Does crohns eventually "burn out"

Not an autoimmune disease?interesting..and I read the links you listed and have read quite a bit of professional data on crohns. Being a health professional,I keep up to date on current thoughts on it. From clinical information to personal experience and the course of my disease,I believe the theory of autoimmune disorder. It is a theory but so is e=mc2 which is hardly debatable.
My disease presented when I was 20 in London visiting people on a break from university. I ruptured my appendix. I have had subsequent surgeries and certainly confirmed bowel disease which resurfaced after living in India and Africa. Why did I get it when others didn't there?i have been ill for ten years..I find no rhyme or reason to my flares.

PS: If you think that Crohn's is an autoimmune disease, then why? It being a malfunction of the immune system does not imply autoimmunity. The cause, as ever, is unknown in Crohn's.

Edit: I wonder if now would be a good time for me to tiptop out of this thread and never enter it again... :-/

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 8/9/2012 12:24:48 PM (GMT-6)

The immune response is no longer considered as being directed against the body's own tissues, cells or molecules. This is an outdated notion, which was held for many years before recent research had been done.

The damage to the gut is believed to occur as a by-product of an offensive against a pathogen which is either opportunistic and/or invasive, and which is poorly regulated by an immune system which does not properly recognize the species. Hence, these days, the idea of an innate immune deficiency state, subsequently followed by an aggressive adaptive immune response, is the later model.
This newer understanding will allow better treatment regimes and is cause for optimism.

Post Edited (ambling) : 8/9/2012 1:33:26 PM (GMT-6)

Yeah well, time will tell won't it...remember how they keep jumping back and forth as to whether salt is good for you one day, then the next they say it isn't...this may be nothing more than a "name change" and I can easily see them coming full cirlcle and going back to it being a disease state characterized by a specific antibody or cell-mediated immune response against the body's own tissues when the new trail runs dry for answers...that's research for ya! It's been around for over 100 yrs and now they're possibly figuring this out...lord help us all, science sure doesn't seem as advanced as it should....you'd think it would be an easy fix, like I've heard that stem cell therapy is for many "autoimmune diseases" and I'm sure I've read somewhere that it helped CD/IBD.

It is actually far more than a "name change" in this case. The research that has been done on the functioning of immune cell receptors, in particular, is really extraordinary, and is due to improved analytical techniques. Work on understanding how the NOD receptors and TLRs work, has given many new clues as to the mechanisms involved in pattern recognition, used in immune cell recruitment.
The reason that stem cell therapy is effective is because it replaces the old immune cells with new cells that have fully functioning pattern recognition receptors - and hence the the immune system is 're-tuned' to properly identify possible pathogens.

Let's hope that the research leads to a definitive answer for us. I believe that we will have a solution within a couple of years, and that people should hang on as best they can for the time being! The work is very promising.

It isn't easy to hang on that's for sure!
I see future treatments as not requiring the complexity of development and testing that the biologics necessitated. They will simply complement the current anti-inflammatory approach (including the use of newer meds like Vedolizumab which interrupts the gut associated integrin alpha4beta7, and not the TNF-alpha pathway) with a protective approach against the cause of the disturbance.
I agree that it can't come soon enough.

I'm sick of "treatments" after 21 yrs non-stop active disease, I want a cure, not more garbage meds that I'll be allergic or nonresponsive to.

It's quite understandable to spit the dummy, especially for us long term sufferers with aggressive illness.
Nonetheless, difficult issues can and do take time and perseverance to solve. Hang in there....

Hugs to the long-term sufferers.

Agreed.

There should be some kind of long service medal for every decade we make it through without going completely troppo. :- )

good luck with the MTX.

Somedude, I highly doubt it burns out...can my luck really be that bad???? I've had this since my early 20's...I'm 45 yrs old now and my CD has been going strong all the way through...no full remission, no real descent kind of break from it in over 21 yrs now...I'm either allergic or non-responsive to the oral RX or not considered a candidate for Remi and Humira (god only knows why) and then I developed lactose intolerance AND IBS on top of my CD to boot...same crap, different piles and I'm darned sick of this disease and completely disgusted that in this day and age, not only is there still no cure, but the idiot researchers may have apparently been waisting time barking up the wrong tree...and the treatments are laughable and pathetic IMO...those side effects that are attached to those so called treatments, sound just as crappy as the disease itself.

Yeah, I'm completely pissed and have every right to be...this effin disease has been kicking my butt every day for over 2 decades, I've missed out on so much in life, even just simple things, I can't even go for walk outside for the fear of crapping my pants... it's put me through depression and anxiety and made me feel like life in general is such a waste of time when you can't even control your own poops for fear of added humiliation. And I know others have it worse and that pisses me off too.

I hate it and I'm sick of it already...enough is enough and it's getting harder all the time to try and stay hopeful and positive living like this.

pb4 said...
Somedude, I highly doubt it burns out...can my luck really be that bad???? I've had this since my early 20's...I'm 45 yrs old now and my CD has been going strong all the way through...no full remission, no real descent kind of break from it in over 21 yrs now...I'm either allergic or non-responsive to the oral RX or not considered a candidate for Remi and Humira (god only knows why) and then I developed lactose intolerance AND IBS on top of my CD to boot...same crap, different piles and I'm darned sick of this disease and completely disgusted that in this day and age, not only is there still no cure, but the idiot researchers may have apparently been waisting time barking up the wrong tree...and the treatments are laughable and pathetic IMO...those side effects that are attached to those so called treatments, sound just as crappy as the disease itself.

Yeah, I'm completely pissed and have every right to be...this effin disease has been kicking my butt every day for over 2 decades, I've missed out on so much in life, even just simple things, I can't even go for walk outside for the fear of crapping my pants... it's put me through depression and anxiety and made me feel like life in general is such a waste of time when you can't even control your own poops for fear of added humiliation. And I know others have it worse and that pisses me off too.

I hate it and I'm sick of it already...enough is enough and it's getting harder all the time to try and stay hopeful and positive living like this.

Man, I agree with what you said 110%

You're so right, I wanna break things! lol

Post Edited (Somedude) : 8/10/2012 4:11:08 PM (GMT-6)

Except, there are people that ate/drank very healthy and still ended up with an IBD and many that eat/drink crap, that still don't have an IBD....and smoking, including second-hand smoke is already considered one known trigger for IBD according to researchers (but not necessarily everyone's trigger) and many women didn't have any issues until being pregnant or shortly after having their first child, not to mention how a large number of women that have issues during their menstral cycle--- that proves that hormones also play a role in IBD for those predisoposed to getting an IBD.

I don't think simply changing your gut flora with tumeric and boswellia and even probiotics will smarten your system back up...I've given up eating anything processed/fast foods and eat only healthy natrual foods and take what is seen is my list below in my sig and here I am, still struggling with my bowels.

pb4 said...
Except, there are people that ate/drank very healthy and still ended up with an IBD and many that eat/drink crap, that still don't have an IBD....and smoking, including second-hand smoke is already considered one known trigger for IBD according to researchers (but not necessarily everyone's trigger) and many women didn't have any issues until being pregnant or shortly after having their first child, not to mention how a large number of women that have issues during their menstral cycle--- that proves that hormones also play a role in IBD for those predisoposed to getting an IBD.

I don't think simply changing your gut flora with tumeric and boswellia and even probiotics will smarten your system back up...I've given up eating anything processed/fast foods and eat only healthy natrual foods and take what is seen is my list below in my sig and here I am, still struggling with my bowels.

PB4...the problem is your eating TOO healthy now. You have to balance the fast food joints correctly with the home cooked meals that are healthy. For example, if you go to McDonalds on Monday and Burger King on Fridays, the next week you gotta change it. The next week you hit Taco Bell on Mondays, Wendy's on Thursday..otherwise you get IBD.