One day you wake up and suddenly everything is changed. you feel your bladder whereas, prior to that day, you hadn’t. Or maybe, you were one of those people who slowly over the years was waking up more and more in the middle of the night or going to the restroom more than your friends. And then suddenly it was just-worse by alot.

Everything seems to have changed from the moment you realize that something is really wrong and then you discover you have IC. They say IC is a disease of the bladder, but, in my opinion, it is not at all a disease of the bladder. It is a disease of the small intestine and it’s effect on the immune system that is housed inside the small intestine, where 70% of immune function is housed.

Reflecting back on one’s health often can offer insight into all of the things that added up to that critical moment of realizing something was really wrong. It may be that those dots are hard to connect, but, after learning more about all of the things that contribute to IC, the dots definitely become more clear.

The amount of time the IC was building and the compelxities of all of the contributing factors determine how the web of illness is spun and therefor how difficult to unweave.

IC is never an acute condition even though it may seem that it just…came. It was lurking inside for a long time prior to it’s onset. This is so important to understand. In my dissertation I discuss these concepts in detail. This is why the point of focus should be internal and systemic. Changing health on a cellular level is what the treatment for IC should be focused on. 

Many people having IC typically have other chronic conditions such as migraines, bloating, vulvadynia, horrible periods, GERD, fibromyalgia and many other chronic issues. That is not because these are different conditions and the fact that they are coexisting is coincidental. It is because these are different branches off of the same tree-that root of disease.

In Chinese medicine, there is a connectivity between the Small Intestine and the Bladder. Although the condition that is only a small part of what IC is-I think it is very relevant, as the ancient forefathers of CM described how the condition of the SI could effect the Bladder. 

When I started doing this work 18 years ago, no one ever expected to really get much better because there was not much hope. Urethral dialations and hydrodistentions were the two main treatments that were available and they were not very successful and the dialations were pretty traumatic for most people. These days people are getting wiser about eating and better educated on health and we are just udnerstanding so much more about the human body and how it functions fundamentally upon its microbiome. And as this awareness improves, so do the expectations for positive change. And, things are changing for the better.

So much wisdom existed in ancient time as CM developed and we are now scientifically able to view just how profound those insights were. There IS connectivity between the Small Intestine and the Bladder, and really the Small Intestine and the entire human body of course. Ultimately our bodies are designed to take food in, digest it, assimilate it, and excrete. This is how our “machines” work. If there is a breakdown, it only makes sense to look at the fundamental part in that-the Small Intestine which is pivotal to all of our body’s systems-digestive, immune, nervous, and hormonal.

Dr.M & B