Natural Remedies and Inflammatory Bowl Disease

One of the lay articles we discussed in class, "What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?" from the NativeRemedies website, highlighted basic information about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and later delved into treatments and IBD flare-up preventions. Natural and holistic treatments such as therapeutic homeopathic herb remedies and allopathic medical treatments were the clear focus of the article as it continued to describe and promote products sold by the same NativeRemedies website.

I remember many of us in the class were upset with the connection of the medical information to what developed into product placement. The information, while valid in its own rights, appeared to be packaged in a vehicle that could sway certain readers through language and selectivity of information provided. Environmental factors, for example, included people who had little physical activity, higher socioeconomic status, stress, and smoking which all could somehow to apply to the majority of the population in the Western world. They failed to specific areas or give information on how each directly factor affected IBD. Homeopathic medicines sold on the site were composed by a clinical psychologist and not a dietician, which hopefully should at mildly question the product.

Doing some research from the NativeRemedies website, they list the main ingredients of one product as chamomile, meadowsweet, slippery elm, and Sutherlandia frutescens. Ginger, peppermint, rose-scented geranium, sweet fennel are the ingredients of another while the third listed product focuses on using "tissue salts" like Kali phos, Calc phos, and Nat phos (respectively potassium, calcium, and sodium phosphates). The combination of each ingredient in the products is never listed, only disclosing that the formula is 100% homeopathic.

In response to this, I found a review article written by L. Langmead and D. S. Rampton, Review article: complementary and alternative therapies for inflammatory bowel disease, that tried to combine and evaluate scientific studies done on the different forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) available for IBD treatment. While they concluded that further clinical trials of potential effects of CAM approaches need to be conducted for IBD patients, I drew a few main ideas from the synopsis. First, there are so many options besides Western medicine even beyond herbal supplements that we do not always have the best methods in clinical trials to compare them against each other or through inconclusive trials. Second, most commonly the people who approach CAM practices are patients with "poor quality of life" already and an overall high "systemic steriod intake [which suggests a] poorly controlled disease" state. This could mean that Western medicine has already 'failed' these patients or the draw is emotionally based; either is not conclusive, but stands to point out the target audience of these companies. Third, studies have confirmed scientifically some of the positive effects of certain CAM procedures, debunking the claim that all of these procedures are based purely on placebo effect; however, these studies must compare aim to compare in vivo effects to be effective in humans. Lastly, serious side effects can come from either the current lack of regulation in the CAM procedures, the mixing of herbs and chemical toxicity that can come from supplements taken without dietary supervision, and from completely forgoing conventional medicine for CAM alternative.  

While naturopathic medicine does have its merits and plays a useful role in relieving symptoms for different diseases including inflammatory bowel disease among many others, the sources cited, reliability, and company practices need to be assessed before starting a regimen. As always, consulting a certified professional like a doctor, dietician, or pharmacist is recommended before drastically altering your diet or "self-dosing" with herbal supplements sold in the supermarkets today.

Sources cited
http://www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/natural-treatments-for-inflammatory-bowel-disease.html#question4
http://www.nativeremedies.com/products/digestiontonic-stop-common-heartburn-indigestion.html#tabs
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16422993