Tiny's Blog

Tiny's Blog

Tiny's Blog

Crohn's and Colitis: What I Wish Your Doctor Would Tell You

Crohn's and Colitis: What I Wish Your Doctor Would Tell You

Please note that I am not a doctor. The information in this post is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical advice. Always consult with a qualified health professional before implementing any dietary or lifestyle changes. This month I want to talk about inflammatory bowel conditions and natural approaches to managing them. ‘Inflammatory bowel disease’ is an umbrella term that includes Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and colitis. The reason I want to focus on those conditions this month is because I recently got a call from someone who has been suffering with colitis for thirty years. They are no longer finding relief from their prescribed medication and their specialist has warned them that they may soon need to have a section of their bowel removed. Naturally they are pretty unhappy about taking such a drastic step and have started looking to complementary therapies in the hope of…

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Cystoscopies, Bladder Instillations and Hydrodistension for Interstitial Cystitis

Cystoscopies, Bladder Instillations and Hydrodistension for Interstitial Cystitis

Please note that I am not a doctor and nothing in this post is intended to constitute medical advice. These are purely my thoughts and opinions, which are for entertainment purposes only. Please always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before deciding upon or refusing any particular treatment strategy, dietary changes or supplement regimes.When people first discover the Tiny Pioneer website, they are often waiting to see a specialist about their bladder pain condition. Sometimes they have only had symptoms for a short time and don’t know very much about their condition; other times they have been waiting a long time for an appointment and have had the chance to do plenty of independent research. People might also find the site after having examinations and receiving a formal diagnosis of interstitial cystitis – often this group is in the process of weighing up treatment options.In spite of my lack of…

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Does CBD Help With Interstitial Cystitis?

Does CBD Help With Interstitial Cystitis?

Unless you’ve been living entirely off-grid for the last five years, you’ve almost certainly heard of CBD and will be aware of its rising popularity within the complementary health sector. Just in case all the hype has passed you by, allow me to provide a brief explanation!CBD stands for cannabidiol and it is one of 113 identified cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. There are lots of other constituents in cannabis plants besides cannabinoids (similar to how there is lots of other stuff in wine besides alcohol) but it is cannabinoids that are considered the important ingredients. Cannabinoids can be subdivided into several other categories, two of which are the aforementioned cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). To avoid inevitable typing mistakes, I am definitely going to be using those three letter abbreviations for this post!Cannabis is an umbrella term used for around 170 plant species that belong to the Cannabaceae family. Think…

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What Supplements Are Being Clinically Trialled for Coronavirus?

What Supplements Are Being Clinically Trialled for Coronavirus?

Please note that I am not a doctor. This blog post is for entertainment purposes only and nothing in it is intended to constitute medical advice. Please always consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner if you feel unwell, have health concerns, or before starting nutritional supplements.A few weeks ago, just as COVID-19 was arriving in the UK, I wrote about some of the ways we could be proactive in protecting ourselves against the virus and some things we could do to assist our immune system if we should succumb to it. Amongst other things, I focused quite heavily on vitamins C and D. Inevitably since the start of the outbreak, health professionals have been speculating about which medicines and supplements might be effective against COVID-19. In this post, I want to share some of the most up to date ponderings with you.According to the Office of National Statistics, 91% of…

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Layers of the Bladder and What Can Go Wrong

Layers of the Bladder and What Can Go Wrong

I’ve got a bit of a different blog for you this month, because it has pictures! And not just any pictures. I’ve had my coloured pencils out and have drawn them for you myself! We’re going to be learning all about the structure of the bladder and finding out why my decision not to take any exams in Art was probably for the best.As most of you are probably aware, there is no single known cause or single known cure for interstitial cystitis. This makes it complex to diagnose and treat, which can be frustrating. However, if we actually look at how the bladder is made and the ways in which it can go wrong, it makes perfect sense that not everyone’s painful bladder symptoms, triggers and alleviating factors would be the same.The bladder is not the same all the way through, but is made of different layers that serve…

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Are Interstitial Cystitis and Leaky Gut Connected?

Are Interstitial Cystitis and Leaky Gut Connected?

Please remember that I am not a doctor. The information in this post is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical advice. Always consult with a qualified health professional before implementing any dietary or lifestyle changes.I firmly believe that there is significant overlap between ‘leaky gut’ and interstitial cystitis. I have mentioned it in several blog posts, so I thought it was high time I dedicated a whole post to the topic!Whenever I speak to people about interstitial cystitis, I almost always urge them to Google leaky gut. Often, they will tell me that it’s funny I should mention that, because they have irritable bowel syndrome, or suffer from constipation, or can’t eat wheat… Their digestive symptoms invariably precede their bladder issues, which leads me to think that the former may be a causal factor in the latter. Did you know, though, that it is quite…

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Food Intolerance Testing for Chronic Health Issues: Tiny's Review of Cambridge Nutritional Sciences FoodPrint200+

Food Intolerance Testing for Chronic Health Issues: Tiny's Review of Cambridge Nutritional Sciences FoodPrint200+

This is not a sponsored post - I have not been paid to write it. Please note that I am not a doctor and you should always seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before embarking on any kind of dietary changes. Please also note that food intolerance tests are not designed to diagnose or treat any medical conditions.Hello! I’m sure I must have mentioned food intolerances in some of my previous blogs; however, I haven’t yet written a dedicated post about them. I thought I would rectify that this month, because I recently had a very positive experience with a company called Cambridge Nutritional Sciences, who offer IgG mediated food intolerance testing. I never thought there was much point me writing about food intolerances if I couldn’t recommend a testing facility, but now that I have had such a good experience with this laboratory, I feel comfortable in…

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The Helpful Eight: Tiny's Must-Read Books for Your Health and Wellbeing!

The Helpful Eight: Tiny's Must-Read Books for Your Health and Wellbeing!

The festive period is fast approaching and no doubt many of you are hoping that Father Christmas will bring you a good book or two! I love reading and over the years there have been a few books that have been pivotal to my health and wellbeing. In this month’s blog, I will share some of them with you in the hope that it will set some of you off on the path to better health. I’m writing it a little early, as many stores will be holding ‘Black Friday’ events later this month and Santa will need some time to get organised for the big day!For ease of reading, I’ve decided to keep each section very short; however, most of the titles listed are available to buy at major online bookstores where you should be able to read more thorough synopses and reviews. Please note that these books are…

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Have You Heard Of VMT?

Have You Heard Of VMT?

I had this blog post all planned out. It was going to be a bit different, because it was going to be aimed at medical professionals rather than pelvic pain patients. I’d had what I thought was a revolutionary idea for the treatment of cystitis and related genitourinary conditions. It seemed ridiculously simple, but I hadn’t heard of it being done before, so I had planned to blog about it in the hope that one day a medical professional might read it and be able to turn it into a reality.To provide some context for this blog post, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into faecal transplants recently. Also known as stool transplants or faecal microbiota transplants (FMT), these are exactly what they sound like – a stool sample from a healthy donor (or usually a saline mixture of stools from a selection of donors) is put into…

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Announcing the Tiny Pioneer PGAD Survey!

Announcing the Tiny Pioneer PGAD Survey!

Do you know why Tiny Pioneer came into existence? It was because I developed persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) in my late twenties and very quickly decided that mine was not going to be one of those horror stories you read about elsewhere on the internet. I decided that my PGAD would improve and that I would create a hopeful place for others. Interestingly, my post Tiny Tips for Dealing with a PGAD Flare consistently gets more reads than my Introduction to Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder. I consider this interesting because in order to discover the former post, you really have to know what PGAD is and be searching for a solution; by contrast, the latter has the word ‘genital’ in its title and will appear in a wider range of more exciting internet searches, which should, in theory, give it a broader appeal.One of the things I knew even…

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