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Hello Crohnies !

Hi everyone, I'm Dave and I have just recently been diagnosed with Crohn's, also a few months previous to this I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (an inflammatory spinal disease) and I’m HLA-B27 positive (an “autoimmune marker”).

I'm 41 and have struggled with achey joints and a bad back since my teens, the doctors never seemed to take my complaints seriously and would advise me to take Ibuprofen etc (this would often give me abdominal aches/ bloody stools) luckily, over the years I learnt to self medicate with Cannabis- a practice that I believe has helped me ward off Crohn's and keep the spinal disease in check for many years.

Last year I had a bad dose of food poisoning, I was feeling achey and tired and I unwisely took Ibuprofen and Iron tablets, I then got more food poisoning, all during a relatively short period of time. At the same time as this I had reduced my cannabis use due to new restrictive drug driving laws here in UK and it was at this point that my ankylosing spondylitis grew into Crohn’s.

I have found the link between Crohn’s and ankylosing spondylitis is an overgrowth of a bacteria called Klebsiella pneumonia that lives on starches/sugar. I have been following a low starch/sugar diet and I am taking cannabis regularly and I’m getting control over this condition without using pharmaceuticals.

Personally I don’t really buy all this “auto immune” stuff and I’m not into taking pharmaceuticals on a daily basis, but I’m here with an open mind to learn and share alike – Thanks for taking the time to read a bit about me :D
 
Welcome, Dave. I am sorry for what you have gone through. You have found a good place to come to though. I am going to tag Maya 142.
 
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