On alternative therapies and mainstream medicine...

"Elven" elve...@free.fr

Hi everybody, I never start a thread. I usually only answer to people when I think it's appropriate, but even if I don't participate much on this ng lately because I feel quite well healthwise, I'm still lurking and I've read all the controversy about alternative therapies and main stream medicine.
All those who have seen me posting here know I'm more in alternative therapies.
What I have to say is that the info I found about alternative medicine on this ng helped me tremendously. I was not responding to mainstream therapies and was not willing to jeopardize my health and my life with strong drugs like Prednisone or Remicade.
On this ng I found a lot of very interesting testimonies (I'm not talking about all the snake oil going on, but real experiences) on different alternative approaches towards this disease that led me to make some research and try a some of them, at the best with great success, at the worst with no result (but I never experienced any side effects, which was not the case with main stream therapy).
All these alternative threads were support for me. They helped me get my life back. The conventionnal medicine infos have to be posted here too for the people choosing this avenue. I don't put my 2 cents in those threads because I gave up mainstream medicine (after 3 years of getting worse every day and none of the docs I saw reacting) and don't know anything about the treatments. But I know this info is useful.
A few topics can not be discussed seriously on this ng without starting a flame war, which I find regretable. Nobody ever talk about potential psychological causes of this disease (which for me, at least in my case, is a strong probability) and nobody wants to hear about some people being cured though I believe this is possible. For me, what you all call long term remission (as long as it's not maintained by drugs) is a cure, for a simple reason: if you had caught a cold instead of IBD and got better you would not call it long term remission until the next cold, but cure. And this makes all the difference. If you can believe there is a possibility to be cured be it by conventionnal medicine or alternative therapies, this keeps you in a different state of mind and makes a complete an definitive healing possible.
Noella

Deb Schuback schub...@helix.mgh.harvard.edu

One major difference... a cold is not a chronic illness.
Debs

mgbio mg...@pluto.skyweb.net

Noella, I agree it is unfortunate that several noticeable people can not intelligently and factually discuss alternative medicine. I think it has a place in modern medicine that is often overlooked.
I do have to disagree with you about "psychological causes of this disease". While I think psychology plays a role in flares of IBD, it can not cause the disease. Also, there is no cure for CD, only remission (UC is considered cured with surgery). You can not compare physiological changes in the body to an invasion by a virus, i.e. a cold. With a cold, the body learns to fight that particular virus and the immunity is almost always life-long. This is not the case with IBD.
:) mgbio

"Ms. TJay" tania0907NOS...@hotmail.com

noella, which therapies worked for you. i am running int o brick walls with my medicines.. the only thing lef tto take is entocort which i dont want to take..and what i take now which is 6mp.. i would consider other things before surgery as long as surgery wasnt immenent.. my brother is a surgeon and even he says try to postpone it as long as you possibly can... im not fond of taking things like vitamins and such.. iam starting yoga to help me relive stress.. step one to mental health.. exercise..
...

Deb Schuback schub...@helix.mgh.harvard.edu

Have you tried Remicade? It can work wonders. There is a nice website, I think it's http://www.remicade.com Take a look and see about it. You might also want to start with meditation.
Just a few minutes a day can do wonders!
Debs

"Ms. TJay" tania0907NOS...@hotmail.com

i have had 3 insfusions and now coming to find out that i am not a good candidate for remicade.i have severe stricturing( about 12-14 inches) and my doctor is completely against it since remicade causes very quick healing an could create even more scaring. but i know it does wonders for many..
meditation sounds like a great idea.. and it cant hurt.. thanks ...

"Elven" elve...@free.fr

Hi Ms TJay, What worked for me is first chinese medicine (my first step towards alternative therapies and the baseline of my therapy since then) It's a combo of chinese herbs, acupuncture and a restrictive diet (no dairy, no sugar and no gluten).
I take dietary supplements too: a multivitamins and a multiminerals (iron, calcium, pot***ium, magnesium and zinc), the calcium being vital if you don't take any dairy products. I also took probiotics, omega 3 caps, and antioxydants when I'm not feeling fine.
Sleeping a lot helps healing more quickly too.
Yoga was really a good thing for me. It helped reduce all the tensions in my body. I tried to do a set of exercises that move all parts of the body and a lot of breathing exercises too.
I tried many psychotherapies (some of them not more than one time because it was only made by quacks wanting to make money out of people misery), and 2 with great success: The Vittoz method with a very kind old lady. Foundly enough it helped me more physically than psychologically (to deal with stress, and the fact that I was living as if I still had this awfull constant pain in my tummy, though it had already been gone for a few months thanks to my diet and chinese medicine). The other psychotherapy I tried is called 'cutting the ties that bind' (Phillys Kristal method) done by a wonderfull kind and caring man. This is undoing some awfull knots I had in my mind and in my life.
This is what made me think that the primary cause of my disease probably is psychological and goes back to traumatic events of my childhood.
Here is all that worked for me. I'm currently only avoiding dairy products, taking a multivitamins and a multiminerals and replaced yoga by martials arts, all this because I'm doing much better. I'll be continuing my psychotherapy (the Phillys Kristal method), but for now I'm taking sometime to settle down what I've learned.
I've also tried homeopathy whithout success (except for placebo effect at the beginning), Aloe Vera juice that worked for some time and then stopped working, and maybe a few other things I can't think of right now.
I hope this can be of any help. If you have any questions I can answer, fell free to email me.
Good luck, Noella "Ms. TJay" <tania0907NOS...@hotmail.com> a ?©crit dans le message de news: g8OcnR2oPOEj0QqjXTW...@comcast.com...

"Jeff2" jon_neilNOS...@attbi.com

Meditation? Are you crazy? Just kidding Debs, I am surprised you are into that. Actually meditation has many physiological benefits (I hate typing physiological). Anyway it helps calm the bodies energy. There are 2 types of nervous systems in the body - the sympathetic and para-sympathetic. One controls conscious functions while the other controls sub-conscious (I forget which is which). When you are active and awake your bodies energy is involved with certain processes while when you relax, meditate or sleep the body goes about doing things such as repairing cells and tissues and other important functions. Since most of us are already over stressing our systems due to work, disease, worry, not enough time, etc.. meditation can help you get back to your natural rythms. Especially breathing which most people do too shallow to get all of the benefits. When you breath deeper you circulate much more blood by the motion of the diaphram. This can help all of the organs. Breathing and meditation are very important in Chinese exercise, yoga and medicine.
Regards, Jeff 2 ...

"Jeff2" jon_neilNOS...@attbi.com

Elven - thanks, that was well put. As you know I also champion alternatives but only because I have tried them. When I first came into this group I had already studied alternative approaches for many years. I read all the posts on the modern treatments too - but the side-effects scared me. So I figured it was at least worth trying alternatives before going to the heavy drugs. I was taking asacol though and convinced my doctor to give me an antibiotic (Cipro) and worked in the althernatives as adjunct (additional) therapies.
I still use a combination but look forward to a day when I do not need the drugs. Right now my dietary habits are what is holding me back.
Also I agree with your analogy of the common cold. But it would take being off meds and having clean scopes. I know this contradicts what science says but hey - people used to think the world was flat and they burned you if you didn't agree.
Regards, Jeff 2 ...

"Ms. TJay" tania0907NOS...@hotmail.com

i did yoga today for the first time since being diagnosed. it was AMAZING>> -- and yes, im yelling that..... i go back on friday.. tomorrow i start with a personal trainer that i will see twice a week. so 4 times a week and i will try to heal my body - along with meds.. by makingmy body work.. how powerful i feel...
anyone care to join me?
...

car ...@caroleallen.com (Carole Allen)

I "sweat to the oldies" with Richard Simmons and I intersperse that with Callanetics (sort of a cross between yoga and ballet)...I always feel better after exercise...
On Tue, 15 Apr 2003 22:27:11 -0400, "Ms. TJay"

"Jeff2" jon_neilNOS...@attbi.com

Richard Simmons - you are crazy. Again, just kidding, while he's not my cup of tea if you can get into the "groove" that's a good thing.
Jeff2 ...