crohn's and colitis pilots

[rodzilla]

Just wondering if any pilots out there have this condition. Recently diagnosed with colitis and going through the whole SI situation with my AME, hopefully get my 1st class back in a few months.

If anyone has this disease can you tell me how you were able to managed it as a pilot?

Any diet changes? fitness? current meds?

Any advice would be great. Hopefully I'm not the only one out there .

 

[RJM62]

If I were a doctor, which I am not; and if I knew that you were not a woman who might get pregnant, I would suggest talking to your doctor about an herb called Cat's Claw (often sold by it's Spanish name, Una de Gato), taxonomic name Uncaria tomentosa.

I would mention that there's all sorts of evidence that it can help stabilize all kinds of autoimmune conditions, including some studies by very prestigious universities; and that it's also being investigated for its anti-tumor properties.

I would also mention, however, that it's a suspected teratogen; so women who might become pregnant should avoid it.

But alas, I am not a doctor, so I can't say any of those things.

I can say, however, that it is the only thing that controls my bursitis and rheumatoid arthritis without side effects. It has completely taken away the pain and the movement limitations, and has done the same for quite a few members of my family. An old girlfriend of mine who was a doctor turned me on to it, by the way.

-Rich

 

[radioguy01]

As a doctor, I would say the above is bad advice. Cats Claw has not been proven to be effective for any medical condition. Only very small (low power) have showed some benefit, which is just one step beyond meaningless.

If you have legitimate inflammatory bowel disease, you need to see a doctor. There are all sorts of things you need to do, including increased frequency of colonoscopies for colon cancer screening. Please don't take health advice from people on the internet who suggest eating some herb will solve all your problems.

That is, unless you want to fly with a colostomy bag.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/catclaw

 

[write-stuff]

As a doctor, I would say the above is bad advice. Cats Claw has not been proven to be effective for any medical condition.

Thanks for chiming in with some professional advice. I'm not a fan of any of this all-natural holistic BS. Herbs, magnetic bracelets, and fat burning pills have become an epidemic in their own right. But with all due respect, he did say "I would suggest talking to your doctor about an herb called Cat's Claw".

 

[RJM62]

As a doctor, I would say the above is bad advice. Cats Claw has not been proven to be effective for any medical condition. Only very small (low power) have showed some benefit, which is just one step beyond meaningless.

If you have legitimate inflammatory bowel disease, you need to see a doctor. There are all sorts of things you need to do, including increased frequency of colonoscopies for colon cancer screening. Please don't take health advice from people on the internet who suggest eating some herb will solve all your problems.

That is, unless you want to fly with a colostomy bag.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/catclaw

As a non-doctor, I would assume that a physician would be able to read and understand the first line of my response, in which I suggested that OP talk to his or her doctor about the herb. I fail to understand why suggesting that someone merely talk to their physician about an herb is "bad advice."

I also understand that allopathic physicians are suitably and properly biased toward remedies that came out of pharma labs, and which have been tested in accordance with FDA and scientific protocols. This is problematic for herbal remedies because they're not patentable. No patentability = no profits for Big Pharma = few studies.

Nonetheless, I was able to lift the following studies off this page from the University of Maryland Medical Center, which was the first result from a search for "cat's claw studies" that was from a traditional, allopathic medical institution:

• Aquino R, De Feo V, De Simone F, et al. New compounds and anti-inflammatory activity of Uncaria tomentosa. J Nat Prod. 1991;54: 453-459.
• de Fatima Fernandes Vattimo M, da Silva NO. Uncaria tomentosa and acute ischemic kidney injury in rats. Rev Esc Enferm USP. 2011;45(1):194-8.
• Gonzales GF, Valerio LG. Medicinal plants from Peru: a review of plants as potential agents against cancer. Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2006;6(5):429-44.
• Hardin SR. Cat's claw: an Amazonian vine decreases inflammation in osteoarthritis. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2007 Feb;13(1):25-8.
• Keplinger K, Laus G, Wurm M, et al. Uncaria tomentosa (Willd.) Dethnomedicinal use and new pharmacological, toxicological and botanical results. J Ethnopharmacol. 1999;64:23-34.
• Miller MJ, Mehta K, Kunte S, Raut V, Gala J, et al. Early relief of osteoarthritis symptoms with a natural mineral supplement and a herbomineral combination: a randomized controlled trial [ISRCTN38432711]. J Inflamm (Lond). 2005 Oct 21;2:11.
• Mur E, Hartig F, Eibl G, et al. Randomized double blind trial of an extract from the pentacyclic alkaloid-chemotype of uncaria tomentosa for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2002 Apr;29(4):678-81.
• Nogueira N, Coelho TM, Aguiar GC, et al. Experimental endometriosis reduction in rats treated with Uncaria tomentosa (cat's claw) extract. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2011;154(2):205-8.
• Pilarski R, Zielinski H, Ciesiolka D, et al. Antioxidant activity of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Uncaria tomentosa (Willd.) DC. J Ethnopharmacol. 2006 Mar 8;104(1-2):18-23.
• Piscoya J, Rodriguez Z, Bustamante SA, et al. Efficacy and safety of freeze-dried cat's claw in osteoarthritis of the knee: mechanisms of action of the species Uncaria guianensis. Inflamm Res. 2001;50(9):442-448.
• Quilez AM, Saenz MT, Garcia MD. Uncaria tomentosa (Willd. ex. Roem. & Schult.) DC. and Eucalyptus globulus Labill. interactions when administered with diazepam. Phytother Res. 2012;26(3):458-61.
• Rizzi R, Re F, Bianchi A, et al. Mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of Uncaria tomentosa and its extracts. J Ethnopharmacol. 1993;38(1):63-77.
• Rosenbaum CC, O'Mathúna DP, Chavez M, Shields K. Antioxidants and antiinflammatory dietary supplements for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Altern Ther Health Med. 2010 Mar-Apr;16(2):32-40. Review.
• Sandoval M, Charbonnet RM, Okuhama NN, et al. Cat's claw inhibits TNFalpha production and scavenges free radicals: role in cytoprotection. Free Radic Biol Med. 2000;29(1):71-78.
• Setty AR, Sigal LH. Herbal medications commonly used in the practice of rheumatology: mechanisms of action, efficacy, and side effects. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2005 Jun;34(6):773-84. Review.
• Sheng Y, et al. Induction of apoptosis and inhibition of proliferation in human tumor cells treated with extracts of Uncaria tomentosa. Anticancer Res. 1998;18:3,363-3,368.
• Sheng Y, Pero RW, Wagner H. Treatment of chemotherapy-induced leukopenia in a rat model with aqueous extract from Uncaria tomentosa. Phytomedicine. 2000;7(2):137-143.
• Spelman K, Burns J, Nichols D, et al. Modulation of cytokine expression by traditional medicines: a review of herbal immunomodulators. Altern Med Rev. 2006 Jun;11(2):128-50. Review.
• Steinberg PN. Cat's claw: medicinal properties of this Amazon vine. Nutrition Science News. 1995.

My personal experience has been that most physicians who are dismissive of herbal remedies are merely uninformed, because the truth is that practically all of most physicians' continuing education in pharmacology is provided by pharma salespeople hawking their latest overpriced pills. But that doesn't mean the evidence isn't out there. It means that you're not going to hear about it from your friendly Merck or Pfizer salesman.

For the record, I'm not a nut job, all-natural, anti-medicine person. I use herbal remedies when they work better or have fewer side effects than conventional pharma remedies, and I do so under my doctor's supervision. But I choose physicians who are at least willing to look at abstracts and summaries of studies (I know they don't have the time to read the whole tomes) before being dismissive of an alternative remedy.

-Rich

 

[RJM62]

Thanks for chiming in with some professional advice. I'm not a fan of any of this all-natural holistic BS. Herbs, magnetic bracelets, and fat burning pills have become an epidemic in their own right. But with all due respect, he did say "I would suggest talking to your doctor about an herb called Cat's Claw".

Thanks.

-Rich

 

[radioguy01]

My personal experience has been that most physicians who are dismissive of herbal remedies are merely uninformed, because the truth is that practically all of most physicians' continuing education in pharmacology is provided by pharma salespeople hawking their latest overpriced pills. But that doesn't mean the evidence isn't out there. It means that you're not going to hear about it from your friendly Merck or Pfizer salesman.

I actually have published an entire book detailing hundreds of different types of medical and herbal remedy quackery. I'm well aware that many herbs may have medicinal properties (in fact, many modern medicines are derived from naturally occurring substances), but until it's well proven, no way in heck I would entertain the idea. Especially when we have better medications already.

For the record, I'm not a nut job, all-natural, anti-medicine person. I use herbal remedies when they work better or have fewer side effects than conventional pharma remedies, and I do so under my doctor's supervision. But I choose physicians who are at least willing to look at abstracts and summaries of studies (I know they don't have the time to read the whole tomes) before being dismissive of an alternative remedy.

We regularly find that different herbs and other biological substances have a vast array of physiologic functions, however these rarely translate into anything that is clinically significant. Typically the concentrations of these substances in situ studies are so great that they would be toxic, or impossible to achieve physiologically, in humans. Curcumen is a great example, there is some evidence that it is toxic to cancer (myleoma) cells, however, the concentrations in which it is toxic are impossible to achieve physiologically. You could do the same study with salt and it would have the same outcome. However, if you swallowed two tablespoons of salt...

You wrote that there is "all sorts of evidence that it can help stabilize autoimmune diseases," which is completely untrue. There's not "all sorts of evidence." Period. No responsible health care provider would recommended Cat's Claw for the treatment of any disease at this point, especially IN LIEU of proven efficacious treatment. It may one day find a robustly proven use, but at this point the evidence is absolutely not there.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I actually have published an entire book detailing hundreds of different types of medical and herbal remedy quackery.

What's the title or ISBN?

 

[jsterner]

Disclaimer, I am not a Dr. but I have one. I have had colitis for 15 yrs, have colooscopy's every two years and have a flare up maybe every 3 yrs. I take Apriso (used to take Asocol until the insurance co didn't cover it) they are the same thing. I have a SI.and the F.A.A. was ok with my treatment for a 3rd class medical. Good luck with yours, it can be a pain but is treatable.


Jerry