Does altering diet actually help?

[elr]

Hi all,

I spent most of my life thinking that I was allergic to corn and that it was the cause of all of my Crohns symptoms. This turned out to be a bit self fulfilling, as whenever I got sick (daily) I could inevitably find SOMETHING I ate that probably had corn in it. I would go weeks successfully avoiding it, but then still getting sick. Then I would give up for a while and not try to avoid it at all and have the exact same amount of symptoms.

I am curious as to whether changing their diet has been shown to have an affect on Crohns symptoms. I have never had any success with it, and I don't know where I would even start. Probably connecting with a dietician.

Is there any research out there relating diet to Crohns? I was just diagnosed recently and I have not been able to as much research as I had hoped as of yet.

 

[Too Many Bum Steers]

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/home/

This is what I do, and the woman who created it based it on what her doctor did for her child with Crohn's. She then went on to scientifically try and explain why it worked. Not sure how well she succeeded but her explanation is pretty good in her book. If there is ONE diet that has been scientifically tested or at least some attempt has been made to explain it for Crohn's specifically, it's probably this one. Though there's a bunch of others out there that also seem to help. Giving up wheat seems to help a lot for many people.

Also, for IBS, the Monash University in Australia has been doing some fascinating tests on different types of fermentable sugars they've termed FODMAPs. You can search a bit for that info...

http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/

I mention it because, although Crohn's isn't mentioned, I think some of the concepts between the theories are similar.

 

[kel]

Read the scd and fodmap books and you will get a pretty good idea of what effect diet has on the body.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0969276818/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1395339191&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

And

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0954852028/ref=pd_aw_sbs_1?pi=SL500_SY115

 

[Too Many Bum Steers]

On this topic, I'd like to ask, do people feel that fish helps specifically? I know fish oil is supposed to help, but does fish? Shellfish? I'm wondering because of the Weston A Price people claiming that so many traditional societies who were healthy depended mainly on fish. And it is high in Omega-3's. Makes me wonder if it helps.

I found some frozen mackerel this month and baked some up in a cream sauce (no lactose). I almost got a high from how good it made me feel. I'm wondering if it's just me.

 

[hugh]

Fish wont do harm, and contains good things, but there isn't a food to cure you, just avoiding the foods that do harm.

Check these out.......
Bowel Disorders, Part I: About Gut Disease
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/07/ulcerative-colitis-a-devastating-gut-disease/
and the other three linked to it (parts II to IV)
He is spot on with his analysis but some may need more carb restriction to get gut bacteria and inflammation under control
His is the least restrictive diet and may be a good first step.
From here it is a small step to Paleo/SCD (just drop the rice and restrict tubers for a bit)
http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=48559

 

[tzvia]

I think diet matters a LOT. But it's different for everyone. Certainly if you have crohn's and are allergic or sensitive to a food (like) corn, eating it will make your symptoms much worse. The thing is, the food that bothers me many not be the food that bothers you. Each body is different. For me, my crohn's gets really really bad with coffee, alchohol, and spicy food.

 

[tzvia]

Also, this thread is interesting to look at: http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=17707

 

[lbligh]

I've gone from a skeptic to a true SCD believer because the turnaround for my 13-year-old daughter was astounding.

The scholarly literature doesn't have much on diet for Crohn's because it's impossible to do a double-blind study on a diet. This January, though, the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition featured a small study of child Crohn's patients on SCD, so the work is getting out:

http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Abstra..._Therapy_in_Pediatric_Crohn_Disease__.22.aspx

 

[kel]

Much more likely the lack of funded studies is due to the lack of potential profit.

 

[lbligh]

I'm sure this is an unusually rapid result, but after two weeks on SCD my daughter's blood work went from typical signs of inflammation, to LOW NORMAL sed rate and CRP.

 

[Days Off]

On this topic, I'd like to ask, do people feel that fish helps specifically? I know fish oil is supposed to help, but does fish? Shellfish? I'm wondering because of the Weston A Price people claiming that so many traditional societies who were healthy depended mainly on fish. And it is high in Omega-3's. Makes me wonder if it helps.

I found some frozen mackerel this month and baked some up in a cream sauce (no lactose). I almost got a high from how good it made me feel. I'm wondering if it's just me.

You have to be careful with fish as mercury is a big issue. A lot of fish these days contain high levels of mercury. There is a lot if information and misinformation on the www about the effects of mercury. Bottom line is it's not good for you and it would be best to minimize exposure. Fortunately, not all seafood is the same. Avoid tuna and swordfish for sure. One of the best fish is wild caught pacific salmon. Avoid all farm raised salmon.

I live on the gulf coast and used to fish a lot. I was eating fish that I had caught 3-5 meals a week. I thought this was a good thing until I got my mercury level test. It was high enough (3.12 ppm hair test) to cause me to cut back on the fish I eat.

Do some research to find out the lowest mercury options for seafood that are available to you.

 

[lbligh]

Excellent point. I've heard that farm-raised salmon is terrible for us. Fresh wild-caught Pacific salmon is expensive, but I get it frozen on sale, and canned salmon from Alaska is wild-caught and quite affordable.

 

[Twiggy930]

My son has had great results following the FODMAP diet. He struggled for a long time with chronic abdominal pain, even while all his inflammatory markers were normal. About 6 weeks after putting him on the diet he was pain free.

 

[hbrekkaas]

Diet helps for sure, but the same diet won't work for everyone.

I could never follow the SCD diet because one of my biggest food triggers is meat, along with dairy and nuts/seeds. That cancels out most of the food options.

 

[lbligh]

My daughter had a problem with meat also. My husband wondered if she had small intestine bacterial overgrowth, with a problem being bacteria that fed on carnitine. No way to know if that was true, but at one point she was given a week (or maybe 10-day) course of rifaximin, which will kill that type of bacteria. After that she had no problem with meat. Who knows? We're all sort of fumbling through this.

We've been kicking ourselves for not trying SCD when someone recommended it months ago. One reason we didn't was the meat trigger. So possibly if we'd tried SCD before the rifaximin, it wouldn't have worked, and we would never have tried it again. Impossible to know for sure.

 

[Erb]

You have to be careful with fish as mercury is a big issue. A lot of fish these days contain high levels of mercury. There is a lot if information and misinformation on the www about the effects of mercury. Bottom line is it's not good for you and it would be best to minimize exposure. Fortunately, not all seafood is the same. Avoid tuna and swordfish for sure. One of the best fish is wild caught pacific salmon. Avoid all farm raised salmon.

I live on the gulf coast and used to fish a lot. I was eating fish that I had caught 3-5 meals a week. I thought this was a good thing until I got my mercury level test. It was high enough (3.12 ppm hair test) to cause me to cut back on the fish I eat.

Do some research to find out the lowest mercury options for seafood that are available to you.

Can I just ask a question? Why is it bad to buy farm raised salmon or any other fish? I mean, it almost always comes up in a conversation peppered with fear about mercury. But how does mercury get into a land based tank of water? This seems so illogical to me. And are there any studies done to show that

a. the Omega-3 content is significantly different
b. there is any mercury in tank raised fish compared with wild
c. there is any other quality difference between tank/wild fish

Honestly I think this is some kind of marketing myth.

 

[lbligh]

The farm-raised salmon isn't a matter of mercury. The farm-raised salmon has a completely different diet from salmon in the wild. Remember the old saying "You are what you eat"? Because of the difference in diet, farm-raised salmon do not have the high levels of Omega-3s that are considered to be especially beneficial to those of us with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

I am told there are sustainability issues as well.

I understand your skepticism about all the anti-farm raised fish hype. These people are very reputable, though: http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx