Hello there,

I think you're right about the clay. I have had colitis for the past 5 years and have bled almost every single day in this time. I refused to take steroids or anything for it as I wanted to find a natural way to cure myself. I was going to the toilet to pass blood 6-10 times a day and had awful stomach cramps every time I ate anything.

I came across some info about QXCI testing on this site so found a practitioner at the Marlborough Natural Health clinic (UK)I had the test(which I had minimal faith in really) and was told afterwards to take the clay once a day and to drink spirulina in juices once a day, also to eat lots of beetroot and to boil cabbages and drink the juice. I was also told to cut out sugar, wheat and dairy for a couple months. The clay is supposed to draw the toxin out of your system (apparently the test showed that I had a bacteria in my stomach called enteroccocinum) and then the other stuff helps your bowel to recover.

I did all this (lapsing occasionally on the sugar front!) but had very little faith as I already have a really healthy diet and had tried the wheat free thing numerous times over the year. A day or two after I started taking the clay my stomach bloated so enormously that I rang the QXCI practitioner as I thought it was doing me mor harm than good. She said this meant the clay was extracting the toxins from my colon. (I thought, 'whatever!' and carried on with it. It's a bit weird cos you smell like the clay the whole time! I go to the gym a lot and every time I started sweating I would smell that clay!! Anyway I did this diet for a few months and then got bored and gave up but after a couple of weeks the bleeding just stopped! I was still taking the spirulina and drinking cabbage juice occasionally but had finished the course of clay. I didn't tell anyone that the bleeding had stopped for about a month and a hlaf as I didn't want to jinx things but 2 months on I'm still not bleeding. I've been eating wheat, dairy, red meat, anything I want in fact and am pretty much fine!

I think the colitis is still there, I see blood very occasionally but only when I poo (sorry bit gross!) and this is only once a day now! ONCE! It took a bit of adjusting actually as I'm not used to food staying in my system and it felt quite odd for a while. I have loads of energy and am suddenly thinking of all the things I have had to accept I'm not able to do: travel! long haul flights! staying at friends! drink coffee! skiing- up a mountain! no loos!!

Honestly I feel so happy at the moment. I know this may well be short lived but the fact that I've got the thing in remission after 5 years and no steroids is pretty great. Anyway I thought I would share this with you and hope it helps some people. Basically I would say don't accept conventional doctors views on colitis, don't pump yourself with drugs and do some research. I don't believe I am stuck with colitis and that it is just something I am destined to live with. I didn't use to have it so I reckon I can get rid of it.

Good luck to everyone and feel free to contact me if you need any info on the stuff I have been trying.