Do you think there will ever be a cure?

[crazycanuck]

I subscribe to the idea that us, people with Crohn's are predisposed for Crohn's from birth. I also believe some who have this gene set may make it all the way through life without ever developing the disease itself thus making it nearly impossible to see a trend. I very much believe that there is a certain trigger in our lives which sets it off, could be immunity shots (doubtly for my situation I never had a vaccination around my time I developed it), extreme stress (could be for my situtation), sickness, dietary, medications.....

I don't care if I'm wrong but god do I hope pretty much daily that they have a damned cure for this disease because I've learned to deal with it but I hope and pray my kids or my grandkids never have to deal with this damned disease.

 

[kenny]

There has been and there still is...

http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/...mmatory-bowel-disease-in-children-on-the-rise

http://ibdcrohns.about.com/b/2009/07/13/scotland-has-high-incidence-of-pediatric-ibd.htm

http://www.ccfc.ca/English/ICES-PaediatricCrohns.pdf

Yes you see a slight elevation in diagnosed cases but even in the articles quoted you can see things such as

Benchimol said the spike in childhood cases of IBD in Ontario may be driven by the province’s changing demographic, especially since South Asian immigrants are the number one immigrant population in Ontario.

Which people can dismiss or reinterprete however they will. But that statement points to the fact that people emigrating from populations of low IBD jump to the higher levels found here. And the say that may very well be making it appear like the rate is on the rise.

Also the 30% rise that I see in the article that claims 50% is over a 10 year span where diagnosis and an understanding of the disease have improved a great deal. As we are able to detect and diagnose disease early it leads to higher levels of diagnosis.

I am not dismissing the issue in any way. But I do take care to avoid these waves of social backlash based on initial reports of possible correlations. Like the one about the MMR vaccine that I posted to earlier. That did a lot of damage and will never shake the suspicion even though the initial authors announced they made a mistake.

 

[braveheart]

...Unfortunately, research funding and pharmaceutical companies are driven by the almighty dollar, but if you think about it Crohnies are even better customers than cancer patients--we have a disease that is LIFE LONG, meaning we'll be frequent flyers buying our Humira shots, Entocort, Remicade, Pentasa, etc. for a long, long time. If you add all that up, it would actually be a huge loss for the pharmaceutical industry to lose us.

I wish I had discounts or miles as a frequent flyer of Entocort, Purinethol, 6-mpp, and etc

Unlike other "popular" diseases, there are very few companies developing such a specific drugs and they control the prices as they want. If you take a drug for crohn which is not expensive it is because that drug was invented before to cure something else. ie Omeprazole

 

[CrohnsHobo]

No history of Crohn's or Auto-immune disorders in my family. Just me. Was 16 years old, healthy and active and then blammo! No idea how or why. Just lucky I suppose.

 

[Mazen]

N0 history of Crohn's or other auto-immune diseases here also except an uncle with type 1 diabetes (I don't know if it is considered auto-immune).

I think the cause of Crohn's is a virus or bacteria like the one they discovered back in the eighties which causes stomach ulcers. Now most ulcers are cured with antibiotics. The problem is the intestines have millions of bacteria so it would be very difficult to isolate the culprit. The success of low carb and specific carb diets as well as antibiotics and antifungals proves the role bacteria and yeast have in the disease.

 

[wolfem]

Cure? Maybe sometime in the future.

Don't know if anyone else knows about this topic. I learned in one of my veterinary classes that they are finding a possible link between Johne's disease in cattle and crohn's disease in humans. Apparently Johne's disease is caused by a mycobacterium paratuberculosis. They have found the organism in pasteurized whole milk. They have also found the organism in the intestinal walls of crohn's disease patients.

Mary

 

[wolfem]

Oh, gosh. Crohn's disease definitely runs in my family. My grandma died from it at age 34 and my grandpa had to have surgery. My cousin has it but has had lots of success with natural remedies. My dad has some kind of inflammatory bowel disease (unknown at the moment). Rheumatoid arthritis runs on both sides of my family as well. Won't go over that list.:frown:

Mary

 

[Jeff D.]

Wolfem, I don't think I've welcomed you to the forum yet so welcome.

I'm not sure if all cases of Crohn's would be caused by TB. The reason being is that I've had the TB test several times now and none have come back positive. They should have been positive had I had TB.

I could definitely see a trigger being a type of bacteria but I don't think TB is it. I could be wrong in that you are using the example of TB to be a possibility but it could be other bacteria type as well. I'm not sure if I wrote that correctly but I hope it makes sense.

Sorry to here about your grandma and about how RA runs in your family. I'll be praying for you.

Jeff

 

[wolfem]

Wolfem, I don't think I've welcomed you to the forum yet so welcome.

I'm not sure if all cases of Crohn's would be caused by TB. The reason being is that I've had the TB test several times now and none have come back positive. They should have been positive had I had TB.

I could definitely see a trigger being a type of bacteria but I don't think TB is it. I could be wrong in that you are using the example of TB to be a possibility but it could be other bacteria type as well. I'm not sure if I wrote that correctly but I hope it makes sense.

Sorry to here about your grandma and about how RA runs in your family. I'll be praying for you.

Jeff

Very true.

It is unclear whether the the TB test is specific for the subspecies M. paratuberculosis. However, in cattle it might be the culprit for the 'false-positive' TB tests done for bovine tuberculosis. Interestingly enough, they have found culturing the bacteria to be more accurate for research purposes due to the fact that the bacteria invade human immune cells at different stages; different from cattle. Major improvements on culturing techniques have enabled scientists to isolate the bacterium from human intestinal cells.

Mary

 

[halfstep44]

Bump for this thread.

When will stem cell transplants be done with trials and available to the general crohns population that is that sick to qualify? Will that ever be an FDA approved treatment Like how it is for Leukemia? Could the risk involved in bone marrow transplants ever come down so it could be available to people who don't have really bad Crohn's?

Has anyone heard about anything being sucessful besides allogeneic stem cell transplants? Like something that could be available to more people. Or is this wishful thinking?

 

[KWalker]

My personal opinion, I wouldn't sit around and wait for any significant to happen any time soon.

 

[mitsudrew]

Bump for this thread.

When will stem cell transplants be done with trials and available to the general crohns population that is that sick to qualify? Will that ever be an FDA approved treatment Like how it is for Leukemia? Could the risk involved in bone marrow transplants ever come down so it could be available to people who don't have really bad Crohn's?

Has anyone heard about anything being sucessful besides allogeneic stem cell transplants? Like something that could be available to more people. Or is this wishful thinking?

I believe that the one of the clinical trials with the bone marrow transplants won't be finalized until fall of 2014. I'm not 100% sure, but I came across it when I was searching in google. I think it was the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance or the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center website. Hope this helps!

Andrew

 

[lenny]

bump*

 

[JMC]

Of course Crohn's will be cured, it is now a matter of when, not if.

 

[HANDAXE]

I tend to brush conspiracy theories aside because those same companies compete against each other viciously for better cures. Not agree between themselves to prevent cures. Anyone coming out with a new vaccine or treatment gets the big $$$.

It makes for great moves though

Correct. Any company that develops a cure stands to make a million times more money than that earned through selling treatments. Conspiracy theories are just plain bogus. The reality is far simpler.