Grandmother cures Crohn's disease by eating ground tree bark

Tuesday, September 24, 2013 by: Michael Ravensthorpe
Tags: Crohn''s disease, tree bark, natural cures

(NaturalNews) Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects approximately 500,000 people in the United States alone. Though it is deemed incurable by conventional doctors, who recommend treating it with numerous anti-inflammatory drugs such as mesalamine and corticosteroids, Crohn's disease has responded well to natural treatments such as aloe vera juice and boswellia serrata. One grandmother from the United Kingdom has discovered an equally potent natural cure for this deliberating disease: tree bark ground into a fine powder.

Marlene Barnes, 72, from Wales was one of the 90,000 people who suffered from Crohn's disease in the United Kingdom. Diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 14, the former RAF officer and grandmother even had part of her colon removed to keep the pain in check.

Frustrated with her worsening condition, Ms. Barnes turned to alternative medicine for help. Initially, she began experimenting with the bark of trees from her local parks and admitted that she often came close to poisoning herself:

"The first bark I tried came from a hazel tree - it felt like a dozen ferrets were having a fight in my stomach," she said. "I thought I'm for the morgue this time. Then I started to feel better, a lot better than I felt in a long time and I thought there must be something in it. I tried quite a lot of trees until I found which ones were the real miracle cures. The majority taste woody but not unpleasant although some are a little bitter."

Now consuming 120 ml of ground tree bark daily, Ms. Barnes's Crohn's disease has completely disappeared. A letter from her gastroenterologist confirmed that "recent investigations have shown no evidence of active disease."

"Bark has changed my quality of life so much - my only regret is that I didn't discover it sooner," she concluded.

The benefits of tree bark are well-known

While Ms. Barnes's story is inspiring, it does contain a disheartening epilogue: She refuses to openly name the species of tree whose bark produced the best effects, preferring instead to capitalize on her findings by selling the recipe to a large pharmaceutical firm.

However, while Ms. Barnes' recipe might indeed be unique, the notion of using tree bark to treat inflammatory conditions is not. Arguably the most effective and well-known of these treatments is slippery elm bark, which has been shown to heal the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Another excellent bark with anti-inflammatory properties is that of the pine tree, which yields compounds (including phenolics) that can heal joint pain, arthritis and most autoimmune conditions. Indeed, if Ms. Barnes had read literature in the field before experimenting, she might have saved herself a great deal of arduous trial-and-error. Despite her ignorance of the nature of Big Pharma, at least her story might compel others to consider alternative cures to so-called "incurable" diseases.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.umm.edu

http://www.naturalnews.com

About the author:
Michael Ravensthorpe is an independent writer whose research interests include nutrition, alternative medicine, and bushcraft. He is the creator of the website, Spiritfoods, through which he promotes the world's healthiest foods.