Anyone know if hop tea really works on Crohn's disease?

[HereSince1628]

I've suffered from this since I was 14 and have never had anything like a solution--I suspect it is responsible for a lot of my coworker's perception that I am aloof and a loner (well, who does diarrhea and cramps as a team project?).

Anyway I read that hops based teas might be useful in "calming" the intestines. If anyone has experience please let me know.

Otherwise just submit shitty jokes, humor is still the best medicine.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Various forms of biofeedback have been shown useful

in some cases.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Oops--forgot a link.

http://www.ivillagehealth.com/library/onemed/content/0,,241012_245593,00.html

Also just Google the terms biofeedback (and) 'Crohn's disease"

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Man, I know what you battle.

I come from Hackettstown, NJ. A little town in NW NJ that is a hotspot for Chrohn's, as is the county. One graduating class from Hackettstown High School, just one, had 10 people who eventually came down with Chrohn's. Interestingly, the Dr. who wrote THE book on Chrohn's also lives in the immediate area.

One of my good friends, a lovely and vibrant woman, has battled Chrohn's most of her life. Another friend just lost a length of her intestines to it.

All the best to you. All the best in the world. Nothing but good things.

[LiberalEsto]

4. There is some new medication that came out recently

that worked miracles for a friend of mine from church. It's prescription.

I think this is it: "Infliximab (Remicade®, Centocor Inc.) is the first of these immunosuppressive medications to be approved for use in the treatment of Crohn’s disease."

To find more info, go to Google and search with the keywords Crohns medication new.

Good luck!

[HereSince1628]

7. Thanks . . . over time I've tried all kinds of Rx meds...

the experience has not had desired result. Although my hopes have been diminished the disruption Crohn's causes keeps me in the hunt...

[Stew225]

5. Next time I see Crohn,

I'll ask him. Well, you said shitty jokes were ok.

[HereSince1628]

6. Yeah, but

I expected a little shit in the jokes :)

[sketchy]

8. Specific Carbohydrate Diet can be a cure

Try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. A good website about it is glassbird.com. Actually is a cure, for many people. Based on the theory that Crohn's is caused by overgrowth of intestinal bacteria. Read "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall for indepth information.

It works.

[HereSince1628]

12. Thanks, tried the diet thing...

actually many diet things with not much to show. Which isn't saying that it wouldn't work for many others.

As a matter of history and sociology of a hidden disorders... like many of the CD sufferers I've met, I am better off not eating. And like many of those I have forgone eating at brunches, luncheons, dinners, etc in order to stay functional. Though I am as daring an eater as anyone if I know that my time is my own and my bathroom is just down the hall.

[sketchy]

13. Just take a look at this

I respect your having tried the diet thing, but since this diet has saved me personally from both drugs and surgery, I'm going to post this one last link for you in case you want to investigate just one more diet. Good luck to you!


http://www.glassbird.com/scd/

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. I have no solutions

but you have my empathy. I have IBS, milder but still a MAJOR pain in the ass.

Joke. Hee hee.

[pocket]

10. Nicotine is helpful

for Chron's or Ulcerative Colitis.

The British are starting to use parasitic worms to treat UC, believe it or not. Apparently works quite well, but gives me the creeps.

[HereSince1628]

14. As I was a parasitologist I am aware of the too clean hypothesis

which in very short term suggests that Crohn's suffers have a superdeveloped immune response which, because we live in a "clean environment" is frustrated by a lack of conventional targets and tends to overreact to provocations.

In other words...the hypothesis suggests we take out our frustrations on ourselves. Which is probably true on many levels, whether or not it is true for Crohn's.

My career once took me into all sorts of geopgraphic locations, sometimes with helminthic and protozoal repurcussions. Frankly I never noticed any difference in my "problem."

The one thing my travels taught me is that overdoing alcohol is really a bad idea...a 4th of July in Russia above the Arctic Circle drinking peppered vodka left me, after three days, with a heightened sense of balance (to keep from falling into the latrine) and using pages of my Tom Clancy novel (Clear and Present Danger!!!) as t-paper.

[sketchy]

11. Link

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

[stellanoir]

15. try googling "noni juice"

Have heard some success stories. Have no personal experience whatsoever. Good luck and G-d bless.