This entry is a response to Linda Lee.

Dear Linda,

I wish I could give you another dietary plan for your flare ups, but all I can advise is to re-double your efforts with the Low-Starch Diet. I would eliminate every bit of starch from your diet for a limited time – say two weeks – or until your symptoms begin to subside. I am sure that they will, as you have already experienced when you began the diet. It is just that it’s such a shock to discover how quickly they return, that you want them to disappear equally quickly. You must have patience and the assurance that they will disappear again.

If you don’t already test for starch in your food with iodine, you must begin to do this. It reveals all the hidden starches in our processed foods. My book tells you how to do this, but you need original iodine, which is a rusty-brown colour – not colourless iodine, sometimes called povidine – which does not reveal the presence of starch. If you have trouble getting this, let me know.

Your range of problems are very serious. To have all three major diseases, AS, Crohn’s and microscopic colitis, is a terrible struggle. I really feel for you.

I am going to send your letter to Professor Alan Ebringer, who wrote the foreword in my book, because he is presently involved in research on Crohn’s. He’ll be interested to read of your case because he’s found that the Low-Starch Diet works when no other treatment does. Patients are referred to him by doctors when they are desperate because they can no longer tolerate the medication. On the Low-Starch Diet they are able to return to normal life.

I’m so sorry I can’t offer you a quick fix. But I’m sure that you will overcome your symptoms on the Low-Starch Diet – and I know of no other way.

Please feel free to write to me again if you wish.
Very best wishes,
Carol