Best Alternative Treatments?

I'm new to this site, and have enjoyed reading the posts and all the helpful info. people are posting. I started a flare in May '09 after being in remission for nearly 8 years. If nothing else, it REALLY has made me appreciate remission and not take it for granted!

As a resource, I'd love people to post to this thread with the best alternative treatments they've found works for them. I should say I have a lot of respect and appreciation for western medicine, as it has been Azathioprine that kept me in remission for so long, and Prednisone that originally got me symptom free. However, side effects are not fun!

On that note, here are my top 5 alternative treatments.
(1) Chinese Herbs - 3 products used in combination seem to work really well for me. They are Atractylodes by Seven Forests (9-12 pills/daily); Picrorrhiza 11 by Seven Forests (9 pills/daily); and Tien-Chi Ginseng by Pine Mountain (9 pills/daily). For those who are familiar with chinese herbs, the first two are addressing the damp/heat condition which is underlying UC, and the last product is specific to stopping bleeding.
(2) 1-2 heaping tablespoons of Slippery Elm Powder in a mixture of 1 oz. liquid chlorophyll and 12 oz. water. Mix VERY well for several minutes and it turns into a spoonable slimey goo. It works wonders. Besides, you get to have green BM for a change of pace!
(3) High dosing EPA-rich fish oil. I've found Metagenics makes a great product that is EPA/DHA ratio of 6:1. I take 4 grams of EPA daily.
(4) If not acutely inflamed, a gentle bulking fiber helps give you a formed stool (flax meal or psyllium husk powder are great)
(5) Since it's not legal medicinally in every state, I'll let you fill in #5 ;-) I've found it works great as an anti-spasmodic, manages pain and reduces inflammation to boot.

I myself am actually either allergic or non-responsive to traditional oral RX so I use only supplements and diet alteration and am doing much better (went from 30+ daily bm's with bleeding, lots of lower back pain and mucus, with mostly mush to skinny poop consistancy to 5 or less times a day, fully formed, no bleeding or mucus or back pain)...here's what I use...

bee propolis (1 500mg cap 2x/day)
probiotics (1/day)
omegas 3-6-9 (1 cap 2x/day)
fibre supplements (1 cap every night before bed)
vitamin A (1cap/day)
vitamin C (1cap/day)
chamomile tea daily (bought fresh from tea store, not the store bought manufactured kind)

no more processed foods/beverages, fast-foods, animal fats, caffeine, refined sugar...I also exercise regularly and besides the chamomile tea I drink only water (with the rare occassion of fresh unprocessed juices).


I strongly support probiotics for all IBDers as we tend to have issues with bacterial overgrowth and probiotics daily and indefinitely (flaring or not) are basically essential to us.

:)

Hey elephantpipe, just wanted to let you know that I buy my bee propolis online from puritans pride (500mg caps) their prices are very good, I'm in Canada and it seems to be expensive here and hard to find in caps (could only find granuals) even with the exchange rate and shipping they have good deals cuz usually they have buy one get 2 free and such.

:)

Vitamin E enema