is crohns autoimmune or not?

all I heard was that its autoimmune. Today I had my 1st appointment w/ the head Crohns doctor in nyc. He told me its not autoimmune. PLEASE HELP

"head Crohn's doc in NYC" = what?

There's always an argument that inflammatory bowel disease is not an autoimmune disease (there's a rising theory of bacterial infection, another theory of leaky gut, etc.). What do you hope to gain by answering the question you raised? The treatment protocols available to you RIGHT NOW are focused on modulating the immune response (aside from the mesalamines, which treat the inflammation locally).

Define "auto-immune" precisely, then we'll go from there.

What does that have to do with the autoimmune theory?

Some people do well with this kind of abx approach, others do not.

The way it has been explained to me, as I find it difficult to understand medical talk, is that it is auto-immune, its where your intestines (or which ever part is infected) is for an unknown reason healing its self so much it's actually killing it's self, like over exercising to beat obesity and becoming anorexic if that makes any sense or helps at all

gumby44 said...
My understanding is that the current thinking is that Crohn's is caused by a dysregulation of the immune system from environmental, bacterial and genetic causes. Apparently it is not the same mechanism as MS or other auto-immune syndromes. I'm para-phrasing...I'm sure you can get exact language from ccfa.org. Regardless, it doesn't change the current treatments. I hope that helps

Of all the theories I've heard this makes the most sense to me. If it were simple we'd know for sure already.

I've read IBD generally classified as immune-mediated diseases in the research more than being true autoimmune disease. I'd say that's probably the most accurate description. The difference is that in autoimmune disease, the immune system is definitely attacking a certain component of your own tissues. In immune-mediated disease, the immune system is involved, but it may not be aiming for the body's own tissues and more of a result of a dysregulated immune system. The search for a specific antigen has not been fruitful throughout the history of IBD research, so if that is ever found, we'll know for sure.