Fatigue and Crohns

My son was diagnosed with JRA about 4 years ago and most recently dianosed with Crohns 3 months ago.  The doctor switched his meds from enbrel to humira to deal with both the arthritis and crohns.  My son, 16 years old, is more fatigued than he was on the enbrel.  Do some of you suffer from fatigue with Crohns?  If so, do you take anything for it or just try to rest more often?  The fatigue can get pretty bad for him.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply.  He is deficient in Vit D and is now taking a supplement.  We go to see the GI doctor on Thursday so I will ask more at that point.  What things in the diet help and what should be avoided? 

softballfan, I just left my GI an hour ago, he is one of the 2 in my area so they are open late, and I had asked him what foods I should avoid, because it seems that no certain foods seem to effect my crohn's.... except corn. But anyways he had told me there had been many studies done on this subject, and it all varies from person to person. If you have diarrhea, stay away from dairy is all he said, all the rest is trial and error. I hope that helps some. You can try to google crohn's diet and you will get all kinds of different answers, but as I have found, Trial and error is the only way to find out. Corn for me is terrible because your body don't digest it anyways, and that being said, my colon (large intestine) is so bad that if remicade does not work, they want to remove part of it.

Hi Softballfan! My 19 year old son was diagnosed 2 years ago and one of his most major symptoms has been fatigue. Prior to his diagnosis he would regularly fall asleep in class (even in choir) and as soon as he would get in the car he would be out. The first year he was off and on Prednisone and Imuran. He then went on Remicade and that lasted almost a year and a half until he built up antibodies. He now started Humira about 5 weeks ago and throughout all these treatments he has battled fatigue. At times his energy level has increased but never to the point that he felt he could do what most 19 year olds can. It is probably the thing that bothers him the most about this disease. He has learned over time to take advantage of those times he is feeling more energetic and to just rest when he can't push himself anymore. He is on Ferrex, an iron supplement at all times and we are now trying B-12 injections to see if they may help. I hope this is of some help. The thing that is curious to me is that often physicians and literature about this disease fail to discuss the fatigue element and from this forum it is apparent that many Crohns patients suffer significantly from it's effects.

Fatigue can be just from the immune system fighting gut bacteria. The bacteria that are killed release endotoxins. These are responsible for the fatigue - it is just like having a bacterial infection or flu without the fever/sore throat/congestion, just the malaise. Endotoxins deplete iron too, so a supplement might help a bit, but iron can be very irritating to a raw gut, so you should try a form that is more absorbable like ferrous ascorbate or citrate. B12 might be a problem too, since the factors for absorbing it can be lost if there is prolonged gut irritation.

Diet is another question - there is the possibility that avoiding gluten will help. Then there is the Specific Carbohydrate diet or The Maker's diet. It seems to me that there will be foods that will be trouble that are permitted by any given diet and forbidden foods that can be tolerated by some people, or in small amounts. Unfortunately, eating a food that is trouble does not cause the trouble for several hours after eating it. It can be hard to sort out who the culprit is. That is the reason for a food diary as suggested by LMills.