Need advice on Crohn's and Juicing Fast

[christyw]

Hello! I have never done anything like this before, but I really need some advice and support. I happened across this site while trying to do some research and thought I would give it a try In November of last year I was diagnosed with Crohn's. This discovery was inadvertent, and it came as a complete shock to me because I had not been experiencing any of the common Crohn's symptoms. I was strongly advised to take steroids in order to treat the ulcers and 17-18 inches of inflamed small intestine that was found. Before I began this treatment, my husband and I happened across the Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead documentary, and I decided to give the juice fast a try. I figured that I did not have anything to loose (except maybe some unwanted weight); I thought that it could be a healthy cleanse for me; and I was really hoping that it would eliminate the need to take steroids. My gastroenterologist is very nice, but has not encouraged my decision since they are not trained to believe that diet has any effect on Crohn's, so she has no faith that it will work; but my primary care physician referred me to a nutritionist who said to go ahead and give it a try if I wanted to.

I am currently on day 36, and have planned to do 60 days if I can. So far this journey has been filled with ups and downs. Basically I have been simply juicing raw fruits and vegetables (more fruit in morn. and vegetables at night), and I try to get 2 - 3 juice "meals" in a day (some days, my schedule makes this easier than others). Outside of the juices, I have only drank water (I am not a big water fan, but I do try to get as much in as possible). The emotional missing of food has been really difficult at times... especially when I have had to go to special events, BBQs and on trips with family (all of which center around food!). I seemed to manage pretty well in the first 3 weeks (even though I did go through the standard first few days of headache, coated tongue, etc.) It was during week 4 that I really hit a wall. I felt miserable about how much I missed food, and how poorly I was handling it. One high point of encouragement that has kept me going has been the steady weight loss. I have lost about 25 pounds now, and it seems to be pretty consistent (about .5 - 1 pound a day with a few periods of plateau).

The biggest struggle I am having is not knowing what is going on inside... it it working, is it not? As of just recently, though, I am even concerned that I may be causing more damage. This is a bit embarrassing to discuss, but I really need some advise... About 1 week ago, I started to experience quite a bit of mucus in my stool (which has come very infrequently to begin with... I had expected it to be more frequent and loose during this process, but my long-term battle with constipation and irregular bowl movements has persisted though the juicing). Today the mucus has decreased, but even more concerning is that as of yesterday my abdomen has begun to hurt a bit (on the right side below my ribs, and on the right side a little lower down. I have never had a Crohn's flare-up that I know of, but I am concerned that this may be what I am beginning to experience. I feel very discouraged at this point, and would really like some input. I do not know whether to press on or give up? From what I have read online, the mucus can mean increased inflamation or some suggest it means that the colon is being cleansed. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge regarding this, or simply juicing and Crohn's? Thank you!

 

[David]

Hi Christy and welcome to the forum Thank you for sharing your story and your experiment with juicing.

There are some people that have benefited from juicing according to their anecdotes, including a few that are extremely passionate about it. My feelings:

1. As you said, is it working? Is it not? In my opinion, if you're going to utilize diet as the primary treatment option you need to be EXTREMELY smart about it. Because if it's not working like you think, that means you have inflammation inside slowly causing more and more damage which in time can lead to serious complications. If you utilize diet as a treatment option, in my opinion you need to be very closely monitored to make sure it IS working. If I was doing it, this would involve regular blood tests, stool tests, and occasional imaging or endoscopic tests to make sure I had things under control.

2. One of the problems with juicing is getting all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients you need. I'd bet just about any amount of money that you're not getting everything you need. The first that comes to mind is vitamin B12. How are you getting that? How about protein? People with CD usually have INCREASED protein requirements. As Crohn's Disease is often characterized by malabsorption and subsequent malnutrition that then leads to a whole other set of complications, ensuring that you meet all your nutritional needs is of utmost importance.

I absolutely understand the desire to try diets. But what you're describing makes me concerned that yours isn't working. If you came to us before starting the juice fast and were steadfast that you wanted to try diet, I would have pointed you in the direction of enteral nutrition. Not only have many studies shown that it is highly efficacious if you stick with it, but it should provide most of the nutrients you need though some may still need supplemented.

Let's start the discussion here. What are your thoughts based upon what I've said? There's some wicked smart people here and we sincerely want nothing but the best for you. As such, we're happy to help any way we can

 

[mnsun]

I've been meaning to watch that Doc, and I do occasionally try juicing/fasting; however, the prospect of going multiple weeks without (in addition to what David said) fiber/prebiotics/probiotics/complete amino acids just seems risky. Everyone seems to have their own juice theory for differing health outcomes.

I do understand the idea of letting your organs/bowels rest via juicing/enteral/elemental nutrition--and I do believe these methods can have almost immediate, corrective effects if you're in bad shape. Balance is key though.

My approach involves doing more mini-fasts with supplements to assist in various outcomes: killing bad bacteria, boosting good bacteria, cleansing with fiber, boosting/dampening/balancing immunology, doing water fasts, repairing/building intestinal walls to counteract possible permeability or leaky gut, or whatever tangent I want to go on--for just a few days, maybe 3-5, at a time. However, I do these experiments in addition to my own personal dietary approach which every individual Crohnny must decide on themselves.

Not to say you did this, but, generally, most juice-fasters tend to rely on sugary fruits/veges to make the stuff palatable which can lead to overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria (just as fake/processed/cane sugars can as well). I applaud your diet driven efforts, but I encourage balance in all things (even good ones). If you wish to seek my biased opinions on Crohn's matters, see my thread under Success Stories>MY Supps for MY Dis-Ease

Any other thoughts on Christy's situation or crohns-centric juicing?

 

[sarahsoda29]

I'm doing some research on the subject of juicing and was wondering, what would be your opinions on doing the juicing fast, but also supplementing with Boost or Ensure to make sure all nutrients are there?