How to Use an Interstitial Cystitis Diet to Reduce Bladder Pain

Interstitial cystitis is a chronic condition that affects as many as 4 million people in the United States, according to an article on the WebMD website. The symptoms often feel like a urinary tract infection and send many sufferers to the bathroom frequently with feelings of urgency. Some people suffer significant pain, while others must alter their life because of the need to stay close to a bathroom. The ailment is caused by inflammation of the bladder and cannot be treated with antibiotics. Although no cure has been discovered for this painful condition, the symptoms resolve themselves in many cases. You can take steps to overcome the pain and live a normal life. Changing the way you eat is one approach that many sufferers have used with success.

The IC Diet

• A link has not been established between diet and IC, but medical experts and sufferers agree that some foods can be guilty of promoting symptoms. Both the American Urological Association and American College of Obstetrical Gynecology recommend modifying your diet to help manage the symptoms of IC. The difficulty in understanding how to modify your diet to ease your symptoms is that what works for one person doesn’t always help the next person. While lists of good and bad IC foods have been formulated, a specific dietary plan will not meet the needs of everyone. A well-balanced diet is the overriding recommendation.

Formulating Your Diet

• The first step in formulating your IC diet is to find out how foods affect you. Start by keeping a food journal. Write down what you eat and when your symptoms flare up. This should help you determine which foods have a negative affect on you. Talk to other sufferers and gather information from books, magazines and the Internet about foods that might be troublesome. Once you have an idea of which foods trigger your symptoms, try an elimination diet. Avoid the suspect foods for a few days or weeks, then reintroduce them into your diet one at a time. If you have a flare-up, you can reasonably assume you should avoid the food you just reintroduced. Keep a list of all foods that cause you problems.

What to Eat

• Some food choices seem to be helpful in reducing IC symptoms. Eat a well-balanced diet that includes lots of fresh vegetables, whole grains, berries, calcium-rich dairy products and lean meats. Fresh food has fewer additives and preservatives than other products, while organic foods contain even fewer additives and preservatives. Try different brands of processed foods and read labels to find out which brands have fewer potentially harmful ingredients. While it’s important for IC sufferers to drink plenty of water, which water to drink can be a quandary. Many people find that the tap water is fine while others prefer bottled water. Read the labels and try different brands of bottled water to find one that agrees with you.

What to Avoid

• The list of foods to avoid seems to be more specific than the list of good foods. Coffee and chocolate are at the top of most sufferers’ lists of treats to give up. Anything containing caffeine can cause a problem. Alcoholic beverages, carbonated beverages, tomato products and artificial sweeteners are on the list of things to avoid. Cranberry juice and other fruit juices can trigger flare-ups in many sufferers. Most spicy foods, fatty foods and sweets can irritate the bladder.