Crohn's Disease Relief

MediClim - Weather Health Warning System

Sign up to MediClim^® for FREE and you will begin to get your health forecast the day before your health problem may be aggravated due to changes in the weather. You will also gain access to our forums where you can meet people with health problems similar to your own. MediClim is a FREE service currently available to everyone in Canada, the USA (lower 48 states), the UK, Ireland and France.

via www.mediclim.com

This is interesting. You sign uo for your location and tell them what your ailments are and then they send you a warning when the weather is going to be something that may aggravate your condition.

Changes in the weather are one of my strong migraine triggers, so I can really see this as being useful. From the Crohn's disease perspective, the acheyness that comes along with damp cold weather affects me as well.

Realistic Resolutions From Dr. Oz - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

This is the time of year when many people declare New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or exercise. But such broad resolutions aimed at better health are often tough to follow. I asked Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show” and director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, to share his ideas for simple and practical resolutions you can keep. Here they are:

via well.blogs.nytimes.com

There are some great ideas here. And very do-able.

Eat together as a family at least once a week.

Do 7 minutes of yoga a day.

Go to bed earlier.

Keep nuts or healthful snack in your purse or pocket. (Maybe not nut for Crohn's Disease peeps!)

Make space in front of your TV for stretching/exercise.

Floss.

Get a pedometer.

I would like to add a couple of things to this great list.

Go meatless one day a week. Try roasted stuffed squash, pasta with veggies, or lentil stew. Red and yellow lentils are more easy for me to digest than most other types of legumes.

Eat fish one night a week. Try buying frozen fish fillets so you have fish on hand. Or get wonderful fresh wild salmon and marinate it in a bottled teriyaki sauce.

Can't Eat or Drink, But He Sure Can Write

I just read a blog post by Roger Ebert that really moved me.  Since some Crohn's patients will be on feeding tubes or TPN I think this might be an interesting read.  Roger talks about how what he misses most is not so much the actual eating but more more the social aspect of meals.

He also writes about how as he lost the ability to eat and drink certain memories became very vivid.  Roger's post has a lot of of pathos, and made me think about appreciating things in life.

I posted a comment - that he might not be able to eat, drink, or talk, but he sure can write.

Five 'eating better' foods to slip into your diet in '10

Five 'eating better' foods to slip into your diet in '10

via www.cnn.com

Another of those great lists of healthy foods for the new year. But how do these 5 new "in" foods stack up for people with sensitive Crohn's digestive systems?

1. Rye and Oats. The health benefit is in the healthy fiber. But we Crohnie's know that fiber can be an iffy proposition if you are in a flare. I personally like the very thin rye bread done Swedish style with a light coating of butter, smoked salmon, cream cheese, or a bit of green onion or chives. But not during a flare, right. Oats can be very constipating for me personally and I can't eat them unless I am in in a good frame of health. Barley is good - I like it and I think its especially good in soups. When cooked very soft in a soup I don't think it would bother my stomach.

2. Soy. Sure, good stuff. Not so much edamame though as it is too fibrous. Tastes great though. If you were in no-flare mode it might be ok.

3. Salmon and other oily fish. Bring it on - great stuff and it has anti-inflammatory properties. Go with wild salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, fresh tuna, trout, etc.

4. Red wine. Definately off my personal list cause it gives me heartburn and headaches. Oh well. I stick to a shot of brandy. :-)

5. Green Tea. Yum, its good to me and never has bothered me a bit.

High fat diet increases inflammation in the mouse colon

"There is convincing evidence that increased intake of red meat, processed meat and alcohol can increase risk of colorectal cancer, whereas greater consumption of dietary fiber, milk and calcium might decrease risk,"

via www.sciencedaily.com

This article makes me want to eat some nice healthy fish, with steamed veggies for dinner tonight.

Happy new year everyone and wishing you a year as free from inflammation as we can get it.

Two Kinds of Autoimmune Diseases Postulated by Genome Study

Based on their analyses, the researchers suggest autoimmune diseases fall into at least two different groups: one containing rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis and another containing multiple sclerosis and autoimmune thyroid disease.

via www.genomeweb.com

I am not going to pretend to understand all the science on this one, but it's pretty interesting. Stanford University researcher Atul Butte worked with a large team to study meta data gathered "genome-wide" association data various autoimmune diseases to try to find ones that seem to go together or not.

They found there seems to be at least two types of autoimmune diseases, and having one of the types might actually reduce the risk of having others of the other type.

I bet I can guess that Crohn's disease belongs with the rheumatoid arthrisis and ankylising sponylitis side of the house. Why do I guess this? Because I happen to know that people with Crohn's have a higher risk of also having those two diseases. In fact rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's share some biologic treatments such as Remicade and Humira.

I will be very interested in hearing more about this study. My personal theory is that the genetic component makes us susceptible to the disease, but the disease itself might be triggered by some environmental factor such as MAP bacteria.

20 ways to get healthier for free

Celebrate the New Year with a new you -- by dipping into our smart batch of strategies to keep you happy and healthy (at no cost!) all year long.

via www.cnn.com

This CNN feature lists a whole bunch of health related freebies, samples, and discounts. There's some good ones in here - from free samples of emergen-C, free streaming yoga classes online, to free Radon testing for your home.

FAQs about health care reform

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about what's in the House and Senate health care bills and what's next.

via www.cnn.com

This is a good list of "Frequently Asked Questions" about the US House and Senate versions of the Health Care legislation.

My thoughts go out to the members of the two Houses of Congress. While the rest of the country is relaxing and eating Christmas dinner leftovers, these guys and gals are working to try to merge these two bills and get the legislation passed before the New Year.

As I read about it, it does look a bit better. I just hope the choices available to my Mother in Law are affordable. She is on Social Security but too young for Medicare. She needs an affordable option to bridge the gap.

Obama: Health care progress a victory for American people - CNN.com

"Today, the Senate took another historic step toward our goal of delivering access to quality, affordable health care to all Americans," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in a statement.

The bill will help "promote choice and competition to drive down skyrocketing health care costs for families ... all across America."

via www.cnn.com

I mourn the public option. But I applaud our lawmakers for working so hard up to the holiday.

Breakthrough On Causes Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

New research by the University of Adelaide could help explain why some people are more prone to Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune diseases.

A critical imbalance of the regulatory cells required to control the immune system has been revealed among people suffering inflammatory bowel disease.

via www.medicalnewstoday.com

This is an interesting new study. The paper, published in the "Journal of Clinical Immunology" shows that people with Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis have fewer Immune System regulating cells, and more immune system fighting cells.

After this imbalance the body is treating the food we eat as a pathogen, instead of having the regulatory cells just accept that it is good food.

Dr. Eastaff-Leung also adds some information about what I have head of as the hygiene hypothesis, where some people think that the modern Western lifestyle has reduced the amount of germs around people in their formative years, causing them to be more susceptible to certain immune diseases.

Personally, I am pretty skeptical of this. I attended school with a bunch of other kids, spent a good amount of time outside in the germy world, and had pet cats in the house growing up.

Everyone in my family has allergies and quite a few have gastrointestinal related things as well. I think there is more to it that either diet, lifestyle, or how clean your house is growing up.

And at any rate - would you trade the types of germ borne diseases that come from the primitive lifestyle with our modern lifestyle? I don't think so. I enjoy having clean water for one.

I think there may be a dearth of diagnosis of Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis in some other countries because it is hard to diagnose. People are probably suffering from it and don't know what they have, just like I did for many years.

But at any rate, I welcome this study for its implication that there might be a blood test we can develop to test if there is an imbalance of immune regulatory cells. Also, if we can test for this perhaps we can develop a treatment to increase the number of healthy regulatory cells.

I wonder if a stem cell treatment could increase the regulatory cells. So many of the current treatments we have for Crohn's Disease suppress the immune system. The problem with that is that the immune system is then not working as well. This increases the risk of certain types of infections, and also seems to increase the risk of some types of cancer. Many people are glad to take this risk in order to be able to live their life! I would too, if my symptoms get worse for a long time.

However, what if there were a way to put the immune system in a better balance, instead of just tamping down on the whole thing?

An interesting idea. I vote we increase funding on stem cell research and keep working on learning exactly how the components of the immune system work.