26: Top 5 Holistic Treatment Protocols for Crohn's and Colitis

It is possible to treat IBD naturally, and I'm going to show you how.

There are 5 key protocols that you can easily use to begin managing/treating your Crohn's or Colitis naturally and holistically.


TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• Using supplements PROPERLY
• Immunology 101: why you're inflamed
• Diet (3 simple rules to follow)
• Stress management and mind body practices
• Specfic (root cause focused) supplementation
• Targetted probiotics
• Fecal Transplants (FMT)

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Transcript

Josh Dech:

IBD medication can be absolutely necessary to give you your life back. But if you're looking at how to approach this disease naturally and holistically — this is for you.

Now I'm going to show you my five go-to holistic treatment protocols, why I truly do believe they're a better long-term solution than medication, and I'm going to give you the steps to begin addressing your bowel disease from the roots.

Contrary to what your doctors told you, Crohn's and colitis are reversible. Now I've helped hundreds of people reverse their bowel disease, and I'm here to help you do it too — because inflammation always has a root cause. We just have to find it.

This is the Reversing Crohn’s and Colitis Naturally podcast. Now I do these live trainings in my Facebook group every single week and put the audios here for you to listen to.

If you want to watch the video versions of these episodes, just click the link in the show notes to get access to our Facebook group and YouTube channel. And for weekly updates, information, tips and tricks, you can sign up for our email list by clicking the link in the show notes below.

Now if you don't know me — my name is Josh Dech. I'm an IBD specialist, medical lecturer, physician consultant, and the scientific strategist and education director for the RCFC.

And today we are talking about the five treatment protocols, or the holistic treatment protocols for Crohn's and colitis.

First things first. Everything that you do through these holistic treatment protocols depends on what's causing your disease.

I want to skim this without going into too much detail, because we have talked about this in the past. If you haven't seen those, make sure to check back in the podcast or YouTube — wherever you're watching from.

But everything you do when it comes down to getting these holistically — it has to do with understanding what's actually causing the disease. And that's how we select these holistic protocols.

For example — if I give you supplements, I want to take supplements because I'm going after something that's causing your problem. If you have parasites or mold, I'm giving you supplements to go after that parasite or the mold. Otherwise, if I'm just controlling inflammation, I'm giving you plant-based medication.

So you want to be very selective, specific about what we're using and why.

And so here's what you need to know about IBD when you're selecting these things — this is going to be relevant because this is the overarching umbrella that the whole conversation today is going to sit under.

So there's a quick anatomy — or biology, immunology lesson if you will.

IBD we tend to see is TH2 and TH17 dominant. Now I'm not going too deep down this rabbit hole — but here's what you need to know.

This stands for T-helper cells. There's number 2, number 17 — there's many of these pathways, but these are just the immune responses.

If you think about it like your immune system is like an octopus — all these different arms do a specific thing. These specific arms — TH2 and 17 — do a specific thing, and they have to do with the inflammation that you're experiencing inside of your digestive system in Crohn's or your bowels and colitis.

So picture it this way. If you have a — your body's like a bathtub, right? We'll use my cup analogy. There's a big odd-shaped tub — as this starts to fill up, you develop symptoms, right? And as it overflows — you now have disease.

And so these pathways work together to fill this up even quicker.

This is why, for example, if you have the flu with your Crohn's or colitis, it gets so much worse — because the flu fills the same cup as these two immune pathways.

So while your immune system is already inflaming your digestive system, the flu comes in and it loads these same arms of your immune system — filling it up and causing more inflammation in those areas.

So that's why this is relevant to you.

This pathway — your TH2 — this is going to fight pathogens like parasites. It also contributes to things like asthma, antibodies — and it's actually anti-inflammatory, but it creates a weakness in your immune system.

Whereas this pathway here, TH17 — defends against bacteria and fungus on a mucosal level. So soft, squishy surfaces like your mouth and your colon.

This is why these paths are important to know — because everything we're going through here in a minute has to do with all of these and what we're triggering or what we're not.

We know IBD is dominant here — and so we want to make something for you or give you protocols that either counter these or balance these, so you're not experiencing this level of dominance.

And this is why we want to go through root causes. Once we know what's causing it — we can support you accordingly.

Okay — that makes sense to you? If it doesn't, ask me questions. But now that that makes sense — we're going to go through the five treatments that we can use on a holistic level to manage some of these immune pathways, to give your body the rest and relaxation that it needs here with IBD.

Because let's face it — you're sick of being in flares, you're sick of being inflamed all the time, you're sick of the urgency, running to the bathroom, planning out your meals — you're sick of the symptoms, the pain, the fatigue, the headaches, the skin issues — everything that comes with it.

And so these protocols are going to give you a really good way to get started on reducing these immune responses so your body can begin calming down and cooling itself.
Let's get into this. The first protocol we’re going to give you — Treatment Number One — we’re going to call it an Anti-Inflammatory Diet. I put “AF diet” — Anti-Inflammatory Diet.

Now doctors often say, “Well, diet doesn’t matter — eat whatever you want.” They take it too far.

Now, does diet cause IBD? I have seen it in very few — maybe 1 or 2% of cases — where simply fixing the diet fully reversed the disease. However, diet is part of this cup we’re talking about.

So if you’re eating things that are also in this cup, you’re contributing to the problem.

And so there are lots of good diets out there — like the SCD or Specific Carbohydrate Diet. We see Low FODMAP, the AID (Anti-Inflammatory Diet), or AIP (Autoimmune Paleo).

There’s so many different diets — but I’m going to simplify this for you.

There are only three rules to follow while we’re dealing with diets. Three rules — that’s it.

Number one: We’re going to look at whole foods.

Now the spin-off to whole foods — organize and go through the EWG (that’s the Environmental Working Group). And what we can do is use a Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen list.

If it’s on the Clean 15 — just buy it wherever, it doesn’t matter. If it’s on the Dirty Dozen list — these are the ones I can’t recommend enough that you really go through and actually take and make sure they’re either organic or avoid them.

So your blueberries and strawberries — there was a study that found the average strawberry in whatever area of the States (USA) had 14 different pesticides, which again — destroy your gut, they’re toxic, and cause these immune pathways to go.

So — whole foods, and try to get them organic if they’re on the Dirty Dozen list. That’s from the EWG — you can look them up.

So that’s the first rule — whole foods or organic where you can.

The second rule: Can you tolerate these foods?

And here’s why I say this — there’s a lot of foods that are tolerated, like Cheerios and white bread, but they’re not whole foods. Therefore, on some levels they are contributing to your inflammation.

And they can be causing your gut bacteria to do all kinds of crazy stuff you don’t know they’re doing.

And so it’s adding — even though it might be drops in the bucket, it is still adding water to that bucket where it can overflow. So you want to be very careful about that.

So Rule Number One for food is whole foods.
Number Two is that they’re tolerated — so they don’t cause you active irritation.

The third one — and this one is very important — is: low histamine.

Here’s why low histamine matters.

And if you don’t know what foods are low histamine — here’s a great opportunity to utilize ChatGPT. You can download the app for free, make an account for free, use a desktop version — ask it: Cut and paste a bunch of foods — “Which ones of these are low histamine?”

Because remember we talked about your TH2 and TH17 — we talked about these immune pathways and how they’re dominant in IBD.

So when you have too much immune reaction, you have inflammation, you have flares, you get the flu — which also triggers these responses — now you go into a flare.

Happens all the time — because of these immune responses.

Well, histamines actually push this TH2 immune response. So they actually contribute, just like the flu.

So foods like some probiotics, fermented foods, canned foods, fried foods, cured meats like sausages — especially deli meats, lunch meats — these things can be very high in histamine.

Spinach and avocados are higher histamine foods. So if you’re eating these, even though they’re whole — it could still be contributing to this overreaction of your immune system, which means without realizing it, you think you’re eating healthy — but you’re eating problematic foods.

We have people all the time who come in, are drinking bone broth — but it actually makes them worse.

Well, a big reason for that is that bone broth — not meat broth, there’s a difference — but the long-simmered 24, 48-hour bone broth with all the collagen — that pushes histamines. It pushes this TH2 immune response. So you get these negative inflammatory reactions.

So Treatment Number One is an Anti-Inflammatory Diet:

• Whole foods (organic if Dirty Dozen)
• Foods you can tolerate
• Low histamine

You can always go to ChatGPT or Google to check — “Are my foods low in histamine, and how are they affecting me?”

That’s Rule Number One — first treatment ✅
AF Diet: Whole, tolerated, low histamine.
Let’s go!

Treatment Number Two is stress.
And then we’re going to put stress — we’re also going to put, I’ll put a little slash up here — MB, this is going to be Mind-Body practice.

So: Stress and Mind-Body. Why?
You know stress causes you to flare. Stress causes you to trigger. Why? Because it creates inflammation.

It produces excess cortisol — it is inflammatory, and it can trigger again these same immune pathways.

So it’s contributing to that cup. It’s filling it up. You’re overflowing. And now you’re flaring and going, “Why?”

Well, stress is a trigger.
No — stress contributes to the cup that is already full.

And so by working on stress reduction through things like breathwork, meditation, mind-body practice, acupuncture, yoga, journaling, whatever works for you...

I had a client — this might sound kind of woo to somebody, but to many of you this will make sense — she had a bunch of stuff going on in her life, a lot of stressful stuff, a lot of personal stuff.

And she actually wrote it down in a journal. She put everything down on a piece of paper and wrote it down.

There’s something about the pen to paper, the physical act of writing — she got it out, she took it outside, and burned it.

She’s like, “It was a total release.”
 That physical manifestation of the writing and watching it burn — it was like releasing it.

And sometimes that’s a great way to do it.
 There’s all kinds of ways.

The idea being that mind-body practices, stress reduction — they lower cortisol, lower inflammation, can actually enhance that vagus nerve response — which is almost like this horse tail.

It comes from the left side of your neck, comes all the way down.

This nerve — this big thick nerve like a guitar string — it innervates into your heart, your lungs, your whole digestive system — like your stomach and intestines, all that stuff.

And it’s this what we call a bi-directional pathway.

So there’s communication from your brain to your gut — so when you’re stressed, it triggers a stress response.
But also from your gut back to your brain.

So when you have inflammation in here, it can cause issues which cause anxiety.
Or the anxiety causes issues in your gut — it goes both ways.

And so by working on these practices, it can reduce this immune response, reduce the immune activity, give your body a nice break, and it can calm things down — and not contribute again to those same immune pathways we talked about.

This is why it’s so important.
 This umbrella of your immune system — it all connects.

Let’s talk about Treatment Number Three.
The third treatment we’re talking about here — the third one we’re going through — is going to be Specific Supplementation.

Here’s why this matters.

At the beginning, if you recall, I was saying there’s a difference between taking plant-based medication and going after the root cause.

So if you have parasites and I give you a bunch of stuff to cover your inflammation or cover your responses — we are just using plant-based medication.

But because I don’t know what things are causing your IBD specifically — there’s a good chance there’s layers of mold and parasites and fungus and other things — we see a lot of that, 80+% of the time.

But because we don’t know specifically what’s taking priority, the supplements I’m going to give you are going to be to control some of these immune responses, to calm the inflammation.

And again — it is sort of like plant-based medication. But we’re not just popping a bunch of stuff and guessing — we’re actually going after this TH2 or these TH17 immune pathways.

We talked about TH2 and TH17 — these same immune pathways — the stuff I’m going to give you is actually going to calm them down and even promote their counterpart — which is TH1, the one I keep slipping out of my mouth.

So we’re going to calm 2 and 17 — these are the active ones causing your inflammation — and we’re going to promote number one, TH1, to help bring balance back to your immune system.

Because think about it — if TH1, this pathway, is way down here — and your 2 and 17 are way up here — this is called immune destabilization, dysregulation, imbalance — whatever you want to call it.

So it’s out of balance.
 Our job is to bring them closer together.

So we’re going to calm the high ones and raise the low ones. A lot of them are suppressed.

And so one of the most common deficiencies — that’s another thing we’re filling in — is vitamin D, or vitamin D3, pairs really well with vitamin K2. These can help calm some of these immune responses as well.

So I’m just going to bang them out for you here in order — you can look at dosing and stuff online later. I’m not going through that today — I just want to give you the names:

🌿 Specific Supplements Josh Recommends:

• Vitamin D3 (paired with K2)
• Curcumin (get nano or liposomal — curcumin by itself isn’t very bioavailable)
• Quercetin (got popular during COVID, but great for immune balance)
• Omega-3s or PRMs (Pro-Resolving Mediators — like super Omega-3s)
• Resveratrol (a powerful antioxidant)

These can be really beneficial in calming these overactive immune responses, to give your body a chance to again balance itself, again promoting that opposite immune side.

The next one we’re talking about — and I want to put caution on this one, but it’s really beneficial for you — Number Four, of course, is probiotics.

But here’s what you need to know about them.

Remember we talked about histamines when we talked about meals and Treatment Protocol Number One?
One of my rules was:

• Whole foods
• Tolerated foods
• Low histamine

There are a lot of probiotics that actually produce high levels of histamines.

And so we’re selective — I’ll give you some specific names here — but we want to go through and use some that elicit healthy immune responses, they support your gut lining, they can keep some of the bad guys at bay, and they even produce something as a byproduct called bacteriocins, which means they can kill off some of the bad guys, fungal or otherwise, supporting your immune system.

So there are some common high-histamine ones — again, go to ChatGPT or Google those — but the low-histamine probiotics that do all these things:

• Support the gut lining
• Balance the immune system
• Keep the bad guys at bay
• Crowd them out
• Help your body buffer

🔬 Specific Low-Histamine Strains Josh Recommends:

We know Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus are the two most common genera in every single probiotic blend you’ll ever find.

So I’m going to give you specific strain names:

Bifidobacterium (B):

• Infantis
• Longum
• Breve

These can be really beneficial to support your body and immune responses without causing a histamine reaction.

Lactobacillus (L):

• Rosell (or Rhamnosus Rosell)
• Plantarum

These ones can be very beneficial for all these immune responses and helping heal the gut lining.

So while we’re on the probiotic stream — remember:
 Probiotics are living organisms.
These are the things that live inside you, creating all kinds of good immune responses, helping your body out, giving you all kinds of benefits and doing all the good things.

We need them.
 They contribute to your microbiome.

So there’s a Fifth Treatment Protocol that targets your microbiome directly, and it’s relatively new — and it’s really quite amazing what’s possible.

But there’s a lot of caution around it.

We call this one:

FMT — Fecal Microbiota Transplant 💩

It’s exactly what it sounds like.
 They’ll actually take stool — that’s poop — from someone else, and they’ll give it to you.

Now they’ll either freeze-dry it, some will actually encapsulate it — separate all the bacteria out.
You can take it through capsules, or there are enemas — retention enemas.

You’ll kind of be face-down, ass-up, and you’ll put the — you’ll insert it, squirt it in, and let it sit.

There’s also what they do through colonoscopy — where you’ll need GI specialists and anesthesiologists.
They’ll go in, wash all the stool out of your colon, take this bacteria or stool from a donor, and plant it and place it inside your bowel to have it take root.

It’s like planting seeds.
And that new fresh start has been shown — it’s cured cancer, Parkinson’s, all kinds of stuff.

Brings us back to that idea:

“All disease begins in the gut” — or particularly in the leaky gut.

So probiotics enhance the microbiome.
FMT is a transplant — they actually take someone else’s microbiome and give it to you.

⚠️ But here’s the thing:
It’s only approved in the USA for recurrent C. diff infection.
There are very specific criteria around it to get it.

Number two: It is extraordinarily dangerous if it’s not certified, licensed, checked — especially if it’s DIY.

There are a lot of stories out there about people going DIY, and I cannot tell you enough:

DO NOT.
Please, for the love of God — DO NOT go DIY.

It can be fatal.
It can kill you if you don’t have professional supervision — because you don’t know what you’re getting.

Even though someone looks healthy, you don’t know what their immune system is holding back that’s in there.
You don’t know what your body’s going to react to.
You don’t know if there’s something that should not be introduced into your system.

Even what we think is the best stool, like from a hunter-gatherer tribe out in the jungle — they have microbes that are toxic to us.
Because we don’t have them in our guts — our ecosystem here is different.

💸 Also — it’s expensive.
FMT can cost $5,000 per treatment, and people may need 5 to 10 treatments.
So tens of thousands of dollars. And people still mess it up.

Why?

Because they don’t do prep work.

Your bowels got here for a reason — maybe it was a lifetime of antibiotics.
 But there’s mold, fungus, parasites, invasive species in your liver, bile ducts, appendix, small intestines…

FMT doesn’t address that unless you do the work beforehand.

Josh’s analogy:

“If there’s a bonfire in the ground and you build a house on top of it — that house is going to burn down.
 You go back and build another one — same result.
 Why?
 Because you didn’t put out the fire first.”

So if you want to transplant a whole new microbiome, you have to remove what destroyed the first one.

That’s why prep work is essential, and why FMT, while powerful, is not a magic bullet.

So those are my top five holistic treatment protocols that we use for IBD.

It has to go through root cause.
You have to know what’s driving it. You can organize these around it.

But now that you know the immune system, these TH2 or 17 pathways, we call them, that are causing your immune system to go out of whack, causing this inflammation — we can create protocols around it to help fix it in the first place.

So I hope that helps.

Here’s the thing:
If you guys are looking at this and for the first time you're saying,
“Wait — this is making sense.
For the first time I actually understand that there’s something driving my bowel disease.
I don’t just have to live on a lifetime of medication. I don’t just need to suppress it and manage it —
I can actually get to the root.
I can pull out the problem.
My body can heal itself.”

That’s what inflammation is — it’s a reaction of your body trying to protect you from something that shouldn’t be there.

That’s what inflammation is — by definition.

So we have to ask:

“What is there that shouldn’t be?”

Once we have that, we can begin giving your body the tools and resources to heal itself.
It can be that simple.

That’s what you want to do.

So if this is making sense to you for the first time, here’s how you can get help.

If you’re on YouTube, if you’re on the podcast and listening to this — simply check the links below.
 There’s a button you can click or a link you can get into to connect with me and my team directly.

You can send me an email.
 If you’re listening to this and for the first time it's clicking, and you think:
 “I want to get help and actually find my root cause,”
You can do that by simply going to the links below and connecting with us.

We’ll help you out.
 We’ll get you some answers to what’s causing this — and not just throw some blanket protocols at you, but actually get to the root.

We’ll create something specific.
 We’ll work with you every single week for 16 weeks until we can pull this out and get your body back to balance.

It can be that simple.
 So we’re going to do it.

Now I’m going to go to the comment section — let’s see if we’ve got any questions.

💬 Comment from Rene:
“Is deer safe for me to eat? I have ulcerative colitis.”

Totally.
 I’m a big fan of game meats. However, we have to make sure they’re thoroughly cooked.

There’s a misconception that game meats — wild hunted, wild caught — are more prone to parasites than farm.
That’s just not the case.

Parasites are everywhere. Everybody’s got them.
The question is, how much are they affecting you?

So it’s very important to make sure it’s thoroughly cooked, no matter what you’re eating.

There was a gentleman — Dr. Bill Rawls, I had him on my podcast a while back, fantastic doctor, really enjoyed him — wrote a great book called The Cellular Wellness Solution.

And he was telling me about one of his patients he remembered — the day he got colitis.

He was out hunting — I think it was deer or elk or something.
 He had the meat sitting out.
 He’s like, “It was just a little bit off.”
 He ate it anyway.

The next day, he started bleeding.
 He had ulcerative colitis symptoms.

And after going through that root cause — they were able to reverse it.
But we have to know that there’s a lot to it.

So do be careful with any meats you're consuming.
 But game meat — I’m a big fan, because it’s what you would call wild-caught, organic, free-range, whatever words you want to use.
It’s the best quality you can get.
And I’m a huge fan of game meat.

💬 Vanessa says:
“It’s very interesting, as I’m sick and passed out.”

Well — make sure you get some help with that.
If you’re passing out, that’s not good. You need some support there.

Especially if you’re sick with IBD — remember:
 If you’re having bowel disease and you’re sick — especially like with a flu or a virus — they’re driving the same immune pathways.

So you’re contributing to the same inflammatory responses you've already got that are actively causing your bowel disease symptoms.

Then you get the flu or something else — and it pushes that even further.
 So it extends your symptoms, makes them worse, more inflammation, more illness, more everything.

So — that’s all we’ve got for you guys tonight.

If you need any help — make sure to reach out.
 You know how to do that.

Because it’s one action, one step between you and getting help to actually reverse this thing.

Looking forward to seeing you guys all soon.
 Thanks so much for tuning in.

🎙️ Josh's Final Words:

“One of my favorite things to hear as an IBD specialist is something like:
 ‘I learned more from you in 15 minutes than from my doctor in 15 years.’”

And if this — for the first time — is really starting to click, and you’re going:
 “Wait a minute… this might be reversible.
I think there’s more that I can do.

This condition came out of nowhere.
 It happened to me out of the blue.

I was healthy for 10, 20, 30, 40 years — and suddenly I wasn’t.
 And you’re telling me there’s no cause?”

If you’re finally understanding that:

There IS a cause.
Something is driving this...

I want to invite you to check the link in the show notes below, send me an email, ask a question, see if a program is the right fit for you.

Because I promise you —
 This doesn’t have to be a lifelong sentence.
You’re not doomed to this.

IBD can be reversed.
🌱💪