How Long Does it Take to Heal?
I’m almost finished reading Solving the Interstitial Cystitis Puzzle, by Amrit Willis. I’ve realized two things:
- There is definitely a way to heal IC and it’s with an alkaline diet.
- It’s going to take a long time eating an alkaline diet to heal my IC.
I feel conflicted about this. On the one hand, I am relieved to have a constructive, logical path to take towards getting well and out of pain, but on the other hand, it’s overwhelming to realize that I might have to eat a very, very, very restricted diet for up to several weeks before I might see any improvement, and I might possibly have to stay on this very, very, very restricted diet for up to six months before I can even begin to re-introduce other foods.
Nobody said healing IC was going to be easy, but damn. This is a serious challenge. I love rich, sweet, salty foods, and giving up pretty much everything but vegetables and fish for a good long time seems torturous. I totally fell off the wagon this weekend, being Thanksgiving, and ate pumpkin pie and chocolate after a big turkey dinner. I even had a glass of milk yesterday. I’m all gassy now – no surprise, since I know cow’s milk is an irritant (IgG) for me – and I certainly haven’t seen any improvements in my pain or other bladder symptoms after indulging in several things I’d been avoiding since the beginning of the month. It’s just so frustrating to have been so good for more than a week and not feel any relief from my pain, urgency, frequency, and retention. I know I should be more patient and stick to the diet, but wow, it’s hard. I don’t know how people do it. I don’t know how I’m going to do this for months, let alone weeks, but I’ve got to find a way because alkaline seems to be the only answer to my IC problem.
Why Alkaline is the Answer
The longer something is out of balance, the longer it will take to bring it back. The longer you’ve been eating an acid-forming diet, and the longer you’ve been unwell, the longer it will take to replenish your stores of alkaline minerals and regenerate the good health and vitality you once had.
For most people with IC, it’s not hard to look back and realize the writing was on the wall a long time before Interstitial Cystitis was even part of our lexicon. I’ve been unwell with IC for more than five years now, and looking back over my life, I realize I’ve been on a steady slope down from good health as far back as my early teen years. Eating an acid-forming diet, enduring all kinds of physical, mental, and emotional stress, not getting enough exercise, and other factors including genetics all contributed to this slow progression away from health towards disease. My weak point has always been my digestive system. First it was indigestion and stomach aches, then a diagnosis of H. Pylori, then of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), then GERD, then finally IC. And it can all be traced to a diet that’s been slowly but surely contributing to a depletion of essential minerals in my body.
As far as I can understand from Willis’ book, the basic model of eating an alkaline diet works like this: you boost your ratio of alkaline-forming foods to 80% (vegetables) and eat only 20% acid-forming foods (meat, dairy, grains) in order to re-stock your body’s supply of essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium, which get used up and excreted when our bodies need these to deal with an overly acidic state.
Got Greens? Your best source of calcium is not milk
According to Willis (and other sources I’ve read recently), it’s not a lack of calcium intake that’s the real issue with diseases such as osteoporosis, but an extreme output of calcium as our bodies use this precious mineral to buffer our cells’ exposure to too much acid. So don’t drink more milk to restore your calcium intake – that would be counter-productive because dairy is acid-forming – but rather get your calcium requirements from dark leafy greens, fortified low-acid orange juice, almonds, and other plant-based sources that are alkaline-forming and don’t put a further acidic burden on your body.
I highly recommend reading Willis’ book. Even though the solution it presents is not an easy path to follow, it offers solid reasoning behind the steps required, as well as scientific evidence through nutritional research to back up the advice. Also, knowing Willis herself is a registered nurse who had IC makes it all the more reliable a source of information to move forward with the healing steps outlined within the book.
The Happy Bladder 