Explore 5 natural strategies to help manage ulcerative colitis symptoms alongside standard treatment.
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Is yoga the key to soothing ulcerative colitis (UC)? Will therapy provide relief? Natural remedies for UC should not be your primary treatment approach, but they can help you manage symptoms and reduce the frequency of flares.
Treatments for ulcerative colitis include medication such as anti-inflammatory drugs, immune system suppressors, biologics, and steroids to control inflammation and other symptoms of the condition. Surgery to remove the colon and rectum is another form of treatment if medication doesn’t prove effective.
There are still other, nonmedical forms of relief. Research shows that a number of natural treatments, including everything from lifestyle changes to herbal medicine, can be helpful for UC when done alongside standard treatments.
Here are five natural treatments that can help relieve UC symptoms.
1. Limit or Avoid Foods That May Exacerbate Symptoms
A healthy diet is a cornerstone for overall health, and it’s no surprise that it’s a top natural remedy for UC, too. “Diet is a foundational treatment for patients with ulcerative colitis,” says Benjamin Snider, a naturopathic doctor in private practice in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, adding that there’s often a dietary component to the disease.
“I recommend to my patients a Mediterranean-style or plant-focused diet sourced from fresh ingredients, which is not only associated with lower rates of active disease and improved quality of life in both UC and Crohn’s disease, but also has long-term health benefits by decreasing rates of metabolic syndrome and improving cardiovascular health,” says Suha Abushamma, MD, a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who treats people with digestive disorders like IBD.
Conversely, research suggests a Western diet high in saturated fat and refined carbohydrates is associated with an increased risk of UC and worsening colitis symptoms.
Fried foods, lactose-containing foods, caffeine, alcohol, and raw fruits and vegetables may trigger digestive symptoms as well. But it’s important to note that dietary triggers often vary from person to person and there’s no one-size-fits-all diet for UC, so you’ll have to figure out what works best for you through trial and error.
It helps to keep a food diary to discover which foods are best for you. Snider says it can’t hurt to limit certain foods, and then if your symptoms improve according to your symptom diary, to continue doing so.
2. Get Regular Exercise to Reduce Inflammation and Other Complications
Dr. Snider says exercise is useful in managing many of the complications associated with UC, including decreased bone density, a weakened immune system, emotional health problems, stress, and weight gain. Dr. Abushamma agrees, adding that exercise can also improve quality of life with UC.
“Try to engage in moderate-intensity exercise, like swimming or biking, three or four days per week,” Snider says.
3. Curb Stress to Keep Things Moving
Research indicates that stress plays a role in IBDs such as UC, but the relationship is not yet fully understood. More studies on IBD and stress are still needed.
That said, it’s still a good idea to do your best to counteract stress with relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation to help your body relax.
“These modalities shift the nervous system away from fight-or-flight and into a rest-and-digest mode,” Snider says. “In addition to heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate changing, blood and nutrients move into the core to support digestive function.”
4. Consider Therapy to Help Manage Stress and Pain
Working with a therapist on certain mind-body techniques can help you control UC symptoms. Some mental health professionals, known as gastrointestinal (GI) psychologists or IBD psychologists, can help people with IBD specifically. “Targeting the mind-body connection in IBD is integral to its management. I cannot emphasize enough the role of IBD psychologists in the care of patients with IBD,” says Abushamma.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a specific type of therapy that may be helpful, as it teaches skills to cope with stress, pain, and fatigue.
In CBT, you learn to recognize and change behaviors and emotions that affect you physically. ”Cognitive behavioral therapy is associated with lower rates of anxiety and depression and higher quality of life in patients with IBD,” says Abushamma, who notes that more research is needed to solidify this connection.
Another technique called biofeedback can teach you how to identify and manage some bodily processes that can be affected by stress, such as heart rate or tension in your muscles, and it can be effective in helping manage chronic pain.
Gut-directed hypnotherapy — a psychological therapy using hypnosis to help treat digestive conditions — may also help protect against flares, though more research is still needed to confirm this, says Abushamma.
5. Consider Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Ease Symptoms
As part of a healthy diet, additional omega-3 fatty acids, the healthy fats found in foods like fatty fish, may keep inflammation at bay and ease UC symptoms.
“Omega-3 fats may be beneficial to patients with both UC and Crohn’s due to the strong anti-inflammatory action and ability to fuel the cells that line the intestinal tract,” says Snider.
Omega-3s may also reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, which cause inflammation throughout the body.
More studies are needed to establish a recommended daily intake of omega-3s for people with IBD. Talk to your doctor to get advice and recommendations before making any dietary changes or taking any supplements.
The Takeaway
Although natural remedies can’t treat ulcerative colitis (UC) on their own, they can offer symptom relief and may even decrease inflammation in the intestines.
Alongside standard treatments, you can manage UC symptoms through nonmedical strategies like diet, exercise, stress management, and therapy.
Talk to your healthcare provider before adding any natural remedies to your treatment plan to make sure they’re safe for you.
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Ge L et al. Psychological Stress in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Psychoneuroimmunological Insights Into Bidirectional Gut–Brain Communications. Frontiers in Immunology. October 2022.
Emerson C et al. People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Prefer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Fatigue Management: A Conjoint Analysis. Digestive Diseases and Sciences. May 2024.
Chen J et al. The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease Before COVID-19: A Systematic Review. BMC Gastroenterology. December 2021.
Emerson C et al. People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Prefer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Fatigue Management: A Conjoint Analysis. Digestive Diseases and Sciences. May 2024.
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Ira Daniel Breite, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also sees patients and helps run an ambulatory surgery center.
Dr. Breite divides his time between technical procedures, reading about new topics, and helping patients with some of their most intimate problems. He finds the deepest fulfillment in the long-term relationships he develops and is thrilled when a patient with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease improves on the regimen he worked with them to create.
Breite went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for medical school, followed by a residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospital and a gastroenterology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Working in city hospitals helped him become resourceful and taught him how to interact with people from different backgrounds.
Diana Rodriguez is a full-time freelance writer with experience writing health-related news and feature stories. She is skilled in taking confusing doctor-speak and complex medical topics and crafting language that's easy for readers to understand. She is a managing editor at the Mayo Clinic and has written extensively for HealthDay. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and French from Miami University.
