Hi Cat and welcome to the community!
I can understand your frustration
I'm so sorry you're having to deal with all this. When it comes to Crohn's disease, I'm a fan of taking the shotgun approach and hitting it from every angle. For example:
- Western Medicine - Stick with the Humira and whatever else they have you on.
- Dietary changes -
Enteral/elemental nutrition, [wiki]paleo diet[/wiki], or [wiki]specific carbohydrate diet[/wiki]. Juicing is also growing on me a lot.
- Hydration - Dehydration and loss of electrolytes is common. Proper hydration and adding electrolytes back in can help you a lot.
- Alternative treatments - I'm a fan of
Low Dose Naltrexone. Research it.
Medical marijuana has been shown to help a lot as well if that's something you're comfortable with and is legally available in your area.
- Stress reduction. Do whatever it takes to reduce your stress levels. In addition, a weekly or even monthly massage if funds are tight is great.
Studies have actually shown that massage can reduce inflammation.
Give yourself self-massages as often as possible in between the professional ones.
- Exercise if you're able -
a gentle yoga is a good one
- Vitamins and minerals - find out which you're deficient in and properly supplement. People with Crohn's disease are commonly deficient in
vitamin B12,
vitamin D,
folate, and
magnesium as well as a host of others. But those four first ones should definitely be checked.
- Supplements - there are a variety that help improve overall health. Check our our
diet/fitness/supplements forum for ideas.
- Alternative medicine - This could be stuff like acupuncture, including a naturopath in your treatment team, etc.
It's about finding what combinations work best for you. Some of the above may help, some may not. But it's a compilation of anecdotes I've gathered from around the community that seem to help people most.
Bring your doctor in on the conversation for all of this. Get their input and let them help supervise your disease state. Some doctors might need a little push on some of this stuff, but we can provide studies that showcase the efficacy of all the above.