What Is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)?
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term for conditions characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive system.
What Are the Prominent Signs and Symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Inflammatory bowel disorder symptoms include:
- Persistent diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Rectal bleeding/bloody stools
- Weight loss
- Fatigue
Inflammatory Bowel Disorder (IBD): Causes
The actual cause of IBD is unknown, but many doctors believe that a faulty immune system could be the culprit behind it. A well-functioning immune system destroys invading organisms such as viruses and bacteria to defend the body. However, with IBD, the immune system abnormally reacts to environmental cues, resulting in gastrointestinal inflammation.
What Are the Main Types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Types of IBD include:
- Ulcerative colitis: This disorder causes inflammation and sores (ulcers) on the surface of your large intestine (colon) and rectum.
- Crohn’s disease: This is characterized by inflammation of the digestive system lining, which affects the deeper layers of the digestive tract.
Diarrhea, rectal bleeding, stomach discomfort, exhaustion, and weight loss are common symptoms of both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Also read: AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES AND TOXIC CHEMICAL EXPOSURE: IS THERE A CONNECTION?
What Are the Complications of Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Some of the possible complications of IBD include:
- Malnutrition with resulting weight loss
- Colorectal cancer
- Fistulas, or tunnels that go through the intestinal wall to connect different regions of the digestive tract.
- Intestinal rupture or perforation
- Bowel obstruction
In rare situations, a severe attack of IBD might cause shock. This is potentially fatal.
What Foods Aggravate Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
There’s no need to avoid any meal unless it triggers or increases your symptoms. However, some common food items which you may have to avoid are:
- Fatty, greasy or fried foods
- Hot or spicy foods
- Raw, high-fiber fruits and vegetables
- Caffeinated or sugary beverages
- Alcoholic beverages
- Candy, sweets, and other products with added sugar
Role of Food Sensitivities in Inflammatory Bowel Disorders
Getting healthy nutrition might be difficult when you have inflammatory bowel disease. Your small intestine absorbs the nutrients from the food you consume. However, you may not absorb all of your nutrients or digest your food properly when you have chronic inflammation and other IBD symptoms. This can result in major issues such as malnutrition, weight loss, and vitamin deficiencies.
To avoid these issues and make eating more pleasant, pay close attention to what you put into your body and how your digestive system responds. Calcium-rich foods, vegetables, probiotics, and lean meats should be included in a balanced diet.
Also read: Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO): Everything You Need to Know About It
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): Diagnosis and Treatment
The objective of treating inflammatory bowel disease is to minimize the inflammation that triggers your symptoms. In the best-case scenario, this may result in symptom alleviation, long-term remission, and reduced consequences.
IBD treatment generally consists of either medication or surgery. Anti-inflammatory medicines, immune system suppressors, biologics, antibiotics, and other medications such as pain relievers and vitamins are used in IBD treatment. Diet and exercise are also part of the overall IBD treatment strategy. However, if none of this works, then surgery becomes the last option.
If you are looking for expert Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment near you, call us at (843) 572-1600 or schedule an appointment with our expert doctors today. At the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, we have a team of doctors dedicated to improving your overall health
Role of Food Sensitivities in Asthma and Inflammatory Bowel Disorders
Michael Radcliff and other speakers emphasized the importance of food in unexplained illness. 50-60% of brittle asthmatics will improve when their food sensitivities are addressed. Pediatric asthma is an epidemic occurring in one in four to one in seven children. However, breast feeding for a minimum of 15 weeks and not introducing solid foods before this time can reduce its occurrence.
Double blind food challenge studies have shown beyond doubt that idiosyncratic food reactions can provoke a wide range of symptoms in patients suffering from a wide variety of illnesses.
Also supporting the important role of food was a paper by Elaine Gottschall. She has developed a low disaccharide diet for treatment and elimination of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease. This diet eliminates not only glutens, but most starches with a high disaccharide content, such as all cereal grains (including corn, rice, etc.), potatoes, soybeans, and many others. The specifics of this diet are explained in her newly revised book. [We have recently made this book available to our patients at COEM.]
The Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine has used a similar protocol for many years and has found food to be a major critical factor in these diseases.
Reference: Radcliffe M. Unexplained illness: the role of the reproducible idiosyncratic food reaction.