Are there any natural treatments for Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Question

Have a cousins with ulcerative colitis - wondering what could help him.   That disease really sucks.

Comments

I think lowering the stress in your life is very important, just like for psoriasis or any autoimmune disease.
Yoga and meditation are definitely helpful.

Answer 1

Another QO user posted about this site: www.earthclinic.com.  Earth Clinic has a section where users report their successes and failures in treating ulcerative colitis:

http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/ulcerative_colitis.html

Take a look at the great comments and reports.  What is "Humic Acid" for treating ulcerative colitis?  Some posters are claiming that its for killing mycobacterium, which is the cause of ulcerative colitis.  Where do you even get "humic acid"?

Another solution proposed was tumeric, but one poster said that tumeric seemed to increase bleeding and that it's a blood thinner.  Great stuff - but need to read very carefully to separate the wheat from chaff.

Anyway I think Quest Organic could strive to have an as active community as Earth Clinic!  I'd like to hear from our users' experiences how they treated IBD and ulcerative colitis.

Comments

Can you explain humic acid more?  I looked at the wikipedia entry, and i was a little confused.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humic_acid
Is this basically telling us to eat dirt?
Do we naturally get humic acid in our diet?   Or did this happen before when we were cavemen?
I am very interested, and considering chowing down on my yard:)

Answer 2

A natural anti-inflammatory diet is very important.  Do an elimination diet dropping wheat cow's milk and soy out of it.  If you do better, then slowly add these back in one by one to figure out which one is the offending agent.

Also, doing a paleo diet is a very good thing generally.  That might help you in general.

Comments

Actually, the specific carbohydrate diet was originally developed by a mom to treat her daughter's ulcerative colitis.  This is the link to Elaine Gottschall's book and web site.

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

But to balance this, here is an article from the crohns and colitis foundation of america surveying the evidence the the specific carbohydrate diet actually works for IBD - overall mixed reviews.  hard to follow, and unclear whether diet actually works.

http://www.ccfa.org/about/news/scd

Answer 3

What about a storng dietary approach?

• Paleo
• Gluten-free, Casein-free
• Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Frankly, all of these things really minimize processed food, and done right force a big emphasis on greens.  Greens (like Kale!) have a lot of micronutrients like lutein and choline.  

There are prominent examples of this working for MS - Terry Wahl, Roger McDougall, but I am not sure about this approach working for ulcerative colitis, Crohns, or indeterminate inflammatory bowel disease.

Answer 4

Have you thought about Probiotics?   These are bacteria you eat to adjust the bacterial flora in your gut.   Some probiotics are clinically proven to help some people with ulcerative colitis avoid pouchitis - this the a complication of having your colon removed, and a neo-colon formed from the end of your small intestine/ileum.

VSL #3 can be bought without a doctor's prescription, and is pretty regulated unlike most supplements you buy in a Co-op or health food store or GNC.

http://www.vsl3.com/

But looking at the web site, it says it should be used under a doctor's supervision.

Answer 5

 There are some herbs that have shown effects, but should be taken under a physician's supervision - gotta be careful - you never know what can happen with herbs or their impurities.

Boswellia - resin from bark - a tree native to India.  This 1997 study is pretty impressive if the results are true.  Boswellia actually more effective than sulfasalazine which is standard of care.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9049593

Effects of Boswellia serrata gum resin in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Department of Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Jammu, J&K, India.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon where leukotrienes are suggested to play an important role for keeping inflammation active. Boswellic acids, the biologically active ingredients of the gum resin of Boswellia serrata (Sallai guggal), have been shown to be specific, nonredox and noncompetitive inhibitors of 5-lipoxygenase, the key enzyme of leukotriene biosynthesis. In patients suffering from ulcerative colitis grade II and III the effect of Boswellia serrata gum resin preparation (350 mg thrice daily for 6 weeks) on stool properties, histolopathology and scan microscopy of rectal biopsies, blood parameters including Hb, serum iron, calcium, phosphorus, proteins, total leukocytes and eosinophils was studied. Patients receiving sulfasalazine (1 g thrice daily) served as controls. All parameters tested improved after treatment with Boswellia serrata gum resin, the results being similar compared to controls: 82% out of treated patients went into remission; in case of sulfasalazine remission rate was 75%.

 

Comments

Ah, our favorite, turmeric (curcumin) also seems to have some activity in crohns and proctitis (a form of UC).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16240238

Dig Dis Sci. 2005 Nov;50(11):2191-3.
Curcumin therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: a pilot study.

St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University and Strang Cancer Center Research Laboratory, New York, New York, USA.


Curcumin, a natural compound used as a food additive, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in cell culture and animal studies. A pure curcumin preparation was administered in an open label study to five patients with ulcerative proctitis and five with Crohn's disease. All proctitis patients improved, with reductions in concomitant medications in four, and four of five Crohn's disease patients had lowered CDAI scores and sedimentation rates. This encouraging pilot study suggests the need for double-blind placebo-controlled follow-up studies.

Answer 6

Is the disease where smoking prevent the disease?  I remember somethign about this, and looked it up again.

http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/ibdfaqs/a/smokingguts.htm

now if we could only find a disease that drinking beer prevents...

 

 

Comments

oh yeah ITS CALLED BEING BORING

Answer 7

Perhaps move south.   The incidence of autoimmune disease is very linked to latitude - so Crohns disease is endemic in Canada, but much less present in Florida.

I'm actually not joking.   Seems reasonable if you think that vitamin D producing light is much more present in the tropical climes rather than up North.  I think this is due to the tilt of the earth, but i'm not sure.  Certainly, UVB is what triggers Vitamin D production in the skin.

Answer 8

Aim for lowering inflammation in your body.  Eat foods that reduce inflammation.

Answer 9

This is a good review - free to download - that reviews herbal medicine for ulcerative colitis.  mentions licorice, wheat grass, and traditional chinese medicine among others.

direct link

http://www.saudijgastro.com/article.asp?issn=1319-3767;year=2012;volume=18;issue=1;spage=3;epage=10;aulast=Ke

via NIH

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22249085

Answer 10

has anyone had any luck with intermittent fasting for ulcerative colitis?  starvation in general decreases inflammation, but i'm not sure if intermittent fasting would help enough.

Comments

has anyone tried this?  i don't have inflammatory bowel disease, but several of my friends do - interested to hear if this could work for them

Answer 11

Probiotics been mentioned already?  Flocastor, bacillus coagulans?  other brands?  have these worked for people?