Hi

My name is emily and I am 16. I have crohns disease. I was diagnosed at 8 years of age.
It stopped bothering me for a while, but has recently come back ten times worse. Some days I cant go to school when I get a flare up, and I have passed out at school. I dont take medicine, and I dont believe in doing so.


Any natural ways of helping it?

There are natural remedies, but it's not terribly likely any of them will give you remission. Especially if your Crohn's is affecting you this way..any particular reason why medicine is not your way to go?
Bee propolis, peppermint tea, marshmallow root, aloe vera, and so forth are known for helping symptoms.
http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/crohns-disease-overview.html
That has a lot of natural remedies.

One word of caution however: The risk with natural remedies is that many have not been tested properly and have the possibility of containing toxic compounds such as lead or mercury. You'll have to be very careful and do a lot of research before finding the right ones. And then certain ones like aloe vera for instance help some and greatly hurt others.

You might also try the SCD diet. Many patients have achieved remission through this and were able to stop their medication after a year or two on this(very strict!) diet. Most of us need our medication before and during it however to help get to remission.

I never believed in taking medicine either until I realized I'd be dead without it so, of course my opinions on it are a tad 'biased' in light of it all.
Just don't let it hurt you beyond repair. Remember that the ingredients in medication come from the natural world also and that many natural remedies are fully capable of giving adverse side effects if natural medicine is practiced improperly.

hi emily. i went the natural route a few years ago and i am so glad i did! i am feeling great and i am off all my meds. i have had great success with this way of treating the disease and had basically no success and only minimal results when taking meds, and i took virtually of them and at high doses for long periods of time.

as for diet, i suggest the maker's diet or the scd. both are very good imho. but both are difficult and very strict, so you have to have a lot of will power and self discipline. but if you can pull it off, sticking to their regiments, imho you'll feel a lot better and it will be worth it. and over time it no longer becomes hard because it is a habit. you've built a new lifestyle of eating and thus it is a way of life and is no biggie.

i see an acupuncturist and chiropractor regularly, but i never felt it helped my crohns. however i do believe it aids my overall health and is something every one should do, crohns or not.

exercise is good too. being active strengthens your immune system and will also help you deal with depression and focus/channel your energy into something constructive.

vitamin D (get it in D3 form) and probiotics and omega 3 EFAs may help. digestive enzymes may be something to add as well.

i find that if i have a tummy ache, peppermint tea and ginger tea helps a lot. for flares the only relief i get is from fasting.

if you live anywhere near san diego, i have recently found a very good naturopathic doctor. he said he has very good results with crohn's patients. he does do phone consultations, but he is expensive and doesnt take insurance. so talk to your parents about this option and have them investigate it with you. if you are sick of taking meds and scared of the side effects and what they are probably doing to your body but you wont find out for like 20 years, then i highly recommend looking seriously into this guy or finding some one like him in your local area. here is his website: http://www.lajollawholehealth.com/

best of luck!!! i hope you find some answers here.

Hi! Welcome to the forum! My son is about your age and is off meds. We give credit to the SCD and supplements. Passing out is not good, though!!! You must get to the bottom of that! Any idea what is causing it?

I ditto what CrazyHarry said about supplements: vitamin D3, probiotics, omega 3 EFAs, digestive enzymes.

By "multiple" do you mean schizophrenic? Sorry, not familiar with the term. If that's what it is, the above supplements, especially D3 and omega 3s have been shown to help.

Hi Still not sure what DID means. Have you seen a Dr. recently to rule out dehydration? It is important to keep fluids in the body .I don't think that you should let these warning signs pass by without doing something about it. I don't take pain well either and that 's when I went to emerg. and got some help. I know meds seem a bit friegtening at times but sometimes they are necessary. Please keep in touch and let us know how things are going. lol gail

Hi Actress and welcome to HW!

I know you said taking medicine is against your values, but I would encourage you to go ahead and see a dr. I was diagnosed with I was 24 and didn't want to take medicine either. It's not against my values, but I just don't like to take more than what I need. Does that make sense? But I learned that if I didn't take medicine, there was no way for me to even hope for remission.

Please learn all you can about this disease. This is something you will live with for the rest of your life, so do not ignore it. Also, find a good gastroenterologist.

Keep us posted.

DID means dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder. It is often mistakenly referred to as schizophrenia, but in reality schizophrenia is a completely different disorder, it is very different from DID. My understanding is that DID is caused by extreme early childhood trauma, but there may be other causes that I am not aware of.

Hi Thanks for explaining Sassy.

Hi actressandwriter hope you are feeling somewhat better. lol gail

My story with this disease is that when i was 17 and in my last year of high school i started suffering from all the typical D spending hours in the toilets a day at school spending most of my life being embarrassed and trying to go stealthy and unnoticed by anyone into the toilet. This went on for 12 months with added depression weight loss and a pain in the butt (literally). When i started work out of school waitressing i missed a lot of work and wasn't in the best relationship so i spend my days fighting with my family, trying to get attention from my boyfriend and stressing about missing work yet again.

I was diagnosed after 4 operations on 2 mega sized peri-anal abscesses and went from 60kg to 43kg and was a bed ridden flagyl filled skeleton. I told my GI at the time i didn't want pregnisolone because i didn't like the drug with all its problems and was put on flagyl, messassal and remicade. After my near death experience with the infection that the doctors couldn't diagnose as an abscess I made some big changes in my life. The family that i faught with everyday the year before where at my side through the whole thing and i formed strong bonds with them and made up for lost time. I got rid of the useless boyfriend who i still madly loved at the time but knew it was the right thing for myself, quit my job and found one in an office where i wouldn't have to be on my feet all day.

When i was strong enough took up kickboxing and fell in love with it and did it 6 days a week. I refused any medication and committed to the changes i had made in my life, changed my diet to lactose and gluten free and I prayed every day. After my last remiciade treatment went into remission for 8 years with no medication. I think because i was in remission for so long I was in denial that i even had crohn's and wouldn't take any medication until a year ago it came back and i realized crohn's is a mystery and we don't know why it comes and goes, why it is bad or mild some days but you cant do it on your own. Today I am Married with the most amazing man who was and is(My Muay Thai Kickboxing Teacher) I have a son and am a proffessional fighter and have pushed my body to the ultimate in so many ways. My advise to you is that you can still be in charge and feel empowered by your disease and take medication because i feel that there are other factors like stress and diet and lifestyle that only you can control so why not just let the doctor take care of one side of it for you and medically fix what is wrong. It worked for me!

cayer said...
My story with this disease is that when i was 17 and in my last year of high school i started suffering from all the typical D spending hours in the toilets a day at school spending most of my life being embarrassed and trying to go stealthy and unnoticed by anyone into the toilet. This went on for 12 months with added depression weight loss and a pain in the butt (literally). When i started work out of school waitressing i missed a lot of work and wasn't in the best relationship so i spend my days fighting with my family, trying to get attention from my boyfriend and stressing about missing work yet again.

I was diagnosed after 4 operations on 2 mega sized peri-anal abscesses and went from 60kg to 43kg and was a bed ridden flagyl filled skeleton. I told my GI at the time i didn't want pregnisolone because i didn't like the drug with all its problems and was put on flagyl, messassal and remicade. After my near death experience with the infection that the doctors couldn't diagnose as an abscess I made some big changes in my life. The family that i faught with everyday the year before where at my side through the whole thing and i formed strong bonds with them and made up for lost time. I got rid of the useless boyfriend who i still madly loved at the time but knew it was the right thing for myself, quit my job and found one in an office where i wouldn't have to be on my feet all day.

When i was strong enough took up kickboxing and fell in love with it and did it 6 days a week. I refused any medication and committed to the changes i had made in my life, changed my diet to lactose and gluten free and I prayed every day. After my last remiciade treatment went into remission for 8 years with no medication. I think because i was in remission for so long I was in denial that i even had crohn's and wouldn't take any medication until a year ago it came back and i realized crohn's is a mystery and we don't know why it comes and goes, why it is bad or mild some days but you cant do it on your own. Today I am Married with the most amazing man who was and is(My Muay Thai Kickboxing Teacher) I have a son and am a proffessional fighter and have pushed my body to the ultimate in so many ways. My advise to you is that you can still be in charge and feel empowered by your disease and take medication because i feel that there are other factors like stress and diet and lifestyle that only you can control so why not just let the doctor take care of one side of it for you and medically fix what is wrong. It worked for me!

Awesome story!  I used to train at a Muay Thai/BJJ gym years ago :D

no its not a thing from that, everyone is different. No one is corrupt here. i am greatly offended by your post belleenstein.

I think what I learn't most from this disease is that when you are stuck in bed or in front of the tv because your too tired or in too much pain, you can still dream about what you want to do in life. I used this to put my life into action when i was sick and then used it when I was pregnant.

The day i fell pregnant i knew i wanted to fight for the first time so I didn't give in to the typical mum excuses, three months after my bubs was born i had my first fight and WON! after 3 more fights and (being undefeated) I was struck down again from the Crohn's for a year and while I was still sick i was presented with an opportunity to fight for a state title and I came back and faught...I won't lie I didn't win but while everyone was telling me that I faught the best I ever had and better luck next time; all I was thinking was "you all have no idea what it took for me to train for this fight, I won" I swear i'm not a hippy ha ha but the mind is amazing and sometimes when our body is useless it's all we have got!