Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis


Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

When I am asked how Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis can be managed with natural remedies then the answer is never short. These are complicated health problems with no easy answer, so it's a long web page. There are a good number of things you can do in a natural way that can make your life a lot easier. Obviously the objectives remain identical to 'standard' medicine namely 1) terminating an acute attack: inducing and maintaining remission 2) management of chronic symptoms. I am going to take you point by point through the mechanisms how Inflammatory Bowel Disease is thought to come about and give you useful do's and useful don't's along the way. If you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome then please visit www.bioterrain.co.uk/IBS.html				Sign Up for this FREE NEWSLETTER



INFECTIOUS AGENT: although no causative bacteria has been cultured (i.e. Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease are non-infectious), there often is an opportunistic overgrowth of undesirable bowel flora, resulting in a prevalence of bacterial strains that do not promote health. This can only happen when the host condition [you] is such, that it is vulnerable to this and then the opportunistic overgrowth results in additional problems and symptoms. It is a common finding also in people who do not have IBD or IBS and a reliable diagnosis is achieved only by laboratory testing. Note that such overgrowth is reactive and focussing on re-establishing the gut bacteria balance is just one part of the job. Trying to achieve a more optimal bowel flora can be done in several ways. It is best achieved by 'killing' and 'restocking' at the same time. Killing undesirable strains is something that must be done with extreme caution because in IBD the mucosal wall is already irritated (IBS can behave similarly). Therefore measures like Grapeseed or Olive Leaf Extract, buffered Caprylic Acid, Castor Oil or Tea Tree Oil (everybody should be extremely careful ingesting the latter!) are not tolerated. A much better way of gently killing undesirable bacterial strains is by starving them i.e. stopping to feed them. You use the tried & tested medieval way of laying siege to a walled city (see diet below). Whilst waiting for the white flag to come up, you take Aloeride® which is a new product that steadily improves stool microbiology without upsetting the intestinal wall at all. It achieves this on the one hand via anti-microbial action and on the other hand via creating a better grow environment for the good bacteria. Next you restock the gut with good bacterial strains. You should know that some probiotics manufacturers quote the viable cultures before processing but not how many are still viable afterwards. At the Integrated Medicine Practice we use special probiotics as one aspect for Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease and IBS preferably in addition to the Specific Carbohydrate diet or at least a Low Glycaemic index diet. Those people who are not 100% lactose intolerant - and most of us aren't - can use organic live cultures containing yoghurt such as Yeo Valley. Obviously you do not eat yoghurt with flavourings and/or added fruit sugars. You do however keep away from other dairy products i.e. cow's milk and cheese made from it. Goats milk & goats cheese may be tolerated but this varies from individual to individual. Eggs neither come out of a cow nor out of a goat - the most useful part of the egg is the white i.e. that part on which the growing chick would have fed itself - so eggs are usually well tolerated, they're not dairy although curiously many lay people list them as such.
GENETIC MARKER: about 15 to 20% of people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease have immediate family members with IBD but no genetic marker has been identified. IBD occurs more frequently in western societies with a higher incidence among Jews of Eastern European descent, often within the same families, males and females are equally affected often before age 40. In western Canada the incidence is 150 in 100,000 which is three times the global average. In respect of IBD occuring in the same families the following CAM article is of interest: Nutrition Impact On Gene Expression Shocks Researchers refers to this Suke University paper: Waterland RA, Kirtle RL. Transposable Elements: Targets for Early Nutritional Effects on Epigenic Gene Regulation. Mol.Cell.Biol. 2003;23(15):5293-5300 (August 1). The Suke University research indicated that it is not just a matter of the double helix of DNA but its expression. This means that your nutrient base influences what aspects of your DNA actually affect cell replication. So the adage "it is not what you've got but what you do with it" seems true here also, the fact that you have a whole orchestra doesn't therefore means that all the instruments (genomes) play at the same time. With Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease causing poor nutrient uptake, you can see where a self perpetuating cycle may come from despite a genetic marker staying elusive. From an intervention point of view you can 1) ensure maximum possible nutrient intake and 2) maximise the uptake thereof. An irritated gut wall does not uptake nutrients well, so we are back at taking Aloeride® twice daily to placate the wall so uptake can become better. More about diet and nutrient supplementation later.
IMMUNOLOGICAL MECHANISMS: meaning impaired cellular immune mechanisms, a lower capacity of body cells to fight back. Quoting Professor J.O. Hunter of Addenbrooks Hospital and Cranfield University: "it is likely that immunological changes are produced after the disease started, rather than causing it". So a faltering immune capacity is not so much the chicken as it is the egg. Autoimmune antibody mediated reactions are discussed below. Are there natural things you can do to improve your immune capacity? Aplenty and this starts with you getting/keeping fit by brisk walking for (much) longer than 20 minutes no less than 3x each week. We use Mycoferon®, a remedy including maitake and shitake mushrooms that are well known to be immune modulatory but also use Aloeride® because of its unique preservation of very long chain polysaccharides (especially aloerides) that are researched potent immune modulators.
ALLERGIC REACTION TO COW'S MILK: this always plays a role in mucous formation. Pointers towards this can be always having an uncomfortable tummy immediately after ingestion, having a bit of a snotty nose first thing in the morning, nasal airway obstruction [yes think snoaring], recurring sinusitis and of course mucous in stools. The simplest way to find out if you react adversely to cow's milk products is by stopping consuming them for 2 months and change to sensible alternatives like goats milk/cheese/yoghurt, Rice Dream® or such like. If symptoms improve then you have identified one helper. Lactose intolerance is very common and can be caused by having too little of the enzyme lactase - so you can convert some lactose but have not enough lactase to convert all ingested lactose - and this leads to fermentation of any lactose that is not converted in the gut to the body-useful glucose. The best known end product of all fermentation is alcohol which is a known trigger for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, gas formation is equally well known - to you but unfortunately also to all around you. Most mammals produce about 12 - 40 grams of alcohol per day without even drinking alcohol, so lowering the source of your own internal alcohol production is a wise move. In case you wonder about creating an osteopenia or osteoporosis risk by eliminating dairy products, Calcium is in everything and anything that has any structure to it. You will find it in all leafy vegetables as well as in the herbal food supplement Aloeride® - which next to calcium has lots of very useful Magnesium in it too. So do not worry about you developing osteopenia/osteoporosis when you give up dairy, if it helps to reduce your IBD symptoms you will increase general nutrient uptake and one of them will be Calcium. And for good measure you ought to know that Calcium does not lock into the bone matrix if there is not enough Magnesium, Manganese, vitamin D, Boron and a good pH balance - the four main blood buffers adhere to the isohydric principle which means that they all run at the same time so the phosphate buffer gets phosphor from bones Ca₃(PO₄)₂ as well as from dietary sources. Finally there are hormones like the parathyroid hormone that regulate Calcium metabolism. For Calcium to become an issue, there are many things more important than you consuming cow's milk and related products to help you manage your IBD. A trial for 2 months is not going to do you any harm whatsoever and just might pinpoint a common trigger for IBD and IBS.
HYPERSENSITIVITY REACTION: this is true when a cell reacts abnormally to a stimulus. This sentence tells you that it takes two to tango (trigger substance & host reaction) and as such, we can alter the stimuli we present to the intestine. At the Integrated Medicine Practice we use IgG food sensitivity testing (ELISA Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) to rule out foods that may evoke irritation and an immune response. Diet modification works well in Crohn's Disease but not so well in Ulcerative Colitis. Because these tests are quite expensive, it would be wise to start with keeping a food diary to see if & how food types affect your IBD or IBS. If you think any food/drink type influences it then you can consider elimination for 1 - 2 weeks and provoke the issue by eating or drinking a gluttonish abundancy of this food/drink type and see if this aggravates your symptoms (if quick allergic IgE reactions are so much as suspected you do NOT try this). If reintroduction does trigger symptoms then eliminate this food/drink permanently from your diet. This is a laborious method but at least there is no cost involved. Sensible for anybody's body is food rotation: the foodstuffs you ingest on day1 you do not ingest again until day3 or day4. This advice is given in mildly positive ELISA tests anyway so you might as well experiment with this. Other than elbow grease & bemoaning a different routine it doesn't cost you a penny. In this section there are also two no-brainers because both affect the lining of the digestive tract, the first is smoking - smoke mixes with saliva and this you swallow into your digestive tract - and the other one is alcohol. When you have IBD, smoking and drinking are the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. Alcohol slows gastric emptying, interferes with the action of gastroesophageal sphincters, stimulates gastric secretion and often injures the gastric lining, especially when combined with Aspirin. Alcohol also produces alterations in intestinal mobility and mucosal function that results in malabsorption (Seventh Special Report to Congress, Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1990]) Chronic or regular use of alcohol damages the lining of the stomach and the small intestines. It alters gastric-acid secretion, first increasing it and then decreasing it (The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Complete Book of Nutrition, Victor Herbert, MD and Genell J. Subak-Sharpe, 1995). Whilst on the topic of feeding, one way to achieve full remission of Crohn's Disease is via 2-3 weeks of qualified dietitian supervised enteral feeding after which food sensitivity tests are carried out. For most patients with IBD this is not a readily available option.
AUTOIMMUNE ANTIBODY MEDIATED REACTION: this is suggested as a mechanism by extra intestinal manifestations and the fact that treatment with corticosteroids leads to favourable response. As soon as the intestinal wall becomes inflamed, the selective uptake of nutrients by enterocytes (these cells make up the wall) is compromised because tiny spaces appear in between these enterocytes through which macromolecules enter the system. This is called hyperpermeability syndrome or in common terms "leaky gut". When foreign molecules enter a closed system such as the body, the body responds with an immunological response i.e. it starts to kill the foreign invaders. When there is confusion about cells being 'mine' or 'thine' we speak of auto-immune disorders. Aloeride® helps here in two ways. Firstly and most importantly by sealing the leaky gut it stops those macromolucules from migrating where they should not venture, the aminoacid L-Glutamine is of further help here. Secondly the (and only those) very long polysaccharide chains in aloe vera modulate immune response BUT be careful, there is a humongous difference between the various products on the market which is why we exclusively use Aloeride® which has independent laboratory-proven the best immune modulating polysaccharide profile.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS: there is no actual proof that stress causes the disease but psychological factors do influence the course of the disease. At the Integrated Medicine Practice we use Neuro-Linguistic-Programming counselling and occasionally herbs or complex homeopathic remedies. Some of our patients have tried medical hypnosis with varying response. A lifestyle review should form part of an integrated approach and a change of perspective could be as 'simple' as for the Type A individual to ask oneself "does this need doing right now or can it wait just a little". The Worrying Type could change perspective by not spending so much of today "drawing the picture of what tomorrow's meeting, exam, interview or workday will be like". And definitely not drawing it as well as colouring it in :-) A Dutch saying translates as: man suffers most from the suffering he fears and that does not necessarily materialises, thus man carries more than God gives him to carry. There may not be research proof that stress causes Inflammatory Bowel Disease and IBS, feedback from patients makes it clear that psychological influence is very significant. The English term 'gut reaction' pointed at the link between thinking, feeling and the intestines which modern science has validated as the gut-brain axis: the relationship between cerebrospinal fluid and plasma cholecystokinin, regulatory peptides common to both gut and brain etc. Gut reaction points at one way of this linking 'street' - from down to up - but if the other way around is trafficable too, then you can see that sorting out the psychological factors may have good clinical mileage in helping Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and IBS. It may not always be an in-your-face sort of an issue and in the IgG scorers it may be a needlessly exploited issue, but it is definitely something not to be overlooked.

LOCATION: in Ulcerative Colitis only the large intestine (rectum = proctitis, descending colon = left sided colitis, when whole colon is affected = pancolitis) is affected with a marked tendency to symptom relapse. Because Ulcerative Colitis does not affect the small intestine, signs like abdominal mass or issues of malabsorption are absent, fistula formation and gross perianal disease do not occur, but fissuring and aphthoid ulceration do. Crohn's Disease is a chronic inflammatory disease, which can affect the whole of the alimentary tract from mouth to anus, the inflammation extends through all layers of the gut wall (transmural) and is characteristically patchy in distribution (skip lesions) with areas of normal tissue in between. To give you an idea of the 'topography', the small intestine has an absorptive surface area of roughly 250 square meters (2,355 sq.ft.) - the size of a tennis court - and the large intestine being some 1.5 metres (5 foot) long and 8 centimetres (3 inches) in diameter again has another huge surface area of 3,768 square centimeters i.e. 37.68 square meters. You can see where this leads to: the potency of the remedy versus the inflamed surface areas to sooth, when you have IBD you really must use remedies that can hit home hard.

MEDICAL TREATMENT: textbook medical treatment may involve prescription of: 1) anti-inflammatory drugs notably 5-Aminosalicylic Acid related drugs, the sulfapyridine component that carries the anti-inflammatory 5-ASA to the intestine may lead to side effects such as nausea, vomiting, heartburn, diarrhoea and headache 2) corticosteroids in acute attacks to suppress the inflammation - more immediate response 5-ASA but can cause distressing and sometimes long-term side effects such as weight gain, acne, facial hair, hypertension, mood swings, upper gastrointestinal ulcers, especially when patients also take NSAIDs, personality change, including irritability, insomnia, psychosis and depression, and an increased risk of infection so therefore they are not recommended for long-term use, also because of the risk of steroids-induced diabetes mellitus steroids are only used in active IBD 3) immunosuppressants such as Azathioprine or 6-MP little used in UC, in refractory CD because of their 'steroid sparing effect', they are very slow -acting and patients must be monitored for complications including pancreatitis and hepatitis, a reduced white blood cell count and an increased risk of infection 4) antibiotics if a lesion has become infected 5) bulking agents and a change of diet. From this it is obvious that the number one objective in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease is the control over the inflammatory response.
NATUROPATHIC HELP: when I am asked "what can be done in a natural way" - in conjunction with or instead of schoolbook medicine and with no two cases being the same, there is no blanket answer. Always the potency of the natural approach versus the inflamed surface area(s) to sooth & repair must be sufficient in order to bring any relief. This applies to choice and dosage of schoolbook prescriptions as well as to a natural remedies. Obviously if you continue to upset the gut with foods/drinks it cannot handle properly, then you are going to need a higher dosage / longer treatment duration of whichever approach you follow. Aloeride® has the unique combination of a superior amount of beneficial working ingredients plus the world's best aloe polysaccharide profile. In UC/CD exacerbations the dosage of Aloeride® must reflect the severity of the symptoms: in exacerbations take 2 capsules first thing in the morning and 1 or 2 capsules last thing at night (or 1 at rising, 1 around 11am, 1 around 4pm, 1 before bedtime - always on an empty stomach/empty small intestine) always with a full glass of water. Only a high dosage may make remission by natural means possible and rapid response is essential. As symptoms clear, the dosage is reduced down to your maintenance level, the a-symptomatic maintenance dosage being 1 capsule/day. For most patients this works extremely well, but make no mistake, if blood loss is severe then you do need prescription drugs (corticosteroids for instance administered locally as suppositories). There is no known cure for IBD and to be prepared for its unpredictable nature our Inflammatory Bowel Disease and IBS patients carry Aloeride® in their pockets. There is a very informative Macromedia Flash presentation within www.aloeride.co.uk and I suggest you read this, it explains the processing and thus appeases any concerns in respect of compatibility with the SCD. Probiotics always start slowly with probiotics to adjust the microbial balance in a gentle way. I prescribe viable cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Bifidobacterium lactis at verified 350 - 500 million bacteria/gram with Inulin fibres (carbohydrates from chicory root that stimulate the growth of the probiotic bacteria) at a dosage of 1-2 tablets 3x/day with meals. Aloeride® creates a gut environment where probiotic bacteria flourish. Drinking 1.5L water a day is a normal physiological water intake for an average adult and is one prerequisite for normal faecal transit. If you don't drink enough, your body will get its water via resorption in the large intestine. And you're wondering why that little package cannot exit comfortably... Whilst on the topic of fluids, in an IBS magazine I read with considerable surprise about their group coffee mornings. For coffee is an irritant to the gut wall (why not try Dr. A. Vogel's Bambo as an alternative or 'see-through tea' as opposed to the traditional English brew) and caffeine, albeit not a carbohydrate stimulates the pancreas to secrete a small amount of insulin particularly if you are prone to hyperinsulism. If you want coffee, drink an occasional small cup of real Italian espresso coffee, the high pressure of steam causes the ground coffee to release its flavour in concentrated form without releasing too much caffeine at the same time. Organic green tea (Clipper) can and possibly should form part of this 1.5L (for average activity adults, if you're physically active you need more) and because of its very high anti-oxidant potential, it is an excellent defence against any onslaught of free radicals. Fish oil supplements should be another aspect of management, containing two types of omega-3 fatty acids: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). These two types of fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, are important to several processes in the body and also blood clotting and immune function. EPA and DHA also provide other health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and improving cardiovascular health. Only taking omega-3 oils reportedly disrupts the good fat balance on the longer term so it is better to take balanced omega 3 - omega 6 oils such as our Elyte Oil (om3:om6 ratio = 4:1) or Udo's Choice. One soup spoon at breakfast mixed in fresh orange juice is a good starter dosage. Trace Elements should be considered as serum concentration of Selenium were found to be significantly low in children with IBD, serum Copper concentration was significantly high in children with Crohn's Disease as compared to healthy children or those with UC, and serum Zinc was lower in children with Crohn's Disease than in those with Ulcerative Colitis or healthy controls. The crux is that children [people] with IBD have a reduced capacity for free radial scavenging and this is a contributing or prolonging factor in the inflammatory process. The antioxidants referred to in this study will be superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) and glutathione peroxidase (SeGPx). One does well to remember that the origin of free radicals can be external i.e. ingestion of matter toxic to an individual's body, as well as internal i.e. mostly a liver pathway running at a different speed than its second phase. The former requires scrutinising diet & environmental toxins, the latter de-stressing and supporting phase II conjugation. Judicious supplementation is necessary but is so much more effective when a better uptake is safeguarded, so here too Aloeride® contributes. [Ojuawo A., Keith L. The serum concentration of zinc, copper and selenium in children with inflammatory bowel disease. The Central African Journal of Medicine 48 (9-10): 116-119, Sep 2003] Activated Carbon has been purified for pharmaceutical use and its enormous adsorptive power makes it the ideal agent for binding toxins from gastro-intestinal tract (in poisoning and diarrhoea/diarrhea) and from the blood (dialysis) and eliminating them from the body. The dosage depends on what our patients present with, it is both a safe and a failsafe method to arrest those dreaded moments. Do note that you must take activated carbon away from foods because it binds anything and everything, so if you take it at meal times few of the nutrients will benefit you but instead end up in the toilet, still firmly bound to the AC. Also note that activated carbon should not be used in active ulcerative colitis because its fine carbon particles would mechanically irritate the ulcers; in any other situation of (acute) diarrhoea it is a fantastically quick and dirt cheap remedy. Diet is about what you choose to let your digestive tract handle. Seriously consider the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) of Dr. S.V. Haas MD and biochemist Elaine Gotschall which is a strict grain-free, lactose-free and sucrose-free diet. Note that lactose is an unexpected ingredient in numerous food preparations so watch those labels! The carbohydrates that are allowed require minimal digestion and are well absorbed thus leaving virtually nothing for intestinal microbes to feed on [remember my siege principle], it may sound akin to a low GI diet but it isn't. The GID does not take individual cleaving capacity into account. When polysaccharides (starch) break down into disaccharides then one final spit needs to happen on the finger-like protrusions in the gut. It takes the enzyme maltase to split the disaccharide maltose, isomaltase to split isomaltose, sucrase to split sucrose and lactase to split lactose. Thus the monosaccharides glucose, fructose and galactose are produced and these molecules are the only way in which any initial carbohydrate (starch) can be absorbed. Any poly or disaccharide not split into a monosaccharide becomes fodder for bad bacteria with fermentation as a result. Fermentation produces toxins as well as symptoms of wind, gas, bloating and gurgling. The SCD is of interest because patients often note significant improvement in their symptoms within several weeks of starting the diet. However humans being human, many people struggle with a strict adherence to any diet or coffee/alcohol abstenance which is where Aloeride® comes in very useful. Do note that the SCD forbids aloe vera [barbadensis]. Aloeride® however is processed uniquely so its sugars are not denatured (a most common flaw in aloe processing) so they remain linked in beta configuration making it impossible for the digestive enzymes (amylases) in the digestive tract to liberate individual sugars that might feed bad bacteria. Stool microbiology improvement was noted in Dr. Jeffrey Bland PhD research. Aloeride® polysaccharides are absorbed intact (i.e. are not dependent on cleaving by enzymes) into the bloodstream via pinocytosis. Common starches are linked in alpha configuration and these do feed the intestinal microbes. At our practice patients are also encouraged to do daily vegetable & fruit juicing (there is a TopTips newsletter on that topic) to boost their nutrient levels once uptake can be assumed to be normal. A synopsis of the SCD is in below two columns.
	Foods that are not allowed: Sugars: Do not eat sugar, molasses, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, or any processed sugar. Vegetables: All canned vegetables are not permitted. Grains: All grains are not permitted, such as: corn, wheat, wheat germ, barley, oats, rye, rice, buckwheat, soy, spelt, amaranth, and others. Some legumes are not allowed: chick peas, bean sprouts, soybeans, mungbeans, faba beans, and garbanzo beans. Starchy foods are not permitted, such as: potatoes, yams, and parsnips. Seaweed and seaweed byproducts, such as agar and carrageenan, are not allowed. Meats: All canned meats are forbidden. Most processed meats are not permitted. Make sure processed meat doesn't contain any harmful additive such as corn, corn products, starch, and sugars. Dairy: All variations of milk are not allowed: whole, skim, 1%, 2%, chocolate, etc. Some cheeses contain a high lactose content and are restricted: ricotta, mozzarella, cottage cheese, cream cheese, feta, and processed cheeses and cheese spreads. Commercial yogurt contains a high amount of lactose and is not allowed. Heavy cream, buttermilk, and sour cream are not allowed. Misc.: Other foods that are not permitted include: bread, pasta, other starchy foods, canola oil, commercial mayonnaise (because of additives), ice cream, candy, chocolate, carob, whey powder, margarine, commercial ketchup, stevia, baking powder, commercial nut mixes, balsamic vinegar and FOS (fructooligosaccharides) products.		Foods that are allowed: Sugars: Honey is the only allowed sugar product. Not everyone can tolerate it, so use with caution. Vegetables: Most vegetables, fresh or frozen and raw or cooked, are allowed including: asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, beets, Brussells sprouts, cabbage, carrots celery, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, rhubarb, peppers, garlic, lettuce, spinach, mushrooms (unless you have candidiasis), onions, turnips, and watercress. Be careful of raw vegetables when diarrhoea is present. Legumes: Dried navy beans, lentils, peas, split peas, unroasted cashews, peanuts in a shell, all natural peanut butter, lima beans, and string beans. Meats: All unprocessed meats such as: beef, pork, chicken, turkey, quail, ostrich, fish, shellfish, lamb, venison, rabbit, and eggs. Some processed meats are allowed, but many require writing letters to manufacturers to verify the absence of restricted foods. Many processed meats contain sugar, starch, corn products, and other disallowed foods. Dairy: All natural cheeses except those listed above are allowed: cheddar, colby, swiss, havarti, dry curd cottage cheese, etc.. Homemade yogurt that has been fermented for a minimum of 24 hours is allowed and encouraged. Fruits: Most fruits are allowed such as: avocadoes, apples, tomatoes, olives, apricots, ripened bananas, coconuts, dates, berries, cherries, citrus fruits, peaches, pears, tropical fruits, and grapes. Nuts Almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, and pecans. Misc: The following foods are allowed: olive oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, corn oil, weak tea, weak coffee, unflavored gelatin, mustard, vinegar, saccharin, and juices with no additives.


		As a result of this Newsletter a gentleman asked me what there was left to enjoy if he kept to the SCD. Don't for a moment think that I underestimate the sacrifice required [you should have heard me when my wife took the family through a period of macrobiotic cooking] or the loss you may feel from not eating 'normal' meals. All I can say is, focus on the gain you can get from the whole above approach. Try it 100%, get on an even keel, then water it down item by item and see what you can get away with without relapses of IBD. What do you have to lose other than a red raw gut?
Although you will have seen IBS mentioned in places, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a condition unrelated to either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease because it is not an inflammatory disorder, but is a multi-faceted functional disorder. There is plenty you can do to help IBS and there is a dedicated Top Tips page on www.bioterrain.co.uk/IBS.html some of the advice in that page may be of interest to IBD sufferers too. If you want to let a member of your family, a friend or a colleague know about this information page then click here. *If you want to receive further Top Tips* Newsletters then Sign Up Now. YES Aloeride® is available at discounted price from www.aloeride.co.uk/acatalog/. Disclaimer:** the above information is for general, educational purposes only and should not be regarded as a substitute for the diagnosis, treatment and medical advice from your own doctor or other licensed healthcare provider. Throughout this website, statements are made pertaining to the properties and/or functions of nutritional products, these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. This webpage was written by Han van de Braak BSc LicAc MCSP MBAcC AACP - Chartered Physiotherapist, Registered Acupuncturist and Naturopath - for the Integrated Medicine Practice, England. This webpage was last updated on 15/09/2005.

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