November 10, 2008

Crohn’s: Fight it with Diet

By SHS Nutrition

An interesting article recently appeared in the UK based newspaper the ‘Mail on Sunday’ regarding the treatment of Crohn’s disease with diet rather than drugs. The article centres on the experiences of one man, John Maffioli.

John first fell ill at 19, but he just attributed it to the excesses of his life as a university student. Six months of acute stomach cramps later, he had lost almost two stone and was suffering extreme fatigue.

When the problem first arose, John recalls, ‘I was experiencing terrible stomach cramps, not unlike food poisoning, and on a bad day going to the toilet up to ten times.

‘When I started university I was 12st,’ he says. ‘But by my second year I weighed around 10st, and looked pretty skinny at 5ft 8in. I was pale, tired all the time and had dark circles under my eyes.’

Finally John was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease after a colonoscopy and blood tests. Crohn’s is a condition where the body’s immune system attacks the digestive tract, causing damage and inflammation. The illness most commonly begins between the ages of 15 and 25.

People diagnosed with the debilitating gut condition often have to look forward to a lifetime of medication and even surgery, with an increased risk of cancer.

The first line of defence for most adult sufferers is usually powerful antibiotics to battle infection, drugs which reduce inflammation, and immune-suppressant medication

These are drugs which carry a host of side effects such as weight gain, mood disorders, serious infections and an increased risk of cancer of the lymph glands.

However, eight years after his diagnosis, John, who is one of 60,000 Crohn’s sufferers in the UK, is free of symptoms – and this is despite never having had a single drug treatment.

John leads a very active life which has seen him run the New York Marathon and regularly play club rugby. This breakthrough has been achieved thanks to a simple diet.

This is thanks to gastroenterologist Professor John Hunter and his team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital who identify foods that act as a ‘trigger’ for symptoms, eliminate them from a patient’s diet and ’switch off’ the disease.

90 per cent of Professor Hunter’s patients are symptom-free and 56 per cent can resume a normal diet after five years.

To read this article in full, please click here