[wantboobsbad]

Hi everyone, I have posted here a few times and wondered if anyone could help me. I had mentioned in some other posts about some digestive issues I had been having. Today I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease. They have put me on steroids for the next 5 weeks. how is this going to interfere with my nbe and is it going to completely wipe out any gains I've made? What can I do to try and keep the growth I have already had.
Also, I have been doing nbe with one inch of growth in the first month and in the last 3 months only a 1/4 of an inch. Could this have anything to do with that? I just am stuck and am wondering if this is why. i am currently on SP, WY, Dong Quai, Fenugreek and GABA. Hoping things really take off once I get the inflammation in my body down. Thanks a million!

[BarbieGrrrl]

if u can keep doing nbe while on steroids it could make u grow faster like thats what steroids do

[wantboobsbad]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't really have time to give it much thought. I will hope that's what they do. I guess i just had it in my head that they would increase testosterone and wipe everything away. I guess too once its under control I will be absorbing the herbs better too. Maybe that is why I haven't had much luck the last few months. When I think about it my growth has pretty much been at a time when I wasn't having a flare up. Thanks! Keeping my fingers crossed!

[Isabelle]

Best wishes, wantboobsbad,

My priority would be the management of Crohn's disease. It can really take over your life. That said, nutritional management of Crohn's disease includes some approaches that are common with NBE, although others are contradictory. For a start, cut refined carbs from your diet:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/un738t118u670837/

Nutritional management of Crohn's disease often involves soy as a replacement of dairy:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...2/abstract
but oats and rye are out of the question:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...3693921219
http://gut.bmj.com/content/34/6/783.abstract
Ask your doctor for a nutritional management diet, and discuss the herbs you want to use.

Cortisol and estrogens suppress each other, but prednisolon can be be used together with HRT for postmenopausal women. You are not taking any strong phyto-estrogens, so that cannot be the cause of the increased inflammation.

You do take a strong phyto-progestin, dong quai, together with WY and FG, which both contain diosgenin. Try and decrease the dong quai, and see if that helps. But it could do just the opposite too, because cortisol, the hormone that suppresses inflammation, is made from progesterone.

This is why I am confused about the events as you report them: your program is very progestinic, but yet there is an increase in inflammation. Were you already taking dong quai, WY, and FG when you were growing well?

A word of caution about the diosgenin in WY and FG. Nobody really knows how it works. It is an accepted fact now that the body can not make progesterone from diosgenin by a direct biochemical reaction path. But in people taking diosgenin, progesterone and prolactin increase. I haven't read what happens to cortisol. It should go up because progesterone goes up, but since nobody knows why progesterone goes up, I'm not sure.

I hope this helps some, but you have a lot of work to do checking your diet, and I think you should discuss the WY, FG, and certainly the dong quai with your doctor, or at least check their interactions with the corticosteroids you have been prescribed on-line.

[wantboobsbad]

Thanks for all of the great info Isabelle. I will decrease the Dong Quai. To answer your question, no I did not originally start the DQ with my original program. I had stopped growing after the original inch in the first month so thought maybe my program needed tweaking. I gained the last quarter of an inch over the last month but that all happens during the second half of my cycle. I think I need to do some research on how to work better with my menstrual cycle.
Since I was just recently diagnosed I won't know much about dietary restrictions for a few more weeks. I was just more concerned with what the steroids were going to do to my body but they are only for five weeks. If I stay where I am that is fine, I just don't want to lose my growth since I have been having problems. I also thought maybe the increased testosterone would make me more sensitive to estrogen.
It was quite disappointing that the doc came in, told me the diagnosis while I was just coming to and then sent me home with a scrip that I know nothing about. Now that the holidays are over I can finally look into it. But I appreciate the links and look forward to reading them. Happy new Year!

[Isabelle]

Thank you wantboobsbad,

That clarifies a lot. What you were prescribed is probably prednisolon. That will not affect testosterone. It may decrease estrogens a little, but you will not lose your growth.

[wantboobsbad]

that is good news! I did cut out the DQ and we'll see what happens. I don't think the Crohns diagnosis has quite sunk in with me yet. But I am glad that all my nbe hard work will probably not be lost. thanks again!

[Wahaika]

wantboobsbad,

How's the Crohn's Disease going? Any improvement?

Wahaika

[wantboobsbad]

thanks so much for asking. It has been going okay. I have begun to taper my steroids and they must have really been helping b/c now I have begun to have some more stomach problems. I don't have my follow up appt until Tuesday so as of yet I haven't altered my diet in any way. I don't understand why they diagnose you with something and then make you wait 3 weeks to go in and discuss how to manage it. so it goes. I have bought soy milk so I am going to try that b/c I hear dairy can cause a bad flare up.
As far as nbe goes, I haven't lost any growth and am hoping that once I have this under control I will make some more progress. With my digestive tract being the way it is I often wonder how much of my herbs my body is actually absorbing. I took your recommendation and ramped everything up to 3000mg. its been a week and a half and they definitely feel heavy and full so I am excited about that. Even if the measuring tape doesn't show anything I am positive they are rounder if nothing else. thanks so much for all of your help. You and Isabelle have been a tremendous help for me. there is so much information on these forums that it can be hard to sort it all out and figure out what is going to work! I'll keep you posted....oh, any idea if the soymilk will interfere with my other herbs?

[Wahaika]

Soy milk will not interfere with the other herbs.

What is your diet? Can you list typical things that you have eaten for every meal, snacks, etc. for the past week or two?