Tag: <span>irritable bowel</span>

Blog IBS Irritable Bowel • • • • • By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) and you

Is drug free relief from IBD possible?

If you suffer with Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) chronic diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain are all too familiar and unwelcome. IBD includes Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). You know where all the bathrooms are in the businesses and homes you frequent. You may have gas and bloating, and feel generally sick. Treatments for IBD can also lead to other problems.

One drug commonly used to treat IBD is called 5-ASA.  This drug lowers inflammation in your body, and inflammation is causing the diarrhea and other symptoms. It does not regulate the inflammation to get you better, but temporarily lowers it while you take it. Unfortunately there are many side effects to this drug, including lowered sperm count in men, nutrient absorption problems (which, of course, leads to any number of other health issues), and can cause severe liver problems.

If you are taking this strong drug you know you need to take a vitamin called folate (folic acid) with this drug to prevent at least one deficiency. Unfortunately, 40% of people can’t use folate from a standard vitamin, and need a special kind of folate called methylfolate, which you can easily order online or find at a pharmacy. Even if you take a drug and it seems to help with your symptoms, it will never really get rid of the IBS because it doesn’t treat the cause. If you want to get rid of your IBS once and for all, you have to heal it from the inside. The drug is there to control the symptom, and that’s great if it works, but instead of asking, ‘What drug do I take for IBS?’, we can ask, ‘Why do I have IBS?’. 

Naturopathic doctors are experts in holistic medicine. IBD can dictate your life. Don’t let it.

Read on for more in the next post.

Blog • • • • By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

IBD and Prescription Medication

If you have IBD, with diarrhea, abdominal pain, or gas, you know that it is no fun to have to run to the bathroom all the time. Whether you have ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) you are suffering with severe digestive problems. You have a severe digestive issue that needs comprehensive care. If you just treat the inflammation with a steroid of 5-ASA, you have only covered up part of the problem. Hopefully you feel better! But, the problem will likely come back unless you address the underlying issues that caused the problem.

The purpose of the drugs your gastroenterologist may recommend is to decrease inflammation, or to suppress your immune system. None of the drugs will balance your immune system or get you healthy. In fact, drugs mostly have side effects, so you are actually getting less healthy by taking them in some ways. Whether you are taking a drug for IBD or not, you want to work on getting to the root cause so you can heal your diarrhea, abdominal pain, urgency, and get back to a normal life. When you are looking for treatment for IBD, you want to get to the root cause, not just stop diarrhea or pain. That’s important, but the symptoms will likely come back.

Naturopathic doctors are trained to look at you holistically. We take a holistic picture of all your symptoms. You’re more than just your colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy! Those test are important, but Naturopathic doctors treat you, not just your test results.