What is Crohn's disease?

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation or ulceration of the digestive tract. It can affect any part of your digestive tract, but it is most common in the last part of the small intestine (ileum) and the large intestine (colon).

Crohn's disease affects the deepest layers of the lining of the digestive tract, causing deep sores called ulcers.

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (which affects the colon and rectum) are the most common types of inflammatory bowel disease, with ulcerative colitis being more common.

What causes Crohn's disease?

The cause of Crohn's disease is not known. It sometimes runs in families, suggesting a genetic link. The immune system may overreact to normal intestinal bacteria and cause inflammation. Disease-causing bacteria and viruses also may play a role in triggering the condition, and smoking increases the risk of Crohn's disease.

Increasingly, researchers think environmental factors play a role in causing Crohn's disease.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms of Crohn's disease are abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, and diarrhea. Constipation, fever, and loss of appetite may also occur.

Crohn's disease also may cause:

·        Sores in the mouth.

·        Nutritional deficiencies, such as lowered levels of vitamin B₁₂, folic acid, iron, and fat-soluble vitamins, because the intestines may not be able to absorb nutrients from food.

·        Bowel obstruction.

·        Anal tears (fissures) or openings (fistulas), abscesses, or skin tags that may resemble hemorrhoids.

·        Joint aches and fatigue.

Sometimes complications develop elsewhere in the body (systemic), including the eyes, liver, blood, and bones. These systemic symptoms suggest immune system involvement.

How is Crohn's disease diagnosed?

Crohn's disease is diagnosed through a medical history and physical exam, imaging tests to look at the intestines, and laboratory tests.

Crohn's disease can be difficult to diagnose. Early symptoms, or its only symptoms, may consist of joint aches and a general feeling of fatigue. The condition may go undiagnosed for years because symptoms usually develop gradually.

Tests that may be done to diagnose Crohn's disease include:

·        Barium X-rays of the small intestine or colon, in which a white liquid is used to coat the inside of the intestine so that it can be seen more clearly on an X-ray.

·        Colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy, in which a lighted viewing instrument is used to examine the inside of the colon.

·        Biopsy, in which tissue is taken from the affected area and tested to distinguish between Crohn's disease and other conditions such as cancer.

·        Stool analysis to look for blood and signs of infection.

How is it treated?

In the medical sickness community, Crohn's disease can usually be controlled with medications that reduce inflammation and cure infection, keeping the disease from producing symptoms (known as being in remission). However, while it can be managed, Crohn's disease cannot be cured.

Mild symptoms of Crohn's disease may be treated with anti-diarrheal medications. Talk with your health professional before taking them, though, because they may cause side effects. Prescription medications also may be used to treat mild symptoms and keep Crohn's disease in remission.

More severe symptoms may require treatment with one or more prescription medications.  The first type of encouragement the wellness industry believes you get from the medical community is when they say “You may also need to follow a special diet if you are not able to absorb nutrients properly”.

If your symptoms are severe or do not get better with initial medications, you may need more aggressive treatment with intravenous (IV) medications and possibly surgery. Surgery is usually done only when severe symptoms don't respond to medication or when complications develop, such as bleeding or developing a blockage (obstruction) in the intestine. Crohn's disease tends to come back after surgery.

In the wellness community, wellness industry, Crohn's disease is relieved (because we can’t treat any disease) with nutritional supplements and diet is very important.

In many ways the best treatment for Crohn’s disease is diet and supplements. This can lead to long remissions without the risk of the side effects produced by so many drugs and may reduce the need for surgery. The diet varies from one Client to another and must be tailored to each individual carefully utilizing biofeedback to identify food triggers. Food triggers not only trigger sugar to increase in the body but the elevated sugar may also play a role in mal-absorption.

How do diets work?

Food residues, which have not been digested and absorbed in the small intestine, pass down into the lower bowel and are fermented by the bacteria that live there. It is believed that an immune reaction against the bacteria living in the bowel is a very important factor in the cause of Crohn’s disease and that the activity of these bacteria can be modulated by diet. Diet does not work in Ulcerative Colitis, probably because the bacteria involved rely not on food residues but on substances, which naturally occur in the bowel, such as mucus, for their energy requirements. The reaction to foods is quite different to allergy where special antibodies are circulating in the blood. This means that skin prick and blood tests for allergy are of no help in deciding which foods need to be avoided.

How is a Crohn’s diet constructed?

There are 3 stages in dietary treatment in the “wellness industry” and it may be elected by the client when suggested by the staff.

1. The client stops eating processed foods and is taught to eat fresh veggies pureed. Raw foods are the basic building blocks of life, so that the nutrients are easily available for rapid absorption in the upper small intestine, and there is little if any residue for fermentation by gut bacteria. The simple proteins are also pureed utilizing canola (rapeseed) oil, soybeans and soybean oil, pumpkin seed oil, purslane, perilla seed oil, walnut oil and flax seed oil. Proper vitamins and minerals are suggested to take twice daily to make the meals nutritionally complete. Symptoms normally disappear after 2-3 weeks.

2. When all symptoms have cleared normal foods utilizing veggies and protein and no starch are reintroduced. If symptoms appear, stop one of the normal food sources and puree that one for two weeks. Work in this manner until all symptoms can be linked to certain foods, and; Those provoking symptoms are subsequently excluded.

3. When all foods have been reintroduced those irritating the bowel are tried again to make certain they genuinely cause difficulties.

4. Supplements are high antioxidants that include acidophilus; the tissue is measured via cold light laser for baseline and tracked by monthly re-testing. A variety of nutrients may be suggested by the biofeedback analysis and should be strictly followed. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and people with Crohn's disease (CD), one form of IBD, have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their bodies. Evidence suggests that long chain fatty acid supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids may reduce symptoms of CD and ulcerative colitis (another inflammatory bowel disease), particularly if used in addition to proper diet.

5. Food intolerances discovered by biofeedback and clients themselves with Crohn’s disease vary. Some have been shown to be wheat and gluten, dairy products, maize or corn, and yeast. However, some clients may be upset by a number of other foods particularly those that are high in fat or fibre; unlike coeliac disease, a single diet where 97% of clinets respond to gluten free diet, a single diet for Crohn’s disease does not exist.

The client has control over the disease with diet and nutritional supplement support. If mild relapses occur they can be controlled quickly without medical intervention. After diets are surmised through trial and error, Clients understand how to avoid running into difficulties at times of holidays, celebrations and other major events when they particularly wish to be well.

Diet allows long remissions of Crohn’s disease. Once the process of food testing is complete it is unusual for clients to relapse. After a year of successful dietary intervention most clients remain completely well and find after 5-10 years their diet has returned to normal, the Crohn’s disease having apparently burnt itself out completely.

How will Crohn's disease affect my life?

Crohn's disease is a chronic condition that may flare up throughout your life. You may have only mild symptoms or long periods without symptoms. A few people have persistent, severe symptoms.

People who have only mild symptoms that respond to home treatment cope well with the disease. But for some others, Crohn's disease can be a frustrating condition. The persistent diarrhea that often occurs may make you feel as if your life revolves around the bathroom. You may feel isolated, be embarrassed by the symptoms, and have a poor body image. These feelings may keep you from participating in work, social, and sexual activities.

However, most people with the condition live high-quality, productive lives using medications to control inflammation and treat symptoms.

Crohn's disease can cause stress, which in turn may affect the course of the disease. Help is available if you are struggling with the condition. Seek support from family, friends, clergy, or a professional counselor. Exercise and A strong social network may reduce stress and make the disease less active.