Controlling Crohn's without medication

[Plissken]

I just thought I'd give you all an update. Last time I posted I was on Humira and I thought it was helping but I soon realised the same flare ups were occurring from certain foods as it did before.

I've been off all daily meds now for about 3 months and I'm feeling great, physically and mentally.

It's taken me a year of trial and error but I seem to know what to eat now to live a normal life. Only times I have flare ups now is when I eat something I know I shouldn't. In which case I take buscopan and tramadol and carry on with my business

Just wondering if anyone else has been able to control their Crohn's solely by diet? As I was told by my consultant I wouldn't be able to do it. But I am doing it now!

I've gained weight so no longer look like a stick man and I've even started playing football again.

Now I have to decide do I have surgery to remove the 'bad' part of my gut in an attempt to be crohns free. Or do I just stick to this diet and although I miss some foods, I can live like this

 

[The Real MC]

Have also found that diet can keep Crohns away. So far so good.

 

[valleysangel92]

I'm glad you're feeling better .

I want to say though that you need to be careful, although it's known that there are foods that trigger symptoms /make them worse, they don't cause the condition or the inflammation it causes, so changing your diet can only do so much.

3 months is a great start, but it's important to remember that it can take longer than this for symptoms to be noticeable, you could have inflammation going on without your knowledge.

At the moment, I would say that you need to make sure you're keeping in contact with your medical team.

As far as surgery is concerned this is of course a very personal choice. It's something that no one can answer for you. If it was me, I would want to know if the 'bad ' area is scar tissue or inflammation. If it's scar tissue then no amount of diet or meds is going to get rid and it becomes a matter of deciding how it's affecting you right now and the dangers of leaving it alone. If it's not having a huge effect and it's not causing much risk of a rupture then maybe it's ok to hold off at the moment.

If it's inflammation, then it might be a better option to seek a medication route, provided that the time away from meds hasn't allowed it to worsen too far.

It's important to remember that with crohns symptom free doesn't always mean disease free.

 

[wildbill_52280]

I have minimized my symptoms with mostly diet but I would never say it's under control though, never more then 1 bm, and 90% of the time it looks healthy.

 

[Fernando1]

I've had Crohns since 1970, in those days there were no real medications, Prednisone was the only option. Then other drugs came, Azulfidine, Pentasa, Asacol which none worked for me and stopped taking them.

I will say that for 25 years diet was the only option I had but cannot say that diet was keeping Crohns at bay. This disease mysteriously starts and stops without reason. It was until the late 1980's that it started hard for me and needed massive surgery in 1995. That was 25 years after initial diagnosis.

I have been taking supplements: Fish Oil, Curcumin, Folic Acid but cannot conclusively say they are helping either. Taking more or stopping them I have not seen a difference.

It was when the biologics started that really made a difference in all these years, Humira worked for me for years but eventually developed antibodies and stopped.

Now I am on Entyvio and will see what happens.

All in all my opinion is that you do need medication to delay the inflammatory process, that there is no magic food or supplement that effectively slows down Crohns. You can say the same thing about arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. All these years I have done the right things with diet and frankly it did not stop flares or the disease from progressing (3 surgeries).

I know that diet is a very important component in not making Crohns worse, that much I understand and follow. But diet itself is not stopping the pernicious progression of this disease.

 

[D Bergy]

I don't use medications to treat crohns, but I do treat it.

While certain foods are inflammatory in nature, and can aggrevate Crohn's, they are not the cause of the low level inflammation.

I do believe you need to treat the disease in some manner or it just keeps grinding on. At least that has been my experience.

Dan

 

[buttER]

Plissken would you mind sharing what you can (or cannot) eat? Thank you!

 

[Plissken]

Plissken would you mind sharing what you can (or cannot) eat? Thank you!

I avoid fruits and veg, beef, pork and any sauces etc that contain onion or vegetable oils/extracts.

I eat a lot of pasta, chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, white breads, rice, cheeses, margarita pizzas.

it is strange really, I can eat a lot of junk like sweets and chocolate. But give me a vegetable and I'm laid out!

I drink a lot of water and fruit squash, but not pure juices. I'm ok with 1 or 2 cups of coffee a day. Only alcohol I ever drink is white wine or jagermeister with ice. They seem to be easier on the gut

The main one for me though is anything that contains onion. Seems to have the worst effect

There's probably plenty Im forgetting but those are the main ones. I of course have to take multivits and I am still aanemic so I'm on iron medicine at the moment. But my last blood test showed improvements

 

[Plissken]

Part of me thinks my crohn's might not be active anymore and the pain i experience with certain foods is down to scarring, I did have a stricture of the ileum a year ago, which had healed when checked again a few months later. But that was a year ago now there could be some scarring maybe

 

[UnXmas]

it is strange really, I can eat a lot of junk like sweets and chocolate. But give me a vegetable and I'm laid out!

It's not strange, many people with digestive issues have this problem. Fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, nuts and seeds - all this healthy stuff is high fibre, high residue, difficult do digest and hard on inflamed intestines. Sugar is easy to digest. It's not quite black and white though - there are healthy foods which are easy to digest, and there are unhealthy foods which are hard to digest (e.g. a lot of people have trouble with greasy, fatty foods).

I actually just made a post on another thread about low fibre fruits and vegetables and other low fibre, low calorie foods. Though again, it's more complex that I sugest in the thread I'll link to below, as that post is just about fibre and doesn't cover other components that can make a food problematic (e.g. the greasy, fatty foods), and low calorie doesn't always equate with healthy. But here's the link if you or anyone else reading want some ideas for low fibre, low calorie foods, in particular fruits and vegetables:

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showpost.php?p=860951&postcount=674

Your trigger foods and safe foods are very common for people with Crohn's and other digestive problems, and sticking to safe foods allows many with Crohn's to minimise their symptoms, but it doesn't mean remission.

 

[lutzi]

I used to be on Azathioprine daily, however, I have now stopped taking medication for my Crohn's. I drink four cups of green tea per day. I feel great, can eat whatever I want. Even my recent visit to the Gastroenterologist and some recent blood test have confirmed this. My CRP has been at its lowest ever. There are two different types of cells in the immune system, Th1 and Th2. With a lot of the auto immune diseases like for example Crohn's disease the person is either Th1 or Th2 dominant. Which means the immune system is not well balanced. Drinking green tea can stimulate the Th2 cells. Therefore, my immune system has a better balance now. I haven't had a tummy ache in ages (touch wood) and for the first time ever I forgot to mention at a doctor's visit that I have Crohn's which surely must be a good sign. Green tea has anti inflammatory properties and even though it might not work for everyone, I think it's definitely worth a try. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I use the tea leaves instead of the tea bags and add no sugar nothing. I hope other Crohn's patients will have a similar positive experience.

All the best to all of you sufferers.

 

[Tuff]

I used to be on Azathioprine daily, however, I have now stopped taking medication for my Crohn's. I drink four cups of green tea per day. I feel great, can eat whatever I want. Even my recent visit to the Gastroenterologist and some recent blood test have confirmed this. My CRP has been at its lowest ever. There are two different types of cells in the immune system, Th1 and Th2. With a lot of the auto immune diseases like for example Crohn's disease the person is either Th1 or Th2 dominant. Which means the immune system is not well balanced. Drinking green tea can stimulate the Th2 cells. Therefore, my immune system has a better balance now. I haven't had a tummy ache in ages (touch wood) and for the first time ever I forgot to mention at a doctor's visit that I have Crohn's which surely must be a good sign. Green tea has anti inflammatory properties and even though it might not work for everyone, I think it's definitely worth a try. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I use the tea leaves instead of the tea bags and add no sugar nothing. I hope other Crohn's patients will have a similar positive experience.

All the best to all of you sufferers.

Green tea is very high in caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the intestines and can worsen diarrhea. Green tea also has a blood thinning effect, which can cause bleeding. http://www.drugs.com/mtm/green-tea.html

 

[lutzi]

They say green tea contains more caffeine than other teas. A few times I forgot to drink it in the morning, so I drank the four cups just before I went to bed in the evening and I had a very good sleep. The caffeine in green tea is not as high as in coffee. It does not stimulate my intestine at all. Maybe it depends on whether the person is Th1 or Th2 dominant. In Th2 dominant patients it would not have the same effect, because they would need to stimulate the Th1 cells somehow. I just wanted to share my experience because I used to feel really ill and for me to control the inflammation without medication and without suppressing the immune system is a big success. Even the gastroenterologist agreed, he only mentioned that green tea has higher caffeine than other teas, nothing about bleeding. He said that we would have to do a blood test to find out whether I was Th1 or Th2 dominant, but I told him I didn't want that since the effect of the tea on me is obvious.

 

[AJC - Australia]

Part of me thinks my crohn's might not be active anymore and the pain i experience with certain foods is down to scarring, I did have a stricture of the ileum a year ago, which had healed when checked again a few months later. But that was a year ago now there could be some scarring maybe

mate that is great to hear!
Well done YOU!!!!
This is a mysterious illness and if you are feeling well, playing football and enjoying life - keep doing whatever it is you are doing.
It is aint broke, dont fix it.
Surgery is like a last resort i reckon….like a life saving thing.
Your Crohns sounds similar to what I had/have, where it strictures…that is why vegetables give you grief because of the fibre, it forms a ball and has a tough time getting through any narrowed sections.
Everyone is different.
Some foods upset some and dont upset others.
I had pain at the surgery site for at least a year afterwards.
I still get the occasional pain now, while in remission.
You might have a narrowing of the gut in that little area, but if it isnt ulcerated and chronic, i would just keep doing what you are doing.

you sound like you are WINNING.

If you start losing your appetite and getting pain again, then revisit 'medical world' or try something different.

good luck

 

[D Bergy]

One thing green tea has a lot of is flouride. That keeps me from drinking a lot of it, but I do drink it once in a while. I am more of a coffee person. Drink way too much of it.

Dan

 

[Plissken]

mate that is great to hear!
Well done YOU!!!!
This is a mysterious illness and if you are feeling well, playing football and enjoying life - keep doing whatever it is you are doing.
It is aint broke, dont fix it.
Surgery is like a last resort i reckon….like a life saving thing.
Your Crohns sounds similar to what I had/have, where it strictures…that is why vegetables give you grief because of the fibre, it forms a ball and has a tough time getting through any narrowed sections.
Everyone is different.
Some foods upset some and dont upset others.
I had pain at the surgery site for at least a year afterwards.
I still get the occasional pain now, while in remission.
You might have a narrowing of the gut in that little area, but if it isnt ulcerated and chronic, i would just keep doing what you are doing.

you sound like you are WINNING.

If you start losing your appetite and getting pain again, then revisit 'medical world' or try something different.

good luck

Thanks a lot! and thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread. It is all very helpful

I'm just gonna keep on living as I am now, which is pretty normal other than my diet. But then again, it iss normal to me now! it's been so long since I had a full english breakfast or a big roast dinner, I've stopped missing it now

 

[copeland]

Just my experience, but - controlling Crohn's without medication works great, until it doesn't. Mine always comes back eventually, so I would make sure you're still in contact with a doctor.