March 2019 Supplements Update

Remember my YouTube video "My Interstitial Cystitis & UTI Supplements: Healed from Wheelchair to Walking" that I released back in November 2018? There were many many supplements in that video. I stopped the Pro C Vitamin C, because it was actually hurting me. I was surprised it still hurt despite that it was a buffered Vitamin C  (no citric acid or acid ingredients in it, but my naturopath said that Vitamin C is still acidic anyway). I went off it, and felt much better. Then I went back on it and my bladder was raging again. I had the same negative experience with Bladder Ease as well, but it had really helped the famous Youtube ICer Jessica Parks. By December 2018, I stopped doing all supplements and weaned myself to a core few. By March 2019, I am at 65% - 80% better in my condition, it will fluctuate back and forth. I learned from another ICer (who healed herself in 2 years) that she weaned herself down to just a few supplements to give her bladder a break too, and then she recovered! So that is why I took a page out of her book to do only a few supplements.

Some people say they have side effects to D-Mannose such as diarrhea. I have no side effects from D-Mannose. I can take this as little or as much as I want. I know everyone is different, but I take this stuff like it was candy. I would assume to say it is working, since my ecoli has been diminishing according to my MicroGen DX tests. I have gone down from 1.5 million in July 2018, to 72,000 by September 2018. The decreasing pain in my bladder matched the decreasing count of ecoli so it made sense.

Currently I am on:

Westcoast Mint D-Mannose - D-Mannose grabs e-coli. Since MicroGenDX DNA urine tests detected ecoli as the main culprit for my UTI, this was a must-have for me. It doesn't taste like mint. People keep asking me that. It tastes like icing powder sugar. When mixed in water, it kind of tastes like pancake water. This might sound a bit odd, but I even top it on top of my gluten-free pancakes so I get a bit of sugar flavor to my pancakes! I am trying to be on a sugar-free diet so I do not eat sweets. D-Mannose is the only thing that is deliciously sweet, and not harmful for me. I take 1 teaspoon three times per day (total of 3 teaspoons daily), which is equivalent to 7 of their mini-scoops three times a day (total of 21 mini scoops daily). They have a mini scoop in each jar which makes it very convenient - I don't have to grab a spoon out of my drawer every time to take it. But now that I'm feeling 80% better, I'm doing less. Sometimes I take it once, other times I double or triple the dose. You can find my exact measurements of what I was taking throughout my UTI saga if you sift through my old D-Mannose posts.

Metagenics Ultraflora Women's probiotics is another one that I take daily. It is a probiotic taken orally by mouth. I swallow 1 or 2 pills daily. According to their description, it is a unique blend of probiotics taken orally to help maintain a healthy vaginal microflora and support urogenital health. My American urologist, Dr. Hsieh, had highly recommended Jarrows Fem Dophilus. But since I cannot get it in Canada, Ultraflora Women's was the closest one to Jarrows I could obtain. If you have access to Jarrows, make sure you get the refrigerated version, because that one has a much higher dosage than the non-fridge version. The non-fridge version is good for traveling, but it's 5 times less potent, which means you need to take 5 pills to equate 1 of the fridge version's pill.

* looking for a gut probiotics *  -- I was doing Florastor for many months which seemed to work great for my gut. My gut was greatly disturbed from all those antibiotics I've taken throughout My Story. I stopped Florastor and tried another one which flared me horribly (the one on my YouTube video) so now I'm looking for a proper gut probiotics once again. I'll update this section when I find one that does not flare me. Otherwise, I may go back to Florastor. I feel like I should be on something more powerful. Florastor is in the millions, but I have seen brands carrying billions of flora for their probiotics. I feel like those would repair me faster, but I don't know which brand to turn to. Back when I was doing Florastor, I was taking 1-2 pills per day when I was not on antibiotic. But I would increase the dosage to 4-6 per day while on antibiotics to prevent me from getting C-Difficile. If you read my How to Cure C-Diff post, I reversed my C-Diff naturally by taking Florastor and a few other things. Florastor was the power house in resolving my C-Diff.... and I also took it in high dosages to prevent C-Diff everytime I was on antibiotics for this chronic UTI.