have a very similiar story to yours, came down with UC after a bought of food poisoning, just discovered yerba mate about a month ago and have had incredible success with it helping my UC. i'm a competive athlete and have noticed that the yerba mate seems to really dehydrate me when i doing alot of running. no matter how much water i drink i still seem dehyradted. just thought i'd ask you if you have that similiar problem since you seem to be athletic, active, individual. love the mate and feel it has done wonders for my uc, just trying to figure out what amount is right. how much do you drink a day? how do you drink it, and what kind do you drink? really think the stuff is something special. started after reading another post by someone on curezone under the topic "A temporary or permanent cure???"