Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Diet and Nutrition
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For those of you with any interest i.e. is suffering or knows someone suffering from these conditions I decided to make this thread. My fiancee was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She is currently trying to recover from her first severe flare up. Many nights she is woken up by the abdominal pain and is in tears the rest of the night. Also something to keep in mind is I have NEVER seen this girl cry from physical pain in the 6 years we have been together.

I have been doing as much research on Crohn’s as possible but with very little luck since all I ever hear/read is “it’s a case by case basis and highly individual with respect to diet.” and also “it’s genetic, so there’s very little you can do.” I recently stumbled upon a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle: A Guide to Intestinal Health. She has agreed to follow the diet for at least a month to see if any improvement is made. She has been on Lialda as well as Prednisone for the past 3 weeks and they appear to only be helping very minimally. If anyone else is interested, the book also has a website: www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info. I will keep updates as to if her condition improves while following this diet as closely as possible. Feel free to add anything you all would like as well on this topic.

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My buddy has ulcerative colitis, has to duece at random times and when he has to go, it’s already on its way out man! Real bummer, sorry to hear about your gf… My friend is going to have to get surgery and possibly have a colonoscopy bag for the rest of his life :frowning:

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[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
For those of you with any interest i.e. is suffering or knows someone suffering from these conditions I decided to make this thread. My fiancee was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She is currently trying to recover from her first severe flare up. Many nights she is woken up by the abdominal pain and is in tears the rest of the night. Also something to keep in mind is I have NEVER seen this girl cry from physical pain in the 6 years we have been together.

I have been doing as much research on Crohn’s as possible but with very little luck since all I ever hear/read is “it’s a case by case basis and highly individual with respect to diet.” and also “it’s genetic, so there’s very little you can do.” I recently stumbled upon a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle: A Guide to Intestinal Health. She has agreed to follow the diet for at least a month to see if any improvement is made. She has been on Lialda as well as Prednisone for the past 3 weeks and they appear to only be helping very minimally. If anyone else is interested, the book also has a website: www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info. I will keep updates as to if her condition improves while following this diet as closely as possible. Feel free to add anything you all would like as well on this topic.[/quote]

Davinci:

I don’t take everything this Dr. says as gospel but this article seems to make sense -

Have a look at his recommendations towards bottom, i.e. VitD levels, no grains, no sugars.

He talks about prednisone as well.

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Have you had a look at this thread?

Mercola is making the grave mistake of not differentiating between the bacteria, of which there are quite literally thousands. The study he is refering to was using the mixture called VSL#3, a mixture of Lactobacillus spp. (casei, plantarum, acidophilus, delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus) and with bifidobacterium (longum, breve and infantis) with one strain of Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus), and this particular one works. This is not the same as saying every bacteria with “probiotic” assigned will help.

There is, by the way, some evidence that bile is involved somehow. That knowledge could possibly be turned into something theraputic.

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I want to thank everyone for their responses. Mikael LS: I read through every single thread I could find on Crohn’s and noticed you seem to have an extensive knowledge, so I stalked many of your posts.

Maria (my fiancee) and I came to find out that the GI Dr we originally saw was new to the field. It was because of this we decided to seek out a second opinion with someone who has been in the field their entire career and specializes in cases just like hers.

The Dr immediately told us that after looking at the pictures and biopsies taken, there was no chance that what she was dealing with was Crohn’s. He believed that she most likely ran into some bad meat and contracted a bacterial infection, probably ecoli and she was now suffering from PI-IBS or post infectious irritable bowel syndrome which should clear up after a couple of months after she is put on some probiotics as well as taken off Lialda which he believed was giving her an adverse reaction. The first Dr also had her on 40-60 mg’s of prednisone each day so she will slowly have to be tapered off of that as well.

This was obviously fantastic news since our wedding is in exactly 1 month, on June 19th…she almost cried after learning she didn’t have Crohn’s and that her diet could return to normal in a couple of months and that the pain and embarassing trip to the bathroom would soon be behind her. For those of you who do have Crohn’s, I have a new respect for what you all have suffer through.

Best Regards,

Davinci

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[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
I want to thank everyone for their responses. Mikael LS: I read through every single thread I could find on Crohn’s and noticed you seem to have an extensive knowledge, so I stalked many of your posts.

Maria (my fiancee) and I came to find out that the GI Dr we originally saw was new to the field. It was because of this we decided to seek out a second opinion with someone who has been in the field their entire career and specializes in cases just like hers.

The Dr immediately told us that after looking at the pictures and biopsies taken, there was no chance that what she was dealing with was Crohn’s. He believed that she most likely ran into some bad meat and contracted a bacterial infection, probably ecoli and she was now suffering from PI-IBS or post infectious irritable bowel syndrome which should clear up after a couple of months after she is put on some probiotics as well as taken off Lialda which he believed was giving her an adverse reaction. The first Dr also had her on 40-60 mg’s of prednisone each day so she will slowly have to be tapered off of that as well.

This was obviously fantastic news since our wedding is in exactly 1 month, on June 19th…she almost cried after learning she didn’t have Crohn’s and that her diet could return to normal in a couple of months and that the pain and embarassing trip to the bathroom would soon be behind her. For those of you who do have Crohn’s, I have a new respect for what you all have suffer through.

Best Regards,

Davinci[/quote]

Awesome news, that must have been great to hear. Keep us up to date! Best of luck!

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[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
The first Dr also had her on 40-60 mg’s of prednisone each day so she will slowly have to be tapered off of that as well.
[/quote]

those steroids are possibly the worst part of IBD treatment. they are absolutely horrible and the side effects get worse with every additional course you take. make sure she goes to the dentist at some point this year; prednisone sucks the Ca and other minerals out of your bones and teeth and it’s possible to develop cavities in just a few weeks on the meds (my mouth is evidence haha). make sure he checks her teeth well.

great to hear about your fiancee getting the good news. she’ll probably appreciate a full-night’s sleep more now than she ever has before :wink:

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[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
For those of you with any interest i.e. is suffering or knows someone suffering from these conditions I decided to make this thread. My fiancee was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She is currently trying to recover from her first severe flare up.

Many nights she is woken up by the abdominal pain and is in tears the rest of the night. Also something to keep in mind is I have NEVER seen this girl cry from physical pain in the 6 years we have been together.

I have been doing as much research on Crohn’s as possible but with very little luck since all I ever hear/read is “it’s a case by case basis and highly individual with respect to diet.” and also “it’s genetic, so there’s very little you can do.”

I recently stumbled upon a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle: A Guide to Intestinal Health. She has agreed to follow the diet for at least a month to see if any improvement is made. She has been on Lialda as well as Prednisone for the past 3 weeks and they appear to only be helping very minimally.

If anyone else is interested, the book also has a website: www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info. I will keep updates as to if her condition improves while following this diet as closely as possible. Feel free to add anything you all would like as well on this topic.[/quote]

My grandfather (mother’s side) had it and eventually died do to complications from one of his MANY surgeries, and my Uncle (mom’s brother) has it. I have been terrified most of my adult life of getting it because it is hereditary, and I have a history of digestive troubles.

You are in a FAR better situation these days than a few decades ago. They used to wait till you developed rot and such in the bowel then progressively cut away those rotten areas through succesive, painfull and expensive surgeries.

My grandfather had his rectum, colon, and several feet of small intestine removed during his second operation. By his late thirties he wore an iliostomy bag on his side that needed constant emptying and cleaning.

My uncle got to benefit from modern medicine and they were able to save half of his colon, including the decending colon and rectum. He has only had one major operation in the several years he has had Crohn’s and has kept his symptoms under control through strict diet and supplementation. As far as I know he is not on prednisone.

What I have heard recently is that newer cases when caught early are far easier to treat and are far less destructive, thanks to more modern methods and treatments and the success of several herbal and dietary methods.

Take heart. It’s not the end of the world but it will be painful and she will need a lot of support. I am hopefull that the preventative things I am currently doing will keep me from getting it in the first place.

Hang in there, I know what it feels like to watch a loved one suffer from this.

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[quote]Vires Eternus wrote:

[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
For those of you with any interest i.e. is suffering or knows someone suffering from these conditions I decided to make this thread. My fiancee was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She is currently trying to recover from her first severe flare up.

Many nights she is woken up by the abdominal pain and is in tears the rest of the night. Also something to keep in mind is I have NEVER seen this girl cry from physical pain in the 6 years we have been together.

I have been doing as much research on Crohn’s as possible but with very little luck since all I ever hear/read is “it’s a case by case basis and highly individual with respect to diet.” and also “it’s genetic, so there’s very little you can do.”

I recently stumbled upon a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle: A Guide to Intestinal Health. She has agreed to follow the diet for at least a month to see if any improvement is made. She has been on Lialda as well as Prednisone for the past 3 weeks and they appear to only be helping very minimally.

If anyone else is interested, the book also has a website: www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info. I will keep updates as to if her condition improves while following this diet as closely as possible. Feel free to add anything you all would like as well on this topic.[/quote]

My grandfather (mother’s side) had it and eventually died do to complications from one of his MANY surgeries, and my Uncle (mom’s brother) has it. I have been terrified most of my adult life of getting it because it is hereditary, and I have a history of digestive troubles.

You are in a FAR better situation these days than a few decades ago. They used to wait till you developed rot and such in the bowel then progressively cut away those rotten areas through succesive, painfull and expensive surgeries.

My grandfather had his rectum, colon, and several feet of small intestine removed during his second operation. By his late thirties he wore an iliostomy bag on his side that needed constant emptying and cleaning.

My uncle got to benefit from modern medicine and they were able to save half of his colon, including the decending colon and rectum. He has only had one major operation in the several years he has had Crohn’s and has kept his symptoms under control through strict diet and supplementation. As far as I know he is not on prednisone.

What I have heard recently is that newer cases when caught early are far easier to treat and are far less destructive, thanks to more modern methods and treatments and the success of several herbal and dietary methods.

Take heart. It’s not the end of the world but it will be painful and she will need a lot of support. I am hopefull that the preventative things I am currently doing will keep me from getting it in the first place.

Hang in there, I know what it feels like to watch a loved one suffer from this.[/quote]

Thanks for your reponse. I’m very sorry to hear about your family.

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Glad to hear your GF is ok man, bummer that first doc screwed it up so badly though.

I have UC and I can honestly say it sucks, luckily I can get away with mesalazine only so far. Despite what the docs say I still believe diet is a HUGE factor.

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[quote]pradaboy wrote:
Glad to hear your GF is ok man, bummer that first doc screwed it up so badly though.

I have UC and I can honestly say it sucks, luckily I can get away with mesalazine only so far. Despite what the docs say I still believe diet is a HUGE factor.[/quote]

Thanks for your post and I’m really sorry to hear that you have UC. What bothers me the most is after exactly 1 week of being on Lialda, she began experiencing modified symptoms as well as a worsening of her condition overall. For most people Lialda takes approximately one week to accumulate in their system and take affect.

All of the symptoms she was experiencing pointed to severe side effects in which case, should they occur, use should be discontinued. We told this to Dr. #1 and he told her he wanted to stay on the Lialda and then put her on 60 mg of prednisone a day. The end result was her going from 135 lbs - 117 lbs and burning a shit ton of muscle. She was just withering away. A few days after seeing Dr. #2 and him telling her to stop taking the Lialda, those modified symtoms went away.

I want to break this guys face personally. Apparently he is new to the field and couldn’t even tell the difference between actually ulceration in the large intestine from slight trauma caused by the prep for the procedure. She came back to the gym for the first time last night, but I’m having her take it slow because she’s still recovering.

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If anyone is interested, I would be glad to write an article detailing training while having a ostomy.