Reddit reviews NOW Supplements, EGCg Green Tea Extract 400 mg, Free Radical Scavenger*, 180 Veg Capsules

EGCG works fine for me. From what I understand, EGCG will help prevent the 5-htp from being converted into serotonin before it reaches the blood brain barrier.

I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/Foods-Green-Extract-400mg-Vcaps/dp/B001DNV5CA

I thought it’d be useful to post a nicely-formatted list of everything I was taken, with links to the products as well as the evidence-based papers and studies for each.

Methodology

I won’t take anything based on someone saying “this worked for me.” It needs to have real, scientific evidence. I have read hundreds of journal articles, seeking out quality evidence for things that have been shown to help with ulcerative colitis.

Of things with evidence, I tend to focus on things that have the fewest side effects possible.

Unfortunately, some of these things are only available as “natural supplements” which means that rather than the active ingredient being perfectly isolated, they contain a bunch of other random stuff from wherever that came from. I tried to choose companies for the natural supplements that seemed reputable, so at least I’d hopefully be getting what they claimed I would.

Background

I was having a flare—including abdominal pain and blood in my stool. I continued taking my oral mesalamine, then as I had for previous flares, added a mesalamine enema, used nicotine patches, and took wheat grass tablets. I added each one every two weeks. After eight weeks, the blood had long since stopped, but the pain didn’t.

I contacted my doctor. He added prednisone at 40 mg/day. That made things worse. After a week, he upped me to 60 mg/day. After one week of that, and no improvement, I added many other things, as outlined below.

After taking all of these things for a month, the pain hadn’t stopped.

I had a colonoscopy, which showed no inflammation. None. My doctor and I agree the pain is likely from something else; I will soon have a CT scan to help figure out what.

Do any of the things below work? In theory any, all, or none of them could have contributed to my colon being perfectly normal and healthy. There is no way to know which, if any of these, did anything.

Everything I was taking, dosages, and evidence

IMPORTANT: Almost all of the studies referenced below combine these things with mesalamine. So nothing is a substitute for that! These must be taken in conjunction with mesalamine.


|Drug|Dosage|Study|Quality of Evidence|
|--|--|--|--|
|Prednisone ℞|40-60 mg/daily, then taper|Many|Excellent
|Lialda (mesalamine) ℞|2.4 g/daily|Many|Excellent
|Apriso (mesalamine) ℞|1.5 g/day|Many|Excellent
|Mesalamine Enema ℞|Nightly|Many|Excellent
|Visbiome (was called VSL#3)|225 billion CFU/day|Meta-analysis|Good
|Nicotine Patch|14 mg/day|Meta-analysis; Placebo-controlled|Good
|DHA/EPA (also sold as “fish oil”; this one is vegetarian because I am)|1080 g DHA+540 mg EPA/day|Meta-analysis|Good
|Wheat grass tablets|21 tablets/day|Placebo-controlled|Good; small study
|Sunflower lecithin|10 g/day|Meta-analysis|Good to moderate
|Curcumin (from tumeric)|2.6 g/day|Meta-analysis|Moderate
|EGCg|400 mg/day|Rat study|Good in rats; poor in humans; WARNING: Dosages over 338 mg/day cause liver toxicity
|Bupropion immediate release ℞|100 mg three times/day|Rat study; TNFα only|Poor; only shown to lower TNFα; no studies on its effect on UC; study done in rats
|Rutin|1.8 g/day|Rat study|Poor

℞ indicates a prescription drug. Mesalamine and prednisone are commonly prescribed for ulcerative colitis. Bupropion is normally prescribed as an antidepressant so your gastroenterologist may be reluctant to prescribe it for this, especially since there are no studies of its effect on ulcerative colitis in humans.

Yes it will help, but you want EGCG, the most important molecule in green tea. I like this one from Now Foods. Many people use more supplements like Yohimbine, MCT oil, EC stack, naringen, forskolin, synephrine, all kinds of stuff for cutting, but if you're making good progress already you don't really need all that, especially at 18. I think EGCG would be a good addition with basically zero side effects, other than positive things like more energy and focus. You could also add some caffeine if you want, which would help too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DNV5CA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Best bet is amazon.de I had no real luck finding them any where other than here. Yes a little pricy for all of them, but better safe than sorry.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0016687K2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00151G8L8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000BD2KBI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B001DNV5CA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0019GW38G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000NRYTPM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In that case I'd stack it with a caffeine source and EGCg since he also mentioned being healthier. EGCg will help fight free radicals and improve your overall health.