SCD/Paleo and perianal symptoms

Has anyone out there been able to clear up an actively draining fistula using only an SCD/Paleo diet? (or another diet?)

On all of the threads I've seen about it, these symptoms are never mentioned, which makes me think that the people for whomthese diets have worked do not have these specific problems. I have tried eliminating many kinds of food at different periods, tried several different diets, even ate only rice for a while, but never had any difference to how my gut feels. I've never read the Breaking the Viscious Cycle book (I'll be ordering it soon), so I don't know if any of the things I've tried would qualify.

I guess what I'm asking is, once the disease becomes severe enough to fistulize, is it beyond the point at which a diet alone can control it? I mean, I'm glad that it works to alleviate the gut symptoms for a lot of you, but I am somewhat sceptical that it has much of a chance of helping me.

The only diet that helps me is not eating anything at all, and for some reason I can't seem to stick to that one long term!!

I have 2 fistula's and life can be pretty miserable. While I will not vouch for either diet, what you eat almost always matters atleast for me and many others. My diet is eat what I know to cause me 0 symptoms (I fail at this sometimes). I would be skeptical if anyone claimed eating just Paleo or just SCD food could heal a fistula, but maybe it can make your condition better which would allow the fistula to heal. If you are always flarring with foods you are currently eating chance of the fistula closing probably isn't good. Also remember certain fistula's are very difficult to get to close even with meds.

I think either diet would be worth a try if nothing else is working, it's kinda the point I will try anything to get complete remission even snake oil.

I have tried Paleo a few times and failed. Once I remove non paleo foods and then remove unsafe foods for me there is like 5 things I can eat.

In Breaking the Vicious cycle it does actually have at least one testimonial in it of a patient with a fistula. As far as I remember, this person was not taking any medications and after 6 months on the diet their fistula healed completely.

Personally I think that not having constant diarrhea will do a lot toward letting your body heal the fistula naturally. Of course if your case is extreme diet alone might not be enough. There's always low dose flagyl...

Have you browsed through the SCD/Paleo/GAPS subforum here in the diet section? I can't remember if KWalker had fistulas or abscesses but he saw a great amount of relief with diet.

edited to add a link to the subforum
http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=288

Thanks everyone.

I want to give it a try, but it seems like it would be nearly impossible. All of my "safe" foods (which aren't 100% safe, but just things i tolerate better) are carbohydrates, more or less a low residue kind of thing.

And the things that seem to make me feel the worst are generally meats and vegetables, which is basically all you're allowed to eat. I guess I could eat just eggs, but that sounds pretty boring.

Like Charleigh said, I had really great results with an abscess and diet. I had a really bad abscess that was constantly hurting and draining. Medicine was useless and I already had surgery for it. When I started the diet I noticed a huge improvement with it. For me, it seemed to get irritated when I had diarrhea so when the SCD diet allowed me more formed stools, I was going less and therefore the abscess was healing. It did drain for a little while after starting the diet but when it drains, the infection comes out. Eventually it stopped draining and got significantly smaller. It's almost gone today.

KWalker said:

Like Charleigh said, I had really great results with an abscess and diet. I had a really bad abscess that was constantly hurting and draining. Medicine was useless and I already had surgery for it. When I started the diet I noticed a huge improvement with it. For me, it seemed to get irritated when I had diarrhea so when the SCD diet allowed me more formed stools, I was going less and therefore the abscess was healing. It did drain for a little while after starting the diet but when it drains, the infection comes out. Eventually it stopped draining and got significantly smaller. It's almost gone today.

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I'm really glad you've had such success with this! My fistulas are pretty persistent. They sometimes heal up right after I get Remicade, but always come back.

Are you on a strict SCD diet? Like I said, I kind of want to start but there doesn't seem to be any way to do it halfway, and it would be a really major change for me, in terms of what I'm eating and how I buy food and how I prepare it, which kind of holds me back. Also, I really like bread and pasta and rice.

I've had so many major life changes recently that the idea of changing more just makes me tired!

I've been dealing with abscesses for years too. I was 100% strict with SCD but now because of time/money I'm not. I have actually added pasta, potatoes and rice. I was never a big bread person to begin with. I am completely med free though. I haven't been on any meds since 2010 so diet does work.

KWalker said:

I've been dealing with abscesses for years too. I was 100% strict with SCD but now because of time/money I'm not. I have actually added pasta, potatoes and rice. I was never a big bread person to begin with. I am completely med free though. I haven't been on any meds since 2010 so diet does work.

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You probably can't answer this for sure, but do you think you are able to eat pasta, potatoes, and rice because you were 100% strict for a while?

I just mean, it would be a lot easier to stick with it if I knew it would be possible to add things back in later.

In the book it actually says you don't have to follow the diet forever. After a few years you can start to add back in your carbs proscessed foods etc. If something bothers you you drop it.