Herbal and Natural Remedies

[JJ Husker]

Thought this topic might be of some interest so started a thread.

I'm not a huge believer in the efficacy of many of the treatments and claims that are out there but recently I have become very interested in a couple substances that seem to have quite a few claims of being helpful for a medical condition I have, ulcerative colitis. I have been battling it for over two years and have exhausted all traditional medicines. I have been doing pretty well with the condition for the past few months but I really need to get off of prednisone and Imuran. I take these to suppress my immune system and for inflammation. UC is an auto immune disease in the same family as rheumatoid arthritis. Prednisone can cause all kinds of problems and should not be taken long term...I've been on a fairly high dose for over two years and am having trouble tapering off of it. I am about to the point where the only solution is a surgery I do not want to have.

Anyway, two things I've found that make some pretty grand claims are aloe water and 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide H2O2. I have been drinking aloe water, 2 ounces twice per day for about 2 weeks now. It seems to be helping some and I think is responsible for allowing me to cut my prednisone dose by 25% and am hopeful it will allow me taper it down further. The H2O2 seems a little more serious and possibly dangerous but I have seen some pretty miraculous claims about it curing almost anything and everything. There is book called The One Minute Cure about it.

Does anyone have any experience or stories to share about either of these 2 substances?

 

[zoogs]

I don't know about these products in particular (aloe juice certainly doesn't sound harmful, and aloe vera has a pretty pleasant flavor) but I'm deeply suspicious of these sorts of industries. The products are unregulated, the claims are legally void of meaning (otherwise, they wouldn't be able to make them at all)... it's all just very dicey.

Not that exhausting standard medicine sounds like much fun

I'm sorry to hear about that, JJ. I'd have no idea how to proceed, in your shoes.

(Nor am I a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry, although I don't know if the drugs you mention are in this category. Possibly not.)

 

[NUance]

I used to have a couple huge aloe plants on my patio. I'd heard that you could snap off a leaf and rub the gooey stuff from the aloe leaf on a burn for healing. I tried it a time or two. Not sure whether it helped or not. That's the extent of my aloe experience. lol

More recently I've been trying tumeric root. A few weeks ago a little health food bodega opened up a couple blocks from my office. Really cool little store. They stock all sorts of plants and roots and nuts for medicine and supplements. I'd heard a while back about the medicinal benefits of tumeric root. So I bought some. It's supposed to help with inflammation of the joints--like after golfing and such. Tumeric supposedly has other health benefits as well. LINK Anyway, I've been eating a little bit of tumeric root every couple of days. It sure seems like it's helping out with achey joints the day after golf and other activities. Then again, any perceived health benefits I feel like I'm getting might all be in my head. So who knows?

:

 

[JJ Husker]

I started with the aloe because I am fairly convinced it has some healing qualities. We've used aloe gel forever for burns and it really seems to work. I've read quite a few claims of people with internal conditions benefitting from drinking the water or juices. Also have checked online resources like the Mayo Clinic, WebMD etc. to check dosing information, side effects etc. Seems to be somewhat viable for internal healing (like inflamed ulcers). Aloe has a pretty good track record for being somewhat effective and safe, I'm just not convinced how much good it can do for my severe chronic condition. I've taken some pretty serious biologicals like Humira and Entyvio and they helped but did not get me into remission. Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I'm in remission now....Think it started before the aloe but it does seem like the aloe is helping. I should mention, this is not simply aloe containing juices and whatnot, it is straight aloe water extracted from the leaves with no other added ingredients. I'm using a product called "George's" and it tastes and has the mouthful extremely similar to just plain water. I guess time will tell.

Taking hydrogen peroxide internally is more concerning and some of the claims about its benefits seem too good and wide ranging to be true. Lots of "conspiracy" information about how it has been suppressed by drug makers, doctors etc. because it is so miraculous it threatens their livelihood. Those kind of claims always trigger alarms for me. I'll probably try it just because I don't think it can really hurt but I am extremely leery. I'm definitely going to get the book and read up on it, you just can never be sure how big of a crackpot the author or claimants might be. But at $4000 per month for Humira or $25000 per infusion for Entyvio, neither of which has got the job done, I don't see how it could hurt.

 

[zoogs]

Yeah, I think aloe itself is just something that tastes god. And it's not atypical to find in food, depending on the cuisine.

"This book" has alarm bells going off for me, too.

There was an article about the "health products" industry in Vox today related to Amazon's practices. The thing is, while Amazon can take a stand in this area, it'll never stop the stores that are dedicated to selling this sort of stuff. Like the homeopathic products you can find at Whole Foods, or fad diet books available anywhere. Tread carefully and try to rely on actual medical expertise wherever you can. It can be hard to sort out, since there's always some former actual M.D.-turned-"web entrepreneur", like Joseph Mercola, who probably fall more in the category of snake oil salesman.

Hope all goes well, JJ.