Hello - I was wondering if anyone has gone the functional medicine route to deal with Crohn's. I will give a very brief synopsis of my story below and can obviously go in more detail.
I had a colonoscopy due to rare blood seen in stool (once a month). The GI doctor saw mild inflammation in terminal ileum and suspected Crohn's, took biopsy that did not confirm it, but still thinks I am dealing with a mild case. I have no major symptoms except minor occasional bloating and mucus in my stool. I have completely normal bowel movements once a day. He suggested a steroid and said I would be on medicine the rest of my life. I did not feel comfortable jumping to that conclusion so am trying the functional medicine route for now. After a couple of appointments and tests run, the Functional Medicine doctor thinks I have leaky gut and Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO). I am on a low fodmap gluten free diet for 4 weeks while taking Alicilin, Oil of Oregano, and Microb-X supplements (I think herbal medicine equivalent of antibiotics) to give the bad bacteria and strengthen my immune system. After that I am not sure what the course of action will be.
I wanted to get others similar experiences and hopefully success stories to walk this journey together. It is obviously particularly worrisome that there is inflammation in my small intestines and I don't notice and have no way of knowing if it is getting better or worse.
I had a colonoscopy due to rare blood seen in stool (once a month). The GI doctor saw mild inflammation in terminal ileum and suspected Crohn's, took biopsy that did not confirm it, but still thinks I am dealing with a mild case. I have no major symptoms except minor occasional bloating and mucus in my stool. I have completely normal bowel movements once a day. He suggested a steroid and said I would be on medicine the rest of my life. I did not feel comfortable jumping to that conclusion so am trying the functional medicine route for now. After a couple of appointments and tests run, the Functional Medicine doctor thinks I have leaky gut and Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO). I am on a low fodmap gluten free diet for 4 weeks while taking Alicilin, Oil of Oregano, and Microb-X supplements (I think herbal medicine equivalent of antibiotics) to give the bad bacteria and strengthen my immune system. After that I am not sure what the course of action will be.
I wanted to get others similar experiences and hopefully success stories to walk this journey together. It is obviously particularly worrisome that there is inflammation in my small intestines and I don't notice and have no way of knowing if it is getting better or worse.