Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
Crohn’s disease is a well treated using naturopathic medicine. Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterized by inflammation of the lining of your digestive tract, causing diarrhea and abdominal pain
Symptoms of Crohn’s disease are caused by inflammation, most often in the lower section of the small intestine (ileum) or colon, but possibly in the rectum, stomach, esophagus or mouth. Triggers causing the inflammation are not well understood, but it is believed past infection and heredity are factors. Our clinical experience is that dietary factors and stress are also factors. Serious complications of Crohn’s disease include intestinal obstruction, ulcerations in the digestive tract, colon cancer and malnutrition.
You should seek professional healthcare if you notice persistent changes in your bowel habits or if you have any of the signs and symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
Symptoms of Crohn’s disease
Possible symptoms of Crohn’s disease include:
• Diarrhea
• Abdominal pain and cramping
• Blood in your stool
• Reduced appetite and weight loss
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Arthritis or eye inflammation
• Skin disorders
Naturopathic treatment of Crohn’s disease
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of Crohn’s disease treatment are to reduce pain intensity and severity of symptoms, identify and address triggers of symptom episodes to prevent recurrence, optimize nutritional status and manage side effects of associated health conditions and conventional treatments.
Conventional treatment for Crohn’s disease may include variety of medications, including anti-inflammatory medications (e.g., corticosteroids), immune system suppresors, antibiotics, anti-diarrheals, laxatives and pain relievers (e.g., acetaminophen). These medications may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your Crohn;s disease symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, a typical approach to treating Crohn’s disease may be to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., smoking, Accutane® or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use) may be contributing to your symptoms, identify and remove dietary triggers to symptoms, decrease inflammation using nutritional supplements, botanical (herbal) or homeopathic medicines and soothe and heal the digestive tract using botanical (herbal) medicines.
Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
• Diet therapy
• Nutritional supplements
• Botanical (herbal) medicines
• Cleansing protocols
• Relaxation techniques
• Homotoxicological medicines
• Homeopathic medicines
• Acupuncture
• Bowen Therapy
• Lifestyle counseling
References
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Crohns [Online]. [cited 2010 Jan 18]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/crohns-disease/DS00104