Should patients use anti-inflammatories to treat interstitial cystitis?

Interstitial cystitis is a chronic condition in women and men, which characterizes by a combination of uncomfortable bladder pressure, bladder pain and sometimes pain in your pelvis, mild burning and painful or frequent urination. What’s worse, some patients need to urinate as often as 60 times a day.

 

Currently, the exact causes of interstitial cystitis are still unclear. Some researches have shown that these factors like heredity, autoimmune reaction or infection are all likely the causes of interstitial cystitis. Therefore, the anti-inflammatories are introduced for interstitial cystitis patients. Here are some physical treatment options for interstitial cystitis including bladder training and bladder instillation.

 

Commonly, there are some anti-inflammatory drugs used for interstitial cystitis:

 

Oral pentosan polysulfate: It can build and restore the protective coating on the bladder epithelium and it may also help to reduce inflammation. But it also has some side effects, like nausea, diarrhea and gastric distress.

 

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO): It can help in blocking inflammation and relieving pain. But the side effect is a garlic-like odor that lasts for several hours after using DMSO. For some patients, it can be painful to place into the bladder that can be relieved by placing a local anesthetic into the bladder through a catheter .

 

Sulfamethoxazole: It is a frequently used medicine for interstitial cystitis, preventing the formation of dihydrofolic acid, a compound that bacteria must be able to make in order to survive. This medicine is widely used to treat interstitial cystitis before, but the effect isn’t very good. Now it is primarily used in combination with other types of anti-bacterial drugs.  

 

A new medicine called diuretic and anti-inflammatory pill is a patented herbal medicine developed by Doctor Lee , the chief doctor of Wuhan Dr. Lee’s TCM clinic. Different from other medicines, combining with different herbs, this herbal medicine has strong ability of clearing infection, inflammatory and toxic materials. At the same time, it can help to promote blood circulation. It can also improve the self-healing ability and enhance the immunity without any side effects. Besides, it takes about one month to improve the patients’ condition, and after about three months, almost all the symptoms will disappear. Generally speaking, sufferers can recover in about three months.