Dear Dr. SerVaas,
I just read in the latest Saturday Evening Post about chronic interstitial cystitis and the excrutiating pain Mrs. Martin Zacha's relative has been suffering for years.
I wanted to pass along a response from a letter printed in Nutrition & Healing dated June 2002, where a person got miraculous relief of bladder pain in 24 hours taking D-Mannose. I hope others can obtain the identical type of "almost instant pain relief." I wish her much luck! Please pass on the information to Mrs. Zacha.
Ted Hayashida, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Gardena, California
Dear Dr. SerVaas,
I have some answers for Mrs. Martin Zacha's relative who has interstitial cystitis [May/June 2005].
You are on the right track by eliminating acids from your diet. I suffered from IC and vulvar pain for about six years before I had the good fortune to find Dr. Clive Solomon, who was doing research on oxalic acid and its role in IC and vulvar pain.
All it took was following the low oxalate diet and taking calcium a half hour before meals. Oxalic acid attaches to calcium to be eliminated from the body. Within two months I was 95 percent free of pain, and have remained so for the past 15 years.
Celery was my biggest problem. Celery, in some form, is in most commercially packaged main dishes, and it takes very little to cause a lot of pain. Other foods that are very high in oxalate are rhubarb, berries, chocolate, spinach and other dark green vegetables. For more about oxalate and to order a low-oxalate cookbook, contact the VP Foundation, P.O. Drawer 177, Graham, NC 27253.
Grace Thompson
Graham, North Carolina
Dear Dr. SerVaas,
I've had IC--interstitial cystitis--for over eight years and wasn't diagnosed until a year and a half ago. Since then I've taken (one a day) 10 mg nortriptyline (antidepressant), and it keeps the pain away. Of course sometimes I have flareups, but even then the pain isn't bad. I also drink cranberry juice and take cranberry capsules when I have a flareup, and it helps.
For my bad arthritis, for a year, I've been taking glucosamine sulfate, 1,000 mg capsules, one a day, and it helps so much. It's like a miracle! When I stop it for a few days or a week, the pain comes back, so I start it again. It rebuilds or restores cartilage.
Carol Collum
Woodville, Texas
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