Can diet HEAL/CURE Crohns?

Hi all…. I was hoping some of you would kindly read through my wall of text below and give me your thoughts. Even though I haven't posted here before, I have been suffering Crohn's a long time. (25 years) Through the years I've tried various so-called remedies, taken plenty of different drugs, had surgery, and generally tried to figure out this disease and it's "moodiness" with little success. I’m at the point now where I almost automatically dismiss people when they say they have a so called cure or miracle treatment. I’ve been burned many times in the past by false promises, and I have no patience for BS anymore.

So recently my parents met this nutritionist who states that he can cure my Crohns through diet. I begrudgingly agreed to meet this guy only because my parents offered to pay. So I met with this guy and he is convinced that I can be cured by eating what he calls “real food”. Now let me say I by NO MEANS eat the healthiest foods. This is partly because in my own personal observations I haven’t noticed much correlation to my diet and how active my Crohns is. There are only just a few things that seem bother me (popcorn, lots of dairy, lots of sugar, stress) outside that my Crohns seems to flare or do whatever, whenever.

Despite this I agreed to try this diet and see what happens. So, for the past 2 weeks I’ve been eating basically a very paleo-like diet. Eggs, chicken, certain green veggies, no breads, no dairy, no sugars, etc. I haven’t noticed ANY change in the way I feel so far. I still have minor pain. I still have blood. I still am tired. This guy claimed that I would notice a “big difference” in 2 weeks….

….Well, so far I haven’t, and I am pretty disappointed. I told him I have very little patience for doing this, but he yesterday he pleaded with me to give it another week. So, reluctantly, I agreed (I’m a sucker) and am still on this diet.

Ironically I had asked my doctor a couple months ago if diet could help treat or cure and she immediately said “NO”. While I am no fan of pumping myself full of pharmaceuticals, I don’t want to unnecessarily deny myself from foods I love on a pointless effort.

So… my questions to you if you made it this far… is this guy full of it, or could he be for real? Maybe I’m not giving it enough time? Does anyone know how this stupid disease works? I don’t know who to believe anymore, but my gut tells me (pun intended!) that this diet will not work for me.

The nutritionist probably doesn't know the first thing about Crohn's - most people don't. The very fact that he uses the word "cure" and not "treatment" suggests to me he's full of it.

That said, there is some evidence that diet can help, particularly children with small bowel disease. But if you were one of the people diet could help you should be seeing some sort of improvement by now. I tried various diets and saw no improvement, including a very strict liquid elemental diet.

Another thing to remember is that in some cases, a strict diet appears to be working, but in reality the disease is still doing its thing with minimal symptoms. People have got caught out with bowel obstructions before now, thinking they were doing well.

I'd go with your gut instinct on this one. Give it a few more weeks to be absolutely certain if you like, but I wouldn't torture yourself over it.

I went to a lot of 'nutritionists' when I was a kid just to make my parents feel better.
Parents will do whatever it takes for their kids to not be sick, even go to faith healers.
I would go and let them try to use their energy to fix me, but as soon as they started talking about making me do enemas, I WAS SO OUT OF THERE!
After being sick for a year, getting diagnosed, recovering on meds for a year, I went off all meds and was able to live relatively fine.
My parents kept telling me I was misdiagnosed, partly out of wishful thinking, but mostly because they saw me eating good.
The disease was just tearing me apart from the inside out and it took a considerable amount of stress (grad school) to weaken me and allow it to attack me again, only this time it was more severe with abscesses and fistulas.

How you feel after you eat is not truly indicative of what's going on in your insides.
aka just because you can eat some pizza, doesn't mean you aren't sick.

"Parents will do whatever it takes for their kids to not be sick, even go to faith healers" - I experienced this over the course of 10 years of illness.

My step mom is a Naturopath and a little ummm 'out there' at times. I think I have tried just about every treatment available this way because they were always free from her or her friends. She/they were certain I could be cured - essentially the same story as this guy says about one leading to the other... Some of the more funky treatments aside from a bunch or different diet attempts:

Energy healing machine- hooked up to some weird machine that scans brainwaves and tells you what's wrong... the machine said I had a virus. Was given a few bottles of some drops to take which were water by my guess.. however they sell for like $25 a bottle. They did nothing, but in fairness I stuck with it for three weeks.

Distance Healing - was dragged to a seminar with some kid that had 'powers' to look at you and tell you what was wrong by 'reading you somehow'. He must have been about 18 years old. Everyone swore by him and his abilities... that didn't last long.

Distance picture healing - send your picture to some healer guy in Peru... that went no where

Energy grounding... grounding yourself electrically to the earth via a few gadgets.

Reki - Was sent to three 'Reki Masters'... not sure how you spell that. That went no where fast.

Aura Healers... same story. No where fast.

There's lot's more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

The best however and I would do daily if money allowed where seeing an osteopath (like a chiropractor but extremely gentle), acupuncture and yoga. The common theme with these three is 'relaxing'... these work wonders if you can do them a few times a week, otherwise there is no effect - or at least for me. I had to pay for these three myself, and would gladly do so in the future if it were feasible. The osteopath was by far the best of the three in my opinion. Also they had no effect on the disease itself, but they lessened the pain and uncomfortableness dramatically.

I agree whole heartedly with gypsy's pizza comment. I went off meds a few times due to feeling better (from the actual meds) and eventually ended up with a complex fistula and massive flare despite all of the above and more.

PS - I am however very thankful to have had the ability to at least try some of these whacky things... which is far more than many on here are able to do. Also I am of course thankful to have someone that cares enough to arrange for them.

While a change in diet may very well ease symptoms for a period of time, no change in diet will stop chemical processes within the body such as the over-production of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-a) which is a know cause of Crohn's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, etc....
Nor will ANY diet change the genotype of certain genes associated with Crohn's Disease such as NOD2 & CARD15.
Also, a period of remission is not a CURE, it is just a period of remission.
I have spent thousands of $ on alternative practitioners, herbalists, mentalists, acupuncturists, Chinese healers and “anti inflammatory” supplements and foods. Nothing helped my condition and almost EVERYTHING I tried gave me more dria and terrible gas/cramps.
Not until I started Humira, my condition improved.

Post Edited (exit 4) : 10/6/2015 11:04:27 PM (GMT-6)

Canada Mark and exit 4:

There is a lot to learn from your experiences with alternative medicines. Ayurveda or Homeopathy or diet modulation does not seem to work for me. You eat or do not eat or go on various diets, you get pain or disease. It is just that it is best to avoid certain foods if you know that they cause you more pain.

Only medicines can keep the disease under control.

Yeah, now that I think about it he may have said IBS. Sorry about that, but it doesn't really change things much. One of the things he mentioned is that he believes that ALL diseases are caused by food... that the reason we have an increase in illnesses in modern society is due to poor diet.

This statement and others he mentioned put up red flags in my mind and kind of ruined his credibility, even if food could help somewhat. But he didn't just say it would help, he said it would essentially cure the disease, meaning the body would heal itself when away from the destructive foods.

I suppose then I would have to stay on this diet forever because we didn't really talk about what happens if I happen to improve. but so far I have been unimpressed with the results, and if the trend continues I will probably call it quits on Monday.

I'm currently following the dietary pathway, but for me no 'real' foods could get my inflammation down - I needed medically prescribed elemental diets to set me on the right path.

I then followed a LOFFLEX diet, then gradually adding in foods one by one, and that's where I am now, with no other medication (you can find out more here: http://www.crohns.org.uk/crohns_disease/nutritional_therapy/the-dietary-treatment-of-crohns-disease).

Diet does matter, but there's no 'one size fits all' diet. It's just the case of finding out which trigger foods you react to - making the final diet bespoke to each individual.

bahubali....If your biopsies were negative for Crohn's, and you had the appropriate scopes and tests, then you probably do not have Crohn's disease. You might want to experiment with your diet and try heartburn medication to yelp you with those symptoms. Check out the IBS...irritable bowel syndrome site for more ideas and information.