Supplements for Interstitial Cystitis

Patients who suffer from interstitial cystitis are often frustrated by the lack of treatments available for their disease. The medical community offers only a few therapies. Therefore, patients often seek alternative methods. Most patients find that restricting the foods that exacerbate their symptoms is the most helpful, but they might not have complete relief by from diet alone so they seek out alternative treatment in the form of supplements.

Controversy

• Many supplements, particularly herbs, are neither tested nor FDA approved for the treatment of medical conditions. Be cautious about the use of supplements and be particularly wary of quick fixes promised by someone who stands to gain financially from you. Many patients have found changing their diet to be very effective in the treatment of IC symptoms.

  There is a relationship between acidic foods and an increase in IC symptoms. You may try keeping a food-and-pain log to see if you can identify which foods exacerbate your symptoms if you haven't already done so. This may help you just as significantly as supplements, if not moreso.

Calcium Glycerophosphate

• Bologna, Gomelsky, Lukban, Tu, Holzberg and Whitmore, in an article published in the June 2001 issue of Urology, report that their study that shows that taking calcium glycerophosphate before eating foods that tend to cause pain helped reduce flareups in patients. So, if you have a tendency toward food- or drink-related flareups, taking two tablets (.66g total) of calcium glycerophosphate before eating foods that tend to bother your bladder may help you.

L-Arginine

• L-arginine is an amino acid that increases nitric oxide and nitric oxide synthetase (NO and NOS) in your body. Both NO and NOS are antibacterial, relax muscles, release hormones and increase T-cell counts. Doctors have performed three separate studies looking into the use of L-arginine in IC patients. Smith, Wheeler, Foster and Weiss reported the first study in 1997 in volume 158 of the Journal of Urology and the second in volume 161 of the same journal in 1999. Cartledge, Davies and Eardley reported the second study in the March 2000 issue of BJU International. The results of these studies were inconsistent, so the use of this supplement in IC patients is still uncertain. You may want to put off using L-arginine as an IC supplement until further research shows its benefits more clearly.

Mucopolysaccarides

• Mucopolysaccarides include hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and aloe vera. They can potentially help restore the GAG (glycosaminoglycans) layer of the inner surface of the bladder, which protects the bladder. Some preliminary studies are either in the early stages or are planned.

Quercetin

• Quercetin stops histamine release in mast cells. It is anti-inflammatory and an anti-oxidant. In March 2001, Techniques in Urology published a study by Katske, Shoskes, Sender, Poliakin, Rajfer, and Gagliano conducted on the use of quercetin in IC patients. The authors concluded that quercetin provided "significant symptomatic improvement."

Herbs

• Reviews in Urology report that a study (no details provided) showed that the herbs cornus, gardenia, curculigo, rhubarb, psoralea, and rehmannia used in tea twice a day for three months and then once a day thereafter provided patients with "a significant decrease in pain." Be cautious, however, because some herbal teas can be irritating for a person with IC.