James Marshall who had success in the cult TV show “Twin Peaks” as well as playing a role in the blockbuster movie “A Few Good Men” is currently in the midst of a trial against Accutane creator Roche. Marshall is contending that after starting a regimen of Accutane in 1992 he developed debilitating Crohn’s Disease which eventually lead to the removal of his colon. Due to his illness, Marshall states that the illness severely crippled him & left his career in ruins. Continue reading “Twin Peaks Actor James Marshall Suing Accutane Creator For $11 Million” »
The Independant, a Santa Barbara based paper, has an interview with Ben Morrison, a comedian who has dealt with Crohn’s Disease since 1997.
… But for comedian Ben Morrison, who was hit with a Crohn’s disease diagnosis during his senior year of high school about a decade ago, finding humor in his situation has been the only way to stay positive and even keep the little known intestinal woe under control. He’ll be bringing his Crohn’s-related stand-up show “Pain in the Butt” to town this weekend, and he spent a few minutes chatting with The Independent last month.
Read the rest of the interview @ The Independant’s website.
You can also check out Ben Morrison’s website.
There seems to be some continual confusion about the differences between Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
The main difference between the two is that Irritable Bowels Syndrome is a functional disorder, meaning there is little to no physical evidence of the disorder besides it’s symptoms. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are not functional disorders and are diagnosable based off of physical evidence. Irritable Bowel Syndrome is usually much less severe than Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Additionally “Inflammatory Bowel Disease” is not the actual name of a disease, but a classification for bowel diseases of an inflammatory nature. The two main Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are Ulcerative Colitis & Crohn’s Disease. They are not the same thing, though they have similar symptoms & treatments.
I made this handy chart below so people can get a better idea of the differences.
A recent study by the Boston School of Medicine has found that those who are dealing with Crohn’s Disease are more likely to be deficient in Vitamin D2 partially due to problems with absorbing it. The study found that those with Crohn’s had a absorption rate that was 30% lower than normal & approximately 70% of the patients had Vitamin D deficiencies. Vitamin D is often labeled as ‘the sunshine vitamin’ as it can be produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight or obtained from foods and/or in supplements.
If you’d like to try supplementing Vitamin D2 check out Now Foods’ 2000 IU Vitamin D2. Keep in mind that a lot of the Vitamin D on store or pharmacy shelves is Vitamin D3, not D2, so keep that in mind when buying a supplement.
You can review all the findings by reading the full study.
While searching the news today I saw a lot of outlets focusing in on a study recently released by the Statens Serum Institute(Denmark) about a possible link between antibiotics and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Upon looking at the abstract and the title of the study I think we have a case once again of people mistaking Irritable Bowel Syndrome for Inflammatory Bowel Disease / Crohn’s Disease / Ulcerative Colitis. Continue reading “Study on Antibiotics is Related to Inflammatory Bowel Disease Not IBS” »
A recent study review found that 12 out of 16 probiotic studies saw better outcomes when using multiple probiotic strains instead of just a single strain. These studies covered many different topics such as inflammatory bowel disorder, Helicobacter pylori, gut function & others.
I don’t find this terribly surprising as our digestive tract is teaming with all sorts bacterial flora. There is no jack of all trades probiotic that does everything for the digestive tract. There are also many different sub-strains of probiotics out there. If you go to the store you’ll probably see a lot of bottles labeled as being L. Acidophilus, however each company breeds it’s own strain(unless the companies outsourced from same lab) of L. Acidophilus so you might even get slightly different results depending on which brand you choose. There also may be a host of probiotic sub-strains we haven’t discovered yet. This is why something like fecal transplantation is interesting because it takes a working bacterial ecosystem and transplants it into someone who does not have one. It’s hard to slowly rebuild a healthy bacterial ecosystem with only a handful of bacteria, especially when we do not know which bacteria are most effective for each person & we may even be missing some.
Plantains - Photo By Daegis
Well it appears your mother may have been right about eating your broccoli, especially if you’re dealing with Crohn’s Disease. Scientists have found that people dealing with Crohn’s Disease seem to have problems with certain bacteria invading their gut, specifically a certain type of E. Coli. The fiber in Broccoli & Plantains may help block the E. Coli bacteria from being absorbed by the gut, thus reducing chances of infection & irritation.
Just what is a plantain? It’s basically a banana that isn’t sweet. In some places you can find “plantain chips” which are salted, not sweetened. As far as broccoli goes, the best way to cook
it is to steam it until it’s brilliant green, then remove it immediately. This will allow it to retain flavor & texture. I really do no like mushy broccoli. Even with these findings some people may not be able to tolerate these foods, so don’t put caution to the wind. Take it slow.
References:
University of Liverpool Press Release
There have been a lot more personal injury lawyers airing commercials about Accutane being linked to Inflammatory Bowel Disease. This perked my interest so I hopped online to find out what was going on. There are quite a few lawyers out there offering their services for pursuing legal action against Roche Holdings(creator of Accutane). Some of these lawyers though are incorrectly stating that Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease(Crohn’s/Ulcerative Colitis) are the same thing. They are not & Irritable Bowel Syndrome is not what these lawsuits are about. Continue reading “Accutane Linked To Crohn’s / Ulcerative Colitis / Inflammatory Bowel Disease” »
