Archive for December, 2009

“Pathology researcher Dr Nicola Eastaff-Leung reveals that people suffering Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have fewer numbers of regulatory cells and more “attack” cells that cause inflammation. “All the food that we eat is foreign to our body,” said Eastaff-Leung.

“In healthy people the immune system has a mechanism to tolerate these foods and not react. But some people do not have enough of these regulatory cells and their body overreacts and goes into attack mode. That is where the inflammation occurs,” she added.
“Inflammatory bowel diseases and a lot of other autoimmune diseases are common in Western cultures but are rarely found in the developing or Third World countries.

“We need to look at our diet and also the obsession in Western countries with cleanliness and antibacterial disinfectants, which has gone overboard.

“Children need to be exposed to bacteria as they are developing in order to build their immune system naturally,” she added.”

I heartly agree with that last statement. So many parents are obsessed with ensuring their children are protected as much as possible from everything around them including bugs and bacteria. An immune system that is built up naturally through childhood will have a better chance to fight off bugs than one that has been suppressed through the over use of medication or protection.

A lot has been written about possible links between the consumption of milk and the incidences of colitis and Chrohn’s. Yet again a recent joint study between scientists in the UK and Canada found no association between dairy products and the risk of being diagnosed with these diseases.

And on the subject of milk, here is another, though slightly offball result of research involving a bit of horsing around but could offer some relief from colitis symptoms

It is all to do with mare’s milk where German researchers believe drinking mare’s milk may ease IBD! A total of 17 adolescent patients with chronic colitis and Chrohn’s who drank the milk were found to have high levels of “good” bacteria which are thought to have an anti-inflammatory effect as well as boosting the immune system.

Patients were given either 250ml of mare’s milk or a placebo daily for two months. Those given the milk reported less abdominal pain, less blood in faeces and needed less medication, though it is not clear why the milk is beneficial.

So off you go to the local stables and ask the them to fill a bucket for you. It beats asking for a barrowful of dung!

How about the most successful British Olympian of all time, Sir Steve Redgrave?

He also has diabetes to contend with but still managed to somehow win 5 gold medals. Do these rowing boats have toilets in them? They don’t look very comfortable do they? And in order to train properly he consumed between 6,000- 7,000 calories everyday. That is a lot of food to digest.

Yet he succeeded by sheer determination, focus, brilliant strategy planning and management, not taking “no” for an answer and a belief that he could do it again and again and again.

Now what can you learn from all this? Firstly by not relying entirely on your doctor for every aspect of your care. Take some resposibililty yourself. Ensure you are always aware of your health, how your colitis is behaving whether in remission or during a relapse. And perhaps even more importantly, you need to focus on the challenge in front of you, today, tomorrow and into the future.

Life does not stop when you have been diagnosed with colitis. When you are susceptible to colitis symptoms. Alter your lifestyle, plan better, but keep on living the best you can. Do not accept that the best of life has gone and from now on it will just be a question of surviving.

It certainly does not have to be like that. I am not saying start training for the Olympics, but colitis should not be the excuse or reason to stop living.

There has been quite a few results of various investigations and surveys undertaken by medical professionals but one really caught my eye and I think that everyone can relate to.

It is about contrasting the Northern European/American diet with that of the Southern European diet. Here is an extract of the investigation’s findings:

“People who eat lots of red meat, cook with certain types of oil, and use some kinds of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-heavy margarines may be increasing their risk of a painful inflammatory bowel disease, a study in more than 200,000 Europeans shows.
These foods are high in linoleic acid and the study have found that people who were the heaviest consumers of this omega-6 PUFA were more than twice as likely to develop colitis as those who consumed the least.

Dr. Andrew Hart of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, and his colleagues also found that eating more eicosapentaenoic acid, an omega 3 fatty acid found in fish and fish oils, was associated with a lower risk of the disease.

While people need a certain amount of linoleic acid to survive, Hart noted in an interview with Reuters Health, excess amounts are taken up into the lining of the colon, and if they’re released, they can promote inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acid, he added, does the opposite. “It basically dampens down inflammation,” he explained.

Their analysis included 203,193 men and women 30 to 74 years old. During follow-up, which ranged from about 2 to 11 years, 126 people developed ulcerative colitis.

People in the top quartile of linoleic acid intake (they were consuming around 13 to 38 grams a day) were 2.5 times more likely to have developed the disease than people who consumed the least, about 2 to 8 grams daily.

There’s currently no proven dietary treatment for ulcerative colitis, Hart noted, but the current findings raise the possibility that eating a diet low in linoleic acid could be helpful.

While a Western-style, red-meat-heavy diet is high in this fatty acid and low in omega-3s, Hart noted, a more Mediterranean style eating pattern — with plenty of fruits and vegetables, fish, and nut oils — would be low in linoleic acid and high in omega-3.

He estimated that if omega-3s do help prevent ulcerative colitis, eating a couple of servings of fish a week would probably be protective.”

So what to make of this study?

Well, we know that increasing the consumption of fish is to be incouraged as part of a healthy balanced diet and is particularly good for the heart and blood. Add to that the possibility of it reducing the likelihood of inflammation then introducing some more fish into your weekly diet is something that you should seriously consider.

Take a look at the amount of red meat that you eat. And whilst it does have health benefits, it too can appear detrimental if consumed in higher quantities. Just like a lot of foods really.