Noni and colitis.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis

Noni and colitis (inflammatory bowel disease or IBD). What has this supplement to offer suffers of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis?

I include one Crohn's disease patient's story at the end of this page. She explains the changes she experienced after using noni juice. Rosalyn is married to Kevin (who told me about his experiences with noni and osteoarthritis).

Thanks to you both for permission to include your stories on this site.

If you would like to read Kevin's experiences, click here.

I use the term noni and colitis on this page to include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Crohn's disease also marked the beginning of my interest in natural medicine.

In 1975, at age 22, I was diagnosed with this condition. I experienced a long and frustrating period oftreatment with steroids and other anti-inflammatories. At that time, immuno-suppressantdrugs were used, too.

There was no noni to help with inflammatory bowel disease then!

My main approach to that - at that time - was by radically changing my diet ... but - that's another story! I didn't know about noni and colitis back then. But early experiences convinced me about the power of dietary changes.

I'll discuss that at some stage in the "Diet ... naturally" section. I'll put a link here, so you'llknow when it's available.

Noni and colitis: first, what am I including in the term "colitis"?

Both are characterised by inflammation of the bowel lining. Both are chronic, that is they tend to persist or recur.

Ulcerative colitis is limited to the large intestine, but Crohn's disease can appear at any place in the digestive system, from the mouth to the anus (sometimes it causes a series of affected areas separated by normal bowel).

In ulcerative colitis, the inner surface of the bowel (the mucous membrane) is affected, while in CD the whole bowel wall is likely to suffer changes and can become thickened and narrowed. The latter is important in managing the condition: narrowing of the bowel can lead to dangerous blockage or "obstruction".

Ulceration is present in both. This can lead to splits in the bowel wall - and another danger. Namely that the bowelcontents can leak into the abdomen, causing peritonitis. This is an emergency. A close friend came near to death in these circumstances. It is certainly a condition to have monitored carefully.

Noni and colitis - or any other serious condition. An aside on being careful and looking after yourself:

At one point in my life, I had the ideal: a homeopath was treating my condition, with my GP's consent and approval - so long as she could continue to monitor me. I remember hearing that chilling phrase, "life-threatening condition" for the first time then. My plea to anyone who wants to use alternatives is to make sure you have a balanced view.

I have had patients who, usually after bad experiences, want to junk western medicine. Not a good strategy to my mind: try to organise things so you have the best of what both have to offer.

The two diseases are not completely distinct: some cases seem to have features of both. It is possible that the two namesrefer to different aspects of the same disease.

When I was hospitalised in my early 20s with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's) I asked about diet. I was told that it makes no difference - but was able to find out pretty quickly when I got out that (just one example I remember) the West Indian community in the UK suffered from the condition, whereas in the West Indies, it was unheard of.

That sounds like people are exposed to something different in the UK compared with the West Indies. We now know thatyou're about ten times more likely to suffer CD or UC in the UK compared to the world average.

These conditions are much more prevalent in more developed countries. It looks like something in the environment (and nothing comes in tocloser contact with the bowel lining than food!) is at least partly responsible. This is likely to act on an underlying geneticsusceptibility.

This means you may have a genetic tendency to get IBD, but it needs something in the environment to trigger the development of the disease.

Symptoms depend on the site of the inflammation (and other changes). Inflammation causes pain and diarrhoea.

There is frequently weight loss. The severity of the illness can cause severe general symptoms that affect the whole person: loss of appetite; lethargy; weakness; nausea; vomiting and a low fever.

In UC the main symptom is diarrhoea, which can contain blood and mucus. Patients are merely inconvenienced. Others are drained, dehydrated and finally exhausted by severe chronic diarrhoea, which can also wake the patient at night.

Noni and colitis: Ros's Crohn's disease responds dramatically to noni juice

She had three operations to remove sections of the bowel that were badly affected, had narrowed and threatened too cause an obstruction.

She kept morphine in the house, so that it was available in case of emergency for pain relief.

In other words, this was a very worrying and troubling case of CD.

Ros has been taking noni juice regularly for a number of years now. She noticed a gradual decrease in symptoms, less hospitalisations and emergencies.

Recently she has been having only annual check ups and blood tests have been showing no signs of active disease.

A recent visual examination of the bowel lining (carried out by endoscopy) showed slight narrowing at the sites of the operatons, but no other signs of problems. Blood tests continued to be clear.

Her last prescription for morphine stayed in the fridge until it went out of date!

Ros contines to take 90 mls of noni juice per day.

Return from this "Noni and colitis" page to 'Health benefits of noni juice' page