IBD- inflammatory Bowel Disease, has become quite common these days; more in Western part of the world but we have noticed a considerable rise in the cases in India as well.
It includes Ulcerative colitis(UC) & Crohn’s Disease(CD); UC affects the colon while CD can affect anywhere along the whole GI tract.
While dealing with these cases, usual norm of Homeopathic case taking are followed. The diagnosis is very important to understand the level of disease and its expected course and treat it accordingly to track the exact prognosis in the due process. With all these formalities, we don’t forget our basics of following Symptomatology (Chapter XI-The Genius of Homeopathy-by Dr. Stuart Close).
Let’s have a brief look at the respective clinical signs & symptoms:
Ulcerative Colitis
- Diarrhea- associated with blood & mucus
- Constipation- due to spasms in rectum
- Defecation at night
- Lower abdominal pain
- Fever
- Malaise
- Weight loss
In most cases, it starts indolently and worsens gradually. It is characterized as active colitis/flare, remission/quiescent phase or chronic continuous disease/partially active disease.
Crohn’s Disease
- Diarrhoea
- Abdominal pain, urgency tenesmus
- Weight loss is mostly due to malabsorption
- Fever indicates complications like abscess
It is also relapsing in nature, but unlike UC, it has a better prognosis.
The exact causes of IBDs are yet to be understood well but it involves one of four components and their interactions:
- Genetic predisposition
- An altered, dysregulated immune response to certain microbes
- An altered response to gut microorganisms, loss of gut bacteria due to various drugs like antibiotics
- Environmental factors like improper diet, smoking, OCPs, perinatal events & various socio-economic factors. Plant-based & low-fat diets see fewer cases of IBDs than meat-based & rich, oily diets.
These diseases are much more easily curable if diagnosed earlier. Unfortunately, they develop gradually and go unnoticed until they are advanced.
I am sharing a short Repertorial note using a few symptoms here using the Complete Repertory, by Roger Zandovert
Symptoms-
- Blood and mucus in stool– Section -stool, rubric -mucus, sub rubric- bloody. This symptom alone covers 149 homeopathic medicines, mentioning first 5 medicines of them- Merc Dul, urtica-urens, Podophyllum, Capsicum, Merc-c.
- Tenesmus or low abdomen pain with urging– Section-rectum, rubric-pain, sub rubric-tenesmus, painful urging. This symptom has 354 indicated homeopathic remedies, mentioning some- Eriger, Li-tig, lyssinum, Aesculus, Aloes.
- Constipation- this symptom has 811 medicines in the Section Rectum and rubric constipation. To name a few common meds- Opium, Coffea, Aloes, Sulphur, Bar-mur.
- Weight loss– Section- Generalities, Rubric- Emaciation (410 medicines), sub rubric- appetite good(57 medicines), sub rubric-complete loss of appetite(6 medicines).
- Diarrhea- this symptom has 951 medicines indicated under the Section-Rectum, rubric – diarrhea. To name some- aesculus, Aethusa, zinc-s, Ferrum ars, Podo.
The sole purpose of sharing the above repertorial note is to make everyone aware of the vastness of Homeopathy and the efforts we make as a homeopath to find the perfect similima medicine out of these. It really lands us in a fix, when someone asks please tell us medicine for mucus in stool or constipation, as a medicine cannot be decided solely with one word complain, we need a full detailed case then we deduce & reach a perfect or near-perfect similimum medicine.
This holistic approach gives us the confidence to offer you a healthy life and we look forward to helping as many people as we can.
