IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Crohn’s Disease Diet and Natural Treatment Plan

The AHA! Team — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 06:12:57 +0000

Annie Price, CHHC via Dr. Axe – Have you been suffering from excessive diarrhea and abdominal pain on a regular basis? You might have Crohn’s disease, which means you may want to follow a Crohn’s disease diet and treatment plan. So if you have Crohn’s, there is good news. You can help treat this condition naturally with a Crohn’s disease diet, along with making other lifestyle changes. What is Crohn’s disease, exactly? This inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) causes inflammation of the lining of your digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition. It’s estimated that 2.4 million to 3.1 million Americans suffer from Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis (collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases or IBD). Crohn’s disease can seriously get in the way of everyday life with the possibility of it being both painful and debilitating. Sometimes, it even leads to life-threatening complications. If you suffer from Crohn’s, don’t lose hope! Much like the IBS diet and ulcerative colitis diet can help treat those IBD conditions, the Crohn’s disease diet can do the same with this gastrointestinal tract issue. Crohn’s disease diet guidelines Crohn’s disease treatment, the natural way, involves making a number of scientifically proven changes to your lifestyle and diet. Here are some of the top ways to start improving Crohn’s disease symptoms, starting with learning about which foods are a part of a Crohn’s disease diet. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases states that healthcare providers recommend several types of specific diet plans for helping to control Crohn’s symptoms. The type of diet that works best depends on your ability to digest and absorb minerals, bacteria, fats, fiber and certain types of carbohydrates. People with Crohn’s react differently to these food groups depending on what type of medications they might be taking, their levels of intestinal inflammation, and the extent to which they produce or don’t produce different digestive enzymes. Here are some Crohn’s disease diet guidelines, including foods to eat and foods to avoid: 1. Avoid classic problem foods Food sensitivities vary from patient to patient but commonly include spicy and fried foods, refined foods like white breads and pastas, carbonated drinks, alcohol, and caffeine. Wheat products (gluten), cereal grains such as corn and oats, dairy products, pork, onions, and yeast also all tend to make Crohn’s symptoms worse. Research published in Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that a diet low in fat and fiber (known as a LOFFLEX diet) tends to be highly effective at treating Crohn’s, with some studies finding that up to 60 percent of patients go into remission within two years. 2. Eat a healing diet Changing and improving your diet is one of the most important, controllable and natural things you can do to improve inflammation associated with Crohn’s disease. If you suffer from Crohn’s, following a healing foods diet may help decrease inflammation (the No. 1 dietary goal with Crohn’s), alkalize the body, lower blood glucose, eliminate toxins and optimize nutrient intake. The healing foods diet consists of eating roughly equal amounts (33 percent each) of clean protein sources, healthy fats and low-glycemic carbohydrates in the forms of fruits and vegetables. 3. Limit dairy Many people with Crohn’s find that gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea, abdominal pain and gas improve when they limit or eliminate dairy products. Some people are also lactose intolerant, which means they can’t digest the milk sugar (lactose) in dairy foods. While the lactose in dairy hasn’t been shown to necessarily make Crohn’s worse, the fat content in dairy can inflame the condition. 4. Be careful with high-fiber foods For some people suffering from Crohn’s, consuming high amounts of fiber, especially from raw fruits and vegetables, can be too difficult for their compromised systems to handle. Don’t skip your fruits and veggies altogether, however. Just eat them cooked whenever possible. Some Crohn’s sufferers have trouble with foods in the cabbage family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.), nuts, seeds, corn and popcorn. Keeping a food diary can help you see what works and what doesn’t for your particular case of Crohn’s. This way you don’t eliminate a healthy food (for example, broccoli) unnecessarily in your Crohn’s disease diet if your digestive system actually can handle that food well. 5. Increase prebiotic intake Consuming more prebiotics, a special form of dietary fiber that promotes the growth of healthy bacteria (probiotics) that combat bad bacteria, is a smart idea for people with Crohn’s disease. Prebiotic foods include things like asparagus, bananas, honey and oats, all of which make excellent additions to any Crohn’s disease diet. However, because prebiotics are a type of fiber, it’s important to monitor your systems and pay attention to how you feel. If particular prebiotic foods, or foods high in fiber, are causing worsened symptoms, then try subbing in other foods until you find what works. 6. Eat smaller meals If you want to avoid a Crohn’s disease flare-up, it’s best to stop overloading your body with over-sized meals. By eating smaller meals you put less stress on the gastrointestinal tract, which can help reduce some Crohn’s symptoms like bloating, gas and cramping. You can try eating smaller meals more often throughout the day, rather than two to three big meals, to help with absorption of nutrients, improving energy and controlling symptoms. 7. Drink enough fluids It’s possible to lose a high amount of fluid due to frequent diarrhea. Make sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated every day. Caffeine-free herbal tea, bone broth and kombucha are also good choices, since these not only provide water, but also electrolytes, amino acids and probiotics. 8. Avoid artificial sweeteners Research has shown that increased use of artificial sweeteners is correlated with higher rates of IBD, including Crohn’s. That means limiting or avoiding artificial sweeteners is a good idea on a Crohn’s disease diet, and truth is it’s a good rule in general to follow considering these foods are associated with GI issues, allergies, insulin and metabolic effects, cancer, cardiovascular issues, and more. Foods to eat vs. foods to avoid It’s important to note that the foods to eat on a Crohn’s disease diet and the foods to avoid on a Crohn’s disease diet aren’t necessarily beneficial for everyone. Some people may have issues with certain foods that generally are recommended for IBD patients, while others may not have issues with certain foods that typically can trigger flare-ups in many IBD patients. It’s a good idea to embark on an elimination diet to learn your own specific triggers so you can tailor your Crohn’s disease diet to your personal needs. Grains Eat: Rice and rice pasta Low-fiber cereals Oatmeal or cream of rice Plain crackers Potatoes Cornmeal and polenta Gluten-free bread Avoid/limit: Whole grains, like whole-wheat bread, bran, brown rice and quinoa (high in fiber, which may irritate the gut) Popcorn and granola Seeds and nuts in bread or grain products Rye and barley Whole-wheat pasta Fruits and vegetables Eat: Peeled and cooked vegetables (e.g., carrots, zucchini, squash, pumpkin and potatoes) Ripe, peeled fruits like bananas, melons and applesauce Canned fruits (without added sugar or preservatives) Peeled cucumbers Bell peppers Cantaloupe Avoid/limit: Raw vegetables and fruits with skins or seeds (e.g., broccoli, cabbage, berries, apple and citrus fruits) Cruciferous vegetables (e.g., cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) that may cause gas High-fiber fruits, like figs, prunes and pineapple Cauliflower Artichokes Cherries Plums and peaches Protein and meat Eat: Lean protein sources, like chicken, turkey, eggs and fish Smooth nut butters (e.g., almond butter or peanut butter) Tofu or well-cooked legumes (if tolerated) Avoid/limit: Fatty, fried or processed meats (e.g., bacon, sausage) Tough cuts of meat or meat with gristle Beans, lentils or legumes that cause gas and bloating Red meat Dark poultry meat Dairy Eat: Lactose-free dairy products (e.g., lactose-free milk, yogurt and cheese) Hard cheeses, like cheddar or Parmesan (lower in lactose) Fortified dairy alternatives, like almond, soy, flax, hemp, coconut or oat milk Fermented dairy (ideally low-fat), such as yogurt and kefir Avoid/limit: High-lactose dairy and full-fat dairy (e.g., whole milk, cream, soft cheeses) Flavored yogurts with added sugars Ice cream and milkshakes (high in fat and lactose) Butter and margarine Cream Herbs and spices Eat: Mild herbs, like parsley, basil or oregano Ginger and turmeric Chives and green onions Cumin Lemon peel Mustard Fresh herbs Avoid/limit: Spicy seasonings (e.g., chili powder, cayenne, black pepper, jalapeno) Strong condiments, like hot sauce or horseradish Allspice Garlic Onions (except green onions) Paprika Wasabi Drinks Drink: Water (essential for hydration) Herbal teas (e.g., chamomile, ginger) Electrolyte-replenishing drinks (low in sugar) Sparkling water Avoid/limit: Alcohol, especially beer, liquor and wine Caffeinated beverages (e.g., coffee, black tea, soda) Sugary drinks and carbonated beverages Crohn’s disease diet supplements 1. Probiotics Taking a daily, high-quality, live probiotic supplement — in addition to consuming probiotic foods — supports your body’s immune system and helps improve digestive function and mineral absorption. Probiotics have been shown to help people with Crohn’s disease reduce the incidence of diarrhea as well. Studies have found that people with Crohn’s often suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency and/or folate deficiency, and a good probiotic supplement encourages enhanced synthesis of B vitamins, calcium, vitamin K2 and other nutrients. Probiotics also support digestion of difficult substances, like gluten and lactose. 2. Slippery elm Slippery elm is an herbal remedy and demulcent (a substance that protects irritated tissues and promotes their healing). It contains mucilage, a substance that becomes a slick gel when mixed with water. This mucilage coats and soothes the mouth, throat, stomach and intestines, making it excellent at calming Crohn’s flare-ups. 3. Curcumin With anti-inflammatory properties, research has found that people with inflammatory bowel disease who took curcumin reduced their symptoms and their need for medicines. Various clinical studies have suggested that curcumin might be a potential candidate for the prevention and/or treatment of a variety of colonic diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and colonic cancer. 4. Glutamine Glutamine is an amino acid found in the body that helps the intestine function properly. Since it’s good for overall intestinal health, it can offer help for Crohn’s. It’s best to take glutamine on an empty stomach. 5. Omega-3 fatty acids Omega-3s, like those found in fish oil, can help fight inflammation and reduce the chances of recurrence of Crohn’s. Studies have been mixed, but some sufferers find omega-3s to be helpful. 6. Real multivitamin Because Crohn’s disease can interfere with your ability to absorb nutrients, it’s often a good idea to take a multivitamin and mineral supplement. You don’t want just any multivitamin, though. Make sure it’s a real food multivitamin that contains beneficial minerals, and avoid multivitamins with dangerous substances. If you find you’re deficient in a particular nutrient, you can also supplement with that specific nutrient. Some common nutritional deficiencies in Crohn’s patients include calcium, folate, B12, vitamin D and fat-soluble vitamins. Frankincense essential oil also helps improve digestive health and has been shown to be beneficial in reducing symptoms of Crohn’s disease as well as leaky gut syndrome, chronic colitis, ulcerative colitis and IBS. Add one to two drops of oil to eight ounces of water or to a tablespoon of honey for GI relief. If you’re going to ingest it orally, make sure it’s 100 percent pure oil, and don’t ingest fragrance or perfume oils. Other natural Crohn’s disease treatments How exactly stress plays a part in contributing to IBD is still up for debate, but experts agree that stress can trigger symptom flare-ups, worsen digestive health overall and increase the chance of experiencing complications. Of course, stress is a part of daily life, and not all stress is going to be within your control. However, there’s a lot you can do to reduce your reactions to stressful events. Regular exercise, getting adequate rest, taking time to relax, spending time outdoors and fostering supportive relationships can make a huge impact as natural stress relievers. Here are some other things to do in addition to following a Crohn’s disease diet...

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Could Our Next Superfood Be Colostrum From Cows?

AHA Publisher — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:00:22 +0000

Brian Blum via Israel21c – Here’s a riddle: What can strengthen the immune system, balance digestion and aid in brain and bone development? The answer is something most of us take for granted: breastmilk. More specifically, the colostrum “first milk” produced by the mammary glands in the first few days postpartum. Biomedical engineer Maya Ashkenazi-Otmazgin was thinking about the magical qualities of breastmilk when she had a baby four years ago. “There’s this one substance that contains all the important molecules necessary for our biological system to grow and evolve,” she tells ISRAEL21c. “Because of this milk, we are here, alive and kicking.” She wondered if the health benefits of breastmilk and colostrum could be harnessed to create a superfood that would be available to everyone – adults, athletes, the elderly… even pets. But Ashkenazi-Otmazgin didn’t envision asking mothers in the first few days of nursing to donate their colostrum. There was another source, whose proteins are 95% biosimilar to human breastmilk and is available in such abundance that 5 billion liters of it are thrown away every year around the world. Bovine colostrum. Modern dairy farms only allow a newborn calf to ingest the colostrum from its mother for a day or two before transitioning the calf to a set diet. But the mother cow produces colostrum for up to five days. That means a lot of colostrum is going to waste – some 25 to 35 liters per cow – and dairy producers can’t put it in the regular milk for both regulatory and taste reasons. “I wondered why we were not understanding the proteins inside breastmilk and trying to find bioequivalents in other sources,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. After all, “breastmilk is the ‘gold standard’ for nutrients and grownups are being deprived of one of life’s greatest resources.” Functional Milk Protein In 2018, Ashkenazi-Otmazgin teamed up with Dr. Ariel Orbach and Eli Lerner. They raised $3.2 million in seed funding to start Maolac (M.A.O. are her initials, combined with “lac” for lactose), dedicated to introducing “human functional milk proteins into new segments,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin, now the company’s CEO, says. Maolac uses the colostrum from days two to five. That ensures the calf isn’t being shortchanged for the benefit of human yogurt lovers. The Maolac team started by mapping out some 1,500 bioactive proteins in human breastmilk and then identifying the overlap with bovine colostrum. It turns out there are over 400 homologue proteins – that is, proteins containing genes similar in structure and evolutionary origin to genes in another species. “We created a smart algorithm that uses bioinformatic tools and proteomics to understand the combinations of several proteins for different indications,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. “We were then able to find the same in bovine colostrum.” Improving Nature’s Recipe Maolac tranforms the bovine colostrum into a white powder that can be added to various foods – ice cream will be among Maolac’s first products – but Ashkenazi-Otmazgin stresses that it can be added to cooked foods such as pasta without losing functionality. The additive has no discernible taste, so it won’t ruin the flavor of your fettuccini al colostrum. “We found a way to take nature’s recipe and bring it into the 21st century,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. Maolac’s business proposition is solidly win-win. If, in the past, farmers had to pay to dispose of biological waste like colostrum, Maolac flips that model and pays the farmers to take it off their hands. Food manufacturers can expect to pay around $500 per kilogram, similar to other protein supplements in the market, although Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says it takes less colostrum powder to achieve the same benefits, making the final price cheaper. Maolac’s first target audience is athletes, a $65 billion market. Because colostrum has anti-inflammatory properties, Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says consuming a food or beverage with “Maolac inside” should reduce muscle strain and improve recovery time. The same formula may also help improve mobility in the elderly. Moving beyond athletes, Ashkenazi-Otmazgin hopes Maoloc’s products will help with overall intestinal issues including IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) and leaky gut syndrome. IBD-related treatments are a $20 billion market, Ashkenazi-Otmazgin notes. “For IBD, our product is very effective even in very small doses of just a few hundred milligrams a day,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. “That makes it easy to put in an energy bar or a beverage. If we can reduce cases of inflammation in the gut, we can allow someone to return to a normal routine. You would be able to go to a restaurant and not be afraid of what could happen. It wouldn’t influence your love life. And all this is happening by helping your body through its own immune mechanism to do the healing process. It’s not done in a synthetic way.” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin contrasts the Maolac approach to probiotics, where “you’re bringing to your own microbiome things from the outside. We support the natural healing process of the digestive system.” New Sources of Protein If Maolac’s timeframe holds, the first products should hit the market in the second half of 2023. Maolac was initially supported by the Strauss Group’s The Kitchen food-tech accelerator; the company now has its own offices in Tirat HaCarmel, south of Haifa. The total amount raised by the 12-person company is just over $4 million. The latest funding round, led by OurCrowd and The Kitchen, will go to building a small-scale pilot production facility. OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved calls “the idea of transforming the first, nutrient-rich milk of cows that have just given birth into a source for human protein a stroke of pure genius.” In a world “desperately searching for new sustainable sources of protein,” he adds, “the company is a perfect example of the circular economy in action” as it turns a waste product into a valuable item. Maoloc currently has a ready-to-go product and the company is in discussions with potential customers and third-party manufacturers, Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. Plant-Based Product Planned Bovine colostrum is not the end of the Maolac story. “We can use our proteomics discovery platform to create new ingredients from plants – from fungi and algae,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says, although proteins created this way will have only 60% to 80% biosimilarity, compared with 95% for bovine colostrum. Nevertheless, “We wanted a solution for vegans. We need to respect everyone,” she says. “In the end, we will have a portfolio of products to sell to food companies, cosmetics companies, supplement companies. They will implement the ingredients in the finished product while we will do all the regulatory work and the clinical studies to prove the effectiveness and safety of each product,” Ashkenazi-Otmazgin says. For more information, click here To read the original article click here.

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