I am in my forties and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease about 20 years ago. The first 10 years I irregularly took Entocort and could get along well. After this time it got worse and I additionally took TCM which helped a little bit but still over the years it got worse. I bought self-help books which mainly focused on nutrition. Due to the radical changes such diets required I soon gave up, also influenced by my parents as they were afraid of the weight loss. Another few years went by and my condition worsened. I visited different expert doctors specializing on IBD as well as different TCM doctors. At the same time I increased the Entocort dosage but gradually it stopped to help. At the beginning of 2012 it got so bad that even taking the maximum dosage over several weeks I had such intense stomach pain that I could hardly sleep at night. Hesitating to go with stronger medicine, I lost all hope. Feeling I had nothing to loose I decided to strictly follow the self-help books I had bought several years earlier, even if it meant that I would undergo extreme weight loss and might face dietary deficiencies. This dietary change made me so weak that for some days didn't even have the energy to talk. Within 1 month I experienced that my symptoms got less and I gradually decreased my Entocort dosage until I finally completely stopped taking them. During this time my weight decreased from around 68 kg to 60 kg (I'm 1.8m!) but a few months later I had no more symptoms and felt like reborn, again full of energy. My weight increased also by a few kg. Since then (5 years) I didn't take any medicine (neither western nor TCM). One year later I did a colonoscopy and the Crohn was 100% gone. My doctor who is specialized on IBD just said that I was in remission. He couldn't believe that this could have been done only by a change in diet. The books I used to cure myself are - "Self Healing Colitis & Crohn's" by David Klein - "Breaking the vicious circle" by Elaine Gottschall During the process of healing I strictly used the Klein book (no meat). Once I was healed I started eating meat again (allowed by Gottschall) but sticking to the principles of Klein on food combination and of course not eating any grains. I still do annual ultrasound check-ups and extensive blood tests twice a year to make sure there is no nutritional deficiency. A few times I did have low values on certain vitamins and finger tingling which I solved by once a week eating rice or other grains (I only did this after I was cured). For me those two books made a miracle come through. I hope that my experience can help some of you.
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Diet was my key! - 5 years symptom free without any medicine
- Thread starter Richard08
- Start date
Bufford
Well-known member
- Location
- Northwestern Ontario
Thanks for sharing, I am not a fan of medications that produce side effects that are about as bad as the Crohn's. They have their purpose, but diet and stress control are my first line of defense.
I'm so pleased to hear that you stuck with the diet change. I was diagnosed with crohn's in my late 20's but I had suffered with symptoms since my late teens. 20 years of ever increasing meds that made little or no effect on the diease but reeked havoc with my overall health. Around the time I turned 40 I was on 40mg of prednisolone daily and humira injections twice monthy. On these drugs I was still having around 20-30 bowel movements daily and unable to go anywhere except to work. Most days it would take 2 and sometimes 3 attempts to get to work as I would soil myself before I even got there. I was so sick of myself that I decided it was time to do something for myself instead of relying solely on medical advice. The internet has so much information about this disease if you REALLY REALLY want to be rid of it for good. I found a german doctors book from the 1950's called "life without bread". It suggested that processed carbohydrates cause a reaction in the gut that causes the immune system to attack the gut directly. Anyways this doctor documented many cases where he had eliminated the diease with only dietary changes. So after about 8 years or so of eliminating different foods and liquids I have found what works for me. With all the limitations I imposed on myself I can now tell you that my research has lead to a diet that is essentially a ketogenic diet. 2 years on I no longer take any medications at all, toilet vists are down to once or maybe twice a day. I even take a coffee with me for my trip to work and I'm able to go on outings with my family again. I relise some people react to different foods differently but I can attest to the science behind the ketogenic diet and would suggest that in the long term eliminating ALL grains, sugar and processed carbohydrates will have a fantastic effect on your overall health.
I am glad for your success.
Wow, sooooo good to hear other stories of something I AND my Doctor believe from experience is valid and true! Diet and lifestyle changes can have a PROFOUND effect on all kinds of diseases. Our bodies are designed to heal, if we can just remove the obstacles from letting that happen. In Crohns a big part of the picture is diet. For me, it is also disbiosis. I have a very Candida laden and H-Pylori laden system, and I am working on those with my Dr to see if it is the final obstacle to full healing. I am about 80% healed. I have rare flare ups, and they are ALWAYS associated with eating/drinking foods I know set off either the Candida or other unbalanced gut bacteria. I listen to alternative medicine podcasts and have read numerous books on the "ideal diet" for us, but I have found it varies slightly from person to person. I eat mostly vegetable heavy (still mostly cooked because I am not at 100% yet) Paleo and lowFODMAP, but occasionally have GF soaked steel cut oats for BF with no adverse reaction. To those people out there who think there is no way to go but drugs I beg to differ. I read the posts of people having HORRIBLE side effects, and developing other serious disease from the drugs, and I feel so bad for them. If I had a really bad flare I might agree to take drugs short term, but not in the long term because they don't get to the root of what is setting the immune system off!! I am blessed to have a great Integrative Primary Care Dr AND Integrative Gastro Doctor who both take my insurance and encourage me to continue in my dietary journey. Next year I will have my 5 year colonoscopy and endoscopy and I am hoping to have it show full healing, as you did, Richard08! Keep up the good fight and keep sharing your story! There are so many hurting people out there who need to know there is hope!!!
Finger tingling is one symptom of a deficiency of one or more of the B vitamins. When our digestive system is damaged (as in Crohn's and other conditions) we're likely to have some nutritional deficiencies since we aren't digesting or absorbing our food well. Also the person who wrote about the finger tingling was following a diet that forbade grains. So even though the diet was intended to heal the intestine, it may have resulted in a deficiency of biotin, which is one of the B vitamins that we get mainly from grains. Since the B vitamins work together, we need to eat and digest all of them to prevent symptoms of deficiency.