PLANT BASED DIET ? (Seems to be working for me)

[kushmak]

Hi guys,

I have suffered with Crohn's disease since 2011 but have had it way before as I had anal fistula's for years - thus was getting surgery to heal them, yet for them to appear again. It was a nightmare but an amazing GI diagnosed me soon as he met me. I was on Azaithoprine for 7 years or so but I became fearful of taking it for such a long time and read so many reports on the side effects that I opted to come of it. At this stage I was on remission. Fast forward to end of 2019, pain started again and my original GI had retired so was referred to a different one, who told me I had to do tests in order to see if my Crohn's is back. In February got told my Crohn's was back and that I had a fistula in my small bowel so had to go back on Azaithoprine but was never given the options of biologics (which are a safer option I was told)...once I started Azaithoprine I managed to catch COVID 19, which knocked me out for 2 weeks in March. Was having long term covid so didnt start Azaithoprine until May 2020.

My Crohn's causes me to be bloated and have a burning/painful sensation once I release my bowels and making me think, I still need to go once I'm done - this subsides after 3-5 hours. My calprotectin levels were always around 80-100+ but never went above 150 recently. Blood showed some inflammation in the body.

Anyway a close friend of mine sent me an article on how a whole food plant based diet has shown to put SOME patients in remission, which I found interesting and then I saw studies in Japan showing that it has proven effective. Thus one late evening with nothing to do apart from researching into it I stumbled on a UC sufferer who claims to have "healed" his UC and has many many testimonials of people who have followed his diet with Crohn's and are pain free/med free for years and years. He himself has been 8 years symptom free. He still follows a strict whole food plant based diet. I decided to give it a go as there are no payments, his channel has videos of what to eat and what to follow. You can even message him and he will reply. I begun it soon after Christmas and the diet is hard to follow but I'm tired of taking medicine that has such dangerous side effects. 4 weeks in and my GP Doctor said I should do a calprotectin test to see if its helping, it was on 5ug/g which is normal. I did my blood tests and all have come back normal. I am 6 weeks in and he says that you must follow the diet for 5-6 months minimum.

The diet is:
MORNING - 1 litre of water
-A juice of celery, turmeric, ginger and apple
-Smoothie; three bananas and three dates

AFTERNOON -
-Smoothie; three bananas and three dates

EVENING -
-Juice of celery, turmeric, ginger and apple
-Boiled/cooked potatoes/sweet potatoes with vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, spinach (all boiled)
-1 more litre of water during the day

Start adding one vegetable more every week or so once symptom free.

He also says that removing stress, getting a good nights sleep and exercising alongside diet is key to helping our Crohn's.


My question is has any tried such a diet and has it worked for them ? (Please also if people are sceptical and haven't tried such a diet, don't bring negativity to it as we are in this all together, surely having the internet and being able to find out information from all over the world should not make us think just medicine can help us with Crohn's)

 

[lukesjr]

thanks for the post, please give updates going forward on your progress.

 

[my little penguin]

What plant based protein are you eating ?
I don’t see any in your list ?
Tofu , beans , nuts etc...
Fork over knives has some good plant based whole food nutritional balanced recipes .

What side effects have you experienced from meds ?
I only ask since my kiddo has been on bug time meds (biologics and immunosuppressants) since age 8(dx at age 7) and now is 17
No side effects at all here on multiple biologics
Current one is Stelara/methotrexate

diet can help
It can be the everything for some lucky few
But other still need meds as well as diet

hope your diet does the trick abd continues to work for you

 

[kushmak]

Hey my little penguin,

I will gradually progress onto a fully plant based diet within 6 months as currently I am following the diet I mentioned above. I won't be eating any tofu, beans, nuts...etc due to the fact they are harder to digest and have opted for proteins such as a large potato, which contains roughly 8g of protein per serving. Broccoli contains 4g..etc. Most vegetables do have some protein. My sister is a nutritionist who questions this diet also but due to the fact its helping me remove my symptoms has acknowledge I should continue. My GP doctor also stated to continue it if its helping. I won't know until I get to 5-6 months but the testimonials of people who have Crohn's disease and have healed is pushing me on to do it. Please note the term healed isn't me using it but its them.

Azaithoprine makes me very fatigue, urine is constantly yellow, have constant mood swings, random high temperatures from time to time (very sporadic) but my biggest worry with these meds is that long term use of them can give us certain cancers hence why I would prefer to be med free if I can control it with a balanced diet. I should of stated I was taking Pentasa also.

I will leave the link to the channel below and see what you think: https://www.youtube.com/c/Highcarbvegans/videos

I am glad to hear that your child has no side effects whatsoever and hope they are doing well. I hope they are healthy during these troubled times we are living in.

P.S. I don't support anyone stopping there meds to try this plan, I'm just stating its helping me at the moment. Fully agree with you that with some people diet doesn't help and only meds will do.

 

[ncman]

... my biggest worry with these meds is that long term use of them can give us certain cancers hence why I would prefer to be med free if I can control it with a balanced diet. I should of stated I was taking Pentasa also.

Hi Kushmak,

I just wanted to add that it is uncontrolled inflammation which is the cause of cancers - yes the medication may have an impact - but ultimately if the IBD inflammation is kept under control, the risk is generally equal to that of the normal population.

I'm doing the diet route too - although following a slightly different theory - elemental / lofflex / exclusion diet.

What I can't make sense of is the sheer amount of fructose that you're having - yes, some of it would get absorbed higher up in the digestive tract - but for me, more than a glass of normal apple/mango juice results in gas / bloating and I presume eventually would lead to a flare - I've never continued long enough to find out.

When you're making the veg juices, are you straining the pulp out?

I've spoken to one person who has tried the high carb method successfully, but they were still within the first 9-12 months of remission, it was working for them.

 

[Tony_G]

I was diagnosed 2001 and was extremely malnourished, inflamed and underweight. i never had my Crohn’s under control. been on most meds and none seemed to help. In 2016, I went vegetarian. For the first time in my life I was a healthy weight, stopped throwing up all the time, didn’t feel exhausted 24/7. The new diet was life changing for me. I also added that boost nutrient drink (twice a day) and my weight got even better and more stable. Flares don’t last as long and I get sick way less often. Crohns is tricky so this obviously wouldn’t work for everyone, perhaps not even work for most people. But it worked for me.

 

[kushmak]

Hi Kushmak,

I just wanted to add that it is uncontrolled inflammation which is the cause of cancers - yes the medication may have an impact - but ultimately if the IBD inflammation is kept under control, the risk is generally equal to that of the normal population.

I'm doing the diet route too - although following a slightly different theory - elemental / lofflex / exclusion diet.

What I can't make sense of is the sheer amount of fructose that you're having - yes, some of it would get absorbed higher up in the digestive tract - but for me, more than a glass of normal apple/mango juice results in gas / bloating and I presume eventually would lead to a flare - I've never continued long enough to find out.

When you're making the veg juices, are you straining the pulp out?

I've spoken to one person who has tried the high carb method successfully, but they were still within the first 9-12 months of remission, it was working for them.

Hey Ncman,

I know that uncontrolled inflammation due to Crohn's can cause us bowel cancer if left untreated. Taking Azaithoprine can cause other cancers which are just as bad, now if I can control my Crohn's with a diet and remove Azaithoprine then I intend to pursue it.

Yes having too much fibre can give you gas and bloating which I have but I have no more pain when I go to the toilet now. My calprotectin is normal at the moment and my blood tests have all come back normal. Prior to changing my diet I had blood and mucus in my stool and now have none. Normally whenever I used to press on my abdominal area it used to hurt (sharp pain) and three days ago I had a ultrasound of my bowels while the doctor was trying to press on it yet not once did it hurt me. He said there is still some slight inflammation but its only been 7 weeks so need to wait longer.

I am having a video call with a well know Gastroenterologist who believes in a plant based diet helping put Crohn's in remission, who has patients that he personally has seen accomplish it. I will attach the link here: https://www.devongutclinic.com/
I have attached a video of a talk he gave a few years ago siting research that has shown evidence of whole food plant based diet helping:


The vegetable juice doesn't have any pulp as I use a juicer. The actual smoothies are just blended together in a blender so will contain everything. I follow quite a few people who have followed the highcarbhealth diet and all praise it and swear by it. Only time will tell if it fully helps me as I'm 7 weeks in but I hope it does.

I hope the diet you are following helps you

 

[undone]

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I was unaware of Dr. Alan Desmond's studies and plan to share this with my GI doc, along with other information I've found to support plant based diets for the treatment of Crohn's and other IBD diseases.

A little about me: I am 65 years old and have dealt with Crohns disease in my small bowel for 35+ years. I have been treated with a variety of medications during the course of my life, the most recent being Mercaptipurine (6-MP) which caused me to develop skin cancer. Once I realized this drug was at the root of the skin cancer, I discontinued using it. I also stopped seeing my gastro doc at that time (I was really mad I wasn't told of this side affect!). That was about 15 years ago. Since then, I attempted to control my symptoms with a low fiber diet, unaware of the studies done with whole food plant based diets for Crohns. Unfortunately, I developed 6 obstructing strictures over the years that required surgery in Feb 2021 to remove. The good news is my surgeon examined my intestinal tract during surgery and found no evidence of active Crohns!

So, here I am now, almost 4 months post-surgery with no Crohn's symptoms, and my GI doc wants me to begin infusion therapy every 8 weeks with Entyvio to keep me in remission. I was literally sick to stomach thinking about taking those strong biologics for the rest of my life. As a result, I've been doing a lot of research (and a lot of prayer!) to find another alternative to these drugs. Dr. Gregor (nutritionfacts.org) recently came out with several videos linking whole food plant based (WFPB) diets with IBD remission. I've been on his mailing list for years and was thrilled to learn about this. Dr. Gregor's findings, along with the information I've found through other sources, have convinced me to jump with both feet into a WFPB diet which I've been doing now for almost 4 weeks. I feel great and have more energy now than I have had in years!

My next step is to break the news to my GI doc that I will be going the WFPB route vs. the biologics. I don't know how he'll respond, but I'm not hopeful he'll be on board with this direction, even after sharing the evidence you've provided here. Wish me success!