remission

what is your definition of remission? I guess the perfect remission would be 1BM per day, perfectly solid stool with no urgency/pain at any time of the day.

however going through scientific literature and from other forum discussions, it looks like remission is far more objective than I thought.

Do you consider yourself in remission with 1-2 BMs per day, liquid or semi-solid, with no pain or urgency?

I am asking because often I ready "this x diet will help achieve remission etc etc" or "corticosteroids to achieve remission etc", but remission is never specifically defined.

In some scientific papers they use the Crohn's Disease Activity Index; however the threshold that they use for the definition of remission (a score <80 if I remember correctly) STILL assumes some symptoms, even though very mild.

What is "your" remission?

My definition of remission is clinical absence of disease, i.e. no visible or microscopic sign of it on tests. For myself at any rate, I will never be able to have the 'ideal' solid 1BM x day. (I used to though. A long time ago. A long, long time ago....). My colon has gone, so even if my disease has entirely vanished - which it hasn't - I still would be having to go about 6x a day. IBS, adhesions, small bowel bacterial overgrowth, food intolerances, etc. can all cause symptoms in somebody who is in clinical remission. Likewise, if more rarely, there can be few to no symptoms in somebody who has advanced inflammation.

As far as the CDAI is concerned I agree with lamb61 that it's a crock of BS and I wish it was scrapped to be honest. You can have, if memory serves, something like 6-7 liquid BMs a day, mild or moderate (forget which one) abdominal pain, report feeling poorly and still come out as being in borderline remission. I never got high CDAI scores, but according to inflammatory markers, colonoscopies, etc. I had severe disease. Test is a joke.

I have bad IBS and I'm not in remission ¬_¬