Holistic doctors who specialize in UC

Just be careful. I tried this route and ended up getting sicker. I was was in pretty bad shape though. I was seeing an acupuncturist and a nutritionist. (Dr. Joel Fuhrman...you may have heard of him he's been on TV.....I'm in central NJ). It was literally my last ditch effort before surgery. I only got worse but at least I gave it a go. Good luck if you go this route.

I wish I had more faith in holistic care. The other day I was doing very poorly and a friend kept telling me to call this nautropathic doctor and I was getting frustrated because I felt like she didn't understand what I was going through at all. With everything I've tried (and I've read tons of information and tried diets and supplements out the wazoo), I've had absolutely no luck with any of them and I can't see putting all that time, energy and money into a person who probably isn't even a trained MD and likely has no deep training in IBD and even if they do, is their training anything more than my online reading and trial and error? Not to be negative but you may be better trying at home fecal transplant than expending your emotional energy on a holistic DR. I wish I didn't feel this way but it's my experience. Best of luck to you. You will get my conflicting opinions and I hope you can find some good direction for a holistic specialist in upstate NY.

miller44 said...
I've read a lot of great stories about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Paleo Diet, probiotics, supplements and even fecal transplant therapy, but I don't feel comfortable trying any of this on my own.

Really? Do you think some holistic doctor is going to have the magic bullet answer? You are going to wind up paying a lot of money and he will have you trying different diets, probiotics, and supplements until you stumble onto something that works. You can do that on your own without having to pay for anything but the things themselves. Please check out the resources thread at the top of the page for all kinds of treatment options, including alternative. Many of these things already have actual medical studies done on them. No one can tell you which treatment is going to work on you. It is all trial and error. It doesn't sound like you have done any homework at all but just sitting around waiting for someone to tell you the cure. Since it hasn't been your doctor now you are looking for the same thing from a naturopath. You will get more of the same there, minus thousands of dollars out of your pocket. VSL is the most widely used probiotic for IBD. It's a no brainer to start with that.

hey 44 - sorry you're having to join us on this trip ;-)

I think you have nothing to lose by trying an alternative doc - just go in and leave with your eyes wide open -

i'm not sure where ima got her numbers, but I agree with them 100% - if you aren't happy with the direction things are going, certainly going a different way makes sense -


making changes on your own is no big deal as long as you go slow and make one change at a time - I don't think it's a wise choice to try say a new diet without asking lots of questions first -

"My last trip to the naturopath, he told
Me to call my gi because he couldn't figure out how to help me. Good luck and beware of these ppl"


that's exactly what I would want any doc to say -

and you think that's a bad thing chrissy ?

You are good to ignore the "I cured myself with this wonderful diet and now I wrote a book about it". Don't ever believe one word from some place that is trying to sell you something. The word "testimonials" is a dead giveaway.

I think you are being naive in thinking that a holistic doctor is going to be knowledgeable enough to guide you through the trial and error process. The items listed in the resources thread are all alternatives that have medical science behind them and all have worked for some people with UC. Unfortunately, what works for one doesn't work for another and sometimes they can make some worse. But, it is called trial and error for a reason, and a holistic doctor doesn't really know any more than a GI when it comes to knowing which treatment option is going to work in which individual. They are really nothing more than opposite sides of the same coin.

I can plant a seed in your head from my story, just to give you counterbalance and maybe a different perscpective. UC and it's treatments can sometimes be like magic in that they are not always what they seem. At first thought it sounds logical that eating an anti-inflammatory diet would be good for UC but, If I ate avocado, salmon, kale, or blueberries I would get worse from every single one of them. A couple of years ago, after much research, I discovered that I have a histamine intolerance. All of these foods I just mentioned and you eat, plus several others, are all high in histamines. Most UC'rs are low on the digestive enzyme DAO, which helps metabolize excess dietary histamines. Since eliminating high histamine foods or taking the digestive enzyme DAO before meals my UC has gotten much, much better. Now this may not be your problem at all but I wanted to use it as an example that things are not always as they seem and in people like me eating this particular anti-inflammatory diet would actually make me worse.

Also, you can take probiotics while on prednisone. It's actually stupid not to, and, being on prednisone another 4-5 months, on top of however long you have already been on it, is going to wind up destroying your body. Most all UC'rs find a probiotic that helps them greatly. You actually need a mega dose probiotic containing at least 100 billion CFU's per day, but, like both medical and alternative treatments, one can make one patient better and the very same probiotic can make others worse or have no effect at all but since some probiotic does make almost all UC'rs much better it is in your interest to find out which one will help you, even if you make some mistakes in the process. A holistic doctor here also can't steer you in the right direction because it is all trial and error.

garylouisville: In your experience, how long does it take to evaluate whether a probiotic is helping or making things worse? Days or weeks?

iPoop: Yes I'm definitely not planning to abandon the traditional medication route, just looking for alternative treatments that could complement it. My last major flare-up did not respond to even high doses of IV steroids. This time I've been on prednisone for 2 months, symptoms gradually got worse when I tried to taper as scheduled, so now back up to original dose of 40mg and seeing improvement, but not sure it will be enough to achieve remission.

I have seen couple of natural medicine doctors and I felt, they had no clues of this condition. Plus they don't take insurance so I feel they are taking advantage of people like us who need some kind of releif.

Well if you take one that doesn't agree with you then you usually know right away. Been there, done that. It is important though with any probiotic to start at the lower doses and work up. With the ones that do work you probably have to give them a few weeks to a month. If you don't see noticable improvement after a month then that particular one probably isn't working well enough to stay on it.