How to know if SCD is "working"??

[Sea_Star]

I'm pretty asymptomatic with Crohn's, just abdominal pain during a flare and I'm trying SCD to reduce inflammation. If I'm on the intro diet (since Tues nite), how do I know when to move on, despite there still being some abd pain? Inflammation doesn't disappear overnight lol, but I don't have D, sooo how would I know what I can/can't tolerate when I have always tolerated food I think...it's just when I'm inflamed/have a little flare that I have abd pain...


:/

 

[Patch]

I had a similar question... if you're on medication that deals with the majority of your symptoms, and you start the diet, will you be able to tell whether the diet is helping?

 

[partlycloudy]

I'd just use the stages at Pecanbread as a guide since you're practically symptom free. If you start getting worse cramping or gas after testing a good back off it.

 

[onolox]

I have entered this forum right now to question this.
I'm asymptomatic too, but I have my entire intestine inflamed. Just not have pain, gas or D.


I will try the diet and see what happens, but without response of my body, will be a shot in the dark.:confused2:

 

[theOcean]

You'd probably have to get tested for inflammation to see if it's making any difference.

 

[onolox]

My doubt is about trying new foods, in the diet says to experiment a new food for some days and see what happens, but in my case it's a shoot in the dark, because I will have no symptoms if the food is bad for me.

 

[lbligh]

Do you have fever? That was my daughter's primary symptom. It only took two days on SCD to eliminate her fever. I imagine that is a lot faster than it goes for most people though!

 

[lenny]

My son was already in remission when we started the SCD, so we just did the intro diet for 5 days and moved on, adding new foods slowly, one at a time.

 

[Al77]

I'm in the same boat. I don't really have diarrhea, just a lot of bloating, cramping and strange "gurgling/bubbling" feelings in my stomach. I started the SCD diet properly last week and find everything after the intro makes my stomach bloat etc.

I am pretty confused what to do.

I actually don't think I have CD and think I have been misdiagnosed but that's another story.

 

[baistuff]

All of the above posts demonstrate why many docs don't jump on the scd or other diet bandwagon. Are we having patients stop meds? Controlling for stress, sleep, other illnesses? Are we looking at subjective CDAI scores or are people getting scoped with biopsies looking for mucosal healing after X amount of time. When someone can answer these questions and many others with clear peer reviewed evidence, then we can have an intelligent discussion about scd. As a doc with crohns, I can say at I am 100% certain that diet is a factor in this disease. I can also say I am 100% certain that we have no overt proof of exactly what that diet should be for every person with IBD. Do we really believe that someone with lone proctitis needs the same management as someone with ileitis and a stricture? When we have a large double blind controlled ( for meds, age, gender, previous diet, allergies, location, extent, durations of disease) then we can start to learn a little more. Until then, it is all voodoo. Now some might see great improvement with voodoo, but that cannot be generalized to a population of patients.

Healing and control to all,

M.D.

 

[Tesscorm]

It's difficult to know if a diet is helping, especially when you show few symptoms. If possible, tracking test results may help identify a trend in crp, etc. over time. But, as said above, I would be very cautious about eliminating or foregoing medications in place of diet.

When my son was diagnosed, we met with a dietitian who was part of the IBD group (assigned to us because my son did exclusive enteral nutrition to induce remission) and her explanation was that while specific foods will not cause or trigger flares, they may affect symptoms, positively or negatively. IBD is such an individual illness and sensitivities/intolerances will differ from person to person. If you are intolerant of spicy foods, eating these may aggravate symptoms; alternatively, eating a low residue/fibre diet (or trying enteral nutrition) may help calm down symptoms during a flare. The trick is finding the foods that help/hurt your symptoms. I'm not sure that any one diet plan can help everyone.

She also believed that often people will, in fact, feel better when following these diets (SCD, paleo, etc.) but that much of the credit goes to simply eating less/no junk food and fresher, non processed foods that are part of these diets.

I am, however, a big believer in supplementing a diet with nutritional shakes. My son did very well with exclusive EN (6 weeks formula only, no food) and was able to reach clinical remission; his maintenance treatment then continued to be supplemental EN (1/2 dose, 5 days/wk with a regular diet) for another year and a half. Unfortunately, while this greatly reduced and controlled his inflammation, it was not enough to eliminate all inflammation, hence he started remicade. It was definitely a very hard decision (I was quite happy to have my son on a nutritional formula only with no side effects! ), however, the risks of undertreated crohns are very real and we believed this carried greater risk than the medications. Although he is now on remicade, he continues to drink 1-2 Boost shakes per day and I believe the nutrition he gains from these shakes have helped keep him healthy since diagnosis.

Good luck!