Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | I should "expect to get worse before I get better?"

... I didn't know you were a naturopath either! - but I do know that lots of people on the board are very interested in alternative medicine - myself included - that's why I tried to make it clear that I wasn't taking shots at anyone here. Lucky the patient with IBS who comes to you for help - not only do you have firsthand experience, you definitely have the compassion, honesty and respect that I mentioned in my post. I think those are essential qualities for anyone working in health, whether conventional or alternative.

Anyway, I've just come on the board and noticed how this thread has grown and I feel I'd better reply, as I may be the person that you thought was "guilty of generalising" and "slamming" naturopathy.

First, I probably shouldn't have mentioned naturopathy at all as it's clear that the person that phoned 'kshsmom' (sorry, I don't know her name) was not a naturopath at all but actually an orthodox (allopathic) nurse, but I recognised that the argument she was using is based on the naturopathic tradition. I'm sorry if I caused confusion there - I should have taken a bit longer to write the post and made myself clearer. However, while the nurse was misusing the whole idea - I think we agree on that - I also feel that the idea itself is open to question.

Secondly, I don't think I was actually slamming naturopathy at all - if you look at what I wrote, I was criticising the attitude of NHPs who are arrogant and dogmatic, but also saying that there are NHPs who are not like that. I could have added that exactly the same is true for conventional doctors - I've encountered a few of them too! - but I think that many people who won't accept poor treatment from a conventional doctor are still willing to take it from alternative therapists, because of the mystique surrounding such treatments. The concept of the healing crisis can easily be used as part of that mystique, as a way of silencing a patient's valid questions about their experience.

Thirdly, I am sceptical about the idea of the healing crisis. As I understand it (you must know much more about it than I do) the theory is that a patient becomes ill because their body is overloaded with toxins and unable to function naturally. Detoxing gives them a chance to reduce the overload by encouraging the three organs of excretion (liver, bowels and skin) to work more effectively, but this also causes the temporary symptoms known as the healing crisis. I think - I'm not sure about this - the model for this theory is when someone has an infection, runs a fever, has a headache, etc, all of which is proof that the body's immune system is fighting the infection. Naturopaths argue that all disease can be dealt with in the same way, by provoking a healing crisis and arousing the body's natural defence mechanisms. (I'm sure I haven't put this right - it's quite a while since I read up on it.)

Well, I have two problems with that. The first is that while it is quite easy to provoke the symptoms usually labelled 'healing crisis', I'm not convinced this actually has anything to do with healing. Just over three years ago I did a detox, hoping to improve my IBS symptoms. What happened was that I stopped having migraines. I have had only one bad and one mild one since then, previously I had had been having three or four a month for about ten years. A great result and proof that detoxing can be very effective. I have since learned (from a conventional doctor) that I have a condition that affects the functioning of the liver. It makes perfect sense to me that my liver had become overloaded and the detox gave it a chance to clear the backlog - I must have been excreting toxins like crazy! - but there was no sign whatever of a healing crisis - I felt pretty good throughout the detox and afterwards. While, at other times, I've had all the classic signs of a healing crisis without getting any better as a result. So I do question the connection between the 'crisis' and 'healing'.

Of course, my IBS symptoms remained exactly the same. And that's my second problem - I don't think these types of treatment can help with IBS anyway - I just don't see any connection between toxic overload and an abnormal gastrocolic reaction. Most of us on the board have other health issues apart from IBS, some of them might well be helped by naturopathic treatments, but I think we should be careful about things that will do little for our IBS or even make it worse. And I think some people might easily mistake worsened symptoms for the 'healing crisis' they've been told to expect, which is what the nurse was telling kshsmom ...

Well, this is where we came in ... I am sorry that my short and hastily written post caused so much trouble and I hope that this long and very slowly written one will help to put it right!

If you are not too exhausted from reading this, I would dearly love to know what you think - in case you haven't guessed, these issues really interest me.

I think you have been very fortunate to have had your IBS improved by naturopathic treatment. The recommendations I received (I haven't tried them all) ran counter to Heather's guidelines. They included fasting, taking courses of vegetable juice, eating 75% raw food, liver flushing, bowel cleansing, colonic irrigation and taking large quantities of supplements (which passed right through me). I would be interested to know what naturopathic treatments you have found helpful, although I realise that doesn't necessarily mean they would help me too.

Best wishes,

Josephine

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