Colitis

The term colitis means inflammation of the colon, the lowest part of the digestive tract, between the small intestine and the rectum. The condition may present five types of symptom. They can appear singly or together: pain or colie, gas, discomfort at gut level, diarrhoea, and the need to empty the colon several times a day. Colitis may be accompanied by nervous disorders such as lack of energy and listlessness, irritability, and aggressiveness.

Some doctors look on colitis as the intestinal equivalent of an outburst of tears, leading one to think it could be due to adverse situations: professional or emotional frustration, nervous strain. various problems in coping with life generally - all of which could easily cause attacks, or make them worse.

Colitis is very common, affecting close to a quarter of the population in the West and representing half of all gastroenterologlcal consultations. It is found mainly in the 20-40 age group, among people living in an urban environment, two-thirds of them women, but it also appears in children as abdominal pain and intermittent diarrhoea.

It is a mysterious ailment, generally harmless, but very difficult to cure whatever type of treatment is chosen. The majority of patients suffer one attack a week; one-third have a bout every day. Eighty per cent of patients describe it as a nuisance, but five per cent see it as a real handicap with repercussions on quality of life, either in the family or at work.

General advice

Nowadays people eat too quickly without chewing their food enough, in an atmosphere that is too tense. They do not eat enough fruit, fresh vegetables, and pulses; instead they eat too many refined foods such as sugar, and animal protein, which bring about harmful changes in the intestinal flora.

You should:
- take the time to eat peacefully, chewing your food thoroughly in a calm atmosphere
- avoid drinking during meals
- hold back from foods that are too sweet, too refined
- favour cereals

Specific advice

There is no such thing as an ideal diet for colitis: everyone has to learn to identify, limit, or even do without the foods that give them trouble or tend to irritate the colon wall. The problem is that they are not the same for everybody.

Nonetheless, it is possible to make some recommendations that bring some improvement during an attack.

You should:
- give your intestine a rest for two or three days with a low residue diet. Steamed or braised foods are permissible, but fried food, dishes with sauce, and spices are not. Gassy drinks, chewing gum, and the middle of fresh bread are not advisable because they cause flatulence;
- over a few days follow an interim diet comprising cooked and refined products;
- then resume a normal diet.

Eating with an irritable bowel

• Meat and cooked pork products:
  - eat grilled lean meat, grilled or roast poultry, cooked ham
  - do not eat cold meats in general, offal, fatty meat (pork, mutton), meats in sauce, fatty poultry (goose, turkey, duck), game
• Fish:
  - eat grilled or baked fish, shellfish
  - do not eat oily fish (herrings, mackerel, salmon, tuna)
• do not eat chips
• Dairy foods:
  - you may use fresh butter on food, and powdered skimmed milk
  - do not have fresh milk, whipped cream, ice cream, or milky coffee
• Eggs:
  - no soft- or hard-boiled eggs
• Bread, pastries, confectionery:
  - you may eat toasted stale bread, biscuits, rice, pasta, semolina, dry pastries
  - no fresh or warm bread, pastry, ravioli. or greasy noodles
• Vegetables:
  - you may eat steamed or boiled vegetables, steamed or boiled potatoes
  - no garlic, artichokes, mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, shallots, pulses, peas, mashed potatoes, radishes, onions, or salsify
• Fruit:
  - you may eat fruit, cooked or uncooked, jellied, very ripe, crystallized, as juice...
  - no almonds (or almond paste), bananas, peanuts, green fruit, melon, walnuts, hazelnuts, oranges, pistachio nuts
• Drinks:
  - you may drink still mineral water, tea, infusions, a little red wine
  - no carbonated drinks (water, cider, fruit juice, soda) or iced drinks, rose wines, champagne
• You can eat honey
• No cocoa or chocolate

Oligotherapy

Trace elements are normally supplied by the diet, which should be varied and of good quality When there is a deficiency, which is frequent in the case of magnesium, it can be taken as a supplement.

• Magnesium medications: there are many different brands and forms: Organic Minerals (Colloidals) which contains 70+ trace minerals:
  -Available in 946ml bottles
  -Take 1-3 caps just before breakfast and/or evening meal
  - Children 1 teaspoon daily for each 20lbs of body weight

Or Maximol (Ionized colloidals):
-Available in 500ml bottles
- Take 1 capful once or twice daily on an empty stomach

Caution: Colitis is very sensitive; magnesium can sometimes make it worse and should be taken progressively, with care.

Homeopathy

Carbo vegetabilis, and China when gas is the main problem.

Colocynthis and Magnesia phosphorica when diarrhoea predominates.

Nux vomica when the problem is constipation.

Ignatia when diarrhoea and constipation alternate.

- Four granules of one or more of these remedies at 5c, to be sucked like sweets, two or three times a day between meals

You can use Gastricumeel@ which contains Argentum nitricum D6, Carbo vegetabilis D6, Arsenicum album D6,Antimonium crudum D6, Pulsatilla D4 and Nux vomica D4:
- Available in tablet form (50 and 250 tablet packs)
- One tablet dissolved under the tongue three times daily

You can also add a constitutional remedy decided upon after consultation with your homeopath; in this case it will often be Lycopodium, Nux vomica, Sulfur.

Herbal Treatment

Camomile and purple loosestrife to treat spasm.

Camomile

Camomile has many digestive properties. It is a mild antispasmodic and can be used to treat infant colic as well as gastric or intestinal pain in adults. It encourages digestion and therefore is found in a number of commercially available digestive infusions. It can be used to treat nausea and vomiting, and its sedative properties make it useful in nervous conditions and irritability The popular apple-flavoured German variety is pleasant to take.

Possible Prescription: Take one dessertspoonful of camomile flowers for one cup of boiling water. Leave it to infuse for ten minutes before drinking it, covering it carefully to prevent the escape of the highly volatile active ingredients (essential oils).

- Ask your herbalist to prepare 30ml of a mother tincture of purple loosestrife Twenty-five drops to be taken in a little water two or three times a day during an attack

Anise, fennel. and mint for the treatment of gas.

• If the meal is eaten in a restaurant, you may be able to get a mint infusion after the dessert
• If you are at home, you can take an infusion of thyme, star anise or fennel, or add some fennel or coriander seeds to the main dishes

Plant essential oils

Camomile

Possible Prescription: Obtain from your herbalist a bottle of 2ml of essential oil of camomile in solution One or two drops to be taken in an infusion aher a very hearty meal.