My Experiences With Homemade Indian Remedies For Ulcerative Colitis

For this blog I want to share with you a unique experience as a South-Asian woman, and that experience is the struggle with homemade Indian remedies.

During the worst time of my life with inflammatory bowel disease I experienced excruciating abdominal pain, blood in my stools, vomiting, weight loss, a reduced appetite… and the list went on.

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC), a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become severely inflamed. There is no cure for UC, and it can flare up at any time. As you can imagine it was an extremely frustrating time for me… I just wanted to feel like a normal 18 year old.

When family and friends from the South Asian community found out about my condition, a lot of people presumed it was the same thing as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). They hadn’t really heard of inflammatory bowel diseases before, and therefore struggled to understand that there was no cure for the condition.

People would suggest Indian homemade remedies for me to try.

Some of which included:

• Fresh lemon with ginger in water
• Turmeric and hot milk
• Strong cup of unsweetened black tea
• 1–2 teaspoons of brandy with warm water – (this was a suggestion I accepted with open arms haha)
• Drink coconut water 3–4 times a day
• Drink fresh aloe vera juice
• Ayurvedic medicine treatments (one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems, developed more than 3,000 years ago in India)
• Add more turmeric and ginger within Indian food dishes
• Avoid wheat – (chapatti and naan bread is an essential part of a South Asian diet, so cutting this out of my meals was quite difficult)

I understood that those who suggested these remedies meant well, so I would always try their suggestions. Some family and friends would make the remedy themselves and bring it to me… I have family who live in India who would even send things over through another family member to try!

Of course, I had no luck with the remedies and failed to see an improvement in my symptoms. I was frustrated every time someone else suggested another one.

I would always accept their suggestion, as it was much easier than trying to explain about UC and how there is no cure. Unfortunately there wasn’t even one Indian remedy that I could say made me feel better or helped with my symptoms. My only hope was the prescribed medication from my doctors and consultant to help manage the disease. I was taking around 20 tablets a day and even these didn’t prevent my colon from being so inflamed that emergency surgery was necessary.

If you’re currently experiencing something similar, please don’t feel obliged to try out a home remedy you know won’t help just because a friend or family member recommended it. You should always speak to your healthcare team about the best ways to manage symptoms. For further advice, take a look at SecuriCare’s advice and support section.