October 5, 1999 – According to a clinical study of 20 people with Crohn’s disease, dietary changes can dramatically decrease the amount of medication needed to control the disease and even induce complete remission.
Crohn’s disease is a complex form of inflammation of the intestinal wall for which there is currently no single treatment. Conventional medical treatment consists of the use of steroids and immunosuppressive agents, some of which cause significant side reactions. It is believed to involve hypersensitivity of the immune response of colon cells to normal compounds in the intestinal flora. Diet is known to influence the nature of the gut flora, and several studies have shown that specific foods can trigger symptoms in people with Crohn’s disease.
Nutritional deficiencies are known to be common in people with this disease: deficiencies in protein, zinc, selenium and folic acid have all been identified, all of which can alter the immune response. It is also known that fish oil containing eicosapentenoic acid (EPA) helps maintain remission of Crohn’s disease and that glutamine and aloe-derived multipolysaccharides help in its healing.
In the present study, the dietary modifications were introduced gradually. The first step was to completely eliminate the grains and have a diet low in disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltose) for 30 days. If the symptoms were reduced by 50% or more, this diet was continued but supplemented with fish oil giving 875 mg per day of EPA and a multivitamin giving 400 mg of vitamin E, 20 mg of zinc, 200 micrograms. of selenium and 800 micrograms of folic acid.
If the decrease in symptoms was less than 50%, the diet was changed on an individual basis by eliminating all dairy products, reducing the amount of nutritional yeasts and monosaccharides, avoiding all nuts and nut flours, and by adding gluten-free starches like rice and potatoes. A month later, a supplement of 875 mg per day of fish oil EPA was added. If symptoms still persisted after three months, 4 g per day of aloe-derived mucopolysaccharides and 3 g per day of glutamine were added. Antimicrobial drugs were used as needed for persistent microbial infection. All patients were followed for periods varying from 6 months to 8 years (depending on the date of the start of treatment).
The results of these dietary changes led to a decrease in symptoms in all patients and six of them went into complete remission for periods ranging from 5 to 80 months (6.5 years) and stopped taking medications. One of the patients showed complete remission after just two months and has maintained it for over 3 years.
For the remaining 14 patients, the decrease in symptoms ranged from 90% to 40%. Their average drug consumption decreased from 17 to 5 mg per day for prednisone, from 100 to 30 mg per day for azathioprine and by 33% for the 5-aminosalycate (5-ASA) preparations. The mean intestinal permeability index decreased from 0.275 to 0.074.
Eleven of the patients responded to the initial specific carbohydrate diet and 9 had to add one or more of the other dietary modifications.
According to study author L. Galland, this research shows the possibility of applying current knowledge regarding the influence of dietary and nutritional factors in the integrated medical treatment of Crohn’s disease. However, more studies are needed to determine whether individualized nutritional therapy should be considered the first line treatment for Crohn’s disease in adults.
HealthPassport.net
Galland L, Nutritional therapy for Crohn’s disease: disease modifying and medication sparing. Alt Ther Health Med; 1999: 5 (2), 94-95
