Do you have joint pains and colitis?
I sure had that. It’s been about six months now since it was really bad, but when those joint pains started, you’re not sure what to do. If you are having joint pains with your colitis, you are definitely not the only one. There are tons of us who have this symptoms of the colitis. But yeah, its horrible. I even thought that if I had to choose between one or the other for the rest of time, I would take the colitis at times. The joint pains can be really bad, and they can totally effect your life in bad ways. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel, the joint pains don’t have to last forever.
Did you have joint pains prior to having colitis?
Some people say yes, others no. For me, I think the answer would be no. I was in pretty good shape my whole life prior to my colitis symptoms stopping me in my tracks. Biking, water skiing, that type of stuff without any pains. But, what I do remember is for several years before being diagnosed, having lower back pains that wouldn’t go away. I started thinking I pulled a muscle in my back, or screwed up a disk or something. I even was going to this holistic back Chinese medicine place and doing all types of stretching etc… Did not help the back pain much at all. Back then (4-5 years ago), I was getting more and more bowel movements per day. And the blood was starting to flow. This was prior to being diagnosed with the colonoscopy, and yes I was in severe denial.
Why do the joint pains happen?
On the technical side, I have no idea what is going on here. I have seen Rheumatologists, the doctors who specialize in arthritis, osteoperosis, joint pain, and auto immune stuff. Well, most of them had seen colitis patients with similar joint problems, but getting a full on answer as to why this is happening was rather difficult. So, this whole colitis joint pain thing to me is something that each one of us can make up our own theory on why its happening. Here is my theory, the body is out of wack, the immune system is attacking, stuff is getting inflamed, including joints. I try to compare it to a car’s engine. If you put a whole bunch of sand in the engine, all of the moving parts are going to have a bunch of grinding going on. I think that is similar to what happens to colitis people who suffer joint problems. There is too much junk going in the body(for me food I had no business eating) and it was messing up the joints and causing them to be inflamed. And in the end, nerves were being irritated from the inflammation causing the brain to say “OUCH”.
A Double Wammy for Colitis People
As though going to the bathroom ten times a day and bleeding out the back end wasn’t enough. Now some of us have this joint issue to deal with too. And it kreeps up bigtime during sleep. Making the hope of sleeping darn hard. And also, many people are dealing with the joint pain in the lower back making us think we must have pulled a muscle! Let’s get the VICODIN out. Don’t feel ashamed if you need to pop some vicodin to get past these pains. I sure did. And I like it alot. But, that is a temporary fix. Let’s figure a long term plan to get rid of the joint pains that colitis brings on.
Fix the Joints Please
For me, once I implemented the diet I follow, joints were not my problem anymore. Now, I am a normal person again. I don’t need to be pushed out of bed like before when my arms were useless since it hurt to much to move them. I was really pissed off for months knowing that my colitis had potential to ruin my joints forever. But, now I am not worried about that at all.
If you too are having joint pain, and have UC, give it a serious try changing your diet. If you are currently eating breads, grains, dairy, refined sugars and the other illegal stuff, DEFINITELY give it a try. You surely won’t be the first to get rid of the joint pains by changing your diet. Here is a link again for the diet book from Amazon- HERE
. Well worth reading at least once. And when you’re through with that book. You can jump in and get started reading the two ebooks I wrote which detail my whole experience with UC and there’s also a cookbook that is included in the package which lists the meals my wife and I make up.(Mostly real simple stuff so no complicated cooking here. Here’s that link: my ebooks )
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
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I’ve written 2 different ulcerative colitis ebooks, you can check them out here.
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