I don’t read the posts that many of you share, but, recently, it has come to my attention that many of you are going by Weston Price or GAPS type sugestions.

For every imbalance there is a different way in which to approach it. It isn’t one for all, as nothing in life is one for all or one size fits all.

There are many things in the GASP diet that are highly inappropriate for those of you having IC and will actually cause more pain than help it, and, as much as I am passionate about many Weston Price philosophies, the same goes for some of it’s philosophies as well. However, with WP, things like bone broth, undeniably very healthy, will cause many problems with increasing inflammation and making your symptoms worse. The reason for this is that the high amounts of b vitamins and gelatin (an herb we use all of the itme in Chinese medicine) will trigger inflammation instead of reduce it.

With IC, and many other types of chronic inflammatory conditions one must approach their condition in steps and stages. I always use the analogy of: you can’t go in and start using furniture polish in a house that has been abandoned for years. It is unclean and must be first cleaned and organized before you can go in and beautify it. OTehrwise, you seal in all of the dirt. When you seal in the dirt so to speak with IC, this increases the inflammation.

Another way of looking at this is that b vitamins make you stronger, they help all of your physiological functions. Well, they do that for the inflammation as well-making it much more viscious. 

So these are things that are healthful later, but only when the inflammation is under control and your body can use it correctly. The same is true for cultured foods like yoghurt, kiefer, sauerkraut, et…. These will increase inflammation and not decrease it for similar but not completely the same reasons as the broth. PRobiotics are criticial to health, but, when they are used too aggressively, they will backfired and increaset he inflammation instead of reducing it.

I have been meaning to post on this subject for a while anyway, but, it has come up suddenly with a few things said to me privately, so I amy sound like I am rambling a bit on an unprepared post. But, I wanted to get this message out to people ASAP just in case.

Latly, reminder–no coconut oil either-this will cause huge problems for all of you until much later down the line.

IC is a very difficult condition. When I first started treating it, there was literally nothing going on short of tortuous procedures and the state of affairs was quite a mess. Through the years, things have progressed beautifully, and with the right treatment lives are changing. but, it does take time, effort, discipline and tenacity. And most of all, steps and stages. This cannot be fought out of sequence, it is very important to understand this fundamental idea.

For those of you who do not know anything about Chinese medicine, I highly recommend picking up a few books on the subject. IT may be helpful to illuminate the concepts of imbalance and ways in which to approach them. Also, how different people can be from one another despite having similar signs and symptoms.

Dr.M