My thoughts on a possible cause of IBD.

Too. Many. Acronyms. What are MRPs for example?

Anyway, I would disagree that the timeline fits well, at least for cooking foods. Sugar, perhaps, although even there sugar consumption has probably been high for longer than 50 years. (For Britons at least, there would have been a break of a decade from high sugar consumpation due to the 2nd world war and postwar rationing. It would be interesting to see if rates of IBD went down during that time.) But cooking? I am sceptical, since we have been roasting meat ever since we learnt how to make fire.

Also, UC starts distally, Crohn's starts proximally (in the colon, that is). Why does UC and Crohn's have such strong preferences for quite precise locations of the GI tract? Crohn's, in particular, can attack literally any area of the GI tract and yet rarely does so, preferring to stick to the terminal ileum and right hand side of the colon.

And finally, some cases of IBD are much more amenable to treatment by diet than others for reasons as of yet entirely unknown.

I suppose the long story short is, I don't know enough to strongly agree or disagree. There are too many questions raised.

Hmmm, well, I will say it is a bit confusing, but yes I agree that foods play a huge role in the downward spiral of our state of health. I have never heard of MRP's but I am one of the believers that as a society we consume way too many dairy products and the combination of anti-biotic and hormone therapy in the cows, the grain based feed that is fed to the cows has only made dairy more dangerous to consume. And the same goes for eating the meat from all of the grain fed animals, their meat is toxic and lacking the healthy fats that we would get from pastured and free range animals.

I am a bit of a loon when it comes to using the microwave, someone told me it changes the DNA of our food I read a looney post that said that it was studied in Russia and they have banned the use of microwaves there. I do not know if that is fact or someone making stuff up. Around my 10th CT scan I asked my surgeon about the risk of cancer from CT scans and he told me that each one changes your DNA a little bit. So just in the off chance the microwave is changing the DNA in my food enough that my body might not know it is food I cannot make myself eat anything that comes out of the microwave lol. and I cringe when my husband or children use it. Even though I realize that it is more than likely false.

I have been thinking about the importation of foods lately and have not read anything to relate to my thinking (can't say I have tried). However, what I have been wondering is if biologically we should be eating certain foods only when they are available? like citrus fruits are high in vitamin C and are proven to ward off things like the cold and flu, they are ripe during the winter season when cold and flu is at it's peak. In the winter, should I be eating the carrots, peas and potatoes that are grown locally and readily available for some biological reason, rather than something imported from Chili that would not be ripe in my region until July? Or even freezing my summer vegetables for use when my garden is not producing them? Is this possibly a reason that certain diseases are more prominent in certain ethnicities, such as crohns where it is common in people of Jewish decent? Did some major shift occur in their dietary habits? is it also more prevalent in their area of origin or only in other countries? Is it merely a shift towards the western diet, or are we genetically supposed to eat specific foods? Like cows are not naturally meant to eat corn, if you take a cow out of a pasture and feed it strictly corn it will die a horrific painful death in a short period of time, but it can be adapted slowly to a corn diet, but then other problems ensue like E-coli, which btw is not present in grass fed Beef, MAPS, the fact that if the cow is not slaughtered it will develop tumors and cancer and will die.

I haven't studied UC in general mostly only as the studies apply to both UC and CD but what I have found is that in UC the body does actually seem to attack itself, in some forms it attacks the cell membranes or develops an anti-body to a protein that I think was found in genes and those markers I believe were UC specific. Crohns on the otherhand seems to originate more like celiacs where the villi is damaged in the lower end of the small intestine. Celiacs villi can be restored by restricting gluten, and I would assume that CD patients intestines can heal by elimination of their specific intolerances. However, just bc CD is manifested in a different way doesn't mean that it is not cause in part by the same perversions or changes of our food system and habits. I think the higher instance of all cancers, auto immune diseases, lupus, MS, IBD, even autism is in some way related to our foods but only manifests differently. And this can be supported on some level by the success that some diets can have on these diseases.

I wish it was a simple answer.

Mmmmm, love a good char on my steak, I love the cruchy fat, I let the grill flame up so it is nice and char-grilled on the outside and plenty pink in the middle. What about browning meat in a skillet? I get it extra brown on the bottom of the skillet for more flavor. That is disappointing that it is harmful. I looked into MAP, and came to the conclusion that it might be an issue/cause for some but far from all.

I mentioned epigenetics,and am well aware of genetic components.

Not here to argue genetics, but believe the above is primmary to many epigenetic changes.
It is not all genetics, check into concordance/discordance of IBD in identical twins.
Old Mike

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 4/28/2013 7:40:52 AM (GMT-6)