IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME

COLITIS, ENTERITIS AND IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

Colitis, enteritis and irritable bowel syndrome are inflammatory diseases of the intestines. Enteritis is inflammation or perhaps infection of the small intestines. Colitis means inflammation of the large intestine or colon. Irritable bowel syndrome is an interesting condition of the large intestine that is sometimes associated with stress.

Symptoms may include constipation, diarrhea, bleeding, tenderness, pain. At times, they can cause fever, weight loss, bloating, gas or perhaps even other symptoms.

CAUSES FOR INTESTINAL HEALTH CONDITIONS

1. Tissue breakdown or a catabolic state of body chemistry. The intestinal lining is the fastest growing tissue in the body. If protein synthesis is impaired, regeneration of this tissue may be impaired. The causes for excessive tissue breakdown include copper toxicity, zinc deficiency, improper diet low in protein, impaired digestion of protein, or other reasons such as generalized fatigue, lack of sleep and mineral imbalances.

2. Copper imbalance. This is associated with infections, in general, particularly fungal and some bacterial infections. For example, excessive candida albicans infection in the intestines is very common when copper is out of balance. It will not go away, even with medication, often, until the copper is brought into better balance, and then it goes away by itself.

Copper imbalance can also contribute to tissue breakdown and to emotional upsets that frequently contribute to intestinal upsets.

3. Zinc deficiency. Zinc is required for the enzyme RNA transferase and other an essential enzymes involved in protein synthesis. Zinc is also needed for digestive enzyme production in the mouth, stomach and intestines. Zinc has a lot to do with many digestive difficulties including colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

4. Toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead and others all can interfere with zinc, selenium and other critical minerals involved in protein synthesis and related activities needed for the intestines.

5. Diet and lifestyle imbalances are often involved in all intestinal disorders. Many people have improper diets, poor eating habits such as eating standing up or in their cars, and other habits that worsen digestion and can lead to intestinal disorders eventually.

PROTEIN DEFICIENCY

Low protein diets or poor protein utilization can contribute to irritable bowel and colitis. This might be indicated on a hair analysis by a low or very high phosphorus level, or an imbalanced zinc level or zinc/copper ratio. Sometimes the solution is as simple as eating more protein in the diet.

Improperly digested protein or other foods may give rise to toxic substances that inflame and irritate the bowel. A deficiency of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, stress, deficiency of liver and pancreatic enzymes, poor eating habits and improper bowel flora can all impair digestion.

FOOD SENSITIVITIES

Many people with IBS, Crohn's disease and colitis improve dramatically when they eliminate allergic foods. The most common offending foods are wheat in all forms, and dairy products. Other common ones include some soy products and eggs. However, any food can be problematic.

I take everyone off wheat, and often all gluten products if it is a case of colitis, IBS, enteritis or other intestinal condition. Pasteurized, homogenized dairy, and at times all dairy products are best avoided also, at least for a while. Another group of foods that must be eliminated is all white sugar and sweetened products. In fact, stopping all sweets, including all fruit, all sugars, all sweetened beverages and even some grains, if needed, will always improve intestinal disorders and in many cases, end them. Doing this also allows the intestines to begin to heal. Usually, with a nutritional balancing program, after a time, most food reactions will go away. However, one should stay away from all wheat, most beef, most pasteurized dairy products and all sugars and sweets forever. This is simply good eating habits today.

In nutritional balancing science, everyone takes a strong digestive enzyme, preferably with ox bile and pancreatin. This can take care of some food allergies and it also helps greatly to rebuild the intestines in some cases.

Food Allergy Testing. At times, food allergy testing is helpful to identify problem foods. The ways to do this include:

· An elimination diet. This is a very simple diet of perhaps rice and turkey with a few vegetables. After several days to a week, one adds back questionable foods, one at a time and observes the body’s reactions to them. One will often notice a flare-up of symptoms if the food is not healthful for you.

· The Coca Pulse Test. A much simpler method is to take your resting pulse for a minute or so when you are relaxed. Then place a possible allergic food in your mouth on your tongue. You need not swallow it most of the time. Then check your pulse again. If it rises more than a few beats, you may be reacting to the food. Then you can spit out the food, rinse your mouth with plain water and wait a few minutes. Then you can often test another food. Be sure to check your resting pulse, however, before testing another food. It should return to the baseline level that it was before testing. If not, wait a little longer to give more accurate readings. This test was designed by Arthur Coca, MD, an allergist, and is called the Coca Pulse Test.

· Skin, blood or scratch testing. There are several methods, including the old skin tests, ELISA, cytotoxic testing, electrical machines and others. All may be helpful. None are perfect in my experience. Foods you eat a lot of often will test sensitive. This type of testing is quite costly, but sometimes is helpful if food allergies are severe and one cannot seem to figure out which foods are causing a problem.

IMPAIRED INTESTINAL FLORA

Improper bowel flora can irritate the intestines, interfere with digestion, produce poisons that damage the intestine and at times even perforate or do severe damage to the intestinal walls. For example, some parasites can burrow into the intestinal wall and actually enter the body this way.

Harmful flora include candida albicans, e. coli, many types of bacteria and parasitic organisms and others. These can replace the normal beneficial intestinal flora such as lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium bifidum and others.

I recommend to everyone a digestive enzyme, GB-3, that helps kill many of these. It is a superb supplement. Supplements that kill yeast such as garlic, caprylic acid, tannic acid or colloidal silver may be needed, at times, to help kill harmful organisms in the intestines, as well. Drugs are rarely needed and one must be careful with herbal cleanses for the intestines as many herbs today are somewhat toxic.

Reducing all sweets, eliminating all fruit juices and reducing or eliminating all fruit is also very helpful, as it tends to promote or feed the growth of yeast in the intestines. At times, restricting all carbohydrate foods such as grains is needed for a short while for the same reason.

Colitis may be due to an infection with an intestinal parasite such as entamoeba histolitica, blastocystis hominis or others. This is more likely if one has traveled outside the country recently, and even more so if you visited a third world nation such as Mexico or Egypt. Never eat any raw food in these or other poor nations, and I would not recommend any raw food in any restaurant in America today because many are not that clean. Many people develop parasites, however, even if they avoid raw food. The eggs or cysts can be on plates, silverware, glasses, in the water, or on other things that one touches. Also, an unhealthy body cannot protect itself as well from these parasites.

Much of our food is grown outside the United States where standards of cleanliness are low. Also, food may become infected during preparation or unclean handling. Water supplies occasionally are contaminated with parasitic organisms. Try to be aware of the cleanliness of any restaurant you visit.

GB-3 or lactobacillus plantarum will help reduce the body’s parasites. For this reason anti-parasite medication is rarely needed in those who follow a nutritional balancing program.

I find that when the body is far out of balance or energy is low, parasites can be difficult to get rid of. As your energy improves on a nutritional balancing program, often the parasites will leave without needing special treatments.

Stool testng. Rarely, if parasites cannot be controlled with a standard nutritional balancing program and the use of natural substances to remove parasites such as colloidal silver or perhaps the herbal Clear product, a stool analysis may be necessary to identify specific intestinal parasites. Beware that these tests often miss many parasites, however. The best kind of test is a bowel contents exam. This is quite costly and one must sit for hours after taking a laxative that basically empties the bowel so the contents can be examined.

The standard stool tests should include two or three stool samples, or it will miss even more parasites. Many of these tests are just not that good, so if one needs such a test, try to find a lab that specializes in parasitology, rather than using a standard laroratory.

Medical drugs for parasites are often toxic and rarely needed, though they can help, at times. To obtain lactobacillus plantarum, a type of probiotic that can help with some parasites, health practitioners may call BioEnergy Systems at 1-800929-8328. Be sure to ask for Bioculture 3000. Take one small scoop of it – about one-fourth of a teaspoon – 10 minutes before breakfast each day. As you can tolerate more, increase up to 5 scoops of it.

Another very good probiotic product that is at many health food stores is called Bio-K. Take one-half of a teaspoon of it 10 minutes before each meal.

OTHER INTESTINAL REMEDIES

As stated above, digestive enzymes are very helpful for most everyone today, especially adults and older people. I prefer the more powerful ones with ox bile and pancreatin. Other are betaine HCl‑pepsin, papain, vegetable enzymes (to which some are allergic because they are fungally based) and others.

Also discussed above are probiotics such as lactobacillus acidophilus, though these are not often needed if one eats correctly. Extra fiber can help absorb certain toxic substances from the gut and can also help promote beneficial intestinal bacteria. This should not be needed if one eats plenty of cooked vegetables and some cooked grains. Too much fiber is not helpful for some cases of colitis. Also, avoid raw food, spicy food and all irritating foods.

Aloe vera, slippery elm, comfrey, castor oil packs over the abdomen, deep breathing into the intestines, and especially stress reduction can be most beneficial for many types of mild colitis, especially food poisoning and other simple causes if you have ruled out food sensitivities.

Colitis is associated with perfectionistic tendencies. Soft music, relaxed meals, breathing deeply while eating, and resting after eating can all help soothe an agitated intestinal tract.

Avoiding constipation in general, and excellent bowel hygiene can be very helpful as well. Colonic irrigation and coffee enemas may help remove colonies of yeast and even some parasites.

Sauna therapy is also excellent for many intestinal problems. The penetrating heat of the near infrared sauna in particular will assist the immune response of the body to bring out hidden and chronic intestinal infections that are extremely widespread.

HAIR ANALYSIS PATTERNS IN INTESTINAL DISEASES

Common patterns include:

· Phosphorus level less than 12 mg%. This indicates impaired protein synthesis. Many times it is due to an improper diet that is low in protein or has a poor quality of protein such as that found in many vegetarian diets. Low phosphorus can be related to impaired digestion, low digestive enzyme levels or perhaps intestinal infections.

· Copper imbalance. This is associated with the overgrowth of intestinal yeast, and sometimes with vegetarian diets, stress or other factors that can affect digestion.

· Other toxic metals, particularly mercury, and perhaps others as well. In some cases, these affect the intestinal tract.

· Sodium/potassium ratio is less than 2.5:1. This is associated with tissue breakdown or protein catabolism. This is a common occurrence with some digestive disturbances in which the body is not properly nourished.
A low sodium/potassium ratio is also associated with low levels of digestive enzymes, blood sugar abnormalities and with infections, in general.

· Low levels of sodium and perhaps potassium. This is associated with reduced levels of hydrochloric acid in the stomach in most cases.

Home * Hair Analysis * Saunas * Books * Articles
Detoxification Protocols * Courses * About Dr. Wilson