. It is oligo fructose enriched inulin. So, it does not appear to be a 50/50 balance. But, dramatic results! Good reduction of bms down to 2-3 per day. Taking 4 grams in AM and 4 grams before bed. Directions say ok to take more. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR POST!!!!!
Doesn't provide source of inulin. What is your brand?


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## Lady Organic

I consume enriched inuline too from chicory root. Brand Benefibre, used to take Prebiotine. I take about 10 g a day. I think it is helping but its hard to know exactly as I take many different supplements.
@Becky: are you still in remission?


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## Beth Fields

I take the Prebiotine. I just started to take 4g...3 times a day. Just bothers me that it doesn't list source if inulin. But seems to work...just been 2 weeks of success with it.
Why did you switch from Prebiotine to Benefiber?


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## Lady Organic

Prebiotine has the same source of inuline as Benefibre; its from chicory root, I called the company to know this info before buying it. I now take Benefibre simply because its less expensive and that I can find it at the local pharmacy.


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## Beth Fields

Lady Organic said:


> Prebiotine has the same source of inuline as Benefibre; its from chicory root, I called the company to know this info before buying it. I now take Benefibre simply because its less expensive and that I can find it at the local pharmacy.


Thanks. I'll look for the Benefiber at Walgreens. I am having amazing success with the Prebiotine. I have increased it slowly. It is awesome to be veering so much better and like my body is not out of control. Saw a lot of chicory root recipes on pintrest. Ever eat roasted chicory or drink chicory tea?.


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## Lady Organic

Im glad you are getting good results. Do you experience a lot of gas? I do, they are not painful, just a bit annoying sometimes because it makes me want to pass a lot of them lol. weird thing, I notice they are mostly smell free, which is quite a surprising thing to me ... so Im getting less concerned to F in public :lol2:
i simply drink the powder in water twice a day.


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## Beth Fields

Lady Organic said:


> Im glad you are getting good results. Do you experience a lot of gas? I do, they are not painful, just a bit annoying sometimes because it makes me want to pass a lot of them lol. weird thing, I notice they are mostly smell free, which is quite a surprising thing to me ... so Im getting less concerned to F in public :lol2:
> i simply drink the powder in water twice a day.


I built up gradually. So, minor broilers with gas. Huge problem with eating too much cauliflower! Thought it was ok if I cooked it lots. But, not good. Much better after 5 days. Never again!!!


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