Alternative medicine/ natural remedies

So in my 10 years of UC I've tried:

Aloe vera (capsules and juice), silica gel, turmeric, probiotic drinks, fish oil, flax seed oil, slippery elm, Vitamin E, psyllium, peppermint oil, acidophilus, and those are just the ones I can remember at the moment.

I have never found any of them to work, although to be fair, the only ones I've taken for a long period of time was the fish oil and the flax seed oil. With the others, I've bought one box and taken all of it in the prescribed way, and given up because it had no effect. Also, I have only taken them alongside medication, so that may not be an accurate measurement of effectiveness.

My question is this: Which ones do you take? Which ones affected you badly or not at all?

I have been reading medicinal studies and articles on UC for so long and read so many different theories of what to take. I know this disease is different for everyone, but I'm still searching for my cure. The thing is, I am a huge skeptic and don't believe in acupuncture or whatever (except maybe it might have psychosomatic effects).

I've tried all of the above and then some, but I do know for sure that the probiotic that I take definately work. 

It was the Bio-k Plus that helped me get out of one of the worst flares that I have ever had years ago.   I never did take probiotics before  and now I won't miss a day.  I find it helps to firm things up. 

Psyllium (Metamucil) I know it helps as well, I need to take it everyday or I will see a difference in the consistency of my BM'S.

None have worked for me but I think you should have put "diet" on the list. It seems like a lot of members have luck controlling symptoms with various diets. I also think what helps can be dependent on how severe your flare up is.

I should've put nicotine patches too.. I've been wondering about them.

Diet modification has given me more relief than prescription meds after 11 years of trying many,many meds. Like the OP I have tried many, many OTC alternatives but only probiotic VSL#3 has been a keeper for me, along with a fiber supplement Citrucel.

I also like using coconut oil, for cooking and a daily spoonful. There are several good oils that I believe beneficial to overall health and lowering inflammation: olive, coconut and even fish oil (still looking for the right one).

I live in Florida and even in air conditioning my coconut oil usually liquid. Only in the winter is it ever solid.

How do you know if something works or not?

You could have been worse and didn't know it. Without clinical trials with groups of people any drug that doesn't cause a dramatic change is going to appear not to work. It's a unpredictable disease so you will see false positives too. Change is most likely to be subtle and hard to measure when it comes to diet, supplements and other things that aren't strong drugs.

I take curcumin, probiotics, psycillium husk, ginger, gluclosumine sulfate, boswellia,VSL#3 yogurt,vitamins and fish oil. I think I can tell that the yogurt works. Psycillium husk definitely cause regularity and consistency. I hope the others have a general anti-inflammatory effect on UC and the rest of my carcass. I really don't think I will ever know.

AZYooper said...
How do you know if something works or not?

The way to find out is something works or not is to keep everything constant except for one thing. For example, when starting a food journal, eat only one thing for one day. Pick something that you think might be easy on your system. For me, it was white rice. I did okay with the white rice. The next day, I added turmeric powder, and I my condition calmed down a bit. Each day I would add an ingredient and record what happened. If you pay very close attention, then you will soon find the things that bother you and the things that help you. If I eat anything with HFCS or artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol, I'll have diarrhea the next time I go poo. So I know not to consume those things.

In regard to fecal transplantation, not only did it put me immediately into remission, but my BMs went back to looking like they did when I was in my early 20s. It was amazing! Even my GI kept saying that my extremely surprised by how well my colon looked when he did a colonscopy about two weeks after I had done fecal transplantation.

I don't have active colitis as I have a jpouch, but it's similar in that I don't want to cause/limit inflammation in my pouch and also joints. On a daily basis I take tumeric (which I believe is helping), fish oil and probiotics. I started with 2 billion probioitics to ensure it was ok on my stomach and now take 10 billion.

I think that going the alternative treatment route is a long-term effort, not just pop a pill and judge your symptoms for a week. This year I've taken turmeric powder, george's aloe vera juice, psyllium husk and L glutamine regularly, along with my prescribed pentasa 4g daily. I have also taken plenty of wild oregano oil and olive leaf extract. The first four supplements were taken regularly throughout, and brought things under much better control... but it didn't happen fast. I also changed my diet to not having milk or sugar most of the time, which has been important. I'm a long way from perfect, but I can work and go out without urgency dictating my life... which is a Godsend!

I personally think that IBD has to do with the makeup of microbes in the gut. There might be bad ones that cause these symptoms, and good ones not there that would prevent these symptoms. I think it's a balance thing, and something I will continually be adjusting until I feel I am just right.

Just fyi... my symptoms have gone from 6 or so very loose BM's per day on average at the start of the year, down to 4.5/day on average 2 months ago and many were more formed... and for the last month my average was 3.3/day. This last 5 days or so I've had a lot of 2/day days, which is great. If I had given up after a week, a month, or even 2 then I would not be seeing these results. Guaranteed.

***I forgot to mention that I do take probiotics off an on. My latest theory was that I needed my colon to be less inflamed (more healed) before I began the probiotics. So, I switch between them and the natural antifungals depending on how my symptoms play out.

Does anyone have an opinion on probiotics - capsules, powder, those yogurt drinks? What combination works well for you?

Most of us use probiotics and we discuss them often. I use what's in my signature. I take them at bedtime. I sometimes double one or the other occasionally.

q

I am taking the curcumin in pill form with boswellin. I also take curcumin in gelcap form. Since it has a strong blood thinning effect I take it for 2 reasons. I have been normal for over 6 months but the real test comes in August every year so no big news right now. I basically forget to take sulfaZ or the 990 Billion probiotic VSL#3 now. Regular every morning once a day. Less processed food the better. Forget to take any pysllium. Sometimes I take high doses of L-glutamine for a week.