Chinese Medicine & Crohn's: Practitioners Strive to Customize Treatment

If you've been diagnosed with Crohn's disease and are interested in alternative treatments, you have at least two choices to make.

The first is whether you think Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might be of benefit. The second is if you intend to combine TCM with conventional therapies to try to treat this incurable condition.

According to the Holistic Health Network, TCM classifies Crohn's into one of four categories. The category of the disease determines the appropriate treatment.

Invasion of Damp: This refers to heat in the colon and the acute and sudden onset of symptoms such as diarrhea, mucus and blood in the stool, tenesmus and even a preference for drinking cold water.

Spleen Deficiency: TCM speculates this condition might be caused by a constitutional deficiency or overeating cold and raw food. It suggests that individuals suffering from Crohn's disease usually present with a spleen deficiency marked by a compromised ability of the organ to transform and transport food. As a result, patients experience frequent and severe diarrhea, watery stool and undigested food, dull abdominal pain, poor appetite and digestion, gastric discomfort after eating, a pale facial complexion, fatigue and lethargy. The last two are caused by chronic malabsorption and malnutrition.

Spleen and Kidney Deficiency: This category has also been linked to a potential constitutional deficiency or problem secondary to the chronic nature of Crohn's. Patients in this group experience diarrhea starting around 5:00 a.m., abdominal pain that escalates with cold but wanes with going to the restroom, cold hands and feet and general intolerance to cold.

Qi and Blood Stagnation: Qi refers to energy. This category generally looks like an acute phase of Crohn's disease. Patients undergo severe abdominal pain and fullness. A palpable mass in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen resembles appendicitis. They report diarrhea, lack of an appetite, muscle wasting and lethargy.

The Holistic Health Network considers acupuncture, a form of TCM, excellent treatment for Crohn's patients. So did I before I tried it. I spent most of the first appointment giving a detailed history and experiencing just a couple of needles that caused only minor discomfort. However, on my second visit, the needles in my hand caused almost constant pain.

I gave up and tried various types of Chinese tea. Green tea in particular has properties that reduce inflammation. Since I basically hate the bitter taste of tea and sugar is known to increase diarrhea, this lasted all of four days before I quit. I then began to consider various Chinese herbal concoctions.

Although I have had parts of my small intestine removed in three surgeries, at the time, I was about seven years past the second operation. The issue that had me stumped was how much of any treatment I swallowed would actually be absorbed by my remaining small bowel. I also fretted about what was compatible with my Imuran - an immunosuppressive drug - and what could be toxic. I was skeptical that anyone knew what would be both a safe and an effective dose for me.

After reading about potential side effects such as toxic colitis or toxic megacolon, massive hemorrhaging, free perforation and fulminating toxic colitis - all of which require immediately treatment - I eventually decided to steer clear of TCM treatments and stick with conventional therapies.

Among the herbs I considered were rhizoma dioscoreae (for well being in the spleen, lung and kidneys), poria (for heart, spleen, lung and kidney channels), dried tangerine peel and several other rhizomes.

TCM is not limited to acupuncture, teas or herbal supplements. An excellent resource is the Fusion Chinese Medicine site, which states that not all cases of Crohn's disease are treated exactly the same way. In addition to typical herbal medicines and acupuncture, the practitioner might elect to use laser acupuncture, acupressure or electro-acupuncture to kick start the homoeostatic mechanisms of the patient's body. A TCM practitioner could use any of hundreds of different herbs, including the Xiang Sha Liu Jun Wan formula, to treat Crohn's disease.