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!
