The cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is not fully known, but it probably involves an autoimmune disease reaction of the body to its own intestinal tract. People taking the acne drug isotretinoin appear to run an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease.

Types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
The 2 major types of inflammatory bowel disease are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. As the name suggests, ulcerative colitis is limited to the colon; Crohn disease can involve any segment of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus.

Natural Treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Polyphenols could be helpful

Curcumin was helpful in one small study
Lyprinol has been tested in mice
Aloe Vera has been tested in ulcerative colitis. See study below.
Probiotics have been shown to be helpful when given as a supplement.
Pycnogenol
Vitamin D deficiency may be possible in those with inflammatory bowel disease.

Vitamin D status in children and young adults with inflammatory bowel disease.
Pediatrics. 2006 Nov;118(5):1950-61. Pappa HM, Gordon CM, Saslowsky TM, Zholudev A, Horr B, Shih MC, Grand RJ. Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Children's Hospital Boston, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Previous studies of vitamin D status in pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease have revealed conflicting results. We sought to report (1) the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D concentration < or = 15 ng/mL) in a large population with inflammatory bowel disease, (2) factors predisposing to this problem, and (3) its relationship to bone health and serum parathyroid hormone concentration. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Factors predisposing to the problem include having a dark-skin complexion, winter season, lack of vitamin D supplementation, early stage of disease, more severe disease, and upper gastrointestinal tract involvement in patients with Crohn's disease. The long-term significance of hypovitaminosis D for this population is unknown at present and merits additional study.

Subscribe to a FREE Supplement Research Update newsletter. Twice a month we email a brief abstract of several studies on various supplements and natural medicine topics, including inflammatory bowel disease natural treatment, and their practical interpretation by Ray Sahelian, M.D. Click on the image.
 

Polyphenols and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Polyphenols in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and acute pancreatitis: the missing ingredient in enteral and parenteral nutrition formulas?
Gut. 2006 Aug 24; Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel.
Polyphenols are phytochemicals that are abundant in food and beverages derived from plants. Although no deficiency- state has been described for them, increased intake of polyphenols appears to protect against disease in virtue of their anti-inflammatory and vasculo-protective properties. This article focuses on four polyphenols with established anti-inflammatory properties: resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate, curcumin and quercetin. In rodents, ingestion or systemic administration of these agents inhibits Nuclear Factor Kappa B-dependent gene expression and induces Phase II anti-oxidant and detoxifying proteins. Conditions prevented and/or ameliorated by these polyphenols include inflammatory colitis and acute pancreatitis. Enteral nutrition plays an important role in the management of inflammatory bowel disease - mainly of Crohn's Disease, and of acute pancreatitis. Parenteral nutrition is reserved for refractory cases and disease-associated complications. Artificial nutrition attempts to safely administer the essential and otherwise beneficial constituents of food to patients with an impaired ability to ingest or digest food, yet polyphenols are not included in the formulas. We suggest that the addition of polyphenols to artificial nutritional formulas would improve the outcome of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and acute pancreatitis in need of enteral or parenteral nutrition.

A Nutritional Approach to Ulcerative Colitis, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Ulcerative colitis is a severe inflammatory bowel disease of the colon that produces bloody diarrhea. Taking a mixture of several probiotic bacteria reduces symptoms in patients with ulcerative colitis that doesn't respond to conventional medications. The probiotic mixture contained four strains of Lactobacillus, three strains of Bifidobacterium and one strain of Streptococcus salivarius -- all well-known species of good bacteria. Researchers from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada enrolled 34 patients with active ulcerative colitis who were treated with the probiotic mixture twice daily for 6 weeks. A variety of standard treatments had been tried on the patients first, with no help. Remission occurred in 53 percent of the patients and an additional 24 percent experienced some degree of improvement in symptoms. A few patients experienced no improvement or worsening of their symptoms. The only apparent side effect from the probiotic mixture was increased bloating. Testing of sampled colonic tissue provided direct evidence that the probiotic bacteria had, in fact, reached the diseased sites of the colon.  SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, July 2005.

Inflammatory bowel disease symptom
An inflammatory bowel disease symptom may be mild or severe. The most typical Inflammatory bowel disease symptom, particularly ulcerative colitis, is bloody diarrhea. Pain is uncommon but may occur. A common Inflammatory bowel disease symptom is fatigue, which is often related to the inflammation and anemia that accompany disease activity. Other Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms that are often reported include fever, loss of appetite, and weight loss.
     The most common Inflammatory bowel disease symptom of Crohn's disease is fatigue, followed by abdominal pain and diarrhea.
     Because this condition has periods of flare-ups and remissions, there may be times when there is no Inflammatory bowel disease symptom. Not uncommonly, patients have been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome before being diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.

Women and pregnancy
Women with inflammatory bowel disease have an increased risk of delivering premature and low-birth-weight infants.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Update
Curcumin therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: a pilot study.
Dig Dis Sci. 2005 Nov;50(11):2191-3. Holt PR, Katz S, Kirshoff R.
St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University and Strang Cancer Center Research Laboratory, New York, New York.
Curcumin, a natural compound used as a food additive, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in cell culture and animal studies. A pure curcumin preparation was administered in an open label study to five patients with ulcerative proctitis and five with Crohn's disease. All proctitis patients improved, with reductions in concomitant medications in four, and four of five Crohn's disease patients had lowered CDAI ( crohn's disease activity index ) scores and sedimentation rates. This encouraging pilot study suggests the need for double-blind placebo-controlled follow-up studies.

Lyprinol ( stabilised lipid extract of New Zealand green-lipped mussel ): a potential preventative treatment modality for inflammatory bowel disease.
J Gastroenterol. 2005 Apr;40(4):361-5. Tenikoff D, Murphy KJ, Le M, Howe PR, Howarth GS.Child Health Research Institute, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Lyprinol (Pharmalink International), the stabilised lipid extract of the New Zealand green-lipped mussel, is currently used to relieve symptoms of arthritis. We investigated the effect of pretreatment with Lyprinol on experimentally induced inflammatory bowel disease in mice. Conclusions: These findings provide preliminary evidence that Lyprinol may be potentially useful in ameliorating symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. The benefit, however, is unlikely to be due to the omega-3 fatty acid content. Dose-response evaluation of Lyprinol in experimental inflammatory bowel disease is warranted.

Dietary rutin, but not its aglycone quercetin, ameliorates dextran sulfate sodium-induced experimental colitis in mice: attenuation of pro-inflammatory gene expression.
Biochem Pharmacol. 2005 Feb 1;69(3):395-406.
Oxidative stress has been shown to play a pivotal role in the onset of inflammatory bowel disease and carcinogenesis. We evaluated the effects of two dietary anti-oxidants, rutin and its aglycone quercetin, on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced experimental colitis in mice. Female ICR mice were fed a diet containing 0.1% rutin or 0.1% quercetin for 2 weeks, and given 5% DSS in drinking water during the second week to induce colitis.  Our results suggest that rutin may be useful for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal carcinogenesis via attenuation of pro-inflammatory cytokine production.

People with inflammatory bowel disease are 1.5 times as likely to have asthma as individuals in the general population. Patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, collectively designated inflammatory bowel disease or IBD, were also more likely to have arthritis, bronchitis, or psoriasis than people without IBD

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of oral aloe vera gel for active ulcerative colitis.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2004 Apr 1;19(7):739-47.
The herbal preparation, aloe vera, has been claimed to have anti-inflammatory effects and, despite a lack of evidence of its therapeutic efficacy, is widely used by patients with inflammatory bowel disease. AIM: To perform a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the efficacy and safety of aloe vera gel for the treatment of mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis. Forty-four evaluable hospital out-patients were randomly given oral aloe vera gel or placebo, 100 mL twice daily for 4 weeks, in a 2 : 1 ratio. The primary outcome measures were clinical remission (Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index </= 2), sigmoidoscopic remission (Baron score </= 1) and histological remission (Saverymuttu score </= 1). Secondary outcome measures included changes in the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (improvement was defined as a decrease of >/= 3 points; response was defined as remission or improvement), Baron score, histology score, haemoglobin, platelet count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein and albumin. CONCLUSION: Oral aloe vera taken for 4 weeks produced a clinical response more often than placebo; it also reduced the histological disease activity and appeared to be safe. Further evaluation of the therapeutic potential of aloe vera gel in inflammatory bowel disease is needed.

Therapeutic efficacy of pycnogenol in experimental inflammatory bowel diseases.
Phytother Res. 2004 Dec;18(12):1027-8.
Pycnogenol was administered for 10 days by gavage to Sprague-Dawley rats fed an elemental diet, then inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was induced by intrarectal administration of ethanol 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Twelve hours after TNBS treatment, the rats were killed, the colon was assessed by a macroscopic damage score and mucosa homogenate was assayed for myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. The supplementation of pycnogenol significantly inhibited the macroscopic damage score and MPO activity in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggested that pycnogenol ameliorates TNBS-induced inflammation by radical scavenging activity, and may have beneficial effects as a supplement in enteral nutrition for inflammatory bowel diseases.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease questions
Q. Has there been any research done on turmeric and inflamatory bowel disease? I have been taking about a teaspoon a day for 3-4 weeks and it
seems to help my colitis symptoms. Of course it is too early to tell if it is responsible for the decrease in symptoms.
   A. There has been one small study with curcumin, the extract from turmeric, and inflammatory bowel disease. More research is needed.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Symptom