Which alternative treatments for ulcerative colitis are the most effective?

None of them.

As you can see, there are people (quite a few actually) on fluther who won’t put up with people who use alternative remedies (I’m not very popular with some people here, tee hee!).

So on to the remedies. One of them is probiotics.

An anti-inflammatory diet will also help.

Some people have found nicotine to be helpful in relieving pain. I would consider it “alternative” because doctors will not prescribe it for pain relief. I don’t know about the other herbs, but would definitely suggest aloe vera.

In addition here are 9 herbs commonly used as anti-inflammatories. You should use caution because if you develop an allergy toward one, it will cause inflammation instead of reducing it. Some help more than others, depending on your body type, etc. http://theconsciouslife.com/9-natural-anti-inflammatory-herbs.htm

And of course, it’s always best if you can find someone to help you heal instead of going solo. Try to find a good herbalist to help you sort this out.

PM me if you have more questions.

Blessings to you

Thank you. I also understand that yes, there may be people who do not “put up with” what I am asking. Hopefully they will choose not to post.

Suggest purchasing a book on an anti-inflammatory diet. As I understand it, inflammation is a common denominator in every disease known to man. This is because the food we eat either causes the body to increase or decrease inflammation. The logical thing therefore is to, as much as possible, eat an anti-inflammatory diet.

Now this is not a cure-all, and some have not been helped enormously by following this diet, but it’s a good one to follow anyway, and in the end you will be the healthier for it.

In addition, as I mentioned above, try to avoid foods you are allergic to. Even if they have a high anti-inflammatory rating, they’re no good to you if they cause you to swell up anyway!

An anti-inflammatory diet can seem very challenging to follow, and it’s definitely a life-style change. Here’s a link to one of the best books I have found on the subject. The same author offers a larger book with recipes, and there are many other recipes available in other books on the subject.

One more thing. Many drugs, food additives, sugar substitutes, pesticides, and chemicals will have an inflammatory effect on your body. It’s best whenever possible, to eat organic foods, meat grown without antibiotics, breathe pure air, and drink pure water.

OOps! the link to the Anti-inflammatory diet book is here: http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/qt/inflamguide.htm

Wonderful. I’ll hit the library for that today.

While lifestyle and diet changes are a very important part of helping to control IBD I would stongly recommend not giving up on traditional medicine. Uncontrolled UC ends up in one of two places eventually – total colectomy and ileostomy or bowel cancer (+/- metastatic disease) followed by total colectomy and ileostomy. It is not to be fucked with.

This information will be used to accompany traditional medicine and guidance from a doctor. Not once did I mention that an alternative option would be used alone. But thanks anyway.

Regarding traditional medicine, I have found it helpful to use both. Some medical treatments can cause more harm than good, and in the end, it’s up to the patient to prayerfully consider her/his options.

In addition, I have known more than a few people who have been abandoned by the medical profession. By that I mean the doctors will cheerfully continue to see them, but cannot offer them any help.

My next door neighbor is one of them, and so she has become an expert on her own diseases. In many cases she knows more about her condition than the doctor she’s paying to treat her, which I find appalling! One of her conditions is Potts. The nearest Potts doctor is two hours away, and he does not take insurance. It costs her $300 to walk in the door. Another of her diseases is Bartonella. This is a dog and cat disease, but she has it. Nobody will treat her for Bartonella, so once again she is treating herself. Good thing she’s an RN, and thank God we still have herbal remedies available!

Hi. In a way I am the most qualified person on this site to answer you, and in another way I am the least. I had ulcerative colitis but none of the “alternative” treatments worked for me at all. I don’t personally recommend bothering with them, but I will tell you what they are since the choice is up to you.

The most promising dietary treatment is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. You’ll want to get this book by Elaine Gottschall. It is a very difficult diet to follow – absolutely no carbs, absolutely no sugar more complex than glucose, absolutely no cheating. Some people get results from it, though.

Stress is commonly a trigger. I took yoga and tried to diminish stress in my life.

In mild cases, probiotics might keep the disease under control. This isn’t common, though.

Elm bark, marshmellows, and ginger sound like wishful thinking to me, if I’m being honest. I’ve never heard of anyone achieving remission with those things.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I wasted a lot of time on wishful thinking that I could avoid medications or surgery. I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to change my lifestyle (as in “if I didn’t stress out so much, I probably wouldn’t be sick right now”) which only made me feel more responsible for something that was honestly out of my control. I am telling you because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as me that trying to convince yourself that you have complete control over your body, while it may seem comforting now, only brings a false sense of guilt for being sick, when it’s not your fault. I won’t tell you not to try alternative treatments if that’s what you really want. Maybe you’ll be one of the people they work for. But please don’t discount traditional medicine if you’re very sick and you really need it. I almost died because I refused for a long time to go on Remicade. I just had surgery to remove my colon and so I am now cured. I’d be a hypocrite if I tried to pretend that the surgical option is a perfect solution, because so far things haven’t been going wonderfully, but there are a lot of happy j-pouchers out there. I’ll get off my soap box now. I hope I haven’t offended.

Oh shoot, and I just now saw your comment that you’re also using traditional medicine. Sorry about that long lecture if it wasn’t relevant!

My son doesn’t have IBC…but he did live with many of the same symptoms from age 18mos until Dec 2010. At the beginning of Dec, after complaining to our son’s psychologist that are Drs. were leading us nowhere, she recommended a daily dose of probiotics.

I can tell you from our personal experience, that probiotics may literally change your life. For our son, after about one week of just one daily dose, his symptoms were nearly 100% gone.

He now has a better doctor overseeing his overall health. That doctor recommends using the probiotics twice per day. The same doctor also recommends an alkaline diet, and supplements to make up for those that aren’t being properly absorbed due to the colon issues.

To get a good balance of traditional and alternative medicine to help you find an Integrative Medicine Doctor in your area.

My husband has ulcerative colitus.
Anise tea is great for calming the stomach.
We also found that by him taking benadryl at night that it can stay off an attack. You can PM me if you want to know more about that.
Also during a bout when you are suffering the runs, you can also take immodium to stop the runs and give the intestines time to rest and heal.
Diet also plays a huge part in it so write a list of things that seem to irritate the condition and bring about an attack.
For my husband wheat seems to be a big factor and milk as well.
As already mentioned probiotics also helps a great deal. Ulcerative Colitus can throw off the normal bacterias found in the intestines and the probiotics will help to balance it back to normal.
My husband has had it now for about 20 years and in the last 8 he has done great.
His last check up was this past January and he got a clean bill of health. He has been great since doing all the above for the last 8 years. Even got off the meds for 2 years with no incidents. However the doctor convinced him to go back on the meds a preventative measure on his last visit. Blah!

I’m going to add that cases of UC vary wildly from person to person. You may feel better knowing that my case was quite severe and it isn’t always as doom and gloom as I sound. You’re getting some good suggestions on things to try, but no one can tell you what will work or what won’t work. Unfortunately it’s very much a matter of trial and error for what works for each individual. I want to tell you to approach imodium with caution. It does its job for some people; in me it caused massive bleeding.

@Mariah Yes Immodium is really tricky. Many people have claimed that it works for them, and I’ve known some whom even their doctor had advised them to use it. But is says on the box to not use if you have UC, especially if there is bleeding.

@miki Yeah, my doctor had me try it despite the warning on the box. I had a great day that day but man I had one awful night. Glad you’re aware of the risks there.

@snowberry You misunderstand my response. I’m totally fine with complementary therapies if there is evidence to show that they work. For instance, there is some evidence in ulcerative colitis that taking very high doses of omega-3 fatty acids leads to some symptomatic improvement, but there is no improvement in histology. Other than that, though, there is no evidence that any of the alternative therapies posted in the OP have any effect on the disease process.

Ulcerative colitis is a potentially very serious disease. There are mild cases, that just cause rectal bleeding, and extremely serious and potentially fatal cases, with toxic megacolon, sclerosing cholangitis, and liver failure. And then there is the gamut in between where most people fall in. Also, there is an increased risk of colon cancer especially if the disease is left untreated.

The goal of treatment is to treat the inflammation. This is done by direct antiinflammatories such as mesalamine or sulfasalazine, and systemic antiinflammatories such as prednisone. In serious cases patients require chronic immune modulation therapies such as 6-mercaptopurine or infliximab.

Ulcerative colitis is no joke, and should not be taken lightly. It should be treated by someone who is familiar with the disease and knows what they’re doing.

Is there harm with taking an alternative therapy? Probably not. But I only recommend alternative therapies if there is some evidence of efficacy. Otherwise it’s just another pill, and an unregulated one at that. No question that it’s an annoying disease at best and fatal at worst and people are looking for anything that will symptomatically make them feel better.

I went to Dynamed, which is an online evidence-based medicine resource, and this is cut and pasted from there. This is the from the section on alternative therapies.

insufficient evidence to support use of specific dietary interventions for ulcerative colitis
based on systematic review
systematic review of 11 randomized trials including
6 trials of n-3 fatty acid supplementation
2 trials of elemental diet
1 trial of dietary fiber supplementation
1 trial of elimination diet
1 trial of olestra
only elimination diet trial had positive treatment effect, based on 18 patients
Reference – Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax 2002 Nov 20;91(47):2041
omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils)
insufficient evidence to evaluate fish oil for induction of remission in ulcerative colitis
based on Cochrane review of trials with clinical heterogeneity
systematic review of 6 randomized and quasi-randomized trials evaluating fish oil in patients with active ulcerative colitis
pooled analysis not feasible due to differences in outcome and methodology of trials
fish oil reported to induce remission in 1 small trial with 18 patients (p = 0.03), results limited by wide confidence intervals
Reference – systematic review last updated 2007 Jun 12 (Cochrane Library 2007 Issue 4:CD005986)
omega-3 fatty acids may not be effective for maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on Cochrane review with wide confidence intervals
systematic review of 3 randomized placebo-controlled trials evaluating fish oil in predefined dose for maintenance of remission in 138 patients with ulcerative colitis followed for at least 6 months
cointerventions were allowed if evenly distributed between study groups
all trials used different formulation and dose of omega-3 fatty acids, none used enteric coated capsules
no significant differences in relapse rate comparing fish oil vs. control
no significant adverse effects reported
Reference – systematic review last updated 2007 May 3 (Cochrane Library 2007 Issue 3:CD006443)
wheat grass juice may be effective in active distal ulcerative colitis (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on small randomized trial
23 patients with active distal ulcerative colitis were randomized to wheat grass juice vs. placebo 100 mL daily for 1 month
21 patients completed the study and 19 had full data available
wheat grass juice associated with significant reductions in overall disease activity index and severity of rectal bleeding
no serious side effects
Reference – Scand J Gastroenterol 2002 Apr;37(4):444
lower intake of meat and alcohol may be associated with lower relapse rate (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on prospective cohort study
191 patients with ulcerative colitis in remission were followed for 1 year
96% completed the study, 52% relapsed based on validated disease activity index
risk factors for increased likelihood of relapse with odds ratio (OR) about 3 comparing top to bottom tertiles were
consumption of meat, protein, alcohol, sulfur or sulfate
consumption of red and processed meat (OR 5.2, 95% CI 2.1–12.9)
Reference – Gut 2004 Oct;53(10):1479 full-text
diets with more antithiamine additives (sulfites and caffeine) may be associated with greater disease activity (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on prospective study
81 patients with ulcerative colitis completed 7 day diet diary and had sigmoidoscopy
such foods included bitter, white wine, burgers, soft drinks from concentrates, sausages, lager, red wine, and coffee
Reference – Nutr J 2005 Feb 10;4:7 full-text
oral nutritional supplement might have steroid-sparing effect (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on randomized trial with high drop-out rate
121 patients with ulcerative colitis randomized to oral supplement 18 ounces vs. carbohydrate-based placebo formula daily for 6 months
oral supplement enriched with fish oil, fructooligosaccharides, gum arabic, vitamin E, vitamin C and selenium
86 patients (71%) completed the study
intervention group had higher disease activity index score at baseline
no significant differences in changes in disease activity index scores or changes in histologic index scores
supplement group had greater decreases in prednisone dose
Reference – Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2005 Apr;3(4):358
withdrawal of milk may reduce relapse rate in ulcerative colitis (level 2 [mid-level] evidence)
based on randomized trial with allocation concealment not stated
77 patients with attack of ulcerative colitis were randomized to 1 of 3 dietary groups for 1 year
milk-free diet (no milk or cheese, butter was allowed)
gluten-free plus milk-free diet (butter not allowed)
control diet (exclusion of various items such as fried foods, condiments and ice cream; milk consumption encouraged)
gluten-free plus milk-free group excluded from statistical analysis because
diet had poor adherence
some margarine brands used had milk protein
relapse-free rates at 1 year
38.5% with milk-free diet (P < 0.05, NNT 4 vs. control)
29.6% with gluten-free and milk-free diet
8.3% with control diet
Reference – Br Med J 1965 Jul 17;2(5454):138 PDF

Thanks to everyone for all the input! I still welcome more as it comes along.

@Rarebear In a perfect world, what you say would always be true. “I’m totally fine with complementary therapies if there is evidence to show that they work. ”

And in my friend’s case, she’s shooting from the hip more often than not. Even with all her research, It’s still trial and error for her. What has been the most helpful? A certain chiropractor in another town who she says has worked miracles for her, and a small handful of antibiotics and other medications that sometimes help and often don’t.

When she can’t get a doc to prescribe antibiotics that actually work (she has both Lyme and Bartonella, as well as Potts, and a couple of other problems), she tries Oreganol to kill the bacteria (she says it works, but it makes her stomach problems worse). For pain control she just got some sort of gizmo put in that has a battery attached. This thing helps somewhat with the pain, but not always.