Colitis Books

The 2003 edition of Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis by Fred Saibil is an outstanding reference guide. The book provides a comprehensive review of symptoms, treatment and complications of IBD. An excellent chapter offering practical suggestions for those living with IBD is also included. Dr. Saibil masterfully anticipates every question that a person may ask regarding IBD and answers it here in a simple and straightforward manner. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who is suffering from IBD or who is interested in gaining an understanding of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

I have been a Crohn's patient for over 30 Years and found Dr Saibils book the BEST resource I have yet to see.The book is written in clear no-medicalese and is easily read by patients , friends and family.Its very up to date and covers all the new treatments available.Crohns and Colitis patientsa should rush to their bookstore or library and obtain this book.

I recently bought this book to learn more about IBD. I have to say that this book is excellent. It is very easy to read and makes us, as a non-medical people, knowledable and aware. It is a must read for everyone - people who have IBD and even those who do not. The ease of language, coupled with the excellent diagrams and clear explanations, make it a must read.

This book was given to us when our daughter,age 10, was diagnosed with Crohns summer of '98. Her Doctor gave it to us on our first visit. I strongly suggest any parent in this similar situation needs this book. My head was spinning I had questions, at least I thought I did, I was confussed. This book helped me get a handle on what was going on, what treatments were presently available,and how we would survive and move on. I just can't say enough about this book. It is really reader friendly and that is important when you are in a new situation like this.

Every parent of a child with Crohn's or UC should have a copy of this indispensible guide. This book, recently published in coordination with the CCFA, is the first dedicated solely to the needs of children and teens with IBD and their families. It is separated into three sections: diagnosis, treatment, and living with the disorder. It contains a glossary of medical terms, a resources section, and a number of positive statements from children with IBD. Highly recommended for parents!

This is truly the book to have if your child has Crohn's. I wish that this book would have available when this whole ordeal started with my daughter (then 10 years old). It truly explains soooooo many things, In a nut shell this is the book to have, initially it may even give you more information then you are prepared to handle, but when you're ready, the information is there for your reading and using. A MUST HAVE BOOK!!

When I got my diagnosis through, I thought my problems were treatable. It wasn't until after my second visit to my consultant that I realised I was suffering from a long term condition. Until I read this book, I had not idea how long-term that was!

I found this book extremely helpful, very easy to digest and quick to read being only 108 pages long. It answered most of the questions I had about my dis-ease and there was information I had not even considered. As a first step to understanding what I was facing, this book was ideal.

The layout is logical and the information presented for the lay person. Medical terms are used, but only after they have introduced and explained in the text first. There is an introduction, which informs the reader, accurately, about the contents of the book, giving the basics, such as the nature of ulcerative colitis, it cause, diagnoses and treatments in a one or two paragraph summation of each chapter.

The chapters are as follows:

What causes ulcerative colitis?
Diagnosis and tests
Treatments
Diet
Living with ulcerative colitis
Non-intestinal complications
Surgery
Living with an ileostomy or a pouch
Special circumstances
Probiotics and prebiotics
Future developments

The book also has the following sections:

Glossary;
Sources of help;
Further reading; and
Index.

Mr Cartwright offers a simple, very easy to read book, which is peppered throughout with personal anecdotes from those living with the condition, displaying the variances in symptoms and sufferers. I think reading about the experiences of others enabled greater comprehension of the material being presented.

Overall, a great introduction to ulcerative colitis, its management and future expectations.

This book explains an unpredictable, complicated disease in really plain, practical language, even the very scientific parts. The section on probiotics is very enlightening and helpful - makes a lot of sense.

This is the most comprehensive yet systematic, accessible, and intelligent book I've read on IBS (I had read 7-8 others before finding this one). You can waste much time and money on all sorts of herbal and medicinal products as well as alternative therapies with absolutely no gain--in fact, in many cases you may decide you feel worse.

Salt and Neimark provide a complete analysis of the mind/body/spirit connection, taking you from the causes of your problem to the resolution of it that only knowledge and action can provide. Their approach employs all of the latest research in mainstream medicine as well as some bold and positive understandings that are unliikely to appear in the conventional literature.

The only slight "negative" may be many of the illustrations, which are frankly insipid and unilluminating. On the other hand, they do provide some "breathing space" for the reader, possibly providing the text with a lighter tone and feel.

Collaboratively written by digestive disorder specialists Dr. William Salt and Dr. Neil Neimark, and now available in a fully revised and updated new edition, Irritable Bowel Syndrome And The MindBodySpirit Connection is an invaluable, hope-giving, practical, non-specialist general reader friendly guide offering seven specific steps to improving one's quality of life and health when living with a functional bowel disorder, Crohn's Disease or colitis. Individual chapters focus on using the power of emotional and psychological attitude as well as more traditionally important habits of proper diet, exercise, water drinking etc. A thoughtful and attentive book and an excellent supplement to a doctor's care, Irritable Bowel Syndrome And The MindBodySpirit Connection, with its practical and whole mind and body approach to maintaining good health, is important even to those who are fortunate enough to have compliantly regular bowels. A very highly recommended addition to personal and community library personal healthy and medical reference collections.

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 1990. I have had three bowel resections with a fourth probable for this year. I have suffered moderate to severe Crohn's with numerous complications that required medical intervention. I am the type of patient that seeks out all the information available. I found this book at Ochsner Clinic Foundation Hospital's medical library. It covers every possible topic associated with the cause, treatment and research involved with IBD written by the top people in this field. I will purchase this book as a valuable resource for my personal library and to assist me in working with my GI doctor on treatment for my Crohn's. I highly recommend this for anyone involved with IBD's who want to know as much as possible about this illness.

I suffer from Colitis and found this wonderful book helpful and noteworthy. I highly recommend this informative book to others.

Probiotic and Prebiotic Recipes for Health is an excellent book to read if you are looking to improve your digestive system and health with practical tips, guidelines and recipes. They say your digestion is the engine that drives your bodies overall health, immune system, daily energy levels and protection against illness. Since I have food allergies and food intolerances, I found this book loaded with easy-to-read information that I am using to improve my own allergies. Now I'm not confused about all the differences and health benefits of yogurt, kefir, and the other varieties of fruits and vegetable for improving digestion. As a physical therapist, I will highly recommend this book to my patients who are suffering with digestive problems.

I've been on the SCD diet for about a month. It has helped so far, and I would recommend this for anyone with ulcerative colitis.

This book offers help to those who have Chronic Intestinal Distress and is highly recommended.

I bought this book for my 27 year old son. He has suffered with ulcerative colitis for 6 years. The last 4 years have been very bad. Bed ridden a few times a year. Heavy doses of drugs just to get it under control. Doctors where not much help at all. He was just miserable.
He's been on the diet for almost 3 months. The first couple of weeks were very hard for him. He wanted to quit, I Talked him into giving it a month. He called me a few weeks ago and said ` Dad
this is the first time in 4 years I've felt normal. I love this diet'.
He's off the drugs and happy. The diet has made such a difference in his life, I wanted to share that with anyone having similar problems.

I was introduced to this diet 7 years ago. Began the diet with my physicians knowledge and was able to go prescription drug free within a year. The diet really works and the book not only gives the how to and recipes, it gives the scientific information to back up the evidence. I highly recommend this book/guide to all that suffer from intestinal disorders.

I usually don't write reviews, but this book has literally changed the lives of so many people in my family, I thought I'd at least have to thank Elaine for this book publicly.

My mother has had Crohn's disease since she was a little girl, but Doctors didn't know what was wrong with her until later. She'd literally drink gallons of anti-acids and over time, began to think that everyone just went around having a stomach ache and other "bathroom" problems...that was normal to her.

After having children, she had severe flare-ups that left her skeletal and hospitalized, fighting for her life. She went to a Naturapathic Doctor and he got her on a raw diet (free of processed flours or sugars, no meat, dairy, eggs or grains whatsoever). This healed her for the time being. She was able to maintain herself and go back to her regular eating habits carefully through having the next 5 children, but the last one, along with financial troubles and a death in the family left her stress levels frazzled, and made her immunity susceptible to the Crohn's. She went down to 100 lbs for her 5'8 frame and was too weak to walk. She tried to go back the raw diet, but it didn't help. Nothing did.

The Doctors told her she didn't have Crohn's (even though she'd been diagnosed numerous times previously that she did), but Ulcerative Colitis and that cutting out her large intestine would solve the problem. She finally gave in and got the surgery and had a J-Pouch made from her small intestine to work as a small colon, but the surgeon made mistakes...he left a small hole which seeped toxic waste into her abdominal cavity causing excruciating pain. She convinced them that this was not normal, since not even the highest morphine doses were helping subdue all the pain. They fixed it, but she would regularly pass little titanium staples and once they found the reason behind another extremely painful gut pain: there was a staple that hadn't been closed all the way and was ripping her with its sharp edges. The doctors gave her a 1% to 2% solution of Nitroglycerin (yes, that Nitroglycerin: to make bombs) for the "butt burn" which made things worse and had her on numerous medications to mask all of her symptoms. Steroids, blood thinners, opiates, Azacol (the "cure all"), and dermatologist prescriptions for her Pyoderma gangrenosum: this is where you get deep ulcers on the skin of your legs that start as hard lumped hot-spots and then erupt (sorry, pretty graphic). All the while, her doctors and dietitians have told her to eat whatever she wanted. She had no reason not to trust them, but her doctor actually told her just recently: "You have exhausted my knowledge base." So, basically he'd give her whatever she wanted just to shut her up because he could no longer help her and her constant pains and burning.

Happy Ending: A friend gave me the title to this book, I researched it and flew home to give it a go. They were tiresome of the "Cure-alls" that everyone was giving them. They tried Acupuncture, Homeopathy and herbs...you name it, they tried it. Why would this be any different? Because of the science behind it!

The first day, she showed improvement and burning started to subside to the point that she has been on the diet for 3 weeks now and has stopped taking all of her medications, which I don't know if I would recommend because it was really hard for her and it might've been better to stay on the drugs and get better at the same time. But she couldn't tell if the diet was working or not past a certain point because she wasn't sure if the pain was being masked by the drugs. She was already trying to detox off Oxycontin when she started the SCD, but was sick of the withdrawals, so stopped cold turkey to get it out of her system.

Currently her burning and pain levels are at a "1" and "2", 10 being the worst pain, and is off all medications. She now has only a small amount of pain in a specific spot (the doctor says it looks like a bruise and offered to just kill the nerve endings there...of course we said no! Come on, is there any holistic view here at all folks?) and though she was had a hard time with energy, she is getting stronger day by day! I share her entire story in case someone with similar experiences is searching for the answer because we couldn't find anyone who had a J-Pouch AND Crohn's!

Perhaps someday she can transition into more raw foods for the concentration of energy and nutrients or at least juicing, since she has no large intestine, but for now, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" has saved her life along with my family's. She still has kids living at home that she can be a Mom to now: a 6 yr-old, a 10 yr-old, and a 16 yr-old. This has truly been a blessing.

The information in this book is solid, easy to read, and practical. It can be implemented, as our family did implement it. I am grateful because my daughter no longer struggles with constipation on an ongoing basis. I no longer fear butter and have not struggled with my weight, either since getting the fiber out. I never would have eaten butter in the past AT ALL but I've had no problem now, as I have employed a low fiber, low carb diet. I have been delighted that I am not bloated off and on anymore, either. My husband likes my basic cooking. The author is very up front about the transition that it will take and gives tools to accomplish it. This works. Don't be discouraged -- there is hope.

I have been suffering from sugar addiction, binge eating disorder and depression for long enough to know what sweets and other forms of carbs are doing to your body and mind. It's like a foggy cloud comes over you until you clear this nastiness out of your system. Atkins diet has worked well for me (I wasn't overeating on it at all), but constipation was one of the problems, so I'd quit it for a while and restart again. Every time I stop Atkins, with the very first dosage of sugar my body would go into diarrhea mode literally within 15 minutes.

I think this book clearly makes sense, it's well supported by facts, and is written with passion that only true believer and advocate can exhibit.
I think the author has a lot of guts (pun somewhat intended) to pull us into a controversial discussion and bring our attention to our digestive, and overall health.

I noticed that Americans in general, though being for the most part health-obsessed, don't know the basics which we learned in my country from the very early age. In example, pasta, bread and potatoes were considered low quality foods and only truly poor people were having those in their diet constantly, because those were the cheapest groceries you could get. Here, pasta is a part of the food pyramid and is considered healthy. I remember in my childhood, every time I ate pasta, I had painful stubborn constipation bout for days.

Anyway, those are just some musings that I attempted to put together to make a point - do what makes sense, listen to your body, do your homework, and you will find that everything is this book is written to put you back on track.

I particularly enjoyed the opening, where the author introduces us to "forefathers" of the fiber madness.

For years, I thought that by eating Fiber One and Psyllium I was doing my body a favor. As I gradually weaned myself off processed foods and starting eating fresh & fermented fruits and vegetables, good fats like coconut oil & butter, homemade Kombucha & Kefir, low and behold I found that I didn't need all that fake stuff to keep everything moving.

This book describes a condition most of us who eat the Standard American Diet are afflicted with and don't realize it - "disbacteriosis". When fiber eliminates the friendly bacteria throughout our digestive system, we are exposed to a whole host of problems.

Highly recommended for anyone suffering from all digestive related illnesses. As well as for folks who want to avoid them.

A fabulously informative book for those seeking knowledge on how to achieve optimal digestive function, and a must read for those interested in the repair and recovery of the entire GI system.
As a person who suffers from chronic constipation I found the author's advice extremely effective and perhaps even life saving. I have resolved much of the suffering I encountered and have improved by about 90%. I continue to use the recommended recovery supplements, eat a healthy tasty diet, and am free of all fiber supplements which I had used for many years.
The author's writing is clear, easy to read, thorough, and even fun for the delicate topic of digestion and elimination. There is plenty of room to tailor the program to one's specific needs or preferences.
This book helped me realize how resilient the digestive system is, and how proper nutrition is more beneficial than the fiber fix. I am forever thankful to the author Konstantin Monastyrsky.
georgia

Eat your fiber, get your whole grains, you need to make sure you eat your fruits and veggies to promote good digestive health. Has anyone ever bothered to ask if all that advice is prudent or not? Well, Konstantin Monastyrsky has done the research on fiber and it's not as essential as we have been led to believe. In fact, he contends that fiber is not only NOT good for you, but it can wreak havoc as a "menace" on your health.

The book goes on to talk about all the horrific conditions that consuming high amounts of fiber can lead to and it's quite graphic for those of you who have queasy stomachs. But what made my stomach turn the most was how incredibly ignorant Monastyrsky was about the low-carb diets such as Atkins and South Beach.

An avid zero-carb diet supporter, he describes these more traditional low-carb diets as a "passing fad" and dismisses them completely. Since I lost 180 pounds consuming that Atkins "fad," I think it is quite arrogant of him to come down so hard on a way of eating that is very clearly helping a lot more people than he thinks. It looks like fiber isn't the only "menace" we learn about in this book!

This is a very good book for those that don't know anything about colitis and crohn's disease.The book has a lot of valuable information about them, since when they were discovered up to nowadays.I recommend.

I believe that this is a wonderful book for anyone newly diagnosed with Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis. Easy to understand.

A very good book to help one understand about why there is no cure and what options are available.

GREAT BOOK FOR THE NEWLY DIAGNOSED!Very easy to read and truly helps you to gain a full understanding of the disease and its treatments.

Having Crohn's disease or UC means life can be an unwanted roller coaster of doctors, medications and tests. After almost 20 years of Crohn's disease, I've found it's important to have a reliable and comprehensive reference on the bookshelf.

Dr. Saibil's book is just that...it offers great sections on how to minimize disease effects on daily life, basic explanations (with lots of helpful pics) for family/friends, and drug and surgery info. As symptoms (unfortunately) may crop up and your treatments may change, it's important to have a book like this to refer back to.