• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

New member hello

Hi There,

I am from South Arica, and was diagnosed with crohns in 2011. I live in a small town where there are no specialist so I had to travel to Johannesburg to see a specialist. I have been struggling with my stomach for several years. From december 2010 I had diaorhee and vomiting. My locak GP said it was a stomach bug and gave me antibiotics. By April I had not stopped with the diaorhee or vomiting, I have lost 9 kg and was in so much pain I could not move. My GP said it was stress and my imagination and put me on antidepressants. One night my husband picked me up on the bedroom floor and said no more. He took me to a specialist in Johannesburg who immediately did a colonoscopy, and I was diagnosed with crohn's. I was hospitalised for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks the specialist finally got the inflamation down, and I could go home. I was on azapress, Pentasa and cortisones.
The problem that I have is that I have no one to talk to about this flippen thing in my live. I want to cry and run away at the same time. For the past 2 years it was up and down. For the past 3 weeks I am in severe pain again and do not feel like I want to live anymore. All the research I have done is so contradictory about food choices and exercise. I am very active and play action netbal, after last night's game I almost died of the pain. What am I suppose to do? Must I leave excersise, what diet can I follow? I just don't know anymore. Its as if none of the Dr's wants to sit down with me and discuss this in detail and tell me exactly what I can and cannot do. I am so frustrated. I am waiting for my GP to call me today to tell me whether I sould be admitted to hospital or not.

Please help me with guidelines as to a suitable diet or anything.:(
 

scottsma

Well-known member
Location
Tynemouth,
Hello Lindie and welcome to the forum.I don't feel qualified enough to give you advice as I have moderate U.C. not crohns.I'm glad you found us though,and I'm sure some-one will post soon to give you some much needed support.Please have a look through some of the threads meanwhile,as I'm sure you'll find something useful.I hope your Doctor has been in touch and has been of some help.The forum will enable you to ask the right questions and understand the answers.Best Wishes for now.You're not alone when you have this forum for support.Day or night.
 
When I see film footage of S. Africa it reminds me of the golden rolling hills of the California of my youth. Pretty country. Would be nice to visit someday.

There isn't a Crohn's diet per se, but many that try dietary ideas will typically look at the Specific Carbohydrate diet (SCD), or paleo diet. Both are similar to each other with some variation. You can learn more about the diets in the diet section on this sight. Additionally a Google or Bing search will turn up many web sights discussing these two ways of eating.

These two diets tend to be hit or miss for cd suffers. Some are helped by the diets, and sometimes sadly not.

Another dietary idea you could look into is Dr. Hunter's program out of the UK. He is reportedly having good success with his IBD practice, using dietary ideas and drugs when necessary to achieve remission in patients.

His web sight can be seen at:

http://crohns.org.uk/

and a newspaper article about his program

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1076594/How-tackle-Crohns-Disease-help-drugs.html

Dr. Hunter also has a book for sale which can be down loaded from Amazon.

Good luck!
 

valleysangel92

Moderator
Staff member
Hello and welcome to the forum :)

I'm really glad you have found us. Everyone here is really supportive and helpful and we will all do our best to help you with whatever we can.

I'm sorry to hear you have had such a hard time with this. Like Beach said, there is no single crohns diet as such. Some people do find it helpful to keep a food and symptom diary where they make a note of everything that they eat and the symptoms they get so that they can see any links between what they eat and the severity of their symptoms.
The forum has a diet section which is full of ideas and tips that people have tried out which also might be helpful.

Ginger or peppermint can be really helpful to some people when they suffer from nausea. For stomach pains, heat from a hot water bottle or a hot bath can be very beneficial to many people.

You dont have to stop exercise if you dont want to. As long as you dont push yourself too hard physical activity can be helpful to crohns patients. Some members here have exercise diaries detailing their activities and how it benefits them.

Dont be afraid to press your doctors for information. If they wont give it to you, then you may need to find another that will. I hope your GP gives you some helpful advice.

You can ask as many questions as you need here and although we might not always have the perfect answer there is normally someone that can relate to you and can point you in the right direction.
 
Lin

I always feel bad When I see someone write in their posts "just tell me what to do" because Crohns just doesn't work like that. I understand the sentiment, believe me. I WISH there was something we could all do that helps. Unfortunately we are all very, very different in what works.

This applies to diet as well as meds and activities. Paleo, carbs, juicing, enteral nutrition, TPN, just to name a few. For meds, there's a myriad of choices for you and your Doc. Even medical experts don't agree on treatment. Surgery first, or meds and diet. Natural treatments versus meds.

It's all so confusing!

I would just suggest that you work with your Doc, and find what works for you. It can take a long time to find your best method though, so don't give up!

I've been at this for about 16 years, and still need help sometimes, or something stops working and I'm back to the drawing board.... Ha ha
 
I'm sorry for your pain and trouble Lindie, but you are among friends here.

Ginger or peppermint can be really helpful to some people when they suffer from nausea. For stomach pains, heat from a hot water bottle or a hot bath can be very beneficial to many people.

You dont have to stop exercise if you dont want to. As long as you dont push yourself too hard physical activity can be helpful to crohns patients.
Yes, yes, and yes. Ginger and peppermint can both help, at least short term. And my wife (Crohn's) and I (UC) have his and hers hot water bottles.

One of my big triggers is stress and exercise can really help that. But, as valleysangel says, don't push yourself too hard. And a lot of people with these problems have hydration problems, so make sure you drink your fluids and don't get dehydrated.

As far as diet, you might want to consider starting a food diary, keep track of what you eat and how you feel, and see if you can find a food or foods that bother you more.
 
Thanks for the replies, it really feels good to actually talk to people with the same disease. I am keeping a food diary now, but sometimes some food is fine and then the other day that same food is not fine. I have noticed that I do not want to eat meat as much as I used to, sometimes the thought of meat makes me nauseous. I can tolerate potatoes, rice and pasta.
I just want to know: am I going to feel this way for the rest of my life? Some days good other days bad? Is it ever going to be normal again?
 
:ycool:
I just want to know: am I going to feel this way for the rest of my life? Some days good other days bad? Is it ever going to be normal again?
Hey Lindie, I am sorry you are not feeling well at the moment, but getting more involved and informed about Crohn's is the right thing to do. The more you know about Crohn's the better you are able to manage it.

I have asked myself the same question many times in the past, that is, will reoccurring problems and pain every few weeks or months or sometimes even daily be there for the rest of my life. Currently I'm in deep remission and have been there for nearly 18 months now. That is I have virtually no problems, no diarrhea or cramping pr pain. Sometimes (but very rarely) I get into trouble when I really eat bad, but a good night's sleep normally gets me back to normal.

For me I got to remission through a large variet of things, from supplements (vitamin D, B6, B12, magnesium, zinc, iron etc.) to endurance sport (you asked about sport, I think constant sport is greatly beneficial to stay in remission, altough if you got inflammation and problems, sport doesn't help and can even increase inflammation) to stress relief (yoga, positive thinking, being a calmer person) and diet (that took a loooong time to figure out, and is a trial and error thing - but essentially for me it is the "eat everything except too sweet. too oily, too greasy, too salty, too spicy etc." approach... and no onions or garlic).

Lastly, I needed long term effective medication to stay in remission for longer times (many months and years). There are only two types of long term effective meds widely used today, immunosuppressives (6mp and aza) and biologics (remicade, humira, cimzia etc.). biologics are more effective but also slightly more dangerous and vastly more expensive and invasive (injections or infusions vs. pills). Pentasa unfortunately has only been effective in very few Crohn's patients.

To sum up, my advise would be to really read a lot of different topics on this forum to get a feel of what the standard treatment is and what people do to manage Crohn's... a lot depends on individuals but you'll see the more you read the more you'll find out what the standard common denominator is.

all the best,
A
 
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