Crohns
Naturopathic Medicine for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease
The most important treatment we give is to first relieve the symptoms and then fix the cause of the problem.
Colitis and Crohn’s disease are disorders characterized by inflammation of the digestive system. The main difference between the two diseases is that colitis (also known as ulcerative colitis) occurs only in the colon (the large intestine), while Crohn’s disease may occur in any part of the digestive system, anywhere from the mouth to the anus. Colitis and Crohn’s diseases are characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhea, and weight loss and, less commonly, fever, loss of appetite, rectal bleeding, flatulence, and bloating. There is no cure for either colitis or Crohn’s disease. The conditions tend to appear and disappear for reasons that are not understood. Medical treatment involves relieving the symptoms of the disorders and attempting to extend the period of remission (inactivity) and reducing the time of relapse (activity). Naturopathic practitioners regard colitis and Crohn’s disease as indications of bodily imbalances that can best be treated by using a variety of natural methods to help the body use its own resources to heal itself.
How Is Naturopathic Medicine Used to Treat Colitis and Crohn’s Disease?
The first step in determining an appropriate naturopathic treatment for colitis or Crohn’s disease is an interview with the patient by a naturopathic doctor. That interview typically reveals conditions in the patient’s life that may have led to the development of one of these disorders. The naturopath will also conduct a physical examination that provides additional information about possible causes for the condition. The treatment designed for the patient may consist of a number of different but related approaches. First, inflammation of the digestive system may occur because of a poor or inappropriate diet, one that consists, for example, of too much sugar or starch, too many processed or synthetic foods, or an excess of saturated or trans fats The ingestion of a number of other synthetic products may also cause inflammation of the digestive system: antacids; painkillers such as aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen
Diverticulitis
The most important treatment we give is to first relieve the symptoms and then fix the cause of the problem.
What is Diverticulitis?
Diverticulitis is a condition that occurs when sac-like pouches (diverticular) form in the wall of the colon and become inflamed or infected. When stool or food is not broken down, it becomes trapped in the diverticular resulting in pain, swelling, bleeding and infection of the abdomen. It is similar to appendicitis and has the potential to rupture if left untreated. Diverticulitis can lead to a number of serious problems such as an abscess, bleeding, bowel obstruction, fistula, perforation or peritonitis.
This condition develops from a condition called diverticulosis – tiny, bulging pouches in your digestive tract. Diverticulosis increases with age and approximately half of the American population between 60-80 years of age have it.
Diverticulitis occurs in 10-25% of people with diverticulosis at some point in their lifetime. Many people are unaware that they have diverticulosis because these pouches rarely cause problems. Diverticula is mostly found in the large intestine but can form anywhere including in your esophagus, stomach and small intestine.
For severe cases of diverticulitis our Naturopathic Doctors may prescribe antibiotics to kill the infection or recommend over-the-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol). Placing a heating pad low on your abdomen will also help to relieve pain and discomfort.
Natural Remedies
A healthier, more effective approach to treating and preventing digestive disorders is by using natural remedies. While many over-the-counter and prescription medications bring symptomatic relief, they also have harsh side effects.
Natural remedies such as herbal and nutritive supplements as well as IV therapy may help to restore and maximize health and reduce imbalances in the body’s system. Many herbs contain anti-inflammatory and soothing properties effective for digestion problems and are excellent to treat digestive pain and irritation.
Colitis
What is Ulcerative Colitis?
Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In ulcerative colitis, sections of the large intestine or sometimes the entire colon become inflamed. Symptoms of ulcerative colitis include diarrhea with blood and/or mucus, and pain and cramping in the abdomen. People with ulcerative colitis often must have more than 10 bowel movements per day and may also experience fever, weight loss and hemorrhoids or anal fissures. In addition to these general symptoms, people who suffer from ulcerative colitis can experience a wide variety of symptoms outside their digestive tract. These can include arthritis, skin lesions and liver disease. Ulcerative colitis symptoms are intermittent, meaning they regularly improve and then return again after symptom-free periods of time. In order to diagnose ulcerative colitis, your doctor must do stool cultures, to rule out other causes of bloody diarrhea like microbial infection, and a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy
The most important treatment we give is to first relieve the symptoms and then fix the cause of the problem.
While medications can certainly help in the short term, they do not provide a cure for ulcerative colitis. If medications do not adequately control the disease, conventional medicine often recommends surgery for ulcerative colitis to remove most or all of the large intestine. Surgery always carries significant risks and patients who undergo surgery for ulcerative colitis still have very frequent bowel movements and many still experience inflammation after surgery. Neither of these options addresses the underlying factors that contribute to ulcerative colitis. Fortunately there are safe and effective natural alternatives to drugs and surgery that do.
Ulcerative Colitis: Treatment with Holistic Medicine and Natural Remedies
Natural or holistic treatment for ulcerative colitis is a safer option because it doesn’t rely on dangerous chemicals. Treatments actually address the underlying problems that lead up to the disease.
Natural treatments for ulcerative colitis focus on:
- Optimizing digestive function
- Normalizing gut flora
- Reducing inflammation
- Correcting nutritional deficiencies
- Specific remedies for individual patients.
Despite the fact that we don’t know exactly what causes ulcerative colitis, we do know that it is certainly related to the following factors: genetics, poor digestion, unfriendly bacteria in the gut, and inflammation. Most likely a combination of these factors is necessary to develop ulcerative colitis. Unfortunately, we cannot change genetics. However, it is important to realize that your genes, contrary to popular belief, do not determine how your body will behave. Instead, your genes determine how your body, specifically your cells, will respond to their environment. Change the cells’ environment and you will change their reaction. (This point cannot be emphasized enough. Too often, people will hear that something is genetic and assume that it means there is nothing that can be done.) Let’s look at these one by one.
To optimize digestive function, we need to look at the entire digestive system from top to bottom to make sure everything is functioning as it should. Digestion begins with chewing, continues to the stomach where food is mixed with stomach acid, on to the small intestine where pancreatic juices and bile mix with the food, and lastly to the large intestine. Are all these steps working properly? Does the patient make enough stomach acid? Do they produce adequate digestive enzymes and bile? Imbalances here can be corrected with appropriate supplementation or herbs.
One example of this kind of compromised digestive function is very characteristic of ulcerative colitis. Specialized cells in the intestinal lining secrete a group of chemicals called mucins that are important to maintain the proper consistency of fluids in your digestive tract. Natural medicine has many herbs and nutrients which can correct for this deficiency of mucins.
Secondly: normalizing gut flora. The intestines of those suffering from ulcerative colitis contain greater numbers of unfriendly bacteria and other microbes. Antibiotics and other medications can kill off friendly bacteria in the gut while allowing unfriendly microbes to survive and thrive in their absence. Similarly, certain dietary choices favor the growth of unfriendly gut bacteria over friendly ones. Unfriendly microbes in the digestive tract are a major contributor to disease, particularly inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. So, not only do we need to replenish the good bacteria with appropriate probiotic supplements, but we need to look at any contributing factors that may be favoring the bad microbes.
Thirdly: reducing inflammation. As ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory condition, quenching inflammation is an important step to take. Pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory medications can have serious negative effects on health, not the least of which is to damage the gut lining and actually promote gut inflammation. Taking appropriate anti-inflammatory herbs and nutritional supplements is important, but it is even more important to seek out and eliminate anything that may be promoting inflammation in the digestive tract. Food allergies are perhaps the most likely culprits here, although medications and other environmental toxins also need to be considered.
Our fourth step is to correct nutritional deficiencies and optimize nutritional status. Patients with ulcerative colitis are often deficient in many nutrients. Inflammation interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. This can be exacerbated if a patient has had their large intestine removed surgically in an attempt to treat the disease. In addition, the drugs most commonly used to treat ulcerative colitis can themselves cause nutritional deficiencies.
Nutritional deficiencies can only compound the challenges to health presented by ulcerative colitis.
Nutritional deficiencies favor inflammation, slow healing time, interfere with appropriate immune response, and can exacerbate symptoms such as fatigue. Correcting for nutritional deficiencies is an essential part of ulcerative colitis treatment.
The final step is to address the individual patient with specific remedies aimed, not at the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, but at the individual’s constitution and personal health history. Every patient is not the same, so there is no predetermined or set remedy for ulcerative colitis per se. Instead the remedy is based on the individual’s subjective experience of his or her symptoms, emotional state, and patterns of daily living (for instance, what their sleep, appetite or energy throughout the day is like). These remedies, either herbal or homeopathic, are generally made from herbs or minerals and are given in small doses daily or less frequently.
IBS
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)—also called spastic colon—is considered by most allopathic physicians a “functional” bowel disorder. By this, diagnosticians mean that while the gastrointestinal tract is not operating well, no anatomic or pathologic cause can be found.
IBS is a fairly common condition, yet a tough one for medical doctors to treat. Conventional medicine offers little beyond assurances that the condition is not life-threatening and medicating with fibrous bulking agents, antispasmodics and antidepressants.
IBS patients should work with a physician who is willing to look beyond the IBS diagnosis. For decades naturopathic physicians have successfully treated IBS by using an individualized, cause-oriented approach. In many cases the cause can be found and then corrected, making symptom treatment unnecessary.
Naturopathic Treatment
The most important treatment we give is to first relieve the symptoms and then fix the cause of the problem.
One way naturopathic physicians address the problem is through diet. Diets low in fiber, high in sugar and fats, and including known bowel irritants such as coffee and alcohol, are certain antagonists for IBS. People with IBS can have abnormal bowel flora, inadequate digestive enzyme production, or a deficiency in short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are formed by fiber breakdown within the intestines.
We can use specialty laboratories to analyze stool for these markers, which can help our doctors better understand your intestinal function and craft an individualized treatment program.
Therapeutic agents used for IBS patients are probiotics, botanicals such as peppermint (Mentha piperita) oil, the effectiveness of which has been known since the early 1900s.
Perhaps more than most physical illnesses, IBS symptoms vary from person to person, and what works for one person may not be at all useful for another. It is a condition that can teach all of us what holistic medicine truly means.
