Facts About Interstitial Cystitis

Interstitial Cystitis (IC) or "non-bacterial cystitis" is known as an immune system breakdown disorder because it typically appears when immunity has been compromised. In IC, the space between the bladder lining and the bladder muscle is chronically inflamed, leading to pain, sometimes severe. Cracks in the bladder wall allow urine to irritate bladder tissue, leading to a breakdown in the lining of the bladder.

Interstitial Cystitis is one of those mysterious chronic illnesses that many doctors don't really believe in. The reason being is that when patients get tested for urinary tract infections, more often than not, nothing turns up. Hence the name "non- bacterial cystitis".

There is no known cause and no known medical cure for Interstitial Cystitis. There are medical treatments and procedures, such as bladder instillations, hydrodistensions, and the pharmaceutical drug Elmiron, but they only work for a small percentage of people some of the time, and often have strong side effects.

Immune Breakdown

Interstitial Cystitis is considered to be an "immune system breakdown disorder" because it typically appears when immunity has been compromised. It often occurs in tandem with other immune system breakdown disorders, namely chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and vulvodynia.

In fact, Interstitial Cystitis patients are 100 times more likely to have irritable bowel syndrome than the general population, and a large percentage suffer from the afore-mentioned disorders as well. This is not surprising, since a compromised immune system can and does affect many areas of the body.

There Is Hope

If you suffer from interstitial cystitis, my heart goes out to you. I know full well the sheer agony of endless days and nights of pain, not to mention the countless trips to the bathroom and the inability to lead anywhere near a normal life. That was four years ago. I had a relatively severe case of IC for approximately 6 years. Today I am completely symptom-free. I can eat anything I want, and do anything I want, without discomfort or pain. So there is hope.

What worked for me may not necessarily work for you, but I believe you have the best shot at healing if you approach it from a natural, holistic perspective, with the idea of detoxifying the body and then rebuilding the immune system.

Most everyone I have heard of who has healed from this disorder took this or a similar approach, and took responsibility for their own healing.

Symptoms of Interstitial Cystitis

If you have interstitial cystitis, you already know that it is characterized by:

• pain in the bladder that intensifies as it fills and then goes away upon voiding, only to immediately return again;
  
• breakdown of the bladder tissue, even when infection is not present;
  
• extreme frequency of urination, often every few minutes;
  
• blood in the urine;
  
• severe food allergies which trigger bladder pain.

Patients also suffer from digestive disorders, low grade fever, recurrent vaginal yeast infections, thyroid problems, fibromyalgia, and swollen glands, as well as other seemingly unrelated disorders. It is easy to see why some consider interstitial cystitis to be a systemic disorder, as it seems to affect so many areas of the body at the same time.