Escherichia coli eradication

One of the most ironic moments of my life came when I was told I had Crohn's disease - an autoimmune disease. Only two years later I had started my college studies in Biochemistry, with a view to later specialising in... you guessed it, Immunology. I'd always been very interested in immunology, reading up everything I could find on the topic, so it was really... ironic when I ended up getting a so-called autoimmune disease.

I say "so-called" autoimmune disease because more and more evidence is piling up that Crohn's disease may not be an autoimmune disease after all. In other words, it's not that our immune system undergoes a pathological change, the problem is that our digestive system undergoes a pathological change which in turn tricks the immune system into attacking it. But the root cause would lie in our bowels, not our immunity.

At any rate, I'd like to hear about your experiences with antibiotics to treat Crohn's disease. More specifically, I'm referring to antibiotics that attack or eradicate invasive-adherent Escherichia coli. Have any of you used these antibiotics for a medium to long period? Did you feel any change? Did you doctors see any change?

Thank you very much.

PS: For those who are interested:

www.jci.org/articles/view/44632
www.jci.org/articles/view/46333
jem.rupress.org/content/206/10/2179
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/549397

BabeintheWoods said...
There are numerous threads here on the Crohn's forum as well as in the ulcerative colitis forum concerning antibiotics. Flagyl jump-started me into remission almost 2 years ago and have remained largely symptom free since. I feel I can control my disease largely with diet modification and probiotics.

[...]

As long as you are interested in controlling your IBD thru enhancing your immune system you may also want to search for 'vitamin D' and 'LDN'. Many here find them to be effective.

Thanks for your comment, BabeintheWoods. I already take high doses of vitamin D and have noticed a huge improvement.

Come next July I have to decide on what speciality of Immunology I will focus during the rest of my university studies, and I'm thinking of studying the potential of antibiotics, antifungals and phage therapy as a cure for Crohn's - yes, I said "cure", not "treatment".

One of my teachers, who's also a long-time researcher of IBD, believes that what we know as "Crohn's disease" is actually a cluster of several similar diseases - a bit like meningitis or heart disease, for example. I think his concept is quite sound and would like to research this with him in the future.

That's why I'm looking to know about the personal experiences who've treated their Crohn's with antibiotics against E. coli, Candida albicans or Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Post Edited (Alistair) : 1/19/2012 3:25:01 AM (GMT-7)

I began taking E coli Nissle about 2 years ago when it finally became available from a company in Canada. However last year the FDA made it unlawful to ship it here in the U.S.

I take all kinds of probiotics and did not find E Coli Nissle any more effective than VSL3, S. Boulardii, or the Lactobacillus GG in Culturelle. I am sure you will find more info by searching HealingWell forums.

Post Edited (BabeintheWoods) : 1/19/2012 1:31:48 PM (GMT-7)

This is the thread about e coli nissle:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2153438


And this thread has my post about antibiotics jump-starting my flare. The best thread about antibiotics is mentioned if you do a search for 'Hailey's letter' and is in the link above I posted earlier in this thread.

Flagyl is an antibiotic that mostly targets anaerobic bacteria. I don't know exactly what bacteria was killed in my gut, only that it worked. Most of the other posts in the thread are about triple antibiotic therapy to target MAP bacteria.

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2088679&p=5
During my last flare I was one sick puppy. Drenching night sweats, skin lesions on my arms and legs, eye inflammation, bloody diarrhea 20 times a day. I lost 5 pounds a week for 50 lbs. Crippling arthritis where I could barely climb stairs or make a fist. To cap it off I developed an abscess.

The doctor prescribed a 3 week course of Flagyl for the abscess and that jump-started me into remission. Immediately my diarrhea ended, skin lesions disappeared, my eyes went back to normal and all my arthritis disappeared. So I have no trouble believing that your combo antibiotic treatment is effective.

While I was on the Flagyl I took a probiotic yeast called saccharomyces boulardii which is immune to antibiotics. I did not want to leave any room in my gut for the bad guys like C Diff or anything else to take over again as the bacteria were dying off. When the Flagyl ended I took a diverse set of probiotics including VSL#3DS every day to maintain my remission.

Monitoring my diet and supplements like psyllium seed with probiotics seems to work for maintaining remission but I don’t know if I could have escaped my flare so quickly without taking the antibiotics.

Post Edited (BabeintheWoods) : 1/19/2012 1:55:46 PM (GMT-7)