intestitial cyctitis

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Thank you so much Annette, Cristina and for your helpful replies. I had been thinking about giving her Calendula (one of my favourite herbs). Plantago makes sense and I'm a great fan of Ganoderma. It's interesting looking back that when I gave her demulcents Althea/Zea and Piper meth. to relax the urinary system things had returned almost to normal. I looked up the two drugs my patient mentioned she needed to take for the intense pain, since she was concerned about herb/interaction. I reassured her that nothing I would give would interact with her present pain medication. Of course St. 's Wort had been listed as a

no no to take with Amitriptyline stating that sedative herbs can enhance the drugs sedative action..... Also apparently Amitriptyline can deplete Vitamins B1, B2 and B6 as well as well as CoQ10 over a period of time, so I may need to replenish these with supplements. Terrible potential side effects are noted re. Amitriptyline like suicidal thoughts........ I did quite a lot of research on line about intestitial cyctitis. There is a rather nice forum for sufferers which makes quite interesting reading http://www.topix.com/forum/health/interstitial-cystitis/TTKTD34SDMIRR47QAOn it is a posting there from a herbalist (herself a sufferer). She writes, 'In Chinese medicine this syndrome is caused by "damp heat" and is treated with cooling and drying herbs. Use Poria 5 combination.' (I looked this formula (Wu Ling San) up and it says, 'it moves water, dispels dampness, warms the Yang and promotes the flow of Qi').She also wrote, 'Western herbs, marshmallow root, horsetail, cranberry, cornsilk, gotu kola, flax seed tea, raw blueberries, and other herbs. In your diet, avoid spicy foods, chocolate, tea, fried foods. Eat cooling foods like cucumbers, celery, dark leafy greens. If you are constipated, take a good herbal laxative with fiber, as constipation aggravates this condition. MSM and glucosamine, quercetin and a terrific Chinese combination called Golden Book are great for strengthening the bladder and helping with urgency.' (this formula (jin

gui shen qi wan) warms and tonifies kidney yang.) I noticed 'Herbs in a Bottle' stock it as a concentrated powder. Gotu kola was mentioned on the forum as a very powerful tissue healer which encourages epithelial

surfaces to regenerate themselves. It was suggested avoidance of acid-forming foods and drinks which will aggravate the

problem, particularly alcohol, coffee, oranges and orange juice, grapefruit, strawberries, rhubarb, shellfish, or pork. Aparently cranberries and

cranberry juice is good for the bacterial form of cystitis but not IC. Drugs should be avoided, prescription or otherwise, and any kind of artificial sweetners. Aspartame in particular is suspect. This is o.k. in theory but impractical at the moment for my lady who cannot function without the pain killers.

Recommended are lots of alkaline-forming foods/drinks, lemons

being the most-alkaline forming Start

the day with hot water and lemon juice. (all obvious stuff for us).Someone mentioned they found Solidago good, presumably because it's anti-inflammatory. Well again, thank you for the very helpful suggestions. I do hope I can sort out this young woman. She has a very supportive husband but her condition must put a big strain on their marriage since sex is so painful. She wrote that she cannot even consider starting a family whilst suffering so much pain. Anne