I take:

2 fish oil pills. They seem to help. Not really to sure why though? Haha

1 prenatal pill. This helps a ton. I've noticed a huge increase in how my body is actually getting all the vitamins it needs now. My hair is fuller, my nails are longer, and I don't have big bags under my eyes! Lol.

I eat greek yogurt with honey at least once a day. its my fave.

I take multivitamin (Women's One A Day) everyday (to combat borderline anemia)

and occasionally take B100-complex.

I am considering the fish oil pills. I have heard they are very helpful.

I just take a probiotic (150 mg.) I use to take fish oil but it seem to give me bad heartburn, anybody else have that prob? I'm not sure how the probiotic is doing I haven't been on it long enough, check back with me later, OK? I also found a frozen yogurt w/ probiotic in it..I love it, I make smoothies w/ it. Love and Peace Marcia

I take Vitamin D as well. 1000 to 2000 mg per day.

I've played with fish oil (it is supposed to help with inflammation for those who were wondering) but never tke it consistently enough. I do watch to get Omega 3's in my food. I know it's supposed to help IBD.

I'm on a prescription strength iron supplements 3x a day (because I am still bleeding).

I also take Calcium/ Magnesium as I'm female (and I've been on prednisone recently).

Finally, I tried to start probiotics this week but I think I took too strong of one. I had horrible diarrhea two days after starting it. That's outside of my normal UC symptoms at the moment.

The other things I know I should add - Vitamin C (to help with Iron absorption) and a multi-vitamin.

interesting, it looks like we all take similar stuff. i always forget about calcium,but i think i eat enough yogurt and milk. thanks for sharing :)

Kricha, pregnancy is great for growing hair and nails, but i'll warn you, it will fall out after shortly after baby is born. my hairdresser says it goes into a growth cycle, and keeps growing during pregnancy and doesn't go into the fall out stage, but returns to normal cycle of growth, dormant, fall out after baby comes.

ActiveUCer - i wonder if the response to the probiotics is temporary, and it will get better when the good/bad bacteria balance is restored, or if it is a coincidence that your IBD gave you diarrhea at the same time. hopefully it wont last long.

I take:
1. Boswellia Serrata 3x a day for inflammation and its supposed to help with joints, instead of Balsalazide.

2. CoQ10 once a day. Doc said for me not to take fish oil since I have thyroid disease.

3. Ultimate 10 probiotic 13 billion organisms.

4. Ester C for anti oxidant support.

5. Levothyroxin for hypothyroidism.

6. Ambien for sleep.

They all seem to work, but still waiting for a normal, "formed" BM. I kinda forgot what they looked like, lol.

I don't take any supplements any more now that I'm a vegan. Theoretically, I should be getting all the nutrition I need from the whole foods I eat. Whole foods contain all the stuff you need to properly absorb the nutrition from them. For example, you are wasting your money if you take fat soluble vitamins without eating them with some sort of fat because you can't absorb them properly.
Also, there are side effects from taking partial nutrients. Men who take vitamin E supplements have higher instances of prostate cancer.
There is so much we don't know about nutrition that I'm just going to play it safe eating healthy, organic, whole foods, thank you very much.

Terrifico - I'm not pregnant, I just take prenatal pills because they give so many more nutrients. After I was diagnosed I literally looked like death, and both of my sisters were pregnant at the time. They told me to start taking prenatal pills and I've been doing that for about a year now. It makes a HUGE difference for me!

yes. prenatal pills are helpful to some.

I was anemic throughout most of my childhood. When I was only 12 years old, my doctor made me take prenatal pills because they were a good source of iron and other vitamins I needed.

I think that getting all of your nutrition from whole foods is a great ideal to strive for. However, that may not be possible with a compromised digestive system and with some of the medications we each take. For example, I lose more blood every day than I could possibly make up by eating iron-rich foods. I've gone anemic while regularly eating (every day) spinach and/or kale, eggs, and meat twice a day. There are richer sources of iron, but still not enough to meet my daily iron needs. I probably could have been better on my Vitamin C intake at the same time though. There's also the calcium problem while taking corticosteroids. It's not that people can't eat a balanced diet, but that in order to absorb what they need, people need higher volumes of vitamins/minerals than what can be consumed in a reasonable number of calories of food alone.

Also, veganism/vegetarianism can often lead to vitamin B12 deficiency unless you are eating fortified foods - which is a form of vitamin supplementation in and of itself.

I believe some research has indicated that the Omega 3/ Omega 6 balance in the meats we are eating has shifted over the years. We now eat more Omega 6 than we did in the past. Omega 6 fatty acids are transformed to something else in the body (blanking on the name right now) that is linked to inflammation. So the foods available to us now result in a radically unbalanced Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. So taking Omega 3 (found in fish oil) might actually make sense in this instance.

If you do the vegan thing right there is no reason you can't get all your proteins and vitamins from foods! I ate vegan for a few months and my digestion was never better! I mean it- but it was too hard and so I stopped :). It is really hard to get all your nutrition from food from an effort standpoint. But when you do there is nothing better.

Is everyone talking to their GI about the supplements they take? When I was having problems with throwing up, my GI took me off all my supplements and told me I was getting my body to work too hard. There is no FDA regulation and not all supplements are created equal.

I take VD everyday but since it's fat soluble you have to buy the oil based- the tablets will simply not get absorbed- so look for the oils. Also if I am feeling like I need it, I have VB liquid that I squirt under my tongue. I also take a multi V always GUMMIES! And gummy probiotics.

If we can't absorb nutrients from food, how easy do you think it is to break down tablets- I know we have all seen whole lialda or other pills in the toilet right? Stick to oils if they are fat based, gummy or liquid if they are water based. Buy the good stuff, if you don't then you are wasting money. but really I hope you all talk to your GI about everything you take.

very helpful info everyone!
Kricha, sorry to jump to the wrong conclusion! i never thought of taking prenatal vitamins, great idea.

i always take my vitamins with food and water, so i can absorb it all best. i must be getting the vitamin D, since i have started having so much more energy since i started taking it. huge difference.

KewlB, so great that vegan diet is working for you, it's certainly not for everyone, and very hard to stick with, so good for you for being dedicated to it. i am a carnivore, i think my ancestors were T. Rex cuz i feel best if i eat a lot of meat, and minimal or no grains. Vegan would never work for me. i eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies with my meat, and try to eat at least 5 colours a day to get all the nutrients.

getting nutrients from foods only is best for sure, but not always possible. If i lived alone, or did all the cooking, i could manage it, but i only do half the cooking, and its hard enough to find foods that my family will eat, and accommodate my sensitivies and allergies without having to cook two separate meals. sadly, convenience wins out when meal planning more than it should.

I think I could have a healthy diet that included beef as long as it was a rarity. My diet is based on research I've done on anti-inflammatory foods. My two favorite sources are David Servan-Schreiber's Anti Cancer Diet and Dr. Fuhrman's diet (maybe you saw him on PBS). Everything I've read points to plant based diets being the healthiest. The majority of what I eat, almost 60%, is veggies, the rest, beans/legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds. Less than 20% is whole grains and sweet potatoes. According to Dr Fuhrman, I could eat poultry, eggs, fish and fat free dairy if it was less than 10% of my diet. However, I found that cutting out eggs and beef completely really made a huge difference in my UC symptoms and I was practically living on them! I don't miss beef and eggs, but I do miss fish.

I'm still in the experimental phase of my diet, coming up on three months. I've been a vegetarian before but when I went into a flair I fell back on my SCD, which only helped slightly.

Sorry for going off topic.

Have you heard of Dr. Terry Wahls? She claims to have cured her MS through minding her mitochondria. She did take medication, but she basically went from a wheel chair to being able to ride a bike through eating a specific amount of certain foods. Now this is eating for your brain, but it's obvious that our health is tied to our diet. When you eat like crap, you feel crappy and you get fat. When you eat healthy, you feel better. Look her up on u tube. I like that she mostly focuses on what to eat in order to get certain nutrients, as opposed to what to avoid.

Now I know you all know I also believe firmly in western medicine. And I think with CD and UC luckily these diseases are not degenerate and the goal is to get into remission. Once we reach remission our goal is to stay there. Therefore its my opinion that when we are very sick, we take medicine and we feel better. At that point and through the maintaince phase is when I think diet and supplements can play a role. But when you are in a flare, it's really important we follow our GI's plan to get that inflammation under control and back on our feet!

Okay that was very long and sorry if I got on my soap box! I just worry about anyone getting in their doctors way since we are all so different anyways:). I just want everyone to get into remission and stay there!

I'm wondering about something - I think the Paleo diet also claims to be anti-inflammatory - but they advocate eating grass-fed beef. I don't advocate any particular diet at this point in my UC existence, but I was wondering how one anti-inflammatory diet proclaims beef bad but another claims that beef is good. Is it the Omega 6/ Omega 3 balance in grass-fed beef versus regular beef that allows Paleo's to eat it?