What events led to the creation of this website?

I was initially diagnosed with a moderate-to-severe case of proctosigmoiditis (UC affecting the last 10cm or so of the colon) in 2020, but within one year this had deteriorated into severe pancolitis (UC affecting the entirety of the colon), resulting in an 18 day hospital stay for acute severe colitis. I had no response to IV steroids and only a partial response to rescue infliximab. I went nil-by-mouth to prepare for emergency surgery, but the second loading dose of infliximab was brought forward, to which I fortunately had a good response. This was the first time I had been hospitalised since birth (now in my 30s) and was a formative experience.

 

Knowing that my prognosis was poor, with a relapse likely, upon leaving hospital, I determined to make a concerted effort to do everything I could to maximise my chances of achieving and maintaining remission. To this end, I buried myself in the scientific literature in search of clues. I discovered that there were countless foods/drinks/alternatives that appeared to have small, beneficial impacts on the course of UC, which have not been well investigated by mainstream research. I hypothesised that the impact from any one change might be small, but that if I did everything that seemed to have a small effect, it might add up to a big effect overall. This website is a catalogue of my findings, created so that I do not forget what I have learned, but also so that others may benefit from them.

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I do not presume to have all the answers and this website is far from a complete resource, intended to be a continuous work-in-progress. With this in mind, I would welcome contact from others, especially if they believe I have missed something, got something wrong, or they have discovered important evidence that I have not considered. I will check the following email address from time to time and respond to any messages I receive:

ucinfo.author@gmail.com

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What diet does the author follow?

I myself follow the recommendations I give on the Food and Drinks pages of the website and I have also tried most of the Alternatives at one time or another. I am religious about eating 2x portions of live sauerkraut every day, as well as kefir and multiple sources of prebiotics. This includes oat bran (made with milk), cacao, blueberries and nuts for breakfast, with multiple different roasted vegetables and a good variety of wholegrain carbs for lunch and dinner. I never eat UPFs or any foods containing any additives. I limit home-baked high sugar treats to once per month (still no additive-containing foods). I try my best to reach 30 different plant sources a week, though sometimes fall short. I eat white and red meat and drink red wine in moderation. In terms of drugs, I only take Vivomixx (see Alternatives) once per day and am on no other medication (I was on infliximab for one year before weaning myself off to limit long-term side effects and I discontinued mesalazine after an acute hepatitis flare up).

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I have been following my diet for ~3 years and intend to continue it indefinitely. After several months of adhering to it, it becomes very easy to follow, as you develop new habits. As with most things, the challenge is to maintain good habits when you are well, not just when you're ill.

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What results has the author had on this diet?

Following the author's exit from hospital, given the speed of disease progression and severity of the flare, the prognosis was poor (~85% chance of needing colectomy within 1 year). However, I am pleased to say that while following the diet I was able to enjoy ~3 years of full remission, the first year of that being on infliximab and the two years after that taking only Vivomixx. In Dec-22, for instance, I had no symptoms of any kind, no visible inflammation on latest colonoscopy, no molecular inflammation from biopsies, CRP <1 and calprotectin <20 μg/g).

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In November 2023, 5 days after breaking my own food rules for the first time in ~3 years due to attending an important family meal out, I saw the return of blood in stool. It may or may not have been a coincidence that this happened around the time of the rule-breaking. I initiated curcumin and Mutaflor (I discontinued Mutaflor after it greatly disrupted my sleep) and over the next 2 months, I had only very tiny and infrequent amounts of blood and otherwise few symptoms (bloods were normal and calprotectin ~150 μg/g, which is indeterminate). However, I caught a Winter flu in January 2024 and around ~1 day after those symptoms resolved, I started a very severe relapse, which I had to treat with oral prednisolone, to which I had a good response and rapidly tapered down to 0mg in 8 weeks. This story is a very good reminder of the fact that even when following what is, I believe, an evidence-based diet to maintain remission from UC, some factors are outside of your control and while the evidence does show that diet helps to maintain remission, it does not eliminate the risk of relapse.

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After I had recovered from adrenal insufficiency (caused by the prednisolone), I continued with mesalazine, the diet and used Alternatives, including curcumin, Vivomixx and indigo naturalis to manage the risk of further relapse. I found that while I used indigo naturalis I was able to keep all symptoms away, but every time I weaned myself off them, very mild symptoms returned (March-September 2024). My new strategy to enter deep remission involves weaning myself fully off the indigo naturalis (which is not recommended to take for the long term) and using other methods from Alternatives to manage the risk of relapse or worsening of UC. If my UC does worsen, I may have to consider different prescription drugs, though my experience with them has generally been poor. I will provide an update by mid-2025 on my condition.  

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Who is the author?

I wish to remain anonymous, hence the enigmatic references to an "author". I am not medically trained, though I do have a background in science (particularly chemistry and biology). My work involves close contact with Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies, both from a scientific and financial perspective. As part of this, I analyse clinical data, a skill which has come in handy when writing this website, though I do not claim​ to have any particular specialist knowledge. I currently live in Southern England, but I grew up in Northern England.

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Donations

If you would like to financially contribute to the upkeep of the website (which costs ~£150/year to host), then to preserve anonymity, the author will accept ethereum blockchain tokens (eth, stablecoins, ERC20 tokens, etc) or bitcoin at the addresses below. This is probably only something ~5% of people know how to do, but that's ok. Thanks!

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Ethereum address - 0x800B2274b551E816BF6De8a240e8A205b26B68b1

Bitcoin address - 3KvofpPDLFmzskZEMjhr7RESkaREidWHcz