AloeElite

Hi, new to this site. My son has Crohn's and his father found the Aloeelite product online. When we asked the Doctor about it, he seemed less then thrilled with the product and it's unknowns. Has anyone had any experience with this? We are divorced and he (the ex) is making a big stink about going all natural. My son is 18 and can make his own decisions but he looks to me for guidance. His disease is rather advanced as 18cm of his small intestine his ilium and colon and rectum are seriously ulcerated. The Doctor wants to try Imuron.  Any input would be helpful.

Hi I am glad your here and welcome. Your son is young and from what you are saying in need of meds that will help stop this inflamation .I know from abcess and fistula's and blockage that this disease is not to be ignored.I am on pred., Imuran, and Remicade. These drugs are for moderate to severe CD. I can not tell you what to do but I want to keep my Cd controlled so that I don't loose what I have .There are many that probably wish those meds were there for them which might have lessened there surgeries and CD complications. You need to read up on the complications of CD. Reading from what you said it sounds like he already has alot of areas that are inflamed. What meds is he on now? I feel his GI is probably telling him that his CD is in need of better meds then what he is on I would not ignore what he is saying in hopes that other things will help. Let us know how it goes. lol gail

So obviously he needs the medicine. What has been your experience with Imuran, did anybody have bad side effects? What are the pros and cons as the crohn's patient?

Yes he definetly needs medicine. I know alot of people tried the Aloe stuff and most said the taste was so vile that they couldn't drink it, and quite honestly I can't remember anyone who said it helped. I know when I am feeling bad, if something tastes bad, you can be assured that I won't touch it. Some folks have some side effects with the Imuran, but they are usually mild. Usual stuff is nausea and fatigue. Most folks take it at bedtime to avoid any side effects because they sleep thru them. Good luck!

Hi Momhunneyman, welcome! You may want to make a separate post of your question about supplements. There are a lot of folks here who do use them. I believe they've made a significant difference for my son. Many of the more progressive GIs are also in favor of them. Our GI made the comment that he believes somewhere around 60% of his Crohn's patients take supplements (though he won't make any recommendations on what to take). Many also feel proper diet plays a huge roll (SCD, Elemental, The Maker's Diet, etc.). There are lots of good books and web sites with great information.

I would definitely follow your GI's recommendations on the medicine, though. I feel for your son being in college and having to deal with all this.

My son's list of supplements is below. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions! Good luck!

EMom

i feel obligated to give my 2 cents. well, with me it is generally 2 cents and some extra change so bear with me and i'll do my best to spare you a rant. i say go organic. what have you go to lose? look at the money you spend on medicines and who knows if they work or not? all you know for certain is that you are getting side effects from putting something foreign in your body. docs are paid to write prescriptions - it is how they make the bulk of their money. i've been on just about all the meds out there and who knows what worked. i felt most didnt, but i took them cos i didnt know what else to do and was told to by my doc. i took remicade almost as soon as it was on the market. sure i felt better on it, but 6 years later i developed a fistula from my colon to my bladder and lost 8 inches of my sigmoid colon. now if i am feeling a lot better, how does my colon get worse and the disease spread and then i develop a fistula which this medicine is primarily supposed to help against? means it never helped the disease, just masked the symptoms. and that is what medicines do - mask the symptoms so you can hopefully function. going organic/natural/etc gave me my life back and i cant implore enough people to try it.

like medicine/drugs, we are all different and respond to them differently. the same with goes with organics. what works for some may not work for others. but i think hands down what will work, to varying degrees of course, but most of it depending on your dedication and discipline, is diet. i believe that alone saved me from ostomy surgery. i hope that at least what i've said here will make you research this a bit and think about organics/natural cures with a more open mind. there is definitely something to this - i am living proof. it is how we healed ourselves for thousands of years. it is only recently in human history that we shun it, which imho, is why we as a society are also so sick nowadays. but like i said, check it out for yourself. and just think what can happen if it works!!! start off slow having your son change his dietary habits and become educated on nutrition. then look into supplementation (that can be even more intimidating).

check out mercola.com. that is a good place to start.

I think it's great to research and explore alternate remedies that will work in conjunction with your medicines and your doctor. To me, it's not as much of an "either/or" question.

I am still in a flare and can't eat much yet, but I do think I might investigate drinkable aloe. I have a friend that sells Market America products (I take something called OPC-3, which is a liquid antioxidant supplement) and she's been trying to get me to try aloe (which I never knew you could drink until I got sick) ever since I got my Dx. She's sent me many testimonials from people who had good results. I admit that I'm skeptical, but when my flare is a little more under control I'll give it a try. I don't have a link to the testimonials, but if I can get one, I'll post it here. (Of course, you know there are testimonials for just about everything on the internet, so always read this stuff with a careful eye.)

Another member here, pb4 has suggested bee propolis -- something else to look into.