Possibility that Grains Cause or Exacerbate Crohn's?

[Pickles]

I was diagnosed in January 2011 after some terrifying ambulance trips to the ER and then follow up tests by a GI. I was put on Remicade infusions with methotrexate and iron for my anemia. In spite of my numbers steadily improving, my symptoms got worse until finally I couldn't stay awake more than 4 hours at a time and couldn't see from inflamed eyeballs. I was about to go on disability when a friend recommended an elimination diet to see if anything I was eating was making it worse (doc was very skeptical it would help.)
Wheat was third on my list of eliminations and when I got to that one it was like some kind of miracle cure. Giving up wheat got rid of a good 90% of my symptoms within a week. All my pain, gone. Fatigue and blurry vision, gone. All that was left was extremely painful gas (improved) and itchy, scabbed up feet. I went back and forth for a while to be sure, and every time I went back on wheat the symptoms returned.
So I thought that was it, I just had some kind of wheat allergy. I switched to rice-based breads and pastries. Well as soon as I increased the rice in my diet I started having problems with that too. Not nearly as bad as the wheat, the gut pain was still gone but the itchy feet actually got worse. Now the fatigue and blurry vision is coming back mildly. I am now switching to corn to see if that can replace rice successfully, but I'm starting to think that grains in general are the source of my problems.
I have been reading up on grains, and in terms of human history we've only been eating them for a very short amount of time. The reality is that grains are derived from grass plants, and only certain animals can process grass. Grain cultivation enabled the existence of civilisation, but I just don't think our odies have had time to adjust to eating them. Or nearest animal relatives don't eat anything like grains and never have. We have to heavily process them and "predigest" them with yeast to make them edible. They are not a normal food for humans and may be the cause of IBS altogether.
I'm wondering if anyone else has any ideas about this to share. My GI of course looks at me with a condescending smirk when I mention the dramatic improvements from eliminating wheat and rice. But I know this saved my life.
If anyone else has an opinion on the matter I'd be interested in hearing from you.

 

[num1habsfan]

I'm curious: have you been tested for Celiac? It can mimic the symptoms of Crohn's/Colitis very well. in fact, one of my information booklets lists the 3 in the same 'family'. I'm not trying to hack the Crohn's forum with Celiac speech here, I'm just coming from experience. It also causes things like stomach pains, diarrhea, rashes, and fatigue if not 100% treated. Only reason I bring this up is you caught my attention by mentioning the itchy feet - Dermatitis Herpetiformis attacks the hands and feet mainly and it's related to not just a gluten intolerance on it's own but also closely related to Celiac.

I'd stay away from the corn. I've recently been diagnosed with a severe corn allergy, and one of the allergy magazines I bought last summer had an article about this. I finally read it...corn allergy/intolerance can cause chronic headaches, asthma, rashes, joint pain, IBS, and migraines.

I have a personal theory that goes along with yours. I think it's been the chemicals used on grains that caused something like Celiac to exist, especially since it's still a very young disease. Another belief I have is there's a connection between an autoimmune disorder and multiple food allergies. until a little over 8 1/2 years ago, I could eat anything. Now? I'm allergic to every grain (wheat, rye, oats, barley of course), plus corn and rice, PLUS yeast (also allergic to literally every food out there except for beans and must go from a 4-day rotation diet to a 7-day).

 

[Beach]

I'm the same as you. I felt considerably better also once i eliminated all grains from my diet. Wheat seems to be the hardest on my grumpy GI system, but rice, and especially corn can cause issues also.

Dinning this way, grain free, is often called paleo or evolutionary eating.
A couple sights I visit for paleo information are:

http://robbwolf.com/

&

http://www.dietdoctor.com/new

 

[MJones]

When I was diagnosed with Crohn's, I got to reading about diet as well, despite my GI telling me that diet had nothing to do with my symptoms. I ordered The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf, learned a lot of really interesting things, and decided to give it a go. At first, I removed all grains and starches, but I ended up allowing real sugar and potatoes back in. After giving up bread, pastas, rice, and corn, even without being totally strict about it (I still eat breaded fish, for example, but I'll skip croutons on salads.. cooking helps, maybe?), my symptoms have improved dramatically. I toyed around with making "grain-free" breads, and after a few flops and successes, I've managed to find some that taste alright. However, some recipes include things like quinoa or tapioca starch which some paleo dieters aren't a huge fan of.

In short, cutting out grains helped me immensely. With the bad reactions I've been having to medications, had I not changed my diet, I likely would have required hospital care by now, instead of simply having tummy aches every few days while waiting to find a maintenance drug I can tolerate.

 

[num1habsfan]

With so many of you seeming to find relief, makes me wonder if being gluten-free is why I go in these spurts of 100% remission...

 

[Pickles]

Thanks for your replies

Yes I was tested for Celiac and the GI assured me it's not Celiac. But my mother told me that as a toddler I was allergic to wheat. She had to take me off it as a toddler because it gave me rashes and diarrhea. So I've probably always had a problem with it, and now that I'm pushing 40 it's becoming more evident. Another curious thing about this is that I have struggled with depression my whole life, and since giving up wheat I haven't had a major episode (7 months now, a record for me.)
Also there may be something to the post that said it could be the chemicals sprayed on grains, because my landlord and his wife are Polish and they can't eat American bread (say it makes them sick,) but do fine on European bread.
I wonder if grains are so unnatural for the human body that they break down the digestive tract over time, until the body finally can't take it anymore and develops problems like IBS. All I know is it's very difficult to give them up. Not only because grains are in everything I like, but because a "Paleo-diet" as you called it is very expensive by comparison. Trying to substitute produce for grains takes a lot more produce pound for pound and they are more expensive anyway. But I am going to have to figure it out because I think I am going to die if I keep eating the way I've been eating. The drugs are just treating the symptoms, and my symptoms are there for a reason. My body is talking to me and I intend to listen rather than silence it.

 

[Beach]

Your polish neighbors have a point. There is a new blog that I've been following just about wheat. I was surprised to read how wheat in America changed in the mid 80s. Basically the commercial wheat eaten today is quite a bit different from what our ancestors ate.

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

 

[Crohny]

Have any of you been tested for allergies?
I have asked 3 doctors now, and they completely brush me off.
Guess I will have to go see a nutritionist or someone completely untied to my network of doctors.

 

[MJones]

I haven't been tested for allergies, no. I do plan on seeing a nutritional specialist on my own accord soon enough, though. My GI will tell me my diet has nothing to do with it, so I've gotta do it on my own if I want to do it at all!

 

[num1habsfan]

I just had allergy tests again on the 8th/9th. Same as last - allergic to all food but beans. Moderate are potatoes, tomatoes, and lettuce. Corn and wheat severe (said if i wasnt gluten-free already i'd have to be now).
I think you have a gluten intolerence (it is not the same thing as Celiac). A gluten intolerence is known to cause anxiety and depression.

 

[Odddlycrunchy]

Try SCD or GAPS diet

Yes! The culprits are grains. And all other starches. And most sugars. Eliminate all of those and you're on the SCD or GAPS diet.

SCD: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

GAPS: Gut And Psychology Syndrome

Both are based on the fact that our small intestine cannot digest starches and sugars (except maybe fructose). These substances then pass to the large intestine where they feed bad bacteria, which make you sick. Eliminating the specific carbohydrates (sugars and starches) reduces the bad bacteria. GAPS also emphasizes adding good bacteria to your system.

Google SCD diet and GAPS diet for more information. We've put the entire family on the diet for almost 2 months now. With a bad case of Crohn's they say it may take many months before complete healing occurs, but there are already improvements. I'm posting our progress and recipes on Odddlycrunchy.blogspot.com

Try it and let's keep each other posted on how it works for you.

 

[Pickles]

Thanks Oddlycrunchy. I will look into that. I'm still hoping, perhaps with some delusion that just a modest amount of corn flour in my diet will work out. Since giving up the rice and eating only corn my itchy feet symptoms have disappeared, but the blurred vision still comes and goes mildly, and the gut pain hasn't returned to the degree it was with wheat but I'm having some mild ulcer-like pain in my stomach area the last few days. If the corn doesn't work out I'm not sure what I will do. I just don't have the budget to go full-on paleo or fruitarian. Produce is damn expensive. So is meat, even when only buying the clearance and sale stuff. I just can't get full on Paleo without eating larger quantities than what I need to feel full on grains. It's easy to see why the Neolithic age happened. You get a lot more food for your effort with grains. I also read that the skeletons of early Neolithic peoples indicate they suffered malnutrition from switching to a grain based diet. They got shorter and suffered more health problems. I hate to think what would happen if the whole world wanted to go Paleo. Not really possible in my opinion.
I might have to start dumpster diving for produce like the food not bombs people.

 

[Odddlycrunchy]

Yes, expensive

I agree with everything you say. Paleo takes time and $$$. But surgery is much, much worse. That's what keeps me motivated. Plus, I've seen testimonials from SCD'ers that have healed so well that they eventually can reintroduce some grains, like rice. Eventually can be in 2 or more years, but still... So I stick to buying whole chickens and cook them in the crockpot to make the broth. Carrots and onions are relatively cheap, and best for healing. I don't think you need to go organic or to buy the free-run-eggs.

Very interesting about the skeletons. I'd heard about them showing signs of arthritis happened when grains became the staple food.

I have a theory that when agriculture started, what saved people from all getting horribly sick (and maybe some did, and their culture disappeared) was that they also invented fermented foods around the same time. Yogurts, Kim Chee, sauerkraut, pickling, etc. That helped the good bacteria balance out the bad brought in by the undigested starches.

 

[Beach]

Don't know if this will be of help, but saw this article over the weekend called " How to Eat Paleo on a Budget." The piece is about mid-way down on the sight.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact...jP0VmdrWyZgSB0Wc0-WXVy4NFuCwBLXpaGWVLpTHqDw==

I've thought the same also about fermented dairy foods, like cheese and yogurt being created at the same time allowing grains, wheat in particular, to be eaten. Haven't read anything on that, but since wheat and milk are often mixed together in meals, the idea has crossed my mind.

Along those lines saw this article this morning about gut flora and wheat.

"The Battle for Control of Your . . . Colon"

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/08/the-battle-for-control-of-your-colon/

snippet:

Nearly all plants contains lectins, proteins that provide the plant protection from predators like mold, fungus, and insects. And most lectins ingested by humans are harmless or have only minimal effects. Not so wheat lectins.

Wheat lectins are oddly impervious to digestion. What you eat is what you either absorb into the bloodstream or pass out in your stool. It means that, after other proteins, carbohydrates, and fats have been digested, the remnants making their way through your colon become concentrated in wheat lectins. It’s here where the high concentration of wheat lectins do their Weapons of Mass Destruction thing and cause good bacteria to die and encourages bad bacteria, like Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus lactis, to fluorish, a condition called “bacterial overgrowth.”

Wheat lectin-induced bacterial overgrowth causes gas, cramping, malabsorption of nutrients, and can lead to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis when the normal barriers to unwanted proteins are unlocked. The number of evil bacteria can grow a thousand-fold, overwhelming the helpless good bacteria. The evil bacteria winning the battle then invade northward, making their way as high as the duodenum and stomach. That’s when it gets really ugly.

Dietitians advise us to get more fiber, such as that in wheat like wheat bran. That’s how wheat lectins Trojan horse their way into your bowels.

Conventional response: antibiotics. Unconventional response: probiotics that repopulate the good guys. My response: Rid yourself of the colon WMD, wheat lectins and take back control of your colon!