This is something I had to learn for myself as I didn’t have anyone to show me the ropes and what would have the best chance of succeeding. There are many therapies and different ways of approaching management of Crohn’s Disease, but there are some things that you will want to keep in mind when making a decision if something is right for you or not.
Does the therapy deal with a diet or have some kind of diet component?
If you want to help your Crohn's Disease as effectively as possible, nothing quite beats diet for the effectiveness it can have on your condition.
Most times, you might be sabotaging other natural methods, due to the fact that you are not eating right, which is distracting your body and preventing the other methods from working as well as they could be, which is like shooting yourself in the foot.
It is a good idea to get an allergy test to see if you are having any food allergies or sensitivities that should be avoided in your diet. Dairy, wheat and sugar often the causes of food allergies that can hinder your progress.
Due to our bodies not being used to processed foods, we also might have trouble taking that stuff into our bodies. For anyone looking to improve their health it's a good idea to stick to foods such as fruits and vegetables that are served in a natural, unprocessed state.
If you do have a flare up you need to be careful of insoluble fibre as this can cause further irritation of the already inflamed tissue in the bowel and digestive system.
Does the practitioner have experience with Crohn’s Disease?
If you can find a practitioner that has a lot of experience with Crohn’s Disease, it gives you a much better chance of success. They will be much more likely to know proven paths to recovery and be able to better direct their efforts and attention to achieve your particular goals and beat this disease.
From their past experience they will know what works the best at helping bring you back to health as quickly as possible. It is essential that you do some research before starting any alternative method or therapy.
In the event you just don't know about this particular kind of therapy, be sure to look it up and learn more about it, so you know exactly what you are getting into - do not put yourself in an uncomfortable position. The better you understand what you will be doing, the more accurate feedback you can give your Crohn’s Disease alternative practitioner.
With that information, they will have a better idea of what to do in order to provide assistance. While you conduct your research you should find out how widely the therapy is being used, or if it is extremely new or has been rarely used.
However, it is a good idea to note that a therapy that is used more commonly than one that is new or rare is not necessarily the best choice. By doing a bit of research you can get a good idea about what you will be in for.
Ask about training and qualifications of the person you are seeing
When going to see an alternative practitioner, seeing if they are qualified or have any formal training will make sure that you will be getting good quality advice in that field.
You might not get someone with a degree from a university, but whatever training they have see if it is legitimate, or you may need to think about do you want to work with them. Any sort of training will be able to show you their competence.
However, it has been my experience that the ones with the least traditional education have often been the most helpful to me, and had unique perspectives on the process. They had practical experience to make up for it, and they were able to give me the results I was looking for.
You will need to use your own common sense and be sure that the practitioner you are seeing is qualified to help you to improve your health, whether they have qualifications or not.
Is the therapy a symptom suppressing process?
There are a lot of natural therapies that do take a more holistic point of view, however, you need to always keep this idea in mind.
In the event that you just want to get the symptoms to stop bothering you, but not necessarily deal with the causes for your Crohn's disease, that is counter intuitive and frankly a waste of time.
Suppressing the symptoms is like sweeping the problem under the rug, when the rug gets full the problem will turn up somewhere else in the body and create a whole new problem for you to deal with. Western medicine has this sort of principle behind it often, especially when dealing with Crohn's Disease or some other illness.
In some cases, the side effects that are experienced due to the medications themselves are much worse than the symptoms experienced by the original illness.
Don’t get me wrong western medicine still has a role to play in illness, you just need to be more informed about the pros and cons of what can happen long term on drug therapy.
There are many alternative treatments for Crohn's Disease that can also be used in conjunction with traditional drugs to help manage side effects and other issues.
