Crohn's disease (regional ileitis, regional enteritis) involves chronic non-specific inflammation of the lowest part of the small intestine. Symptoms may come and go and include diarrhea, abdominal pain, anemia, weight loss, fistula formation, and eventual intestinal blockage. Stools are soft and gray or brown in colour, with abnormal fecal particles. Crohn's disease is a reaction to hidden food allergies or intolerances. The most likely culprits are gluten (wheat, rye, oats, barley, triticale) and milk products (lactose). There may also be sensitivities to soy, egg, nuts, and/or the nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, paprika, eggplant, cayenne, chilli).
Complete recovery from Crohn's disease is possible if and only if all of the offending foods are identified and eliminated completely. A little bit of a poison is still a poison.Resuming to eat even one of the offenders, even in tiny amounts, will cause a return of the disease. In addition to completely eliminating all of the foods to which the person is sensitive, recovery from Crohn's is greatly facilitated by following a high fibre, low sugar diet – but the fibre must be from non-glutinous sources (e.g., vegetables, brown rice, buckwheat, amaranth). Finely powdered psyllium hulls make an excellent fibre supplement.
Because of inefficient absorption, those with Crohn's disease will very likely be deficient in the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E), the B-complex vitamins (especially B-12 & folic acid), calcium, magnesium, iron, selenium, and zinc. These can be provided by PLUS™. If deficiencies in some of these nutrients are severe it may be beneficial to also take extra amounts of them initially, tapering off as they are no longer required.
Underlying Theme: Allergies
