Ulcerative Colitis Movie Review: True Guts

To a large extent, this movie (or rather, documentary) rings true for those of us who suffer from moderate to severe bowel conditions. While most people do complain of occasional gas, it feels for us IBD sufferers that we are isolated in our struggles with chronic diarrhea, pain, flatulence and constant attention and monitoring that we have to engage in with regards to our bowel condition. We wonder, "Am I going to have terrible diarrhea during lunch out with my friends?" "Am I going to keep from hanging around my lover thanks to the embarrassment that I still have about this?" Things like that, things we wished we never had to think about, things that seem like we're the only ones thinking about.

I'm glad that there's finally a widely-distributed media piece that deals with Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis. However, I found myself a bit dissatisfied with what the physician's had to say on the matter. Sure, that's great that Dr. Korzenik talks about treating the conditions in conjunction with the wisdom of nutritionists, but his vague comments on thinking of the illness on a "global level", only makes the average suffer wonder, how does this even apply to me?

I liked the proactive approach to confronting the illness, the five-step program in fact that is outlined in this documentary. No, actually, I didn't really like it at all. I like the effort to get people to readjust their view on their situation. I also liked the effort to humanize the disease, to bring personal accounts, challenges, and positive realizations to sufferers, and to raise awareness and sensitivity among non-sufferers. However, I couldn't really agree with the acceptance message: to accept that one has to live with the disease forever. I still see the condition as something that has developed from a combination of factors, and I myself have been able to reverse it significantly. I don't see the point in embracing it; it's not really a part of who I am, and I hope to, with constant vigilance and steady progress, to become closer to how I once was, to inch closer to true health. Living with chronic bowel problems leads to nutritional deficiencies and malabsorption problems, not to mention skin problems, pale skin and other things that I've noticed came along with my intestinal problems. I would have liked to see more on alternative therapies rather than conventional treatment, especially since I know from personal experience (and from several friends that I know) that physicians and medicine can often do more harm than good. Read my other article about my personal experiences, and you'll get a feel for why I've developed my suspicion for the medical system, and have taken matters into my own hands by conducting my own research, and getting valuable information from unbiased sources (such as curezone.com; earthclinic.com).