Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Crohns Disease

Question:
Treatment for equine Crohn's disease?

Answer:
I'm very curious about this, too. I didn't know horses could get a form of Crohn's. I am a celiac and have met a few people with Crohn's that have been able to control it without medication by going on the celiac (wheat-free, no additives, all natural) type of diet. However, it is a *very* serious illness in people. are you sure it was Crohn's and not celiac disease?  Usually wheat free only works with Crohn's if the person was already sensitive to it.  My son does not do a celiac diet although he was already not eating wheat (the celiac diet, BTW, is a gluten free diet, not strictly wheat free as there are many other sources of gluten besides wheat, such as oats, for example) for three years before his Crohn's appeared due to asthma. Keep in mind that the cattle version of human Crohn's is Johne's Disease, and is caused by paratuberculosis infection in the gut.  That particular link is not proven in human Crohn's.  Antibiotics can treat Johne's Disease.  They do not always work in humans (and they were tried on my son, it was an interesting experience in watching hives grow on skin). Inflammation can be mechanical (irritation), allergic (immune system) or intolerance (different variance upon immune system response). In my experience (as a parent of a kid with moderate Crohn's) diet is more a matter of managing things that can irritate the gut, which differs from person to person.  My son has had to avoid foods with tough skins (like peas and corn) and seeds, although he's cautiously incorporated some cooked seeds back into his diet.  For him the best intervention has been pharmaceutical, with Remicade plus 6-mercaptopurine.  But he's primarily fistulizing Crohn's, not stricturing Crohn's.  His allergist and I have contemplative moments when we wonder if the reason his asthma is so mild these days is due to the effect of the Crohn's medication on his immune system.  And his first Crohn's flare was prefaced by a nasty asthma flare... I would look at immune system issues right off the bat, which means allergies/intolerances.  I've noticed that as my asthma meds become more sophisticated, my allergies seem to flare up in my gut with irritable bowel syndrome instead...managing those with strict food allergen control and oral antihistamines of a certain class seems to settle the gut.