Paging Trixie

I am glad you are going to try the Aloe Vera capsules. She took the capsules just as Desert Harvest recommended for IC. She started with 6 a day divided into 3 caps 2xday for the 1 st month. Then she went to 9 a day in the 2nd month divided into 3 caps 3xday. The third month she went to 12 a day divided into 4 caps 3xday. Desert Harvest recommends you give it three full months to see the maximum relief that can be achieved in your body. If at any time during the three months you become symptom free they tell you to stay at the amount that you are symptom free at for two months. Once you are symptom free for three months you can go to a maintenance dosage by decreasing your dose by one capsule until any kind of symptoms return. It seemed like it took some time for the aloe to get saturated in her system and the road was not perfectly smooth. There was some backwards and forwards with it but she just kept at it and the symptoms began to dimisnish over time and even in the beginning she did notice that there was at least some easing of symptoms which made it more liveable. She also took the Prelief that neutralizes the acid in food and beverages and that seemed to help too. I have attached the dosing schedule specifically as Desert Harvest has it laid out. If you have not already, you should go to their website and under the tab that says disease portal, click on that and then select Interstitial cystitis. We scoured every bit of information they had as well as reading all their testimonials because she was able to glean alot of incidental info from others who have found different tips and techniques in dealing with IC. It was a great resource.

Here is the doing info straight from Desert Harvest and that is exactly what she did; Once you get familiar with how your body reacts to the aloe vera you can play around with the dosages and timing of them. I pray you will find quick relief with this protocol but if it is not as quick as you would like, stick with it. They found only 12% of IC sufferers had no positive results with this super strength aloe vera.

Dosage Recommendations for IC Patients

Interstitial cystitis patients in the first double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial took 6 Desert Harvest super-strength, freeze-dried aloe vera capsules per day for three months, 3 capsules in the morning and 3 in the evening (about 12 hours apart) with a full 8-ounce glass of liquid. It does not matter whether you take the aloe vera with food or without. It works the same either way. However, it is important to drink 8 ounces of liquid with each dose. Avoid taking the evening dose at bedtime, or the liquid you drink will cause more frequent trips to the bathroom in the night. Based on our anecdotal findings with more than 50,000 IC/PBS patients, we plan to conduct a dosing study to determine which dose works the best. In the meantime, here are our latest recommendations:

First Month: 6 capsules per day (3 in the morning and 3 in the evening). If you are symptom free after the first 30 days, continue taking 6 capsules a day for the next 2 months. However, if you still have some symptoms after the first 30 days, then:

Second Month: 9 capsules per day (3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evening). If you are symptom free after 60 days, continue taking 9 capsules a day for the third month. However, if you still have some symptoms, then:

Third Month: 12 capsules per day (4 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, and 4 in the evening). If the symptoms do not respond within 3 months while following the 6/9/12 dosage recommendations, we assume that you are one of the 12.5% of patients who will not respond to the aloe vera at all. In our database of more than 8,000 IC/PBS patients, 75% received at least some relief and 42% had total symptom control, although symptoms can return if the aloe vera is discontinued.

Maintenance Dose: If you are symptom free after three months, the daily dose can be decreased by one capsule per week until symptoms return (for instance, week one take 5 capsules per day, week two take 4 capsules per day, week three take 3 capsules per day). When you notice symptoms, increase the daily dose by one capsule and continue on this maintenance dose. On bad days, a burst of 3 to 6 extra capsules at any time of day may bring symptoms back under control for many IC/PBS patients. It is safe to take 21 capsules or more per day.

Flare-ups: If you have a sudden increase in symptoms, we recommend 6 capsules every 4 hours until you have your symptoms back under control. Most people only have to take the first 6 capsules to see relief.

I forgot to address your question on how long it took to get relief. She had moments of relief even in the very beginning even though things were far from fixed yet. She wouldn't have quite as much urgency and she was getting up less frequently in the night even in the first week or two. She could tell a difference in subtle ways and as you know when you are suffering so severely with IC ANY relief no matter how small is a great thing and you are so thankful for it. And the recovery was kind of hurky jerky. It was not a straight, smooth road out of the IC. Some days would be better than others and it would even fluctuate from one part of the day to the next but overall she was making progress and it was becoming more manageable and more liveable. The aloe took the edge off the intense suffering within the first week to 10 days so at least she could cope with it and she began to have some hope. And she was faithful with taking her aloe vera. She never missed a dosage. That is why it is good to have a bottle or two on hand once you start taking it so there is no break. You want to keep the constant flow of the aloe in the system. They do say too that if the original dosage of 6 a day seems to make it worse you can start out slower and work up to the six a day. She had to do that in the first few days but she quickly got up to the 6 a day and continued to build from there.