Borderlyme, I do not want to be the damp rag here but I have been dealing with mild crohns, like you, for four years now and I can tell you as well as any other crohns sufferer ( check out crohns boards or FB crohns groups) that diet will not help in crohns patients. I bought Breaking the vicious cycle three years ago and attempted it, because like you I did not want to use the drugs. I was told by doctors as well as other crohns patients that I was taking my life into my own hands by not using the drugs and attempting diets that have been studied and have shown to have no effect on crohns. However, these diets can work miracles for ulcerative colitis patients (but that is because UC is considered to be caused by something infectious as opposed to crohns which is caused by the immune system going haywire). Anyway, I did the diet faithfully along with other diets at different times like the anti-inflammatory diet, the Paleo diet, the MAPS diet and I know there was another one too but I can't remember it now. Anyway, many of the diets made me much sicker as most crohns patients will tell you. I thought I was going to die after three weeks on the SCD diet, which is the one from the book you are talking about
. I wound up in the hospital filling the toilet with blood. At that point I had no choice but to go on Humira, which made very sick too but stopped the bleeding, they then switched me to Remicade which also I reacted to. after one month in the hospital, and several toxic drugs I came home on steroids which brought my crohns back under control. I now follow a strict diet of no soy, dairy, gluten, processed foods, and sugars. It is not a specific diet and I still have to eliminate certain foods like night shade veggies and broccoli because they are detrimental to my crohns, but that is just me. Each of us are different in what we can and cannot tolerate. There are many that cannot tolerate any veggies even cooked and others that - that is all they can eat. However the one given for all of us is NO processed foods.
I have been dealing with a naturopath doctor for two years now and he is the one that has helped me get my crohns back to a point of it being mild, but we did an elimination diet and then added juicing. Because of this I have been able to keep my steroids down to 5mg. a day (which is a maintenance dose) and my crohns was considered mild again. Then I got the tick bite and everything went to hell in a hand basket with encephalitis and my GI tract, but we do not know yet if it is my crohns or if it is the infection. I am waiting to hear from GI doc about
going back in and doing a colonoscopy to look to see what is going on. I am scared because I do not know how they are going to treat crohns if it is out of control while I am dealing with Lyme and its co-infections.
So, what I want to say to you is please be very careful when attempting any set diet, they are not good for crohns patients. If you start feeling un-well, or developing more pain or nausea quit the diet right away, do not think "oh I just have to get through this and then it will get better" because that is not the case and you could turn your mild crohns into a life threatening case. If you do not have a naturopath doctor I would suggest getting one to help you through this. Mine was the best thing I could do for myself and he works with my GI doctor too. Like I said every crohns patients is different and we all react differently to different foods, drugs, etc.. so you need to figure out what your triggers are and do not rely on a set diet to do that for you because it could be the biggest mistake you make. Also juicing is a great help to make sure you get all your vitamins without inflaming your gut. The elimination diet may also help to control your hashimoto's too, which a lot of crohns people also suffer from.
I hope you get your crohns and Hashimotos under control too. Thank you
Post Edited (Sick4real) : 5/26/2015 10:34:24 AM (GMT-6)