Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Dr. Weyrich's Naturopathic Functional Medicine Notebook

Overview

Inflammatory bowel diseases include a number of different disorders in which all or part of the alimentary tract is chronically inflamed. Although in some cases successful treatment may suggest underlying mechanisms, in many cases the exact causative mechanism remains controversial [Wiki-IBD]

Please refer to the various disorders listed in the DDX section for further discussion.

Please see conventional, complementary, and alternative medical treatments for important background information regarding the different types of medical treatments discussed on this page. Naturopathic, Complementary, and Alternative treatments that may be considered include:

Signs and Symptoms

Abdominal pain.
Rectal bleeding.
Blood in stool.
Unexplained weight gain or loss.
Vomiting.

Differential Diagnosis

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Crohn's disease (may involve any part of the digestive tract).
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Ulcerative colitis (only involves the colon and/or rectum).
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Pseudomembranous Colitis
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Hemorrhoids (anal pain or bleeding).
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Anal fissure (anal pain or bleeding).

Treatment

Naturopathic, Complementary, and Alternative Treatments

Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

[Elsegood2022] reports that Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a condition that LDN could help. Dr. Jill Cottel also reports successfully treating IBD using LDN [Elsegood2016, pg xviii]

Dr. Weyrich has been trained to use Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). However, Dr. Weyrich has not treated any cases of IBD with LDN.

Please see What is Low Dose Naltrexone? for more information.

Sequelae

Although the symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases may impact the quality of life, the disease is rarely fatal. However, inflammation does increase the risk of neoplastic changes (cancers).