Hello – it certainly won’t hurt anything:)

Hello and thanks for sharing his story with us! Food is so powerful, and you’ve seen that in full force with your husband. It’s not a bad idea to go back to the Intro and he can also just go back to his safe food zone to let things calm down:)

Hubby’s been on SCD nearly 3 years; and had been almost 100% normal for well over a year. Then we took a month-long cruise, and he went off the diet before the end of the trip. He got to the mindset “Well, I’m cheating already, I may as well just order a dessert.” Not surprising, his symptoms returned big time. Once back home, he returned to the diet without cheats and has had some improvement in symptoms, but a long way from “good” again. I’m thinking it’s time to go back to the starter diet, to give his gut the chance to calm down and heal itself. Not excited at the thought of Humira with the risks and side effects.

As for diet, I agree 100% that modification is critical. Will it bring remission? Probably not, but it will surely help some. Eliminating the carbs that inflame conditions is certainly a good start. It may be enough to help other (less extreme) treatments work more effectively. Immunosupressants are not drugs someone should be taking if there is any chance it can be avoided. Dietary modification, even going to the most extreme anti-inflammatory diets, are minor in terms of costs versus repressing the immune system. Dietary/lifestyle mods before medication should be given priority!!! Avoiding foods that further inflammation have potential to at least improve symptoms to some degree.

FMT (formally fecal transplant) may also prove as a means of eliminating the use of biologics in the future. For UC, FMT has REAL “high” success rates in the sense that over 90% of participants achieved full remission, many over a period of a decade after only a few treatments. The 15-40% success rates of side-effect heavy biologics given continuously over a period of years don’t seem very attractive compared to a one-time FMT therapy yielding extremely high probability of full remission with zero side effects…

Steven,
I appreciate your response to Joseph’s comment. Although I don’t have Crohn’s disease, I have psoriatic arthritis, spondylitis, and secondary Raynaud’s phenomenon. For a long while I treated my psoriatic arthritis with diet. It worked until just recently when my spondylitis reared its ugly head. I was physically ill from the intense pain and came to the realization I needed biologic medication while also maintaining my way of eating. I am currently on Humira, and while it’s not a “cure all” it has been a God send. I am a true believer that just diet alone is not the answer for everyone, although it is a HUGE piece of the overall health and wellness puzzle.
🙂 Megan

@ Joseph – Thanks for your very insightful comment. I agree that SCD and Humira should not be thought of as mutually exclusive. They both help to limit inflammation through different pathways so they actually make a great combo for those who need the biggest guns per say.

Elaine made a bad choice of words, but at the time she didn’t have the science we have now. It is now certain, what you put in your mouth will either add to your inflammation or help lower it. Each person chooses with each bite of food. Therefore it’s our opinion that SCD / Paleo is mandatory treatment for Crohn’s, Colitis, Celiac and any other inflammatory conditions. There’s no doubt anymore that it will help every single person afflicted with these problems.

Do misinterpret what I’m saying, I’m not saying that these people will see perfect health through SCD/Paleo alone. To the contrary I’m saying everyone has a food choice each day and these are the best. But for them to see complete health recovery they will need to make many more changes including custom supplement protocols, stress reduction, emotional healing and more to heal these diseases without the support of common IBD drugs.

I was diagnosed with a severe case of Chron’s disease when I was 16. I am now 28 and have lived with this disease for 12 years. I have been on Humira since 2007 and before that loads of steroids and other drugs like imuran, asacol, and remicaid.

About two years ago, the humira just flat out stopped working, I ended up back on steroids, and the GI suggested a colonic resection. That was the day I went on SCD. SCD was a god send. All the benefits you extolled about it, I can say without a doubt you are right on the money.

But that doesn’t mean SCD is going to be the cure for everyone in every circumstance. Even in BTVC, Elaine notes that sometimes this diet does not work for everyone. In my case, while SCD is a crucial ingredient to my well being so is humira. How do I know this? Well, I have attempted to go off the drug many many times over the past two years on SCD, always within 3 to 5 days, I am in excruciating pain and have blood in my stool.

To be clear, humira wasn’t enough but then neither is SCD. I need both. Together, I live a happy, pain free existence. I have been off the steroids the entire time and surgery is no longer a consideration.