Supplements - What do you take?

[Tesscorm]

Hi everyone,

My son has just ended a six-week enteral therapy and is currently reintroducing foods. His prescribed course of treatment is maintenance enteral therapy for a year and Nexium, an antacid. The only supplement we have been advised to add to his diet has been vitamin D.

Overall, he has responded very well to the therapy and for 95% of the time, 100% of his symptoms have gone. The 5% has been two occasions where his BMs have included mucus and some blood (the first time, just before his first follow-up apptmt, did not seem to create any concern with his GI - response was that this intestines were still healing and, as long as all else was good, he wasn't concerned). Now the mucus/blood appeared again yesterday - again, no other symptoms, so I'm hoping it's just a 'blip' as his body is adjusting to the reintro of foods. But, in my opinion, it does indicate some inflammation.

So, 'blip' or not, I'd like to do all I can to reduce/eliminate inflammation from his body. I have read that so many of you take supplements - not just vitamins, but all types of supplemental treatments that have helped you.

I'm thinking things like vitamins, minerals, I've seen people mentioned phsyllium (spelling???) husks, coconut oil and water, fish oil, anti-inflammatory foods, amoung many others.

I'd like to compile a list of 'supplement' info. If you'd like to respond, let me know:

what you take and amount
why you take it (benefits that you've seen or hope to see)
any negative side effects you have encountered and/or what hasn't worked

I will take all the info and put it together in a summary and post it for everyone.

I think having all this info in one spot would help me immensely in trying to help my son and will hopefully provide everyone with a source of info regarding alternative options and ideas to add to their current medicinal treatments.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Beach]

Like your son, I take vitamin D3, which seems to have helped me considerable. I take enough D3 so that I have a testing level between 60 to 70ng/ml. Thought this a nice sight for vitamin D3 information along with how to test.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

For fish oil I take over 2000mgs of EPA/DHA a day.

I take a vitamin K2-4 and 7 supplement.

And take a small amount of magnesium. Every once in awhile I swallow a turmeric supplement.

Not a supplement, but for diet I've found an evolutionary or paleo diet helpful. It is often touted as anti-inflamatory. There are several paleo sights, but one I check in on from time to time is:

http://robbwolf.com/

Hope that helps. Best of luck to your son.

 

[glum chump]

Hi Tesscorm:

I take a few supplements currently: a multivitamin to supplement the vitamins my body isn't absorbing and isn't getting because I'm almost always on a low-residue diet;
3000iu of Omega-3 fish oil used as an anti-inflammatory and for increasing bone strength;
Vitamin D (I take a lot more than recommended for people with Crohn's because I also have MS, so I won't write how much I take. It is recommended to take 1000-2000 iu for most people, and because I take significantly more than this, my dosage is monitored by my neurologist). Because I have darker skin, I'm not able to make as much Vitamin D from sunlight as someone with lighter skin, and I use it as symptom management for both MS and Crohn's. I did start to use Vitamin D a short while before I was diagnosed with Crohn's.

Although I'm not currently using them, in the past, I have used various supplements for symptom control ginger, Vitamin B12, calcium and probiotics.

I have also used herbal treatments when I was working with a naturopathic doctor. I used Cat's Claw (250 mg. as anti-inflammatory); 320 mg of Slippery Elm (said to protect irritated tissue and to help in its healing); and turmeric (2 grams daily) as an anti-inflammatory.

I'm not sure how old your son is---if he is quite young, then some of the amounts I've quoted might be too high for him.

Good luck!

Kismet