What is Crohn's disease?
Crohn's disease in an inflammatory bowel disease.
Why to we have Crohn's disease?
They say the cause is unknown, but believe that it's the combination of
an overactive immune system, hereditary problems and environmental
factors (bacteria/viruses).
Is this true? NO !
Crohn's disease is a hypersensitivity reaction to the chemicals in our food.
Family members may share similar chemical sensitivities. Crohn's patients
are usually people who have a weak immune system, not an overactive one.
It is not caused by bacteria/viruses. It would just run its course if it was.
Bacteria from your gut may however fester in the wounds created by the
inflammation. Bad bacteria thrive in the environment created by inflammation and readily crowd out the good bacteria. If the cause is truly
unknown then why do scientists have no difficulty in inducing the disease
in lab mice, rats, etc with emulsifiers (same emulsifiers found in our food) in order to study Crohn's disease medications.
Why would they keep the truth from us?
There is a lot of money to be made. Studies are expensive and usually
sponsored by drug companies. They want a medication that they can market
and there is no money in telling someone to change there diet.
The chemicals in our food are dangerous and affect everyone. How it affects
people varies because everybody is different. It could cause IBD, chronic
constipation, stomach upset, cancer, any number of autoimmune diseases
like psoriasis. It's probably what is behind autism and alzheimer's disease.
Remember, it wasn't that long ago that everyone thought smoking was safe.
It is now generally understood that inhaling chemicals is bad for you. So
what about ingesting them?
Medications today are widespread with new ones coming out on a regular
basis. They pretty much all center around suppressing your immune system.
They also have plenty of side effects to go around. The idea here is that
you will not react to the chemicals as much. You will, however, still react.
Flares may be less often or less severe, but inflammation still exists.
Instead of trying to lessen the severity of the rash with medication, how
about we stop rolling around in the poison ivy. Prevention is the best
treatment.
Diet change.
Food is good. Humans have been eating food for a long time. It's not the
problem.
Chemicals in food:
Emulsifiers (polysorbate 80, soy lecithin, carregeenan)-avoid like the plague.
Preservatives (ie. sodium nitrate, sodium benzoate etc.)
Pesticides/Herbicides (produce should always be organic)
- accumulate in our bodies over time, affecting many systems
- can't be washed off produce
- peeling doesn't remove the chemicals either. (even found inside
watermelon)
GMO products - avoid
Chlorinated water - should filter out the chlorine which may kill the
fragile good bacteria.
Read all food labels carefully. Avoid the chemicals. If you don't know
what an ingredient is then you probably shouldn't be eating it.
Organic products may still contain carrageenan or soy lecithin.
Gluten free foods are often well tolerated because they are minimally
processed not because gluten is an issue. Still many gluten free foods
are processed with additives that should be avoided.
My wife and I are hospital pharmacists. We've done a lot of research
and feel strongly about our beliefs.
It was very traumatic for us to witness our daughter suffer so much and
then be diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 5. She had extensive
ulcerations from her stomach all the way down to her anus. She was so
inflamed that the scope couldn't even get to some of her small intestine.
The pediatric GI specialist showed no emotion in telling us this except for
the little smile when he said this was his 3rd diagnosis of Crohn's this week.
He wanted to be aggressive with her treatment, because she was so severe,
with the top down approach. We were in shock. My wife, who was
undiagnosed Crohn's disease at the time, asked if diet change would help
since she had been avoiding some things that seemed to help her.
This doctor got upset. He insisted that we not change her diet, only giving
us the reason that it would be too boring. She had a course of antibiotics
and Pentasa, but we refused all other treatment. We all did the diet
change as our research suggested. She improved. She had a setback about
two months later when her teacher gave her an ice cream pop at the end
of the school day. She came home complaining of stomach pain, threw up,
and had bloody diarrhea for several days. After that, we took full control
of her diet and made sure the school wouldn't feed her anything ever again.
We follow this diet strictly and I'm thrilled to say my daughter has had
no flares and no symptoms for 3 years now. Her blood tests don't even
show any inflammation. She's growing like a weed, more than a foot just
this past year. My wife is becoming very good at making things from
scratch like candy for holidays, cake for birthdays, and breads. We now
are also big into gardening.
Denial:
I couldn't believe that these food additives could do this. I mean, the
FDA protects us from things that would hurt people right.
Anger:
I was very familiar with the tight regulation the FDA has over new medications. That they had to have extensive trials to prove that they
were safe and all possible side effects were documented. I assumed they
did the same for food additives and was very angry to learn that this was
not the case. As far as food additives go, they are allowed by the FDA until
they are proven to be harmful. Studies to prove that an additive was
harmful would be very expensive and no one's going to do that when there's
not going to be a profit for doing so. I was angry to learn that many of
the additives used in america have been banned in other countries.
I was angry at myself for not figuring this out sooner and for providing the
food that made my daughter sick. At the time, my daughter was big into
have hot cocoa with toast. She was having 3 to 4 packets per day. We blame the hot cocoa mix for initially causing her Crohn's since it is loaded
with carrageenan.
My daughter is happy and full of energy. She is now 9 y/o. and has had
perfect attendance at school the last 2 years. The pediatric GI doctor says
each year how amazed he is at how well she is doing without any medication
other than Pentasa and that he's never seen anything like it.
Thank you for allowing me to tell our story.
Crohn's disease in an inflammatory bowel disease.
Why to we have Crohn's disease?
They say the cause is unknown, but believe that it's the combination of
an overactive immune system, hereditary problems and environmental
factors (bacteria/viruses).
Is this true? NO !
Crohn's disease is a hypersensitivity reaction to the chemicals in our food.
Family members may share similar chemical sensitivities. Crohn's patients
are usually people who have a weak immune system, not an overactive one.
It is not caused by bacteria/viruses. It would just run its course if it was.
Bacteria from your gut may however fester in the wounds created by the
inflammation. Bad bacteria thrive in the environment created by inflammation and readily crowd out the good bacteria. If the cause is truly
unknown then why do scientists have no difficulty in inducing the disease
in lab mice, rats, etc with emulsifiers (same emulsifiers found in our food) in order to study Crohn's disease medications.
Why would they keep the truth from us?
There is a lot of money to be made. Studies are expensive and usually
sponsored by drug companies. They want a medication that they can market
and there is no money in telling someone to change there diet.
The chemicals in our food are dangerous and affect everyone. How it affects
people varies because everybody is different. It could cause IBD, chronic
constipation, stomach upset, cancer, any number of autoimmune diseases
like psoriasis. It's probably what is behind autism and alzheimer's disease.
Remember, it wasn't that long ago that everyone thought smoking was safe.
It is now generally understood that inhaling chemicals is bad for you. So
what about ingesting them?
Medications today are widespread with new ones coming out on a regular
basis. They pretty much all center around suppressing your immune system.
They also have plenty of side effects to go around. The idea here is that
you will not react to the chemicals as much. You will, however, still react.
Flares may be less often or less severe, but inflammation still exists.
Instead of trying to lessen the severity of the rash with medication, how
about we stop rolling around in the poison ivy. Prevention is the best
treatment.
Diet change.
Food is good. Humans have been eating food for a long time. It's not the
problem.
Chemicals in food:
Emulsifiers (polysorbate 80, soy lecithin, carregeenan)-avoid like the plague.
Preservatives (ie. sodium nitrate, sodium benzoate etc.)
Pesticides/Herbicides (produce should always be organic)
- accumulate in our bodies over time, affecting many systems
- can't be washed off produce
- peeling doesn't remove the chemicals either. (even found inside
watermelon)
GMO products - avoid
Chlorinated water - should filter out the chlorine which may kill the
fragile good bacteria.
Read all food labels carefully. Avoid the chemicals. If you don't know
what an ingredient is then you probably shouldn't be eating it.
Organic products may still contain carrageenan or soy lecithin.
Gluten free foods are often well tolerated because they are minimally
processed not because gluten is an issue. Still many gluten free foods
are processed with additives that should be avoided.
My wife and I are hospital pharmacists. We've done a lot of research
and feel strongly about our beliefs.
It was very traumatic for us to witness our daughter suffer so much and
then be diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 5. She had extensive
ulcerations from her stomach all the way down to her anus. She was so
inflamed that the scope couldn't even get to some of her small intestine.
The pediatric GI specialist showed no emotion in telling us this except for
the little smile when he said this was his 3rd diagnosis of Crohn's this week.
He wanted to be aggressive with her treatment, because she was so severe,
with the top down approach. We were in shock. My wife, who was
undiagnosed Crohn's disease at the time, asked if diet change would help
since she had been avoiding some things that seemed to help her.
This doctor got upset. He insisted that we not change her diet, only giving
us the reason that it would be too boring. She had a course of antibiotics
and Pentasa, but we refused all other treatment. We all did the diet
change as our research suggested. She improved. She had a setback about
two months later when her teacher gave her an ice cream pop at the end
of the school day. She came home complaining of stomach pain, threw up,
and had bloody diarrhea for several days. After that, we took full control
of her diet and made sure the school wouldn't feed her anything ever again.
We follow this diet strictly and I'm thrilled to say my daughter has had
no flares and no symptoms for 3 years now. Her blood tests don't even
show any inflammation. She's growing like a weed, more than a foot just
this past year. My wife is becoming very good at making things from
scratch like candy for holidays, cake for birthdays, and breads. We now
are also big into gardening.
Denial:
I couldn't believe that these food additives could do this. I mean, the
FDA protects us from things that would hurt people right.
Anger:
I was very familiar with the tight regulation the FDA has over new medications. That they had to have extensive trials to prove that they
were safe and all possible side effects were documented. I assumed they
did the same for food additives and was very angry to learn that this was
not the case. As far as food additives go, they are allowed by the FDA until
they are proven to be harmful. Studies to prove that an additive was
harmful would be very expensive and no one's going to do that when there's
not going to be a profit for doing so. I was angry to learn that many of
the additives used in america have been banned in other countries.
I was angry at myself for not figuring this out sooner and for providing the
food that made my daughter sick. At the time, my daughter was big into
have hot cocoa with toast. She was having 3 to 4 packets per day. We blame the hot cocoa mix for initially causing her Crohn's since it is loaded
with carrageenan.
My daughter is happy and full of energy. She is now 9 y/o. and has had
perfect attendance at school the last 2 years. The pediatric GI doctor says
each year how amazed he is at how well she is doing without any medication
other than Pentasa and that he's never seen anything like it.
Thank you for allowing me to tell our story.
