Ulcerative colitis is a disease of too much inflammation. The Mayo Clinic recommends several dangerous and expensive anti-inflammatory drugs. Based on its effect on inflamed gums (gingivitis), I suspect flaxseed oil would be very effective, much safer, more convenient, and much cheaper, assuming you get the right dose (about 2 tablespoons/day).
Flaxseed oil is not on the Mayo Clinic list. Nor is any other source of omega-3. In a store today I ran into a woman seeking herbal treatments for ulcerative colitis. She hadn’t heard of using flaxseed oil.
Does anyone reading this have direct experience about what happens when you take flaxseed oil for ulcerative colitis?
The Mayo Clinic website doesn’t say anything about using flaxseed oil (or other omega-3 sources) to treat gingivitis. (And the Mayo Clinic claims expertise on alternative medicine.) Nor does it say gingivitis is caused by too much inflammation. In two weeks, you can see for yourself they are wrong.
My mother had colitis, I’m not sure if it was ulcerative. They had her on a lot of drugs and it was quite bad for a couple years until she heard from someone about drinking juiced carrots, green tops are the best for some reason. You have to drink the real stuff, not processed. She drank it a couple times a day and it cleared up in about half a year. Now she only gets a rare bought if she eats too much spicy food or drinks red wine.
She hasn’t tried flax seed oil that I am aware of although I think she takes fish oil capsules for the omega 3. I will recommend flax oil to her.
why don’t you share your research w/ the Mayo; perhaps they’ll conduct a mini study.
I have ulcerative colitis but fortunately it has quieted down on its own for the last couple of years. My doctor prescribed an anti-inflammatory and told me I’d have to take it the rest of my life but the pills made me sick so I quit taking them after just a couple of weeks.
I do take flaxseed oil now after reading your blog so perhaps it will help prevent a relapse.
Peter, thanks for the suggestion. I don’t think the Mayo Clinic does dental research. I do hope that an interested academic dentist will try to repeat the dental observations I’ve reported here, how flaxseed oil cures gingivitis.
I think about 1 in 1000 dentists would be interested and it’s not obvious to me how to find him or her.
How about making the request here?
UC forum:
https://www.healingwell.com/community/?f=38
It appears to be quite active.
(In fact, if you jump up a level in the hierarchy, there are many forums where you could make a similar request. Perhaps flax doesn’t work for UC, but cures Chrohn’s…who knows?)
health forums:
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?c=4
(This is just one site, too…I suspect there are many such forums on the net.)
As I’ve posted before, I had gum surgery, now about 12 weeks ago. For the final assessment yesterday, my gum surgeon said, “Wow, I’m amazed! If I keep doing such great work, I’ll have to call myself God!” She laughed and was joking, but both her and her assistant were surprised at how well my gums were doing. And praised me highly for how hard I must be working to keep my gums in such great shape. I actually haven’t been working very hard, I must confess.
It’s only after I started doing the flax seed oil — an average of about 3 tablespoons a day — that I have been getting these kinds of responses.
I would love to see some research on this.
I imagine that the lady you met must have been newly diagnosed. I have had ulcerative colitis since 1996. Most of the people that I know with u.c. take omega-3, though perhaps more commonly as fish oil. All of my gastroenterologists have agreed that it can be a useful adjunct to other therapies. In fact, one of the drug companies is developping a supplement drink that combines omega-3’s with the soft fiber found in bananas, vitamin D and some other foods that are very beneficial to u.c., but hard to get in the right propotions. In general though, doctors seem reluctant to recommend diet-only solutions. I have a relatively mild case, but have had two bad flare ups. Consequently I take two of the drugs listed in addition to fish oil. I am hopeful that one day I will get off the other meds, but for now I just take a very low dose of the drugs thanks largely, based on my self-experimentation, to the omega-3s. The other therapy that doctors downplay for u.c. is nicotine. Even though I have never been a smoker, nicotine gum can stop an oncoming flareup with fewer side effects than steriods and without the knee-jerk doctor’s response of increasing the dosage of my other meds.
i doubt that any practicing dentist would be interested; you’d have to contact a university. I’d also mention oil pulling, which i sense will also be effective (it has been for me).
The much more serious disease is ulcerative colitis, especially since the drugs have a hi rate of AE’s. that’s where i think Mayo could be interested in seeing if omega-3 oil are useful, although probably w/use of a lower dose of an anti-inflammatory.
“AE” = adverse effect?