09 Jun Breaking Down Crohn’s Disease
While healthcare isn’t sure exactly how Crohn’s Disease starts, like with many health issues, it’s usually a domino effect of things!
Triggers of Crohn’s Disease
There is the genetic component where you can be predisposed to getting Crohn’s, BUT (a big but!) genetics do NOT MEAN YOU WILL GET IT. It just means that your gun is loaded and your lifestyle, diet, and environment will either pull the trigger or not.
Environmental factors can be anything from medications, even something over the counter like the longterm use of Advil. Other factors include exposure to smoking, stress, C-Section birth, heavy metal exposure, a word that starts with a “V” that is given early on during childhood, living in an urban environment, etc. Whether it may be some of these or one of these, we don’t KNOW. What we do know is that the our environment plays a massive role and it’s usually a domino effect.
Long-term gut imbalances (dysbiosis, parasites, yeast) that can happen from some of those environmental aspects, like C-section birth, early antibiotic usage, medications, high stress, bad diet, chronic constipation, you name it. The majority of your immune system starts in the gut. If your gut isn’t in check, you’re going to have this immune system activation that can cause inflammation.
Moving on, behind inflammatory bowel disease, like Crohn’s + colitis, is….INFLAMMATION. (Hence the word inflammatory bowel or IBD) However, there are natural ways to tame flare.
Herbal supplementals for Crohn’s Disease
- Turmeric
- Fish Oil
- Ginger
- Aloe Vera
- Boswellia
These herbals help tame inflammation. Dosing can be different for each individual, so I won’t go into depth because there is no way I could address every single one of you IG’ers. Which is why you need to be working with a practitioner – but in this random, double-blind, placebo controlled study, it was 2 grams of curcumin (from turmeric) that helped IBD sufferers the most.
Another way to target inflammation is a lab test we do in our practice is food sensitivity. You might’ve heard me talk about before! Targetting in on figuring out which foods produce inflammation (this is NOT your typical IgG food sensitivity testing) is another powerful tool to reduce the foods that are giving you inflammation.
While these are amazing anti-inflammatories, make sure that you don’t put a “natural” band-aid on. You still need to dig into WHY inflammation is happening in the first place.
Nutrient Deficiencies
Nutrient deficiencies are VERY common with Crohn’s because there is inflammation in the GI + your mucosal lining might not be optimal to absorb what you’re getting from your food.
- Start taking a multivitamin to cover your bases. Get IV nutrient therapy if you able to!
- Understand that even taking a multivitamin, you might not be to absorb all of it. That’s why doing a therapeutic diet protocol with supplements can be helpful to reduce inflammation and rebuild a strong gut. We walk our clients 1:1 through a gut protocol that has been LIFE-CHANGING to our clients.
- Get your micronutrient test ran after doing some gut work. This is so we can really target in on which ones you’re deficient in and give you the right amount and right kind of nutrient to replete your stores!
It’s a journey. It can take a bit. You won’t see results overnight, but it’ll be something that you will never regret putting as a priority.
Now that we have talked about nutrient deficiencies, we are moving on to intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut). In people who have Crohn’s, this is a huge issue. A non-pathogenic yeast, called S. Boulardii, has shown some promise in some studies helping positively influence intestinal permeability alone compared against a placebo OR also helping in addition with Crohn’s medications.
This could be a beneficial tool in the toolbox for people who struggle with Crohn’s. If you go to our virtual dispensary (can use IG bio link and click the button for our dispensary or go to www.nuvitruwellness.com, make a free account and try out some Floramyces by Designs For Health.
Make sure you’re following us on social @nuvitruwellness because we’re all about gut health up in here! No matter what health struggle you may have, GUT HEALTH IS A PRIORITY. PERIOD. We can help!
Request your free appointment with our team!
