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Complementary Therapies in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease (S Hanauer, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) often take a chronic debilitating course. Given the chronicity of IBD, the limitations of the available medications, their potential side effects, and the impact of the disease on patients’ quality of life, it is not surprising IBD patients are ranked among the highest users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Since CAM has become very popular in real-life practice of Western Communities, caregivers must gain more knowledge about these therapies, their mechanism of action, benefits, and risks. This article reviews and discusses up-to-date scientific and clinical data regarding the most prevalent herbal CAM therapies.

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Abbreviations

IBD:

Inflammatory bowel disease

UC:

Ulcerative colitis

CD:

Crohn’s disease

Anti-TNF-α:

Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha

SIBDQ:

Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, a health-related quality of life (HRQoL) tool measuring physical, social, and emotional status (scores 10–70, poor to good HRQoL)

AER:

Ascending enteric reflex

LES:

Lower esophageal sphincter

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

CDAI:

Crohn’s Disease Activity Index

CAI:

Colitis Activity Index

THC:

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgments

HY conceived the design. HY and AL participated in the data acquisition, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation. NS participated in the manuscript preparation. All the authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual property and approved the submission of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBD Center, Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 6423906, Israel

    Henit Yanai

  2. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Henit Yanai & Adi Lahat

  3. Department of Gastroenterology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer, Israel

    Nir Salomon & Adi Lahat

Authors
  1. Henit Yanai
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  2. Nir Salomon
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  3. Adi Lahat
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Correspondence to Henit Yanai.

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Conflict of Interest

Drs Yanai and Lahat have no conflicts of interests. Dr. Salomon is a certified herbalist and uses various herbal and botanical products including curcumin. Dr. Salmon also is holding the trademark to Cur-Cure and received speaker fees from the Bana Herbs in 2012.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All reported studies/experiments with human or animal subjects performed by the authors have been previously published and were in compliance with all applicable ethical standards.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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Yanai, H., Salomon, N. & Lahat, A. Complementary Therapies in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Curr Gastroenterol Rep 18, 62 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11894-016-0537-6

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