Try Alternative Medicine for Crohn's with Hope and Caution

Although there are a number of medications and treatments available through your doctor, many of them have unpleasant side effects. Accepting a prescription and doing what you're told to do is simply not enough for many Crohn's patients. If we want to take charge of our health care, we need to start looking outside the box of the medical community to see if there is something that can help, if not cure, Crohn's disease.

As you surf the net, you may come across ads for an all-natural cure for Crohn's disease. I've seen most of these ads, and actually ordered a couple of the products. Both contained Aloe vera juice as their primary and "curative" agent. I found first of all that they tasted nasty. You can mix them with something like grape juice to help with that. I found that the two I tried had absolutely no effect on my Crohn's disease, for better or for worse. I have heard anecdotes from others with Crohn's disease who've tried this, and some said they found some relief, but not a cure; others said it seemed to cause a bad flare of Crohn's. The claims of these products being a "cure" for Crohn's haven't been validated by any testing, and it's not approved by the FDA as a cure. It may be worth a try, as you may be one of the few that it helps, but don't expect to see the end of your Crohn's disease using an Aloe vera product.

My mother's cure-alls, peppermint tea and ginger tea, are things I find soothing when I'm having a Crohn's flare. Although both are technically "spicy," I don't react to them the same way I do, for example, to Tabasco sauce. Instead, both types of tea, made from only peppermint or only ginger, have helped to ease the abdominal pain and cramping, and ease any nausea I feel. They don't help everyone I've talked to, but they are something that can't hurt you, something a friend of mine would put in her "chicken soup" category: it may not cure you, but it won't harm you and may make you feel better.

A surprising, to me, recommendation came from my doctor. His Italian mother-in-law thinks that garlic is a cure-all, and he suggested I take garlic daily. His recommendation was not for garlic in my food, which always causes heartburn and occasionally turns a pre-flare into a flare. He suggested that I try garlic capsules, and suggested a couple that are supposed to avoid the garlic taste or smell. I did try them and found them unhelpful. And I did smell like garlic, at least to myself. I'm not saying don't try this; it may help some people. I'm just saying it didn't help me and seemed to make it worse.

Taking a multi vitamin with minerals as a supplement is not a natural cure, but it's something that most doctors recommend. Because of the inflammation of the small intestine that comes with Crohn's, it's difficult for your body to absorb vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat. Specifically, vitamins D and E have been recommended by the natural health community. Although vitamin D, like vitamin A, can build up in your system, most of us don't get enough of it to cause any problems. In fact, most Crohn's patients need more vitamin D, which isn't naturally present in food, but is created by your body when your skin is exposed to sunshine. Although there's no firm evidence that an overdose of vitamin E is toxic, ask your doctor or a good nutritionist how much you should take. And make sure that you include supplements of zinc, magnesium, and calcium in your diet; if you have Crohn's disease, your body needs these. Again, it probably won't cure you, but it may keep you better nourished, which may help your body to fight off flares. Vitamin C is often touted as a vitamin that helps your immune system, especially when taken with calcium and magnesium. There's no scientific evidence to prove that it helps build the immune systems of healthy people, but I haven't found a study of its use in Crohn's patients. Vitamin C doesn't build up in your body, so it doesn't hurt to take a lot of it; your body will excrete what it can't use in your urine.

Herbalists promote a variety of plants to help your immune system. The best known is probably Echinacea (coneflower) or Echinacea with goldenseal. I've been told by an herbalist to take Echinacea supplements for two weeks, then not take it for two weeks, and then on and off in two week increments after that. Nothing harmful has been found in Echinacea, but goldenseal can build up to toxic amounts, so if you decide to take Echinacea, take it by itself. Green tea, or even black tea, provides anti-oxidants that allegedly fight free radicals. Many Crohn's patients tolerate green tea better than black tea; some can drink either with no problems, whether they're in a flare or not, while others become ill from black tea, possibly due to the tannins in it. Siberian ginseng and olive leaf are also said to promote the immune system, which should help Crohn's patients, but the spiciness of ginseng makes it hard for me to use; your experience may be different. A plant called Andrographis Paniculata is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat or prevent infections; it hasn't been proven to build the immune system, but it probably won't hurt, either. Plant parts called Beta Glucans are said to improve the function of your immune system by increasing the number of killer T-cells in your blood, but I've been unable to find any scientific studies on this. Clove buds and elderberry are two other plants, usually taken as a tisane or tea that herbalists recommend to build up the immune system; I've tried both, and although I like the taste of clove, the tea gave me nausea. Again, I haven't found any proof that these help, but they won't kill you if you want to try them.

There are two natural remedies that actually have been proven to help Crohn's patients and their immune systems. Supplements containing Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, whether from flaxseed oil or from fish oil, are recommended for Crohn's patients and for healthy people, too. Most of us lack these important nutrients that long ago were part of our daily diets. The other is probiotics, supplements (or yogurt) containing the "good bacteria" that should live in our bodies, and is often killed off either by the inflammation caused by Crohn's, or the antibiotics we're given to treat or prevent infection. Research into the benefits of probiotics is continuing, as doctors and researchers find that they may be even more important than previously believed.

Research into natural cures will continue, because many of the important drugs in today's pharmacy came from plants, found in your garden or in the rainforest. There's always hope that one of them will be the plant that cures Crohn's. Research into chemical treatments will of course continue too; if pharmaceutical companies can make a profit while helping patients, it should help everyone.

When it comes to natural remedies for Crohn's or any other illness, I would suggest that you do your own research, and not believe everything you hear or read. There's both good and bad advice out there.