I often get asked, "what is my imbalance? Am I fighting yeast or bacteria?" 

This is an interesting question. For those of you who have read my dissertation, you read the concepts of the flow between the small intestine and the lymphatic system and the normal miniscule ebb and flow between the two of the intestinal microbes. This is normal in normal health. However, certain imbalances with foods, emotions, and medicines, may exacerbate that ebb and flow to a degree the body cannot manage. In turn the immune system starts to set up a reaction to that and slowly over time the inflammatory process sets in and eventually spreads.

This dynamic is what causes IC, in my opinion. It also causes other chronic inflammaotry illnesses such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and vulvadynia, arthritis, etc...

I realized in explaining this to someone today, there is more to the picture. It is not only important treat that particaular aspect of the imbalance, but, obviously really getting to the root of the problem is paramount. Sometimes the energetic imbalances of the body effect the physiology in such a way that this problem becomes set off. SO, in addition to food, medicine etc..., it can also be the physical outlay of that person's imbalance. So, say they have, what we callin Chinese medicine Yin deficiency, or Yang deficiency, this would contribute to the problem. Then we need to look at what organ this imbalance is coming from. There are all kinds of imbalances and they can relate to all or some of the organs and those imbalances may become intertwined.

These are the things we are working on with the treatment of this and other chronic illness in addition to the regognition of what is happening in the body physiologically from a more Western point of view. So, we are not necessarily looking to isolate a particular microorganism, we are focused on the bigger picture so that the body in turn may be able to sort out the problem  itself.

I could go on and one about this, but, I won't. This is just some food for thought. REading more about Chinese medicine, I think is super helpful when in this kind of treatment, as understanding some of these general concepts illuminates perhaps why we ask or approach things in the way we do.

Dr.M