Gabriela- Glad you are seeing the bright side to this. that has to help with healing!!
 
Are you ready for this?
I ate organic, whole foods. Like I buy raw milk and grass fed beef from a farmer. I ate very little sugar mostly in the form of maple sugar and honey. I am a professional performaer/choreographer so i exercised a lot plus walked everywhere. Mostly watched what kind of artificial crap i use on my skin and hair. Altrhough I have dyed my hair for about 20 years. I did drink alcohol but very much in moderation.
It is very frustrating to me that I got this disease.
However-and this is where I think all this stems from  for me--- when I was in my early 20's (I am 37) I was on the PIll for 5 years during which time i got so many UIT's they put me on pREVENTIVE ABX! I could scream at how ignorant I was. i was also a bad vegetarian at that time (soy, french fries etc) 
13 years later...
 i had a really rough pregnancy as far as nausea goes and my diet was horrendous plus I was very stressed wehen my baby was 6 weeks on - multiple things happened -and i think that pushed me over the proverbial edge into IC.
I will say- I am already reaping the benefits of this diet in the fact that I am eating 2x as many vegetables and finding new ways to eat them all the time. In the end i am confidant that I will emerge stronger and healthier than I could have hoped for before IC.
 
But I still miss my white wine here and there...a lot. :(

Wow ladies, you were very good in your before IC lives. I think I fit every one of Matia's reasons in her thesis for why I got it. I was on the Pill for 14 years and had the injection as well. I had numerous antibiotics over the years but the most only in the last year before IC. I never drank water, only diet fizzy drinks. I had sugar, processed food, diet foods for nearly every meal, a proper balanced meat was only something I had at my parents or when I ate out. I had an eating disorder for a long time, I thought it was healthy to eat only fruit all day when I was trying to be healthy. I hardly ever had vegetables, I never ate foods or things from health food shops, I ate sweets (you call them candy) with all kinds of colours. I drank wine and beer, not too much but every weekend.
And then I lived my life in hyper stress, hyper activity, holding grudges, holding onto the past (had the classic dysfunctional upbringing, distant mother etc), bad sleeping, no relaxation (except eating)...you name it, I did everything possible and more that led to IC. The miracle is that I survived so long as I was 40 when it hit me and when I see now how young some women are that are getting it and how some of them are not as destructive as I was, I now actually wonder how my body held up so long and so well before falling apart. I now thank God that I did not have to know this disease until I was old enough to realise the costs. To be young or very young with this disease, it is not right and not fair. I am not saying I deserve to have IC but it upsets me now when I read of posts like the above where people lived much healthier lives than I did.

I would say taking antibiotics for acne during my teens was the main contributing factor.  My IC symptoms worsened after taking them off and on again for a year while trying to get a diagnoses for my bladder.  Taking allergy pills probably didn't help either.

Prior to IC I ate healthier than regular American diet. I grew up in Europe and we didn't have fast food on every street corner back then. I never consumed fast food or large amounts of soda. I ate okay, not totally healthy.
As my career progressed, I felt like I had to work a lot of overtime with tight deadlines that caused stress. I also had difficult pregnancy and slightly preterm labor at 42. Then, I took care of my daughter who had severe reflux and life threatening apnea while continue working in high stress position. I went with 1.5 hrs intervals of night sleep for eight months. I drank a lot of coffee to stay up and continue performing. I also started liking Diet Pepsi. After I finished breastfeeding, I experimented with face fillers and THAT medicine that numbs your crow feet around eyes. Lastly, unnecessary cystoscopy, hydro-disctention, and installations were the final straws. I did not have pain before, only mild frequency. No pressure either. The doctor never offered any medications to try, he went straight to surgery and installations. Insane. 
There are so many things that changed during last few months. IC is such a journey. Although I would prefer to never learn what IC stands for, I like myself better now. I treat my body as a treasure and not take it for granted. Every natural bowl movement is a cause for celebration now. You can relate. :) I also treasure my time. I should admit that I have not seen a single positive sign until I found icama website. Matia's diet was a milestone. Other doctors handed me a list of things that 'may' be a problem and sent me on my way. I never got anywhere trying to figure it out. What I am trying to say is that until I brought my pain level down (through diet), I didn't get out of that dark hole. Then, I started to think like a human again and made important life altering rational decisions. Pain sucks.
 

Most people eat and drink things that are wrong for their bodies, take drugs, all things that could precipatate IC.  Why do some people get it and not others?  Perhaps it is genetic and something just triggers off that particiular gene.  Maybe some people are just more prone to have bladder problems, like some people are more prone to ear infections.  There isn't enough known about IC to say exactly what causes it.  Why do some people improve quickly on Matia's protocol and others do not?  The disease is a medical enigma, to be sure.