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Ummm Hi! I'm new... Any way to fight crohns naturally?

KidKillOWatt

KidKillOWatt

Location
Dirty Jersey.
Hi all!
I was just recently (last week) diagnosed with Crohns along with granulomas and am in the very beginning stages. I'm not a huge fan of medicine so I'm curious if there are any natural ways to try and manage? I'm doing the paleo diet along with the SCD diet. I eat extremely healthy to begin with, which could've helped keep this at bay. I'm taking probiotics, slippery elm, fulvic acid, omega 3 fish oil, along with aloe Vera juice. Someone has mentioned Oskra pepsin (sorry if I butchered that spelling)... Which from my understanding is a cleanse.. Thoughts? Anybody have any other holistic ways to go about crohns? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Carrie
 
bumdeal87

bumdeal87

KidKillOWatt said:
Hi all!
I was just recently (last week) diagnosed with Crohns along with granulomas and am in the very beginning stages. I'm not a huge fan of medicine so I'm curious if there are any natural ways to try and manage? I'm doing the paleo diet along with the SCD diet. I eat extremely healthy to begin with, which could've helped keep this at bay. I'm taking probiotics, slippery elm, fulvic acid, omega 3 fish oil, along with aloe Vera juice. Someone has mentioned Oskra pepsin (sorry if I butchered that spelling)... Which from my understanding is a cleanse.. Thoughts? Anybody have any other holistic ways to go about crohns? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Carrie
Click to expand...
Hi Carrie,

Each persons crohn's is so different it's hard to say there is a specific diet or natural remedy to follow. I've had crohns for 26 years and I was on a lot of the supplements you have mentioned and was able to manage for quite sometime. However, after about 5 years I got terribly ill and it's been a roller coaster ever since. There is a juicing thread in here somewhere that you might be interested in. I personally feel take the minimum amout of drugs for as long as possible. Sometimes there is no avoiding it and when you get relief from pain and symptoms you really don't care much what your on. I don't know if that helps at all but hang in there...and don't stop looking for the right fit of supplemets/drugs for you! :)
 
alex_chris

alex_chris

The question of meds or not meds are asked by many (if not all Crohn's patients). I will try to answer it from my perspective. After I was diagnosed in 1999 I took Pentasa (a drug whith little side effects, but also mostly ineffective for many Crohn's patients). Because I wasn't able to manage my Crohn's in the first years after my diagnosis and because I didn't take any actual long term meds that would help me stay in remission, I ended up with two strictures in the smaller intestine and surgery.

After surgery I started with azathioprine which is an immunosuppressive and one of the two ways to treat Crohn's long term (the other being various biologic drugs). While things got a lot better thereafter, it still took me many years to figure out all the non med related Crohn's management (sport, stress management, supplements, diet etc.). At the moment I am in what is called derp remissiom, that is virtually no problems whatsover (for the last 16 months or so). And as a result I am gearing up to phase out aza probably next year (I have done that previously in 2008 and 2009, but not successfully.

Having said all that, people who just got diagnosed and have problems and haven't yet found a way to get into deep remission long term, should - in my opinion - go for long term meds. You can always discontinue med use after having entered long term remission and knowing how to sustain it without meds. But the risk of constant inflammation and flares is in my opinion too high to not try any meds at all initially.
 
KidKillOWatt

KidKillOWatt

Location
Dirty Jersey.
Thank you all for some speedy responses! Its greatly appreciated. Within the past 6 or so months, I was really bad and this was before I was diagnosed. As of now I have inflammation but feel ok. I go back in a month fora checkup so with in this month I'm going to try and go at it naturally. I do have a prescription that I have filled but the side effects are horrible! I don't understand why they give you a pill with side effects that could cause stomach pain, diarrhea, cramps, etc, which is what I'm trying to get rid of. Doesn't make sense to me. I am in excellent health (minus crohns) and the best shape of my life! Now to keep this at bay!

Thanks
Carrie
 
alex_chris

alex_chris

KidKillOWatt said:
Thank you all for some speedy responses! Its greatly appreciated. Within the past 6 or so months, I was really bad and this was before I was diagnosed. As of now I have inflammation but feel ok. I go back in a month fora checkup so with in this month I'm going to try and go at it naturally. I do have a prescription that I have filled but the side effects are horrible! I don't understand why they give you a pill with side effects that could cause stomach pain, diarrhea, cramps, etc, which is what I'm trying to get rid of. Doesn't make sense to me. I am in excellent health (minus crohns) and the best shape of my life! Now to keep this at bay!
Click to expand...
Carrie, what is the prescription for that gave you the side effects you describe? There are only four standard Crohn's meds usually used, 5-Asa, azathioprine/6mp, biologics (remicade, humira, cimzia etc.) and corticosteroids (prednisolone and budensonide). There are other drugs used as well (e.g. Antiobiotics to fight fistulas, LDN etc., but the standard meds to fight inflammation are those I am listing).
 
A

Axelfl3333

Don,t you just love these side effect leaflets that come these medications!!the weather in Scotland is great just now so I,m taking my hayfever spray read the warning leaflet with it and it covers almost all side effects possible including heart attack don,t stress on these things but be aware how your body feels and these drugs are not an instant fix so your trots could be crohns still active it takes time.all the best
 
KidKillOWatt

KidKillOWatt

Location
Dirty Jersey.
It's the generic form for lialda since that prescription was over $500! It's to help with inflammation... I'm being a bit stubborn and not taking it yet. Even hair loss is included! Yikes! Some of the side effects are even worse if on birth control as well. Not cool. It's called balsalazide.

I really can't thank you all enough for the input. I really appreciate it.
 
alex_chris

alex_chris

Balsalazide, lialda, etc. are all the same thing - mesalazine (5-ASA). Today they are usually still prescribed for UC patients as they have been shown of little effect in Crohn's patients. Do you know where your Crohn's is concentrated? Is it in the small intestine? If so, mesalazine won't help much. However, I wouldn't interpret too much into potential side effects of mesalazine, it's quite a harmless drug compared to the standard long term drugs used.

I know at the moment you just don't want to take drugs and want to get Crohn's under control through other means, which is a very valid way to do it. However, my advice is if you can't do it and you keep having problems with your Crohn's (and your blood tests, inflammation markers show inflammation, you have diarrhea regularly, bloating, gasing, sometimes cramping etc.) to think about long term drugs to get to long term remission. As said above you can potentiallz get off them again once you really know how to stay in remission through diet, sport, stress relief etc. - from my own experience, this takes a long time though.
 
KidKillOWatt

KidKillOWatt

Location
Dirty Jersey.
I was just told the left side of my colon is extremely inflamed. He said its ulcerative colitis but he believes its the very beginning stages of crohns due to family history. He prescribed that just to focus on inflamation. That's all I know. Wow you really know alot, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Lately I've been feeling fine with cutting out dairy, gluten and soy product. However I'm on an antibiotic for a doozey of a sinus infection and I'm afraid it may wreak havoc. Probiotics to the rescue!
 
Mattie

Mattie

Hi

I can only confirm Beach's email and point you to Professor Hunters site if you are interested in controlling your Crohns through diet. He is my consultant and has been using diet for his Crohns patients for over 40 years with a great deal of success.

Every patient is different though, and foods which will affect one person are fine for another so it is trial and error to begin with. Personally I remain we'll as long as I don't eat the gluten foods and dairy. So, no wheat, oats, corn and dairy foods but I also react to soya and citrus fruits too!

Apart from cutting out the above, I take a low dose of asacol which is a 5-ASA (very mild anti inflammatory) every day. The best test to see whether or not your Crohns is under control is to have regular faecal calprotectin tests. I have these every three months and they are regularly in the normal range.
 
PsychoJane

PsychoJane

Moderator
Well, there is an array of potentially efficient natural compound that might help alleviate crohn disease. I won't dare to say it can control it properly as there is not much literature on these specific agents and one of the thing is that it gets tricky to be sure of the quality of the substance you are using.

Beside watching your diet, and I would suggest to reduce all kind of chemical uses, home-cleaner, soap, shampoo, etc. Other than the one you mentioned all I can think of on the top of my head right now that could be beneficial is the boswellic acids (boswellia serrata) which as a similar action to the 5-ASA, wormwood and curcumine. Oh and medicinal marijuana.
 
Mountaingem

Mountaingem

Also, no matter which route you choose, please keep up with your labs and colonoscopies. I ended up with Stage 1 colon cancer twice and a fistula because my disease wasn't suppressed even though physically I felt fine. Wishing better days for you soon :D
 
M

mnsun

Maybe take things like Curcumin and better forms of Selenium to prevent colon cancer and supplement for depleted foods (Se). Take better forms of Magnesium (Malate, etc.) and keep a steady supply of Vitamin D3 (like 5,000iu daily--or get tested) to compensate for malapsorption and regulate the immune system.

Perhaps, consider LDN--see the studies and links thread under: Treatment> Low Dose Naltrexone...
 
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