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IC Quick Tip IC patients can be vulnerable to network marketing scams which promote herbs or supplements as cures for IC. Please be very cautious and careful. Expensive products such as vitamins are simply not proven helpful for IC. Focus your time equally on tested and proven strategies. |
If the ICN has helped you
HTML Rev.: Oct. 28, 1999
Rev: Sept. 1999
and/or given you comfort
during those difficult nights,
we hope that you will become
a subscriber.
Diane Manhatten
Bev Laumann & Jill Osborne
Holistic & Alternative Approaches
As patients seek out their treatment alternatives, quite often they will look to holistic, controversial, or alternative approaches. However, like the many IC treatments discussed above, herbal and alternative therapies are also not a cure. In addition, patients should keep in mind that the effectiveness, long-term side effects, and risks of some alternative or holistic treatments have never been studied. In all cases, if you are considering an unusual treatment, seek out the advice of a professional medical authority.
ACUPUNCTURE & ACUPRESSURE
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice which involves inserting thin stainless steel needles into various parts of the body. Occasionally a mild electric current is passed through the needles to enhance the effect. Although the practice may seem strange and Westerners remain largely skeptical of it, over the last decade numerous scientific studies have validated it an an effective method of healing, pain reduction, anesthesia and nerve regeneration.Acupuncture has been found to stimulate the release of endorphins-- which are the body's natural painkillers, and serotonin-- which is involved in the process of sleep, among other things. For IC patients, the aim of acupuncture is usually to reduce pain and urinary frequency while increasing a sense of well-being and relaxation. Acupressure is similar to acupuncture except that pressure from fingers is used in place of needles. Results of acupuncture or acupressure for IC vary widely-- from significant improvement to no response at all.
Dr. Jane Yiu, a practicing acupuncturist in New York City suggests that IC patients should have at least 10 acupuncture sessions before giving up. Dr. David Chen, a California acupuncturist and member of the State Medical Board for acupuncture, notes that in his experience, frequency is the IC symptom that responds best to acupuncture.
CHINESE HERBS
Many acupuncturists also use herbs for pain relief and healing in conjunction with the acupuncture. Chinese herbs are also sometimes used alone. Dr. Ching Yao Shi, a licensed acupuncturist in Philadelphia who also holds an MD degree, has formulated an herbal tea especially for IC patients. The tea is composed of a blend of many herbs and is designed to provide optimum pain relief. Patients drink one or two cups daily.The tea has been evaluated in one small formal study involving 25 IC patients, conducted by Dr. Kristene Whitmore (author of "Overcoming Bladder Disorders"), Dr. David Gordon, and Dr. Shi. Results over a period of several months were generally favorable, with 82% of IC patients showing at least some improvement. This was not a double-blind or placebo-controlled study.
Dr. Shi's tea and copies of related research projects are available on the web at Green Healing Center, Inc. Please note that it appears to be somewhat expensive for patients on limited incomes.
NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS
Like a lot of Americans, IC patients are concerned with proper diet and nutrition, and some take a variety of vitamin and mineral supplements for general health. But two supplements are also popular among IC patients for their reputed pain-relieving and frequency-reducing properties.The first is a plant derived substance and member of the bioflavonoid class of compounds, pycnogenol. In general, bioflavonoids are known to strengthen capillaries. Pycnogenol is sold in health food stores under various brand names and typically, it is produced from either grape pips or the bark of the French Maritime pine. Those who take the supplement for their IC claim the pine-derived formulas work better. All information on the use of pycnogenol for IC has been anecdotal and word-of-mouth. So far there have been no scientific studies on the effectiveness of pycnogenol in treating IC, or on its long term risks.
The second popular nutritional supplement is an amino acid, L-arginine. Protein in food is composed of amino acids. One of these amino acids is arginine, which has two molecular forms: L-arginine and D-arginine. L-arginine has been the subject of recent scientific scrutiny because the body utilizes it to produce nitric oxide, a small molecule involved in many biological processes.
In early 1996 a team of researchers at Yale announced that they had found a link between an enzyme that produces nitric oxide (nitric oxide synthase) and IC. After finding this link, the Yale team conducted a small trial of oral L-arginine on less than a dozen IC patients. Preliminary results indicated that L-arginine may be effective for some IC patients in reducing bladder pain and frequency. Encouraged by this, several new studies have been conducted which demonstrate that L-Arginine can be helpful in reducing the pain of IC.
The tested dosage of L-arginine is 500 mg of it 3 times daily. It should be pointed out that the L-arginine used in clinical research is pure and of uniform quality, whereas that sold in health food stores is not.