Acupuncture for Crohn’s Disease

Treatment for Crohn’s disease

Treatment for Crohn’s disease will be discussed in this article. Unfortunately, western medicine does not have a protocol for successfully curing Crohn’s disease. There are still options for alternative, integrative, or holistic medicine. All traditional, untraditional, conservative, palliative, and aggressive surgical interventions are described below, including all pros and cons.

 

Crohn's disease treatment drugs

Because there is no known cure for Crohn’s disease, the goals and intentions of treatment for Crohn’s disease are:

  • Ease the cramping, pain, rectal bleeding, and diarrhea prevalent in patients with the condition.
  • Achieve the best possible control of the inflammation with the fewest adverse effects from medication.
  • To permit life to be lived as usually as possible.
  • In children, to promote growth with adequate nutrition.

Listed below are Crohn’s disease treatments:

Medications for the treatment of Crohn’s disease

 Medications are one of the treatments for Crohn’s disease that can bring inflammation under control, reduce Crohn’s symptoms and possible complications of Crohn’s disease, and allow the digestive tract to heal. Because Crohn’s disease is a lifelong condition, many people will need to take medications for extended periods to control the disease and prevent symptoms from flaring up again.

 A combination of medications is often required. The choice of drugs used depends on the location of the inflammation, the severity of symptoms, and whether the aim is to treat a flare-up or to prevent further flare-ups. The types of side effects experienced, which can vary for different people, may also be a factor in the choice of medication used.

Surgical treatment for IBD

 Unlike ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease does not have a surgical cure. Most people with Crohn’s disease will, however, require surgery at some point in their lives, either to control symptoms or correct complications.  Major surgery, called resection, may be needed to remove severely inflamed or damaged portions of the small or large intestines. Local surgical drainage procedures can treat abscesses or fistulae around the anus.

 

Crohn's disease surgery

 People can be free of disease and symptoms for some time, often years, after resection and enjoy a marked improvement in their quality of life. In many people, however, Crohn’s disease eventually returns, affecting the previously healthy digestive tract. Half of the patients can expect to have a recurrence of symptoms within four years of surgery.

Note: More people are seeking natural treatment for Crohn’s disease to ease their symptoms because of the side effects of medications and surgery. However, natural treatments for Crohn’s disease have been proven to be effective in easing the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s disease, along with Ulcerative Colitis, is one of the conditions generally known as inflammatory bowel disease. IBD can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus, causing inflammation (swelling) of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms of Crohn’s vary from person to person but generally consist of constant stomach upsets, bouts of diarrhea, and bowel obstructions.

What is Crohn’s disease?

What is Crohn’s Disease?Crohn’s disease, also known as regional enteritis, is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the anus. It can cause obstructions in the intestine and ulcers in the small intestine, large intestine, or rectum. It can also affect the hollow passage in between the intestines called the fistulas and cause a crack in the skin around the anus, exposing that part to infection.

Crohn’s disease is an auto-immune condition in which inflammation develops in various parts of the gut, leading to symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, and tiredness. In some cases, the inflammation can be very mild; in others, it may be severe. Crohn’s disease is one of the two conditions known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the other being ulcerative colitis.

The disease is usually diagnosed in young adults, but it can also affect teenagers, younger children, and older people, with the disease spreading equally between men and women. The condition affects 4 in 1000 people (most people know at least one person who has it), and it can run in families; about one-fifth of those who have it will also have a family member who has it.

Types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

  • Crohn’s colitis, which only affects the large intestine
  • Ileitis, which affects the ileum
  • Ileocolitis, which affects the lowest part of the small and large intestines
  • Jejunoileitis, which causes inflammation at the top of the small intestine
  • Gastroduodenal, which causes stomach inflammation

Crohn’s disease may occur at any age, but it is usually most prevalent in people between 15 and 35. The cause of Crohn’s disease is not known. However, it has been linked to problems with the body’s immune system response. The body may be overreacting to normal bacteria in the intestines.

What causes Crohn’s disease?

What causes Crohn’s disease is unknown. Research suggests it may involve a person’s genes. Other causes of Crohn’s disease are the environment, smoking, and diet, which are also thought to trigger Crohn’s.

 

causes

Autoimmune disease:

Bacteria in the digestive tract may cause the body’s immune system to attack your healthy cells.

Genes:

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often runs in families. If you have a parent, sibling, or another family member with Crohn’s, you may be at increased risk of having it. Several specific mutations (changes) to your genes can predispose people to developing Crohn’s disease.

Smoking:

Cigarette smoking could as much as double your risk of Crohn’s disease.

Infectious agents:

Mycobacterium para-tuberculosis and the measles virus have been proposed as potential causes of Crohn’s disease.

Diet:

High refined sugar and low fiber intake from fruits and vegetables have been reported in patients with Crohn’s disease.

There is uncertainty about the causes of Crohn’s disease, and no definite biomedical cure exists. Procedures such as sigmoidoscopies, colonoscopies, barium enemas, capsule endoscopies, and CT scans are used to diagnose accurately. The following factors are likely responsible for its etiology:

  • Failure of the immune system
  • Consumption of plenty of saturated fats
  • Genetic makeup such as that peculiar to Scandinavian or Ashkenazim Jews shows that they are at likely risk of developing Crohn’s disease.
  • Much consumption of processed foods
  • Obesity and smoking are susceptible
  • Diets with high sugar contents
  • Urban living
  • Low exposure to sunlight

Western medicine tends to manage the disease by suppressing the symptoms through medications, suggesting diets that will be beneficial to patients, and advising a better and healthier lifestyle.

Symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

 

Symptoms

Crohn’s disease can lead to eye, joint, skin, and mouth complications.

Crohn’s disease symptoms differ and depend upon which part of the gut is affected and to what degree. The pain is usually located in the area where the inflammation is. Using the example of the rash being in the ileum, the area of pain would be on the lower right side of the abdomen.

  • Ulcers may develop, affecting the raw area of the gut lining.
  • Diarrhea may be mixed with mucus or blood. What is expected is the feeling of the urge to go to the toilet, but it is hard to pass out when you get there.

Other Crohn’s disease symptoms are

  • It is the general feeling of being unwell with a loss of appetite, fever, and tiredness.
  • Mouth ulcers are common.
  • Painful cracks in the skin of the anus called anal fissures are also one of Crohn’s disease symptoms.
  • Rectal bleeding
  • Fever
  • Weight loss and loss of appetite
  • Nausea, vomiting
  • Malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies
  • Tiredness, lethargy
  • Bone loss (osteoporosis)

Natural treatments for Crohn’s disease

Crohn's disease natural treatments

Natural treatment for Crohn’s disease can help patients find relief from this disease without any side effects. There are a lot of effective Crohn’s disease natural treatment options, which are listed below:

Home remedies for Crohn’s disease: most common natural remedies for Crohn’s disease

Home remedies for Crohn’s disease are effective natural remedies. Home remedies for Crohn’s disease are simple lifestyle changes that can help relieve the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Listed below are home remedies for Crohn’s disease:

Lifestyle changes

The following lifestyle changes may help control the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and extend the time between flare-ups.

Quit smoking

  • Smoking increases the risk of developing Crohn’s disease and can worsen it in people who already have it. Quitting smoking can benefit overall digestive tract health and may provide other health benefits.

 Manage stress

  • Stress can worsen the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and may trigger flare-ups. Although avoiding stress is not always possible, it can be managed through exercise, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises.

Diet for Crohn’s disease—an essential part of any natural treatment

Crohn’s disease in the small intestine can impair the digestion and absorption of essential nutrients from food passing through the digestive tract. During flare-ups, many people may avoid eating to prevent further symptoms. The resulting malnutrition worsens tiredness and fatigue and may lead to weight loss.

 

Crohn's disease diet

A well-balanced and nutritious diet is essential for anyone with Crohn’s disease to prevent malnutrition and maintain good health. A healthy diet for Crohn’s disease is even more important for growing children and adolescents with Crohn’s disease because, without adequate nutrition, they may experience delayed growth or puberty. Vitamin and mineral supplements might be necessary for some people.

Fiber supplementation may benefit some people with Crohn’s disease; dietary fiber helps the healing of inflamed regions of the digestive tract.

 No specific diet for Crohn’s disease is recommended for all people, but people with the disease are likely to know some foods that worsen their symptoms. Some people find that eating smaller portions at mealtimes helps to lessen some symptoms.

 In a study, foods most often considered beneficial for symptoms included white fish, salmon, tuna, gluten-free products, boiled potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Foods often considered to worsen symptoms included grapefruit, nuts, chili or chili sauce, cream, salami, energy drinks, and beer.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine agree on how diets prevent and treat Crohn’s disease. The following diets should be carefully taken to manage this disease:

  • Avoid excessive consumption of cold and raw foods. They are capable of disrupting the spleen (easy digestion of food)
  • Avoid consuming too much roughage, such as raw fruits and vegetables, as they can exacerbate intestine obstruction and lead to colic, a sudden attack of abdominal pain frequently due to spasms, inflammation, or obstruction.
  • Avoid food triggers found in foods. These triggers are chemicals and dyes found in food and should be avoided.
  • Avoid cheese, milk, and other dairy products if you are lactose intolerant.
  • Avoid smoking.

Herbs for Crohn’s disease: an effective home-based natural treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Herbs are one of the natural remedies for Crohn’s disease that have also proven effective. Some herbs for Crohn’s disease may help ease the symptoms.

 

Crohn's disease herbal treatment

The list of Herbs for Crohn’s disease includes:

Mastic Gum

  • Mastic gum is a sticky resin or substance extracted from the Pistacia lentiscus tree, which grows more commonly in North Africa and Greece. It is available in the form of capsules and has been found to contain antioxidants that could help tackle the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Slippery elm bark

  • Native Americans frequently use the supplement Slippery Elm to treat a variety of illnesses, including gastrointestinal tract conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. It is made from the powdered bark of the slippery elm tree.

Indian Frankincense

  • Boswellia serrate, or Indian Frankincense, is a tree commonly found in India and is often used in traditional Ayurveda for various ailments due to its anti-inflammatory properties. It is a gum resin extracted from the tree that effectively reduces symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and even ulcerative colitis.

Homeopathy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The #1 natural treatment for IBD

Homeopathy for Crohn’s disease is a method of treatment that assumes the consumption of homeopathic remedies. This treatment falls in the category of natural remedies for Crohn’s disease. Homeopathic remedies are very beneficial and completely safe, as they are made of natural substances in microdoses and cause no side effects. Homeopathic remedies for Crohn’s disease can relieve the patient and also work to root out the causative factor leading to Crohn’s disease.

Listed below are the most common homeopathic remedies for Crohn’s disease

Mercurius Corrosivus

  • This is the top homeopathic remedy for Crohn’s disease. This is the best remedy for patients in whom blood and shreds of mucus membranes are passed along with the stool. There is a constant urge to pass stool, but it is only scanty, and the hot stool with an offensive odor is passed. After passing the stool, the urge reappears, and the patient gets no satisfaction.

Colchicum Autumnale

  • This homeopathic medicine is ideal for patients complaining of excessive jelly-like mucus in their stool. The patients experience nausea to an extreme degree and even faint from the odor of cooked food, mainly eggs and meat.

Arsenicum Album

  • It is a homeopathic medicine that is of great help for treating ulcerative colitis. The main symptom guiding its use is a stool with an offensive odor and dark-colored blood. The complaints worsen at night, and the patient feels a lot of weakness.

Podophyllum:

  • This is a beneficial remedy for Crohn’s disease with diarrhea and when the stool is watery, greenish, and very offensive. Diarrhea mainly worsens in the morning, but the stool is typically taken in the evening. The patient can also complain of prolapse of the rectum before or during stools.

Mercurius Corrosivus

  • This is a treatment for Crohn’s disease, where the person suffers from a loose stool with mucus. Mercurius corrosives are chemically prepared with mercuric chloride. The stools have a foul smell, and the person may feel a constant, ineffectual urge to pass stool despite repeatedly clearing the bowels. Colic below the navel and a distended, sore abdomen are other symptoms.

Colocynthis

  • This medicine treats Crohn’s disease when there is predominant, intense, and colicky abdominal pain or cramps. The abdominal pains tend to get worse from slight eating or drinking. In most cases, bending over double or applying hard pressure provides relief. Other symptoms include a watery, sour-smelling, yellowish-greenish stool with vomiting of bitter fluid.

Phosphorus

  • This is a medicine indicated for sharp-cutting pains in the abdomen. The entire abdominal cavity feels like a very weak, empty, all-gone sensation. Diarrhea in the morning and discharge of blood from the rectum while passing stool are other symptoms.

Acupuncture: an ancient Chinese natural treatment for Crohn’s Disease

Acupuncture is a traditional medical practice of Chinese origin that involves the insertion of special needles at specific points on the skin surface of the body to administer various treatments. We must consider what the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) approach is to Crohn’s disease.

 

Crohn's disease acupuncture

TCM classifies Crohn’s disease into four categories, namely:

Spleen and Kidney Weakness

It is characterized by diarrhea that usually starts early in the morning and is accompanied by cold and abdominal pains, which reduce after a bowel movement.

Invasion of Damp

This is a burning sensation in the large intestine with symptoms such as diarrhea, blood in the stool with smelly mucus, yellow-colored urine, increased bowel movement frequency, persistent pains afterward, thirst for cold drinks, and irritability.

Spleen Weakness

This weakness results from overeating cold and raw food. It is characterized by diarrhea, abdominal pain, poor appetite, and poor digestion, resulting in a watery stool with visible undigested food, a pale look, and fatigue.

Qi and Blood Stagnation

It is usually the advanced stage of Crohn’s disease, evident with severe pain in the abdomen and a protruding mass in the lower abdomen. Other associated symptoms are muscle wasting, loss of appetite, and lethargy.

Other TCM treatments for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Acupuncture combined with moxibustion (burning of herbs on specific acupoints) and other dietary therapies has proven effective in treating Crohn’s disease, increasing the hemoglobin levels and controlling the symptoms by bringing significant relief to patients.

Acupuncture therapy is combined with the moxibustion technique using herbs on three acupuncture points: Qihai (CV6), Tianshu (ST25), and Zhongwan (VV12). An herbal cake is placed on these points, followed by the ignition of mugwort (Ai Ye) moxa cones on the herbal cake.

Combining these natural treatments brings significant improvement and relief to the patients. It also reduces C-reactive proteins and increases hemoglobin levels in the body.

The natural treatment for IBD in Philadelphia

Dr. Tsan and associates at the Philadelphia Holistic Clinic have the highest success rate in natural treatment for Crohn’s disease nationwide. Many patients from all over the world come to the clinic. We have patients from Canada and Latin America, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. The combination of different natural approaches makes our treatment more effective than that of other clinics worldwide. Philadelphia Acupuncture Clinic is only a division of the company, in which Victor Tsan, MD, employs the best acupuncture practitioners from around the world. For acupuncture treatment of Crohn’s disease, contact Philadelphia Acupuncture Clinic and schedule an appointment with the clinic’s medical director, Dr. Tsan.