Progression of Crohns almost to the point of resection, then a miracle!

July 2012, after what seemed like a 10 year seesaw battle with Crohns (good days and bad days) my Crohns began to make a turn for the worse. July 2012 we went on a family trip in our motorhome for three weeks. I was the driver and some days drove for 16 hours and fell asleep after a few beers. I noticed my crohns getting worse but figured it was due to fatigue and thought that once I was home again things would go back to normal. Once home things continued to get worse. By October things were pretty bad and I had a trip to China. I took many crohns pills with me to help make my trip less painful. Things worsened. In November I had a colonoscopy scheduled but after taking the prep I vomited very violently and had to cancel the colonoscopy. My gut continued to worsen and by January 2013 I found myself in emerg with sharp pain in my gut. Ultrasounds and an MRI revealed massive irritation in my ileum and another colonoscopy was scheduled, I was put on 15mg of steroids. This time I made it through the prep and the colonoscopy revealed my ileum was in very bad shape and a resection would be required. First my GI wanted to try a new study drug that seemed to be effective. I was on the study drug for a few weeks and then the study was pulled. My doctor asked me what I wanted to do. At the time I had heard that Marijuana could be effective for crohns so I decided to try it. The first dose I was impressed how the pain went away and my appetite increased. Although this seemed to help it was temporary relief. I started studying this treatment and found a way to extract the medicine so I would not have to smoke it. After extracting the medicine I began to take a grain of rice size of medicine before bed. I also took over the counter sleeping pills every night. Well I went from having very poor sleep (crohns made me a light sleeper) to getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep a day. I felt I was improving but it was difficult to assess. After one month there was a definite improvement. I went from Diarrhea 15 to 20 times a day to 2 bowel movements a day. I noticed my stool sometimes would be normal. I was still getting bloating pain and often had to wear stretchy pants or would undo my belt to relieve the pressure. I talked to a friend that has ACL which is another immune disorder. It was interesting because some of the things we both had problems with. Both of us stopped eating beans because it seemed to make our diseases worse. He mentioned sugar bothered his gut and I tried removing sugar from my diet and found the bloating stopped. Then he said something that changed my crohns. He said the adrenal gland regulates our immune system. The adrenal gland stores half the bodies vitamin C and it produces steroids. As a crohns patient I knew that steroids reduce the bodies immune system and of course Vitamin C boosts the bodies immune system so it seems plausable that the adrenal gland malfunctioning could cause my disease. I went to a nutrition store and asked if they have anything that helps the adrenal gland be healthy. They gave me a bottle of Adrenal Surrenale which contains raw adrenal concentrate and peppermint extract. While I was there I asked if they had any licorice root extract, which they had.
I will recap what the different drugs do. Marijuana provides pain relief, helps improve sleep, reduces inflammation and is an immune suppressant. Steroids reduce inflammation and is an immune suppressant. The adrenal supplement helps keep the adrenal gland healthy. The licorice root extract increases the slime in the digestive tract and thickens the digestive wall.
When I chew a licorice root pill my saliva increases, I notice my nasal passages clearing. This happens the first 5 minutes from chewing to swallowing the pill.
Stopped drinking alcohol since it thins the digestive tract.

Here are the results.

Now I have 50% normal bowel movements twice a day, normal being fully formed stool, the balance being loose stool.
Bloating has completely disappeared.
I used to regurgitate my food often and sometime even hours after eating. This no longer occurs.
Joint pain is completely gone.
I notice that I burp, something I have not done in years.
Before I could not eat fried foods, now I am able to eat them.
A resection is no longer needed
No longer feel depressed and in fact now feel very hopeful
Steroids are being reduced and now am taking 2.5mg per day



Conclusion: Getting 8 to 9 hours sleep a day definitely helps thanks to MJ and sleep pills. I believe the licorice root is making my digestive tract stronger. The adrenal supplement seems to be helping my adrenal gland function better.

I feel better and all of my friends say they notice a big difference in my energy levels.

Once I am off the steroids the MJ will be tapered. I will keep taking the licorice root and adrenal supplement but will eventually taper them last.

I will update this post as the tapers progress.

I now believe that Crohns Disease is a reaction to our adrenal gland not functioning properly. It makes sense that Crohns and other autoimmune disorders cannot be defined since every persons bodies have different weaknesses. An over active immune system will always exploit the weaknesses first. In other words every persons bodies are different and therefore auto immune disorders affect every person in a different way.

Matthew, how long did it take for you to notice a difference form the licorice root and the adrenal aurrenale? And did you notice any side effects similar to those of prednisone?

Can we get an update from Matthew?

Can licorice root be used with the specific carbohydrate diet you think?

deucewarrior said...
Can licorice root be used with the specific carbohydrate diet you think?

I am not qualified to answer this question.

This week 2.5mg steroids one day and 0mg steroids the next day. Things are progressing very well and on Monday I will be finished with steroids.

This week I have been getting lots of sleep, it seems I cannot get enough, last night I slept 10.5 hours. I believe this is caused by the reduction of steroids.

Monday I will begin to taper the MJ to avoid diarrhea issues.

I believe crohns is in complete remission. I would love to be scoped for medical proof the crohns is completely in remission, unfortunately my GI will only scope every 5 years so it will take 4 years for this to happen.

My GI is amazed at the results but he believes once I taper the MJ the crohns will become active again. We will find out shortly.

I have finished tapering the steroids as of Sunday with no reprocussions. Now I am tapering the MJ, I think it will take 2 weeks and will post after the taper.

On a side note, for over 10 years I have not been able to eat any fried foods without running to the toilet. I have experimented with chips and french fries and have had no issues.

Steroids and MJ have been successfully tapered, last week I finished tapering the MJ. I am currently still taking Tecta. Today I am leaving for Mexico for a week so will wait to taper Tecta upon my return. Bowels are doing great. I get the odd bloating but over all I am far better then in the past and every day it seems I am a little better. The bloating feeling I get usually is right before a bowel movement. Recently I had some unrelated pain that kept me up during the night, for 9 days straight I was only able to sleep for 3 - 5 hours, I refused to take anything for sleep. Normally this would have spelled disaster and a certain progression to a crohns flare but I am happy to say that nothing happened with my bowels, this further convinces me that my bowels are past crohns.

A year ago I was in a full flare to the point of impending resection. Today my doctor cannot believe the change, he just shakes his head when I have my appointments. A year ago my doctor could do nothing to help put my crohns into remission. Thankfully I took advice of friends and tried MJ and then discovered ways to make my adrenal gland healthy. Camomile tea has become my constant drink of choice and other small changes that aid my adrenal gland have made all the difference in the world.

I am so happy these days, I was so dark a year ago. What a change, I thank God for creating the plants that can heal us, and friends that cared enough to suggest an alternative cure.


I will come back to this post to answer any questions, or will come back if there are any changes in my status.


Thank you forum for being here. I hope my post helps all those with Crohns push it into remission.


Matthew

My doctor just shakes his head when he sees me. I will ask him in the near future about a colonoscopy. Here is my latest update. Everything has been going very well. I had tapered completely off my MJ before my trip to Mexico. While in Mexico the first few days I had some issues but they went away, I may have caught a bug on the plane as the issues really didn't seem like crohns. Coming home I was back in the rat race. First working at a 5 day trade show, then trying to keep up with the onslaught of orders. Two nights in a row I had very little sleep due to working so late, in fact I had 6 hours sleep in total for 2 nights. This did not bode well for my gut and I was rewarded with pain. I didn't want to take a high dose of MJ so I smoked it instead and this immediately stop the pain. Pain lasted for two days and then was gone.

I continue to take the licorice root and the adrenal gland fortifier.