A wild guess that baking soda might help Crohn's

I usually hang out in the UC forum,but during my mucus research on UC I ran across this paper.

It is my understanding that in Crohn's disease the mucus is thicker than
normal. From this paper ion transporters control the viscosity/expansion of the mucus in the small intestine. It seems the way the mucus is supposed to work in the small intestine is to volume expand and flush the bacteria out of the crypts,if this does not happen then the bacteria can stay in the crypts. If the bacteria stay in the crypts

and invade, then perhaps inflammation results
The volume expansion is controlled by calcium ion, when bicarbonate is secreted into the mucus this chelates the calcium and the mucus expands and looses viscosity and then can flush bacteria. EDTA may also work in this manner.

Whether oral bicarbonate will raise intestine bicarbonate ion or blood bicarbonate ion not sure,but it will change urine pH,so something is going on.
Probably best to take baking soda between meals so there is low hydrochloric acid in the stomach. 1/2 teaspoon total a day is probably a safe level,you do not want the urine pH too high for too long 1/4 teaspoon even safer.
Like I said its a wild guess,the paper is huge but compelling as to the mechanism of mucus expansion. It takes a little while to load.
Another way to perhaps increase alkalinity in the body is with an alkaline diet.

Of course the mucus in crohn's might be defective in other ways and this will not work.

In the colon must have a thick inner mucus layer and a expanded outer layer,so this is slightly different

than what goes on in the small intestine.
Old Mike


https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/207...77_28487_1.pdf

also seems that crohns and CF are associated

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2856836/

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 9/30/2013 5:05:07 PM (GMT-6)

Hard to know PB4, I believe both crohns and UC are a mucus problem.
Crohns the mucus to thick or shall we say not expanded to flush the bacteria from the crypts.
While UC the inner mucus to thin or easily penetrated or not sufficiently expanded either,not to sure on that.
Take smoking,it makes crohns worse and helps UC.
Besides any immune modulation what else is going on.
Smoke makes mucus thicker,so seems like a direct effect bad for crohns and good for UC.
Is it that simple,probably not but, but the physical effects seem to be directly correlated with both
diseases.
Another thing is mucus breachers,small particles in the diet,PEG/polyethylene glycol in foods and toothpaste,aglinates in food,and plain old emuslifiers, which I believe would tend to hit the small intestine worse,then we have the wrong bile acids from eating too much of the wrong fats, causing SRB blooms in UC,possibly eating the sulfomucins in the mucus. Enough to drive you crazy.
OM