Cured Crohn with fasting

Hi folks,
great to be in touch with you on this forum. I would like to share the fasting method which completely cured my Crohn disease. I'm free of all symptoms for seven months - it is a real miracle. I believe that the method can help the majority of you. The whole method is based on two simple ideas:

• Return in diet before 1950 when the Crohn rocketed
• Restart your body with fasting (in my case fasting for 38 days)

I put more info and the whole process at
http://mech.fsv.cvut.cz/~smilauer/Crohn_Smilauer_fasting_en.pdf

Changing the life style is not that difficult - there are many books and people around. Fasting is more difficult and almost unknown in our western world. But nature operates with fasting routinely and places body's cleaning mechanisms into this period. This was known to Hippocrates (~400 BC), who considered fasting as the greatest remedy - the physician within.

Fasting has one pitfall. The effect of pills and drugs rises about one order of magnitude, so it is necessary doctor's approval to skip the pills after about five days of fasting. On the other hand, Crohn's symptoms go quickly away; there is also no stool and a low activity of intestines after a few days.

Normally, you can fast 40-70 days without permanent damage to your body; however, certain guidance and attention are necessary. Fasting is doable and at the end is much easier than you think now. It's not about hunger, it's about will, belief, and motivation. Something what you have not done before.

Could you imagine to be free of Crohn's symptoms ? Miracles happen and you have the key for them. Wish you good luck and to discover God's power and power of the body.

I have had Crohns for 18 years dx and longer 35years of symptoms. At this point in time there is no cure for Crohn's, there is control or remission stages but it can occur anytime, anywhere. I have seen the link before. When you fast you also lose a lot of vitmains and nutrients your body already is impaired to absorb. I lose alot of potassium and b12 which is dangerous to be low on. We can "rest" the bowel during flares, and try to put the good bacteria back in the area to fight the bad. Your mind controls your body, and your body needs nutrients to feed the brain.


I am glad you have had 7 months, I have had longer after a resection then another resection ... but it came back, and it is highly genetic in our family.

It is agreed we need a cure, but research is getting closer.

personally, i wouldn't recommend fasting for any longer than 24 hours... but this is a personal choice.

i would like to say, though, that the Crohn's Forum does not promote or encourage the practices posted by members - and we recommend that any procedure you may read here, which you are tempted to try, should be discussed with your primary health carer first.

Only my Opinion!
Especially During Active Disease and in my Case I Need B-12 injections.
I wonder how The Body would get the Nutrients and Keep Weight on?
I to am Happy it seems to have worked for you so far.
Seeing Crohn's is a Cronic or recurrent disease.
I Also had about 5 years of No symptoms.
Those day's are long ago.
Also genetic in my family.

uh huh!....

40-70 days????!!!

Yea sure someone my size prob could do so for about 10-15 days before they lost so much weight they ended up inhospital

crohns isn't somethin u play with specially for some of the ppl on here who only weigh about 50kgs, after two days they would prob loose too much weight

I would not recommend this practice, unless u hav great personal health insurance an live close too a hospital

better off talkin too your gp or specialist IMO

Hi smilauer,

I'm glad you have found some relief. I'm sorry if this is going to sound like a wet blanket, but I would caution you that periods of remission can be just that - periods. I had a 3yr remission (i.e. no meds, no symptoms) before my last flare.

Enjoy your remission, but please know that autoimmune disorders can be unpredictable and flare up despite our best efforts at staying well.

A CURE!!! WOO-HOO!!!!
I KNEW they'd cure Crohn's if I stuck around long enough!!
Strange that they didn't announce that on the news or at my GIs office or something.
I did try to fast this week, but I only made it until dinner. Hmmm.

Mmm yeah I don't think fasting is such a good idea. Kinda need nutrients and stuff. I think they call that anorexic.

I fast every night after dinner.

My Butt Hurts said:

A CURE!!! WOO-HOO!!!!
I KNEW they'd cure Crohn's if I stuck around long enough!!
Strange that they didn't announce that on the news or at my GIs office or something.
I did try to fast this week, but I only made it until dinner. Hmmm.

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:ylol2: Only that long huh?

heh too bad the bit of legit message in there is getting sold down the river by the presentation.

Bowel rest is the front line treatment in many parts of the world and maybe that is what this advertiser was alluding to. You can achieve it through the elemental diet, TPN or other hard to live with alternatives. I had to do something like this during my initial diagnosis because they did not want to give me steroids or do surgery with the large abscess I had. I was put on a liquid diet and loaded up with antibiotics and 5asa for 2 months prior to surgery. It is a similar approach to how IBD is treated in Asia.

But yea fasting for a couple of months is not simple or easy and having had to go through that I would never try it without the medical support I had from St.Elizabeth Homecare. They had a nurse, nutritionist and later on a physiotherapist keep an eye on me. As well as my GP and GI appointments with 2 emergency admissions along the way. It was suggested I go TPN to give my bowel a complete rest but I was afraid to from what I had read on here. Some #### was messing with our heads at the time over that if I recall correctly

If I fasted for that long, I'd be dead! Do you mean fasting with taking NO food for that time? That is ridiculous. I get weak and tired if I go more than a few hours with no food. Simply ridiculous.

I fasted for two years when I first got sick, had no choice, and it didnt cure me lol

:welcome: Smilauer....Thanks for providing all of the PDF info....I would have to agree that your story is truly miraculous....Do you know of anyone else who has been cured by this method?.....

Back in Apr '08 I was admitted to the hospital (again) for my Crohn's.

Symptoms were vomiting, nausea, diarerhea and severe abdominal pain.

After a upper/lower GI series it was determined that the ileum was strictured.

The surgeons wanted to cut right away.

My GI doc put my on a IV and NPO, nothing orally for 7 days. He's an old timer and felt the intestines needed to "rest". It worked, I was eating normally in a few days after the IV meds and feeding.

I am not giving any credibility to any fasting diet but I do know that it seemed to have worked for me.

I had a 7 year remission . . . Crohn's can go into remission for a very long time and then hit you again out of nowhere.

I wouldn't survive. It may work for some people...BUt, I don't think it would work for me....But, what ever gets you better...go for it! Sue

Doing it in hospital on IVs with nutrients and supervision... that may help symptoms, but it won't cure Crohn's. Hospitals utilize complete bowel rest often... moreso in places like the UK.

Just not eating by yourself for 40 days will harm you, as you can see in your PDF... you were WAY underweight and gaunt.

bit perturbed and disturbed!

Not eating at all gives me terrible diarrhea! (tried it once, nearly died!)
Yeah just what we need, hey?

Hello,
apparently long-time fasting provoked nice discussion . What I meant and did by fasting is nearly zero-calorie diet (only up to 0.5 l/day of vegetable juice is allowed by Breuss diet, or only herb teas, or distilled water). No solid food can be taken. The goal is to provoke self-digestion mechanism within your body, which starts after approximately 7 days. Under these conditions, organism keeps minerals and vitamins, there is no lack of them as opposed to malnutrition. Fasting conditions were studied by several Russian doctors (Malachov, Nikolajev), quite interesting reading what's happening inside. Elemental diet with pumping nutrients directly to blood means guts take rest but there is no self-digestion. This can be beneficial as well but is another story.

It has been almost two years ago since I started with fasting. I agree relapse may occur any time and two years is not enough to draw solid conclusion. Since the first fasting acted as a miracle, I believe that another fasting can just improve your health. To prevent relapse, I continue with fasting. Twice a year I fast for 25 days and I skip meal every day in a week. It sums to 95 days of fasting per year. I tried with/without vegetable juice, in different seasons. Breuss diet in winter was the easiest combination.

1.5 year after the first fasting I went on colonoscopy and blood exams. There are no indications of Crohn by colonoscopy (no bleeding, mucus, inflammation as before) and blood values fall within limits. I have no subjective problems, stool once a day, do not feel tired as before.

I know two patients with Crohn who went on 40 days fasting. Both finished two weeks ago. Let us see what will be the results.

Why am I such an advocate of fasting? I believe that evolution trained our bodies sufficiently to survive a couple of weeks without any food. Bodies took advantage of food rest and have learned to clean from inner dirtiness. Animals do it routinely, why should not us? Body probably knows what is bad and gets rid of it during fasting. It was demonstrated by Bragg that mercury or DDT are expelled from body at least an order of magnitude faster during fasting. In this sense I'm convinced that Crohn is just a consequence of inner dirtiness. Dirtiness can be gluten, some proteins, anything your body does not like. How can one pill fix this dirtiness?

Fasting is not for everyone; doctors are scared, patients are too worried, fasting is not much profitable. There are contraindications. But there are still people who did fasting and strong belief has helped them. I have read 12 books of fasting and discovered this wonderful hidden world.

Everyone, see your doctor before following potentially amateur advice, PLEASE!!! I'm v glad the original poster is feeling better, but to recommend 40+ days fasting to people who are already sick and desperate is a tad irresponsible!

No fasting at all should be undertaken without discussion with your doctor and regular follow ups! It can cause dangerous electrolyte imbalances and nutritional deficiencies... and people with IBD are at big enough risk of these things already. Some imbalances can be killers....... we should not mess with our bodies like this and push ourselves too much, people with IBD are quite often sick and I feel this method without medical supervision and nutritional support is frankly dangerous.


xxxx

Zero calorie diet...I think not. I'm not usually so blunt but i personally feel that is dangerous quackery - I would be dead if I tried that one. True I would no longer have active disease but I don't fancy the dead bit!
Elemental /liquid diets providing EXTRA calorioes worked work well for me but zero calories...ridiculous.

littlemissh - seconded. Ludicrous idea.

xxx

I feel this is a bad thread, you talking as though its complete fact that it cures CD, its a matter of personnal circumstances. Some people are very desperate and would try this out of desperation, which is dangerous. I get extreme abdo pain if i dont eat, you run the risk of severly shrinking your stomach, and its very hard to expand it again (i learnt from experience after a major flare)

To anyone that is desperate, please seek med advice first!! Im glad this has helped you but CD is so individual and its extremly dangerous to make a claim like you have.

Also, i hate how on your second thread you've written about how you've read so many books, that doesnt make you a medical expert, yes i agree that detoxing is good for the body, but only for 24hrs, people that fast for 40days very rarely would have a disease. We are not stupid on here, and i feel slightly patronised by the way you describe it all.

Yeah I am beyond skeptical... Why not smoke a joint and then eat a full meal? You can get your nutrients and keep the inflammation at bay.

I turn into a different person when I am hungry - i mean totally irrational - so for me this method would definitely mean my boyfriend and the dog would pack up!!

Mmmmmm, I'm very skeptical. I've heard of people being given a purely liquid diet in Hospital which has all the vitamins & goodness you need. It comes @ enormous cost but does rest the gut.
But I really dont think anyone should try fasting. Especially during a flare up when you are already in a weakened stated. Very dangerous advice.
You can have a stricture & go in to hospital & they will put you on IV's for a few days & you may go for 2 perhaps 3 days without food but thats it. Even after surgery they try & get you eating gentle foods within a couple of days most times.
Rgds
Grant

1st symptoms 1983
Diagnosed 1985
1997 Right Hemicolectomy & Resection
2002 Laperotomy & Resection
2010 Laproscopic Ileocolic Resection

Been on Azathioprine & Pred

Currently on Entocort 3mg every other day
Humira 40mg every two weeks
Calcichew
Pentasa 4gm daily
3mthly B12 Jabs

karj said:

I turn into a different person when I am hungry - i mean totally irrational - so for me this method would definitely mean my boyfriend and the dog would pack up!!

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hahahahaha :rof:

When I was 8 (1982) the docs had me on a no food diet. Most of that year I lived on nutrition drinks and blood transfusions. I was bleeding internally, so when my lips turned blue I went in for a pint. That was once to twice a week, depending on what my body was doing.

I guess you can say it was a controlled fast for the better part of a year. After that I went into remission for eight years.

Oh, I forgot one niggling little detail in there. I had a small bowel resection!

Also turns out I was within a couple weeks of death when they finally got in there.

That was my story of fasting, but I don't think that what the OP was getting at.

Hi I saw a programme called Eat Fast Live Longer on the BBC by Michael Moseley and he tried intermittent fasting where he eats normally for 5 days and fasts for 2 days per week. The fasting days don't have to be consecutive and it allows 600 calories for a male, 500 for a female so not a complete fast.
It supposedly jolts the body into repairing cells rather than creating new ones and also stimulates new neurons(?) in the brain so can protect against brain diseases. It also reduced blood sugar levels and a growth hormone thought to be linked to cardo vascular disease and common cancers.
I have had Crohns for 26 years (no surgery - touch wood) but have experienced periods of remission and flares. I have been in remission for a number of years now taking azathioprine and sulfasalazine during this time.
I have actually been worrying about my weight which is not excessive but I could do with losing some. So I have tried the 600 calories today and am quite hungry.
My aim is to lose 8 or 9 pounds trying the intermittent fasting method. I do a lot of exercise thanks to my Golden Retriever and also work out occasionally but have found my weight has plateaued. I also have a colonoscopy coming up in a month so it will be interesting to see if there is any change from last time.
I agree with others that you shouldn't try something unless you are willing to accept the outcome but I do think that our bodies developed to cope with feast and famine whereas I certainly am more of a constant grazer and have a sweet tooth. It might not work for everyone and it might be a waste of time but I think I will give it a go for 6 weeks and see how I get on.
I'll repost if I give up or manage the 6 weeks
Regards
NotYetFitEnuf

Quick update. I have lost 5-6 pounds and the sigmoidoscopy I had yesterday found no sign of active crohns. It all looked pretty healthy from where I was but they took a few biopsies of white nodules just to check. No sign of any carcinoid tumour recurrence so fingers crossed they got it last time. Will continue for another 3 weeks and see how it goes. As the nurse said if it works for you do it.

I stopped all medicine back in 2010 and have been med free since. I was doing amazing, I was back to normal with no symptoms whatsoever. Now fast forward to the present time and I'm ready to go back on medicine because I'm having many problems with perianal abscesses leading me to my third surgery in a year on Monday. I thought crohns could be cured without medicine but I was wrong. I don't feel like I've failed because I enjoyed being med free for the time I did but in my eyes 7 months is way too short of time to determine anything. It will more than likely show symptoms eventually and crohns is an incurable disease so you still have it brewing inside you waiting for the perfect time to come out. Enjoy it while you can but just be prepared for the potential consequences

oh ffs

NotYetFitEnuf said:

Quick update. I have lost 5-6 pounds and the sigmoidoscopy I had yesterday found no sign of active crohns. It all looked pretty healthy from where I was but they took a few biopsies of white nodules just to check. No sign of any carcinoid tumour recurrence so fingers crossed they got it last time. Will continue for another 3 weeks and see how it goes. As the nurse said if it works for you do it.

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Hi I just read that you lost 5/6 pounds with intermittant fasting but was that over the 3 weeks? Have you heard of the motivation diet, I know 2 people who are on it and to be honest they lost 5/6 pounds in one week. It is a very healthy diet because it encourages you to eat little and often. I would suggest looking into this. It is a high protein diet.

Studies have shown that people who lose a lot of weight quickly put it back on quickly. That's why I am happy trying the IF approach. I have been symptom free for large periods over the years but even with the IF approach I am still taking my sulfasalazine and azathioprine to try to keep it in remission. I look forward to someone finding a cure and there are some interesting stem cell approaches being taken in Belgium and other places. I've had Crohn's for 25 years with some major flares but have been lucky to avoid surgery and had a carcinoid tumour spotted early and removed. Keep well.

Yes it was over 3 weeks.

kiny said:

oh ffs

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Is that directed towards my post?

KWalker said:

Is that directed towards my post?

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at OP, hope you find something that works for you btw

Ah. And thank you!

Lmao @ kiny

Fasting, no thanks. I felt absolutely miserable after 1 day of fasting before a colonoscopy. I feel like I'd die if it was longer then 3 days

EthanPSU said:

Fasting, no thanks. I felt absolutely miserable after 1 day of fasting before a colonoscopy. I feel like I'd die if it was longer then 3 days

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yep me too!!

EthanPSU said:

Fasting, no thanks. I felt absolutely miserable after 1 day of fasting before a colonoscopy. I feel like I'd die if it was longer then 3 days

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Intermittent fasting can be done 2 days out of 7 so I do Mondays and Thursdays fast (600 calories) eat normally the rest of the time.

Claims of a cure seem a bit far fetched to me ;-)

Just stating the obvious
read this on the net from a forum
20 years in remission?
I don't know what to think. But Potentially fasting could work.
Everyone has their right to be skeptical, but just remember were all here
to give each other support.
I'm on RSO, but am willing to try this.. probably give it a thought over the next two weeks.


http://naturalhygienenetwork.yuku.com/topic/397#.UFQ9blHtx8E

An update for anyone interested. It is now 3 months since I started intermittent fasting. After initial weight loss of 5/6 pounds in 3 weeks I have lost a further 2/4 pounds but my weight varies during the week. Last week I was away in hotels with colleagues and I put on 3 pounds (with no fasting) so here I am again feeling hungry with only 600 calories to look forward to today.
Crohn's is absolutely fine. I have a consultant appointment coming up so it will be interesting to see what he has to say on the result of my colonoscopy.

Intermittent Fasting may not be for everyone but it does work for me. Having turned 50 this year I now weigh 12st 10lb (6ft 1in) which is 1 stone less than I was at 42 so I feel pretty good. Would really like to shift the last 3 lbs but that would mean no cakes/sweets/wine/curry which I might try for a couple of weeks but Xmas is coming ;-)

To summarise I have had Crohns for 26 years (dropped to 9st before it was diagnosed-took 6 months), had lots of periods of remission and flares but since going on Azathioprine a few years back I haven't needed any steroids, sulfasalazine is my other daily med. Every colonoscopy/sigmoidoscopy I have had has shown active crohns apart from the last one.

Intermittent Fasting has helped me lose weight (funny that when you burn more calories than you eat). Intermittent Fasting may also have helped my Crohn's but I am still taking my meds and will continue to do so to keep it in remission.

I like feeling that I am more in control of my weight than I previously was and if there are positive health benefits that is a bonus.

I think the important thing is to keep trying to find something that works for you, keep taking the medicine and keep hoping that one day there will be a cure so we won't need the medicine.:thumleft:

So here I am again. I am still on the intermittent fasting or 5:2 diet. Xmas I put weight on, and have spent 6 months getting it back off. Now 12st 6lbs and probably only 2lbs off my personal target. Due also to lots of exercise with my young Golden Retriever.
My Crohns is under control (touch wood). I know I have been in remission a while but this feels different. I had a colonoscopy in November and had a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy in May 2013. November found no sign of active crohns colitis. In May there were no signs at all. I have the pictures and watched the TV - all I saw was health colon which was great.

I am still taking my Sulfasalazine and Azathioprine, daily, but feel great that I have found something that has worked for me. I know this disease can lull you into a false sense of security but who knows? The human body is incredibly complex and I have always felt the doctors have only read one more page of the manual than we have.

Here's to the next 6 months and, I hope, a quiet colon for all.:smile:

smilauer said:

Why am I such an advocate of fasting? I believe that evolution trained our bodies sufficiently to survive a couple of weeks without any food. Bodies took advantage of food rest and have learned to clean from inner dirtiness. Animals do it routinely, why should not us? Body probably knows what is bad and gets rid of it during fasting. It was demonstrated by Bragg that mercury or DDT are expelled from body at least an order of magnitude faster during fasting. In this sense I'm convinced that Crohn is just a consequence of inner dirtiness. Dirtiness can be gluten, some proteins, anything your body does not like. How can one pill fix this dirtiness?

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Have you ever seen a healthy dog refuse food? Most will eat 'til they're sick.If a horse gets into a feed store, it will eat until it gets colic, its gut twists and it dies. Any horse expert will tell you that certain breeds of pony have to have their grazing restricted, as they are prone to eating so much grass they get laminitis. I never understand why some people believe nature is perfect and animals possess some secret instinct regarding food that contemporary humans lack.

Fasting, no thanks. I felt absolutely miserable after 1 day of fasting before a colonoscopy. I feel like I'd die if it was longer then 3 days

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I always struggle to eat enough and gain weight, but one of my worries about having a feeding tube is that it will make me too full to enjoy any real food! I definitely have a physiological addiction to eating.

NotYetFitEnuf: congratulations on your weight loss. I think the less extreme fasting that you're doing sounds a lot more sensible than that described in the OP, if it's working for you.

Smilauer, I hope your remission lasts and lasts... Please keep us posted. I do think its possible for fasting to help, and its been used in healing for centuries. That said, I do agree with some of the other posters here that it may be too much of a shock to the system, and I would be afraid to try it myself in an already weakened, underweight state. But it's wonderful that it's working for you, thanks for sharing.

smilauer said:

What I meant and did by fasting is nearly zero-calorie diet (only up to 0.5 l/day of vegetable juice is allowed by Breuss diet, or only herb teas, or distilled water). No solid food can be taken.

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How on Earth could anyone survive this??? zero calories! Complete rubbish.

:ymad:

There is no cure for Crohn's disease. Fasting/Bowel rest with proper nutrition (TPN and EN for example) has shown to improve people's condition (under a doctor's care). I was forced to fast for two months in the hospital while receiving TPN (as we all need nutrition in order to live). I was not cured of Crohn's. Any kind of fasting, bowel rest or liquid diet should be reported to your doctor so you can be properly monitored.

"The results of this study provide substantial evidence that bowel rest is not necessary to achieve remission in patients with active Crohn's disease receiving nutrition support." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18595864

"Nutrition and Crohn's disease (CD) are intertwined because of the central role of nutrition in the care of patients with CD, specifically the theories regarding a dietary contribution to pathogenesis and formal studies investigating the primary role of nutrition as therapy for CD. Perhaps one of the most important studies evaluating the role of nutrition therapy and bowel rest in the management of CD was performed by Greenberg and colleagues in 1988. This pivotal study attempted to define the role of bowel rest as an independent variable in the management of hospitalized patients with active CD unresponsive to the traditional medical therapy that was available at the time. As the first randomized controlled trial evaluating nutrition intervention in CD, it showed that bowel rest was not a major factor in achieving remission during nutrition support and did not affect outcome during 1-year follow-up. Although these discouraging findings would be subsequently replicated, the role of enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy would evolve during the following years as a result of insight into CD pathogenesis, the emergence of more effective medical therapies, and improved understanding of the role of nutrition in the care of patients with CD." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18595863

I'm locking this thread.