Clostridium (C.) difficile, a "bad" bacteria, is normally present in the bowel in small quantites. But when antibiotics destroy the "good" bacteria, C. difficile overgrows. Then it releases a powerful toxin that causes the symptoms of PMC...

Symptoms of Pseudomembranous Colitis

• Watery or mucoid green foul-smelling diarrhea
• Urge to defecate
• Abdominal cramps and pain
• Low-grade fever (although it can reach 103-105 F)

There may also be:

• Tenderness in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen (5-19% of patients may have this tenderness without diarrhea. Stool studies and CT scan aid in diagnosis)
• Bloody stool
• Signs of sepsis

Sepsis is hard to identify, but some signs and symptoms of it are:

• Malaise (ill feeling)
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Rapid heart rate
• Low blood pressure
• Shock

I'm assuming your doctor already did a stool culture and got a positive result for the C. difficile toxin, and did a colonoscopy that showed the characteristic pseudomembranous plaques.

Conventional Treatment for PMC

Most commonly prescribed drugs are Metronidazole and Vancomycin. Some other treatment are used too. Here is a chart to compare them:

• Reduces the recurrence rate of Clostridium difficile
• Patients feel better when taking Lactobacillus GG, as compared with the placebo, and
• Their abdominal cramps and diarrhea go away pretty quickly.

I'll give you this link. It may not be the only company that offers GG, but I don't want you to accidentally buy a non-GG form of Lactobacillus. Check out Culturelle.com. No, I'm not making any money for referring you. Maybe I should!

Chinese Medicine Pseudomembranous Colitis Treatment

Now comes the fun part. What chinese herbal medicines can you take for PMC?

If you've read the diarrhea article, you may have noticed that the symptoms of PMC fit the chinese medical disease Li Ji.

The Chinese Medical Disease: Li Ji

Li Ji (you can remember it by the rhyming word "leaky" - as in leaky... well you know!) can be divided into 6 major types. It generally has the symptoms of:

• Increased frequency of bowel movements
• Tenesmus (straining to free the stool)
• Abdominal Pain
• Stool mixed with mucus, pus, and blood

However, the 6 types of Li Ji vary in their symptoms and signs. Here's a table for ya:

The first two "hot" patterns are probably well-treated by antibiotics. The third hot type may require a kind of yin supplementation that western medicine doesn't use.

As for the cold patterns... We generally think of antibiotics as being cold in nature, so they would do well against the hot type of Li Ji. However, the cold type might be worsened by a cold medicinal like an antibiotic. (If these ideas of cold and hot are confusing, read my article "Heat and Chilled Coffee")

The point is: Western medicine is not as able to deal with cold and/or deficient types of diarrhea. That means people with the last 4 types of Li Ji should see a Chinese Medicine practitioner.

How to Get a Chinese Herbal Formula for PMC

Get thee to a Chinese Medical Physician. That's basically the same as an acupuncturist. I call them that because many of them practice chinese herbal medicine too (acupuncture's just one modality- not the whole medicine), and in California (where we set the standards for the rest of the country) acupuncturists are physicians by law.

To find one near you, consult this resource. Call them up and make sure they prescribe personalized herbal formulas. Patents, tinctures, and pills might not do the trick in this case. Don't forget- you need to fix the PMC fast because the complications are grave, the end of the line is surgery, and chances of death are much higher if it gets bad enough to require surgery.

FYI, some of the typical herbs we put in the formulas to treat Li Ji are:

Kitchen Medicine

You may notice that one of the cold types includes ginseng. Good kitchen medicine (use of herbs in the kitchen) for the cold types of Li Ji might include fresh ginger tea, ginseng, or even garlic. These herbs are too hot for the hot types... those with hot Li Ji should avoid spicy and greasy foods.

Bacterial Vaginosis

Bacterial infections (bacterial vaginosis) usually cause a thin grayish discharge that has an unpleasant, fishy smell. This type of infection may be spread by sexual contact, but not in all cases. Treatment of this condition requires antibiotics from a doctor.

Symptoms:

• You may notice a discharge from your vagina.
• The discharge may be clear or colored.
• It may be very light or heavy.
• It may have a fishy smell, especially after you have intercourse.
• Some women have bacterial vaginosis without any symptoms.

Is Sexually Transmitted?

It's not something you catch from someone else- it's an overgrowth of normal vaginal bacteria. While it's more common in women who are sexually active, it also occurs in women who are not sexually active. It's not usually necessary for your sex partner to be treated.

Complications

If the infection isn't treated, the bacteria may get up into the uterus or the fallopian tubes and cause more serious infections. Treating bacterial vaginosis lowers this risk. Treatment is especially important in pregnant women.

Conventional Treatments

Alternative Treatments for Bacterial Vaginosis
(to be take with a figurative "Grain of Salt")

I found a number of other alternative treatments online- I must say that I don't know how much they've been studied- someone out there may have some info I don't... in which case I ask you to email me about it.

First, some recommend to AVOID:

• alcohol
• coffee
• fast foods
• processed foods
• refined flour products (bread, pasta, etc.)
• saturated fats from animal products
• sugar

However, a lot of people suggest avoiding those things at all time for all conditions! Generally, unhealthy foods are harder on the digestion system- maybe that's the point.

Here's a list of the things people suggest you SHOULD TAKE:

• flax seed (Linseed) meal and oil
• fresh vegetables and fruits
• grains
• meats, including fish, poultry
• plenty of fresh water
• Vitamin C (1,000 mg three times daily with meals)
• Zinc (30 mg daily)
• Bromelain (400mg)
• Wobenzme N (5 tablets three times a day away from meals)
• Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) vaginal suppositories
• Goldenseal/Vitamin A vaginal suppository twice daily
• Warm sitz baths with tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia)
• Vaginal douching using:
  · Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)
  · Oregon Grape Root (Mahonia aqjuifolium)

Chinese Medicine for Bacterial Vaginosis

Broken record- see a Chinese Medicine practitioner. There are herbs that could be used as a douche, and there are internal herbal approaches too. Probably the best approach would be to do both... or to use an internal herbal formula for the PMC and an external one for the vaginosis.

Find a practitioner here.

References

1. Radiology Department of the University of Connecticut Health Center
2. Medline Plus Health Information
3. SurgicalTutor.org.uk
4. Wu, Fischer. Practical Therapeutics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Paradigm Publications, 1997.
5. Kelly C P, Pothoulakis C, Lamont J T. Clostridium difficle colitis. NEJM 1994; 330: 257-262.
6. Cleary R K. Clostridium difficle-associated diarrhea and colitis. Dis Colon Rectum 1998; 41: 1435-1449.
7. Aronsson B, Mollby R, Nord CE: Diagnosis and epidemiology of Clostridium difficile enterocolitis in Sweden. J Antimicrob Chemother 1984 Dec; 14 Suppl D: 85-95.
8. Bartlett JG: Antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis. Rev Infect Dis 1979 May-Jun; DA - 19801120(3): 530-9.
9. Bartlett JG: Clostridium difficile: clinical considerations. Rev Infect Dis 1990 Jan-Feb; 12 Suppl 2: S243-51.
10. Bartlett JG, Chang TW, Gurwith M: Antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis due to toxin-producing clostridia. N Engl J Med 1978 Mar 9; 298(10): 531-4.
11. Bingley PJ, Harding GM: Clostridium difficile colitis following treatment with metronidazole and vancomycin. Postgrad Med J 1987 Nov; 63(745): 993-4.
12. Bradley SJ, Weaver DW, Maxwell NP: Surgical management of pseudomembranous colitis. Am Surg 1988 Jun; 54(6): 329-32
13. de Lalla F, Nicolin R, Rinaldi E: Prospective study of oral teicoplanin versus oral vancomycin for therapy of pseudomembranous colitis and Clostridium difficile- associated diarrhea. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1992 Oct; 36(10): 2192-6
14. Eglinton GS, Mayes GR, Potts DW: Pseudomembranous colitis unresponsive to oral vancomycin therapy. South Med J 1982 Oct; 75(10): 1279-80
15. George WL: Antimicrobial agents associated diarrhea in adult humans. In: Rolfe RD, Finegold SM, eds. Clostridium difficile: Its role in intestinal disease. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press; 1988: 32-41.
16. Gorbach SL, Chang TW, Goldin B: Successful treatment of relapsing Clostridium difficile colitis with Lactobacillus GG. Lancet 1987 Dec 26; 2(8574): 1519
17. Johnson S, Adelmann A, Clabots CR: Recurrences of Clostridium difficile diarrhea not caused by the original infecting organism. J Infect Dis 1989 Feb; 159(2): 340-3
18. McFarland LV: Epidemiology, risk factors and treatments for antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Dig Dis 1998 Sep-Oct; 16(5): 292-307
19. eMedicine - PMC
20. Pochapin M. The effect of probiotics on Clostridium difficile diarrhea. Am J Gastroenterol 2000 Jan;95(1 Suppl):S11-3
21. Arvola T, Laiho K, Torkkeli S, Mykkanen H, Salminen S, Maunula L, Isolauri E. Prophylactic Lactobacillus GG reduces antibiotic-associated diarrhea in children with respiratory infections: a randomized study. Pediatrics. 1999 Nov;104(5):e64.
22. Guandalini S. The treatment of acute diarrhea in the third millennium: a pediatrician's perspective. Acta Gastroenterol Belg 2002 Jan-Mar;65(1):33-6
23. Madsen KL. The use of probiotics in gastrointestinal disease. Can J Gastroenterol 2001 Dec;15(12):817-22.
24. Elmer GW. Probiotics: "living drugs". Am J Health Syst Pharm 2001 Jun 15;58(12):1101-9.
25. eMedicine - BV
26. BV Alternative Treatments
27. Women's Health - Vulvovaginitis
28. Abouesh A, Stone C, Hobbs WR. Antimicrobial-induced mania (antibiomania): a review of spontaneous reports. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2002 Feb;22(1):71-81. Review.
29. Lopes Rocha JL, Kondo W, Domingues Kuchiki Baptista MI, Arns Da Cunha C, Flenik Martins LT. Uncommon vancomycin-induced side effects. Braz J Infect Dis. 2002 Aug;6(4):196-200.