Is there Conservative Crohns Treatment

[Dianna1252]

Is anyone aware of doctors in Massachusetts who treat Crohn's Disease conservatively? Limited and occasional antibiotic use is okay, but not all the other nasty drugs that are so commonly recommended.


I realize Crohn's is a ocmplex disease, however, I prefer to tread on the side of caution.

Any recommendations are appreciated.

thanks.

 

[BWS1982]

It would greatly depend on the severity and location of disease, as well as your symptomology and history, in order to label anything as being conservative. I don't mean to be vague, but due to the variances in the disease, the definition of "conservative" would be fairly subjective and relative.

 

[katiesue1506]

Thats the whole problem... a severe case of Crohn's isn't going to be solved with a "conservative" regimen... it's all based on how bad you are flaring... a person will come to a point where antibiotics won't cut it... the person will stop eating and will get severly undernourished. Its inevitable.

 

[kello82]

hey dianna
pretty much second what the others have said here.
NO one wants to take those nasty drugs, but if it is either that or waste away your body due to a gut so sick it cant absorb nutrition...well then that is what it comes to. i have been there personally, and it is like being between a rock and a hard place to choose the lesser of the two evils.

it all depends on the severity of a disease.
treading on the side of caution is good, there are risks with drugs and they shouldnt be taken needlessly.
but avoiding them completely can also get you really sick, maybe even worse than the side effect may have caused you.
make sense?

do you know the severity of your crohns and everything? what meds are you on, have tried, etc?

 

[D Bergy]

I do not know what you mean by conservative treatment. To me, a conservative treatment would mean a standard treatment. The treatment I use is not standard one, but a very good one for those people it works for.

I use Low Dose Naltrexone, which is a treatment that either normalizes or boosts the immune system and works more often than not for Crohn's disease.

It has temporary minor side effects and is cheap. It also protects you from other autoimmune diseases and Cancer. You can learn more about it at the site below. I do not know who in your area prescribes this, but you can find out at the LDN Yahoo site.

www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

Dan

 

[Dianna1252]

Thanks Dan

This information is very helpful.

Even tho not standard, it's another option and seemingly safer than the "standard" drugs with much greater side effects.

Thank you for this post.

Dianna

 

[BWS1982]

Just use the concept the GI's are using in the first place: Benefits to risk ratio....if a particular drug or remedy has sides or risks that outweigh it's benefits, it's not very logical nor safe to use, but if the roles are reversed, it would generally be a good idea to consider that option. If LDN works for you, what I've seen on it should imply it's a good consideration. On the other hand, for example, when I was taking the almighty prednisone and it was flushing through my digestive tract too fast for proper absorption (according to the GI's assessment) and doing next to nothing at 40 mg for months on end, it was time to taper off it, not worth the sides...

 

[GregD]

I agree that the word "conservative" can be interpreted rather subjectively. If you are worried about taking drugs, you may want to look into the homeopathic route. This would include probiotics, a specific diet, various supplements, ect.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about only using homeopathy to treat IBD, but I know some people have used it with some degree of success. In my case, I use traditional medicine (Humira), but I do incorporate some natural elements, which I believe help keep me in remission longer.

I guess my advice to you would be give alternative methods a shot. However, if things aren't working, don't let your disease get so bad that you permanently damage your GI tract.

-Greg

 

[D Bergy]

To my way of thinking, I want a treatment that corrects the root cause of the problem. Or as close to the root cause as possible. This requires that I understand the root cause, or the most likely root cause of the disease. In addition to that, I want the treatment to have a minimum of side effects and treat various aspects of the disease at the same time.

My determination of the root primary cause was the immune system dysfunction. This dysfunction makes the immune system ineffective in eliminating certain bacteria.

Low Dose Naltrexone takes care of this aspect of the disease, or helps it to some degree.

The secondary cause of symptoms of the disease is the bad bacteria that resides in our body.

I used an unapproved, experimental, alternative treatment for this problem. It is the chemical Chlorine Dioxide. This product is sold under the name Miracle Mineral Supplement. It is an overhyped, and unproven treatment for any disease.

I do not care about that part. It is the properties of Chlorine Dioxide that indicated that it should work for killing acidic bacteria that I was interested in. This is how I initially rid myself of the few symptoms I had. I have not used it much since my initial six weeks of use. I rely on the LDN to keep the bacteria under control.

I could find no evidence that this use of Chlorine Dioxide posed any danger to me, but it certainly has not been tested nearly enough. The risk posed by the disease was greater, in my mind, than the remote chance of an adverse event from the chemical treatment.

Since I am temporarily out of LDN, I am using this opportunity to use MMS again to clean out any bad bacteria that may be present. I will stop using it when my prescription for LDN gets here.

I also take 500 mg of Turmeric, Ginger and a normal dose of Krill Oil in addition to magnesium, vitamin D-3 in the winter, and a multivitamin.

I eat a high protein diet.

This satisfies all the aspects of what constitutes the safest and most effective treatment program from the information I have. It may not be in agreement with everyone's ideas on treatment, but I have to satisfy myself.

If I modify it any way in the future, it will probably be to incorporate a good probiotic to my daily supplements. That largely based on the success of probiotics in some people. I personally had no effect from prior use of probiotics, but I cannot deny that they has helped quite a few people. I would be using them as a preventative treatment.

Good Luck

Dan