Crones Disease-Any input fellas?

A very dear friend of mine, recently felt pains in her arm/shoulder-She went to the doctor, and they said she had a sprained muscle. So they gave her a pain killer, and sent her home. Two day's later, she felt even worse-In fact, had her mother not came by to visit her and found her collapsed in her bathroom floor she would be dead right now. (The doctors said, give or take about two hours and she was done for)

This was all about two months ago, and after multiple invasive surgerys and weeks in the hospital she has returned home(3 weeks home now.. but several emergency visits). The entire story isnt really something she has shared with alot of people, But today she let me know it was much more than just a intestinal tract infection gone horribly wrong-It is a life long, recurring condition. For those of you unaware, Crones disease occurs alot like an allergy-The body begins identifying the stomach/intestines as foreign tissue and rejects it-This can evantually cause massive organ failure.

My question is simple-Whats the average life expectancy of someone with Crones disease? Google provides only a handful of very generic answers. I dont want to ask my friend myself, because-well shes been through enough.

Basically I'm trying to get a feel for how serious this disease is.

Crohns is one motherfucker of a disease. My dad has suffered from it for 20 years, it robbed him of his life and his retirement. He's had more ER visits than you can count, several resulting in emergency bowel resection surgeries. He went into remission for about 4 years and then it came back with a vengeance. The meds that help reduce the inflammation also cause heart problems, osteoperosis and dangerously suppress the immune system leaving you open to the worst forms of cancer, which my Dad now has.

You can live a long time with Crohn's but the question is, is it really living? Nobody can answer that I guess, you just have to do the best you can.

S9x

You've probably seen this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn's_disease but it seems pretty informative.

I wish your friend all the best, and synchro9x - to your father, too.

All I know is I had a friend of mine get diagnosed with Crohns while he was in the Navy. He was medically discharged and that was almost 20 years ago. He's still alive and kicking.

Crones sucks a guy i know at work his wife has it she went into the hospital a little over a year ago to get a Hysterectomy and the doctor was to rough.he nicked her bladder and intestine she all most died and was in the hospital for months she is still having problems and has to go to the emergency room at least once a week. His and her life revolves around this problem so crones is a really bad disease and can ruin your life.

Damn that really sucks
Hopefully you can be there for her, it has got to be tough seeing a friend go through something like that, learning they are stuck with some disease until the day they die... I wish her the best.

Sorry to hear about your friend.

However debilitating this disease may be, a large part of life expectancy and quality of life might depend on the individual.

Aside from staying positive and having supportive friends (who don't treat her as any different than before), a person's determination to lead a normal and fruitful life might well determine her longevity and quality of life.

There will be difficulties and challenges to be faced ahead, but rather than let those things be a source of fear and dread, she could look at and toward what are the things that she can continue doing and enjoying.

Your question has the best of intentions, but perhaps you are hoping to look for an answer where there is really none ?

My Best Wishes to your Friend.

Cheerio.

My sister has Crohns now for about twenty years, sometimes she has problems with her legs and can't walk for a few days as side effect of medicine perhaps. She feels very tired when she has a period when this disease is more active. This happens only a few times in a year, further she lives a normal life. But her son (19) has just been diagnosed with the same disease as his mother. Our best wishes for your friend.

Hey Cash,

My aunt is going through the same thing.

Here are a few things to consider.

Get rid of food allergies. Right now the gut is pretty much impermeable and since it will let a ton of things into the blood stream it starts attacking foods thinking they are foreign bodies. She needs to eliminate all the foods that are causing her problems, but they can be reintroduced down the road.

Grains are probably the biggest problem. Not only do they clog up the flow in the intestines but they can also be extremely damaging to them. I'd say currently about 80%+ of the American population is allergic to the protein found in some grains called gluten and they don't even know it. With Crohns food allergies are a big problem.

With avoidance of these foods it will give the intestines a break and they will start to heal themselves. The villa inside the intestines will start to stand at attention instead of going flat against the intestinal wall.

She needs to cut out all sugar from her diet. If she is drinking anything toxic like Coke or any soda she really needs to cut that out. Any deserts or junk food needs to go.

You should get her on a solid pro-biotic, not antibiotic. That will re-introduce the good bacteria into her intestines and will reduce inflammation as well as start to allow the intestines to heal. If she has ever taken antibiotics in her life and has had a poor diet you can be pretty sure her intestines are overrun by the bad bacteria. This in itself can cause problems so severe that doctors could mistake it for other things, possibly Crohns.

When she starts to take the pro-biotic she might detox a bit because the good bacteria literally starves out the bad and doesn't let it feed so it eventually dies. The die-off can make you sick like the flu if you have a ton of it. The ideal ratio inside the intestines is about 85% good, 15% bad but most people are the total opposite which causes a plethora of problems.

She may notice that even the pain she feels inside her intestines (if she has pain there) might start to go away after starting the pro-biotic.

I would also get her on a smashing good multivitamin. More than likely she hasn't really absorbed a ton of nutrients since this has started happening so ample amounts are vital. If she does have a large amount of bad bacteria in her intestines she won't absorb anything anyways so getting the pro-biotics is key. I've seen a ton of shit multi's out there and if you are going to put it in your body you want the best. You don't want binders, fillers, additives, or any other shit in your multivitamin because it will probably do more harm than good. You also don't want the vitamins and minerals to be derived synthetically, if possible you want them all from food sources.

Should have her check out Super Nutrition, their womans multivitamin is solid as hell. My mother and aunt both take that and they say it has made such a world of difference. I take the mens blend and gotta say the stuff is amazing.

She won't have to take the pro-biotics forever, but if her diet is less than favorable she might want to.

This whole thing is about lifestyle change and its not going to be easy. My aunt says her life has literally changed when she stopped taking the shit her doctor told her to take and started to look at the nutritional side of things.

Will it work for everyone? Probably not, but I will say that I've never seen my aunt like she is now. And she will tell you first hand she feels like a new person and not one that has Crohns.

I will tell you this much, if she does listen to medical doctors that know NOTHING of the nutritional side then she WILL continue to get worse. Medical doctors know how to prescribe drugs and take out organs, thats pretty much it. Crohns is about nutrition and improving your lifestyle.

I know she may be looking at this in a horrible light and all. But the fact is that this is a warning to her, her body is trying to tell her something. Something is not jiving correctly with her body and this is the bodies way of saying stop it now or else. This is more an opportunity to drastically improve her life than a bad thing.

Best of luck.

@ Smitty,

Thanks man. It looks like you have done all the research for me, this is the stuff I was trying to find out. I know right now they have her drinking ensure, but shes pouring them down the drain and drinking these whey protein supplements instead. (Theres alot of sugar in those) and I've also seen her down a few red bulls. As for a pro-biotic, thats a great idea, I'll definitely look into that one.
I'm pretty sure she has crones though, they had to remove half of her digestive tract. They actually said shes something of a Medical miracle, her kidneys should have shutdown-Every sign, and bit of scientific they have about what was happening to her says that-But ...they just didnt.
She also told me that she has a changed diet now, and has to be careful about what she eats. So I think the doctors at least had the sense to give her a list of dos and donts.


Thanks alot man, Did you know this disease affects 1 million americans? That's one in every 600 people. Which is really, a pretty big number. Here's hoping for this best, I really dont want to watch my friend die. She's already lost 15 pounds, and shes only 5'1 and 95 pounds when shes healthy. But shes also gained 3 pounds since coming home, so things are looking up.
-Cash

Hey Bro,

Its no problem man, health is one of my passions. I used to be a really really sick guy. I was sick every weekend, had pnemonia like 3 times in one year. It was really bad. The doctors just kept telling me I was just going to be sick all my life. Just got really fed up listening to them so I decided to look elsewhere.

Went to go see a holistic doctor that literally changed my life. I started to become pretty engrosed in natural health and avoiding medical doctors. When I stopped listening to them and stopped taking all the bs drugs I started to get healthy again. Fast forward 4 years and I haven't been sick to this day. Not even a sniffle.

When it comes to getting healthy, the BIGGEST change that will have the greatest affect on your body is what you put inside your body. If you are eating shit, taking drugs, drinking tons of alcohol it will eventually catch up to you.

Most MD's won't tell you what you should be eating and if they have they are probably wrong. Even some nutritionists blow my mind on what they suggest people to eat if they are sick or have a certain disease.

Tell her she really needs to kick all the garbage out of her diet and I bet she will start to feel better pretty quickly. I know a lot of people who do drink the red bulls and stuff is because their blood sugars are just on a complete roller coaster and they need it for energy. But once you eliminate all the junk and your blood sugars level out people feel as though they no longer need it.

Fats are good for energy too. Good fats are key to sustaining energy.

That really is too bad about having some of her DT removed, I feel bad for her.

I hope this stuff helps her out.

Yup, its even worse because shes absolutely adorable. 19 years old, 5'1 feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes, and shes probably one of the sweetest people I've ever known. It's just so unfair this happened to her, but anyways-Thanks a boatload bro. I actually think Im going to take her to a pediatrician and a holistic doctor. She doesnt have the money for that, medicaid covered her treatment and then they kicked her out the door. But I do, so I hope I can convince her to get over herself and let me take her.

Please listen. This might help.

My brother was suffering severely from Crohn's disease. He is 50 years old and suffered since he was 17. He was very weak, and always having to go to the bathroom. He suffered tremendously from severe stomach pain, cramps and bleeding from the colon. He went to many specialist who basically had their thumbs up their ass. They prescribed Pregnizone (Steroids- spelling might be incorrect) It just debilitated him completely. They had him on monthly medicated I.V.'s. At one point I thought we were going to lose him. Earlier this year, he finally went to a nutritionist and they put him on a Gluten Free/Lactose Free diet. They did extensive blood work on him. They broke it down to specific allergies and put him on a very strict eating plan. When I say, specific, an example would be he can eat egg yokes but not egg whites. He can eat oranges but not grapefruit. He also stopped eating any kind of dairy.
Within a month and being on this food system, his color came back. He lost a ton of weight for the better(His body composition changed). His skin color changed to incredibly healthy from a yellow green. His psoriasis disappeared. His mental focus increased. He has more energy. He doesn't need nearly as much medication( I think he might be off meds but not sure)
Simply put, he just turned into a new person. It has been about 6 months now and he basically got his life back.


Have them look into a nutritionist that will do extensive blood analysis. I don't know if it is a cure, but if it does what it did to my brother, than the quality of life should be better.

Hope this help and take care.

I have had ulcerative colitis since i was 14, it isn't the same as Crone's but it is just as debiliating. I've suffered many bouts of weight loss, and tons of mental issues directly from the disease as well.

I have been on every medicine out there, the really harsh ones like prednisone, literally tear down your body at the cellular level.

However bad things got, i realized that our bodies are simply amazing, and that nature can do things that our gifted scientific communities can't. So, i dove into holistic approaches, our bodies weren't designed to handle the constant fried foods, and refined sugars that make up our diets.

I drink aloe vera straight off the fillet mixed with juice first thing in the morning, everyday. It has helped me tremendously, my sister works for a gastroentrologist and she told me about Remicade Infusion that is really helping their patients. I did some research into it, and it sounds very promising.

I am looking into it myself, hope that helps some.

@smitty - know any good probiotic supplements to take? I've been eating a lot of Activa yogurt, and drinking this smoothie I found in the grocery store called Kefir. It comes in an assortment of pretty good flavors and has 10 live cultures in it.

I do pretty good for breakfast, but I then proceed to eat dinner @ Burger King or Taco Bell...

Essential Clix said:

@smitty - know any good probiotic supplements to take? I've been eating a lot of Activa yogurt, and drinking this smoothie I found in the grocery store called http://www.kefir.com/. It comes in an assortment of pretty good flavors and has 10 live cultures in it.

I do pretty good for breakfast, but I then proceed to eat dinner @ Burger King or Taco Bell...

Click to expand...

Kefir is pretty good, but the ones at the grocery store usually have a ton of sugar in it. Which in my eyes is somewhat counter-productive. The sugar feeds the bad bacteria, so even though you are putting the good stuff in you are still feeding the bad. I actually made my own Kefir a few times but it didn't taste nearly as good as the store bought.

For a probioitic I take Primadophilus Bifidus by Natures Way. Great stuff.