Friend with crohns

[historian71]

friend with crohns

I recently met a lady with crohns, which I knew very little about, have since read a bit on wikipedia. I have cfs/me so know a little about chronic illness and peoples attitudes. This friend is depressed, I recommended she speak to a counsellor who helped me. Any other advice you can give me on how to help and advise her?

 

[Angrybird]

Hello and welcome, I think it is really good that you are looking into how to help your friend. The only thing other than councelling that immediatly comes to mind is vitamin levels. Us crohnsies can suffer from malabsorbtion so it is important that these levels get checked - ALL of them. For example though being deficient in B12 can cause fatigue and this can also have an effect on how we feel emotionally......

Hope this helps, perhaps of she is willing ask her to come and check out the forum, there is a lot of info here but also tons of support from a great bunch of people.

 

[David]

Hi Historian and welcome Kudos to you for joining a community in an effort to help your friend. You're a keeper

I agree with Angrybird. Yes, chronic illness can absolutely lead to depression and understandably so. But it's a very good idea to make sure there's not an easily fixed cause of that depression and she's right that B12 is one of those potentials. We've too often had people join here on antidepressants who were actually deficient in B12 and proper supplementation is what fixed their issues.

Again, welcome. We're here to help anytime. Ask any questions you have.

 

[historian71]

vitamins

My friend told me she has been in and out of hospital recently, has had to have most of her large intestine removed, has needed iron infusions and gets dehydrated easily. She is depressed as she has a 13 month old daughter, and feels she is losing out (the daughter, that is) as she has a sick mother, who has spent 3 months of her short life in hospital and now has no energy to play with her. I met her at mums and toddlers. I can ask her about vitamins when I next see her, when I was iron deficient I read that orange juice can help absorption and this seemed to help me, does this apply to someone with crohns?

 

[David]

Vitamin C can indeed help with iron absorption, yes. If supplementing iron, it's great to take it with OJ. But there are many variables that come into play when it comes to Crohn's Disease. For example, the person may have anemia of chronic disease where there is plenty of iron but the body isn't making it available for use because it is keeping it from pathogens in the body that need it.

Do you know what medications she is on?