In IC as with life, things do not generally happen for no reason- (sorry alot of negatives there, but, you get the point :) ). 

When people flare, even if we dont understand why all of the time, there is a reason. When someone is flaring I go through the typical questions-what changed--food, water, hair/skin care, stress....Uusally people will say nothing. And, they really think--nothing! But, it ususally isnt nothing. It is almost always-something.

Today a good one came up I wanted to share because it is such an innocent mistake. It is really easy to make.

A patient was doing really well, getting back into life and BOOM-worse. We went through the something nothing conversation and it took a while, but, I realized she was eating potato chips made with vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is almost ALWAYS soy or corn-neither of which are good-but more often soy, which, as you all know is really bad for this condition. Sure enough she missed the following words which said, "may contain, soy, corn, peanut,....."

So, beware of foods that are "safe" when you buy them, especially if you change brands and then realize you picked up a package of something containing a food that you would otherwise know causes a lot of pain.

It is good to fall into this mistakes from time to time because you pick yourself back up and get back on track and surely never make the same mistake twice. But, it hurt. So, sometimes it is better to try very hard to not fall into that hole to begin with.

Dr.M