IBD Research: Where We Are Today

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/too+much+sugar+may+make+you+stupid+us+study/6442642383/story.html

Though many (admitedly not all) of us have worse UC when exposed to sugar, its even more insidious toxic effect may be that it is a superfuel for cancer cells. The 60 Minutes piece by sanjay gupta was pretty good, I must say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2mSPIjDm1w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

@pb4 - I raise you: low-carb diets may make you stupid as well >_>

Seriously, though, the study that article referenced wasn't really what I was thinking of. It was kind of interesting, but it was talking about cognitive decline in rats (and how such fructose-induced decline can be counteracted by omega-3 fatty acids). That's got nothing to do with the inflammatory effects of sugar that every health blog on the internet goes on about.

@quincy - Sweets don't make my Crohn's any worse either. On average I probably have about one chocolate bar a day (or equivalent). Last week, I had a day where, apart from dinner, I ate nothing but chocolate related things. Now that's not normal for me, but instead of feeling rubbish, I felt better than usual if anything.

I did struggle quite hard to curb my sweet tooth a couple of years ago, but my 'victories' were short-lived and my longing for sugary treats at certain times of the day did not disappear. Mentally, I seem to fare better by simply having a chocolate bar or a packet of sweets and not worrying about it.

Well, with me it's more a case of: everything I eat affects me, so it doesn't matter (within reason) what I eat. The only thing I found to make any difference was reducing the amount I ate. So I ended up on 1000 calories a day and underweight. Then late last year I developed a stricture and ended up in hospital a few times due to obstructions. I was on a full/partial liquid diet for months; but because Fortisips are so calorific, I actually ended up putting some weight back on. And now I'm back to eating a fully solid diet. Not counting calories, but it's probably 1500-2000 calories a day.

By the way, I'm probably weird in that I don't really care about diarrhoea, so I have never tried to avoided that. I still have it, though not as frequently as I used to. The symptoms which got to me the most were the fatigue (especially the mental fatigue), the low-grade (occasionally high) fevers, and the chronic stomach discomfort/pain lasting until well into the early hours of the morning.

PS: @Probiotic - Is it seriously that bad if you have one square of chocolate? Do you have any symptoms when you eat your safe foods, whatever they are? Would you consider yourself in remission at the moment? Sorry for the questions; since I don't have any extreme reactions to anything, I find it interesting that others do. Admittedly I would probably cut out chocolate permanently if I had that bad a reaction to it, though.

Hope the Pred knocks the remission on the head. I can understand why people hate Pred, but it does work.

I've been fairly lucky with diarrhoea, in the sense it's never interfered with my life a great deal. I tend to go mainly in the evenings/nights. And urgency has only been an occasional issue for me. I do know how socially destructive diarrhoea can be for some people and I am grateful to have avoided 95% of that. But, as you say, we all suffer in our own private worlds =/ In recent years - particularly the last one - I've become obsessed with how bad my stomach feels most of the time. Some of the symptoms are probably due to a stricture (I hope), which can be removed (I hope). But yeah, that has had an impact on the physical things I do, like walking or playing with my nephews, and I can't stand that. Good news is it has become a bit better in the last couple of weeks, so I'm trying to build on that.

So you had a 10-year remission and could eat everything during that?? Wow, it must suck pretty badly to go from that to not being able to have the smallest treat :-/ I suppose it's good in one sense to know so clearly what triggers your symptoms. And also, of course, you might have another 10 year remission! Still, I think I would struggle with that all the same. Well, I know I would struggle; it's why I put off diets like the SCD indefinitely.

Sugar is poison, that much is clear. Anyone who argues otherwise is either addicted to it, or delusional.
Get off sugar people!

NiceCupOfTea said...
lolzers, I just had a smashing bowl of Chocobits for lunch :p

I'll get off sugar the day I see people start keeling over and dying from eating a bar of chocolate. In the meantime, you might want to consider that humans are living longer than ever, despite eating sugar, processed foods, and all the other things which are meant to be so bad for us.

Your logic is questionable. Do you see people keeling over after they smoke their cigarettes? No, it takes years of smoking to produce cancers. And some people never get cancer from smoking. Does that mean smoking is harmless because you can't see inside their bodies? I feel that way about massive amounts of sugar.

As far as humans living longer there is current research on obesity rates in younger humans that suggest that their generation may reverse the longevity trend and live shorter lives. I won't pass judgement on whether it is the sugar, the fat, or a combination of those and other factors but that train is headed directly at them. Look around you, don't many children and teens look fatter than when you were a child?

I am in favor of moderation in all things and cutting out sugar along with dairy, carbs and starches gave me remission. You are free to do as you like. Now in remission I can safely have sugar and chocolate in small amounts and they are wonderful. I prefer to control what is in my chocolate and don't eat store-bought chocs (exception made for Godiva or similar ). I have Nestle's powdered cocoa in the pantry and make hot chocolate and anything else of a chocolate nature. I find that when I require making my dessert instead of impulse purchase I consume less. Haha, just my way of staying on the straight and narrow.

Excellent points, imagardener. The skyrocketing cost of healthcare to our economy, both fiscally (though all foisted onto our grandkids generation to pay for via a Greek style reckoning) and in terms of lost productivity, is also a price society pays for its processed food addiction.

@imagardener - The rates of heart disease and stroke have been fallling for decades in western countries. One example of such a country here. And you know what the biggest reason is? People giving up smoking. So, no, my logic is not questionable. Science has shown beyond all doubt that smoking is harmful to your health. I believe that smoking is harmful. I am far less inclined to believe that sugar is harmful, because the solid evidence simply seems to be missing.

Look around you, don't many children and teens look fatter than when you were a child?

Funnily enough I was talking with my mum about that the other day. And the answer is a genuine 'no'. I live 2 minutes away from a primary school and none of the kids we see walking home are fat. I have two nephews, who are both bone thin. Their classmates aren't massive chubsters either. I read all the hype about obese kids, but I look around me and don't see any. I'm 37 and I see no difference in size between the kids when I was at school and the kids of today.

@Beat UC - Well, I don't drink sodas. Don't really like them, but as with anything, I'd say they're okay in moderation. Swigging litres of the stuff a day isn't a good idea, but most people aren't dumb enough to do that.

Edit: Woah, I missed a long post. *reads*

From the article:
http://mpkb.org/home/diseases/ibd
.."Crohn's disease

Evidence of infectious cause
1.
Patient response to immunosuppressive medications – Temporary symptomatic remission after taking immunosuppressive medications implies a decrease in the strength of the bacterial die-off reaction known as immunopathology. That none of these medications make patients better over the long-term is also telling. Several immunosuppressants are used to treat Crohn's including glucocorticoids such as prednisone and budesonide, aminosalicylates such as sulfasalazine and mesalamines, immunomodulators such as azathioprine and methotrexate and biologics such as remicade/infliximab and adalimumab.

2.
Presence of microbes – Bacteria have long been suspected to be the cause of Crohn's Disease. Detection rates for bacterial DNA from L-forms (a portion of the metagenomic microbiota that cause disease) in Crohn's tissues is variable due to “the fastidious culture requirements of the cell wall-deficient forms.” 3 The following types and species of bacteria have been found in patients with Crohn's:

L-form bacteria 4


Bacteroides fragilis 5


Chlamydia trachomatis 6


Listeria monocytogenes 7


Mycobacterium avium, subspecies paratuberculosis 8


Mycobacterium kansasii 9


Pseudomonas maltophilia 10



De Hertogh et al provide a thorough review of the “unidentified persistent pathogen” theory, stating: 11


Various environmental factors may play a role in the development of CD [Crohn's Disease], but microbes are most consistently implied. This theory is based on epidemiological, clinicopathological, genetic and experimental evidence.

Other researchers have come to similar conclusions:

M. avium subsp paratuberculosis, adherent-invasive E. coli and Candida are good candidates for an infectious aetiology of Crohn's disease on the basis of genetic susceptibility, which relates to impaired function in the defence against intracellular bacteria.
De Chambrunet et al. 12

The bacterial community, in whole or in part, resident in the bowel of humans is considered to fuel the chronic immune inflammatory conditions characteristic of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Chronic or recurrent pouchitis in ulcerative colitis patients is responsive to antibiotic therapy, indicating that bacteria are the etiological agents."..

..."Mycobacteria avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is the pathogen suspected of causing Crohn's disease.

Kenc wrote:

This pathogen was suspected in the early part of the last century soon after Crohn's disease was first identified. However, since researchers could not isolate it in Crohn's disease patients they gave up and turned to the concept of Crohn's disease being an immune disorder and so began the big push for immunosuppresive drugs.

Within the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in MAP. Most Crohn's patients testing positive for MAP (about 45%) have responded well to long term antibiotic therapy in clinical trials (see research by Ira Shafran and by T. Borody). Their response was better than any immunosuppresive drug therapy I know. However, since not all Crohn's patients tested positive for MAP the medical community has remained skeptical of the claim that Crohn's disease is caused by MAP.

I believe the pathogenesis behind the Marshall Protocol includes the infection by one or more types of bacteria. That would account for the other 55% of Crohn's patients who didn't test positive for MAP. Furthermore the MP should work better than an antibiotic treatment for MAP alone since it would help the immune system to eradicate the other types of bacterium that could be present as well along with MAP.
I tested positive for two other types of bacteria other than MAP. One type of these bacterium comes from tics. I did not take a test for MAP. So, my case is evidence that a Crohn's patient can have non-MAP infections as well.

In spite of the increasing evidence for a microbial cause of Crohn's disease, most (>95% I believe) of the research money available for Crohn's disease, including money from charitable organizations, appears to be directed towards the development of immunosuppressive drugs. The latest craze seems to be for TNF-alpha blockers like Remicade."...

I wonder what kind of elemental formula this article is talking about? The ones gave to us by our GI doctor is: Neocate Jr., it has tons of "corn syrup solids", which is not a simple sugar! I asked the GI doctor, he said there is no such elemental formula that is based on single sugar (glucose). Anyone know such elemental formula that only contains true elemental nutrition (free from amino acids, glucose or fructose, fatty acids....)