the silver bullet

I have been diagnosed with having Crohn's for more than 12 years now. I have had symptoms of it though for a total of 14-15 years.

I keep looking at a better way to treat this. I currently am supposed to take Imuran 125mg/day. I actually take 50mg a few times a week at most. I consider myself lucky. No surgery yet, and I'm keeping everything at bay with very few flare ups with this amount only.

I am a professional in the medical/health field, but I've come to the conclusion that even though my history of medications taken have helped me and quality of life to be far beyond what it would have been without their help, I keep thinking there has to be something better. There are too many holes in the knowledge gained thus far about Crohn's and its treatment alternatives.

But I keep looking at holistic approaches hoping something will help. Has anyone else heard of the study published in or around the year 2000 talking about Human Growth Hormone helping Crohn's just as much as medication? In the study it did not cure everyone, but many had a huge improvement. I would think more research on this would be appropriate, especially since most of us have to take Prednisone here and again and so we may not be producing even the appropriate amount of HGH.

Does anyone know if there has been any new research since that original study? The ensuing results? Or is there anything else we can do so we can get off of meds?

Is there a silver bullet?

Donovan

My silver bullet has been the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). It put my crohn's into remission for the first time in 15 years. I'm still on a quest to figure out my fatigue (all signs seem to point to thyroid), but other then that, I feel really good .

thanks everyone, I hope we continue to get more ideas on this post. thank you all of you for responding. I' almost 35, i'm 34 years old and began symptoms at 19-20 yrs of age; diagnosed a couple years later. I know, well, I feel lucky when I see how my level of disease activity is compared to many others. I was told at 26 yrs of age I was moderate to severe with my disease progression. That is when I was put on 125mg of Imuran and I took it religiously for years. I also started looking into diet regimen and really cutting out things completely from my diet. Since I began taking that seriously every colonoscopy has been perfect; in the last one it was with a new doctor, I had to change when moving, and he told me if I hadn't told him I have Crohn's he would have had no idea when doing the colonoscopy; he said I looked 100% healthy.

That made me a believer in what I had done by making a complete modification to my diet. I want to take it further though and try to do this medication-free.

Thank you for bringing up that my amounts are insignificant to many others, I do feel blessed that way, I just want to try to heal it even more. There is more to this disease than what we currently know. You can tell by reading the research, and you can tell by what you are told about the disease from physicians and how it can sometimes contrast greatly to what you are experiencing as a Crohn's disease winner.

Anyways, i will look into the diets more that ya'll brought up.

BTW, my old doc before I moved was doing a research study on worms. He wanted me to participate but I turned him down, couldn't stand the thought. But, I would try it before surgery.

Thanks everyone!