Can worm eggs cure Chrons?

Yes, I know that it sounds terrible, but a new study will see patients swallowing worm eggs and letting them hatch inside them, with the aim of curing/treating Crohn's disease and colitis, known collectively as inflammatory bowel disease.

They're called "pigwhip worms" to be precise and the participants of the trial will swallow the eggs of these little guys and let them hatch inside says Dr. Ira Shafran who is one of three physicians in the U.S. who will be taking part in this study.

Dr. Shafran went on to say that "The little larvae come out and they make a contact with your intestinal lining that actually turns on an immune response," It is then believed that the worms will actually lessen that immune response and could greatly reduce gastrointestinal issues associated with the disease.

Whilst they are considered parasites to pigs, Dr. Shafran says these worms are harmless to humans and have not shown any side effects in other studies.

In fact, some scientists believe the eradication of worms from human stomachs over the past 50 years may be behind the rise in these conditions. As the number of infections by parasites, such as roundworms and human whipworms, has fallen, the number of people being diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease has increased.

"This is not an invasive worm," he says. "It's not toxic to the GI tract and it doesn't cause human disease."

"If we can extract something from earth or nature and harness that naturally occurring species at a lower cost to patients without any safety issues and without altering the immune system, that's a huge development," says Dr. Shafran.

The tests are due to start sometime in November, with the findings due to be announced at a conference in the United States in May.

Chrons Disease & Genetics

Whilst in the past, the search for a cure to Chrons Disease and other irritable-bowel conditions, the medical profession has mostly focused on diet. But recent studies have repeatedly failed to show that foods are to blame.

Researchers are now looking at genetic mutations linked to Crohn's Disease as well as other irritable bowel conditions like ulcerative colitis. They hope to develop a therapy that fixes those mutations in order to actually cure diseases like chrons and ulcerative colitis, rather than just treat the symptoms.

Warren Strober of the the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda has been studying these diseases for over fifteen years and he and other scientists have shown that dozens of genes are linked to Chrons and ulcerative colitis.

His current work centers on developing a stem-cell-based therapy to correct one particular gene mutation for Chrons. Because of the wide variety of mutations it means that there could eventually be a number of different treatments that target patients based on their genetic profiles, this is known as "personalized medicine."


People with Crohn's can suffer from chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, fatigue and sometimes rectal bleeding. They may also have problems absorbing an adequate amount of nutrients from food, particularly if too much of the intestine is removed. The disease can stunt the growth of children.

With irritable-bowel diseases, the immune system attacks harmless bacteria normally found in the gut. This response leads to inflammation of different parts of the digestive tract, which in turn can cause, fissures, abscesses, obstruction and pain.

In Chrons disease the walls of the digestive tract become inflamed, and any part from the mouth through to the large intestine can be affected. Ulcerative colitis is slightly different in that only the lining of the bowel is damaged.

Treatments have improved in recent years and now include powerful, injectable biologic medicines that reduce inflammation, such as Remicade and Humira.

But these are not cures, and not everyone responds to them. In severe cases, patients must undergo surgery sometimes multiple surgeries to remove parts of the bowel or colon that are blocked. For Chrons patients this is necessary more often because it can develop in any part of the gut, inflammation can recur even after surgery in a different segment of the digestive tract. Within 10 years after surgery between 80% and 90% of Chrons patients will have a relapse, according to researchers.

Dr. Strober says he and his colleagues, are moving ahead on research in mice that aims to fix a genetic mutation called NOD2 associated with Crohn's Disease. The idea would be to have the body repair itself by growing the corrected gene using so-called induced pluripotent stem cells.

Stem cells are those that can develop into different types of specialized cells, like heart or muscle cells, and are mostly found in embryos. Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are made by taking adult specialized cells and turning back the clock, engineering them to an earlier stage where they can reproduce again.

With his research they have already worked out how to take cells from the intestine and convert them into iPS cells. The team are now are working on fixing the genetic defect in the iPS cells before testing the therapy in animals.

The biggest challenge with this type of approach that combines genetic information, physical symptoms and biology is actually narrowing down which genetic combinations are critical to which patients.

Other researchers are examining how genetic mutations affect the type of bacteria that are found in the digestive tract. Greater presence of certain types of bacteria may be more likely to trigger an immune response.

Another area of research is looking at understanding how a persons genetic makeup can make them susceptible to certain other Chrons disease triggers like smoking or stress and the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers.

Vitamin D could help prevent Chrons Disease

Some recent research carried out by some Canadians at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center seems to show that Vitamin D easily obtainable in supplements or cod liver oil may be able to combat chrons, or even prevent the symptoms that are related to Crohn’s disease.

At first the study was aimed at investigating Vitamin D's potential in treating cancer cells, but the researchers accidentally found that vitamin D had a beneficial effect on two genes that are associated with inflammatory bowel diseases like Chrons.

It was discovered that a supplement of vitamin D like what is already found in cod liver oil forced a reaction in the beta defensin 2 and NOD2 genes, which alert cells to the presence of invading microbes. Both Beta-defensin and NOD2 have been linked to Crohn's disease and if NOD2 is deficient or defective, the gene cannot combat microbial attacks in the intestinal tract.

What is really interesting is that this study shows how something as simple as an an over the counter supplement such as Vitamin D could help people defend themselves against Crohn's disease and with it they have potentially found a new treatment for people with Chrons disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases.

The next step for the team is to conduct clinical trials with human participants suffering from the intestinal disorder.

Because Vitamin D supplements and cod liver oil are readily available, "Siblings of patients with Crohn's disease that haven't yet developed the disease might be well advised to make sure they're vitamin D sufficient. It's something that's easy to do, because they can simply go to a pharmacy and buy Vitamin D supplements. The vast majority of people would be candidates for Vitamin D treatment." says Dr. White, an endocrinologist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and leader of the team who made this exciting discovery.

Separate studies have also suggested that vitamin D can help prevent heart disease and certain forms of cancer.

More Information
You can read more information on the study at The McGill University Health Centre Website

Where To Get Vitamin D
I have not thought of this before, but because they are available over the counter, Amazon stock a HUGE range of Vitamin D supplements:

Vitamin D Suppliments on Amazon.com

Or if you prefer, Cod liver Oil:
Cod Liver Oil on Amazon.com

Children with Chrons Disease & Folic Acid Link

It has been found that Children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), that includes children with chrons and ulcerative colitis have low levels of Folic Acid in their blood, this ads to the theory that people with chrons and ulcerative colitis are lacking in Folate (Folic Acid)

What is Folic Acid?
Folic acid which is also called Folate, Vitamin B9 or Folacin are the types of the water-soluble Vitamin B9. The names of Folate and Folic acid come from the Latin word folium which means leaf.

Why is Folic Acid important?
Vitamin B9 that is essential to numerous bodily functions. It is vitally important during periods of rapid cell division and growth, this includes childhood and when a person is pregnant. Both children and adults require folic acid to produce healthy red blood cells and prevent anemia.

Researchers from the University of California in San Francisco believe that IBD in children may be different from the IBD that affects adults. This discovery was made when they measured blood folate levels in 78 children, nearly half of whom had recently been diagnosed with IBD while the remainder were healthy controls. Folate levels were nearly 20 per cent higher in the IBD group, the researchers found, even though the controls were ingesting around 18 per cent more folate from their diet.

Folic Acid in Foods
Folate is found in leafy vegetables, so things like spinach, turnip greens, lettuces, dried beans and peas, fortified cereal products, sunflower seeds and certain other fruits and vegetables are rich sources of folate. Liver and liver products also contain high amounts of folate, as does baker's yeast. Some breakfast cereals (ready-to-eat and others) are fortified with 25% to 100% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for folic acid.

Folic acid is added to grain products in many countries, and in these countries fortified products make up a significant source of folate.

Sources: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2009; 89: 545-50 & Wikipedia.

Children with Chrons Disease Helped with Growth Hormone

Kids with Chrons disease can experience stunted growth, which at this very important period of their lives can have huge implications. Now according to a US report, it may be possible that some shots with a growth hormone may help children with Chrons disease with a growth spurt as well as improve bone mineralisation and body composition.

Encouraging Results
For the duration of 1 year at the University of California San Francisco, Dr. Melvin B. Heyman and his and colleagues treated 10 Children with Chrons Disease all aged between 4 and 19 years old with daily shots of the growth hormone. In this small study, there were shown to be healthy gains in bone mineralization at the lumbar spine as well as the average percent of body fat decrease in the children, this would indicate an increase in lean body mass.

With the growth hormone, the average height of the children increased from 3.00cm per year at the outset to 8.32cm per year after the 1 year of treatment, which is a real significant increase.

More Research Needed
Before these results, previous trials using growth hormone treatment on children with Crohn's disease showed mixed results, with many of them conflicting, so whilst these latest results are very promising, there is still much work and research to be done before the growth hormone can be used to treat pediatric patients with Chrons disease who also have stunted growth.

SOURCE: The Journal of Pediatrics, November 2008.

USA: Chrons Disease Books




UK: Chrons Disease Books

Advances in Chrons Disease Surgeries

This week, leading Chrons Disease experts at the York-Presbyterian Hospital, in the US have said that today people who suffer from chrons disease, the chronic inflammatory bowel condition are living longer healthier lives and this is mainly down to innovative new surgery.

There are an estimated half a million people in the USA alone who suffer from Chrons disease, which starts off inflammation along the gastrointestinal tract and is most often found in the lower bowel. Today there are certain drugs can help ease symptoms of chrons disease, but to date there is no cure for crohn's. There are often complications related to Crohn's disease and these often include fistulas which are abnormal, obstructive connections between tissues in the body, strictures which is basically the narrowing of the bowel, abscesses, perforations, haemorrhage and even cancers. Because of these complications chrons disease sufferers will often require some sort of surgery.

Dr Fabrizio Michelassi who is an author as well as a professor and chairman in the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College he is also the surgeon in chief at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center said that out of five patients with chrons disease, four of them will need some kind of surgery during some point of their lives. The new,advanced and minimally invasive techniques however are sparing the patients precious bowel tissue and at the same time improving quality of life.

Dr. Sharon Stein who is the assistant professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and colorectal surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Centre said that "In the past, this was limited to complex, invasive surgeries that required the removal of whole sections of the affected bowel. But over the past two decades, advances in surgery have changed that paradigm,"

Innovations in Chrons Disease Surgery

Fistula Plugs:

For anyone who has had a fistula, and I will know they are often painful as well as being dangerous as they can cause the contents of your intestines to diverge from the anal canal. This can often progress to anal incontinence, abscesses and in the most serious cases systemic infection. There are now certain surgical procedures that can drain the fistula tract but for more difficult lesions there is a new new surgical anal plug which is made from grafted porcine tissue and is then placed over the fistula. This fistula plug then is the catalyst for the growth of fibrotic tissue in the area that will then close off the fistula passage. According to Dr Stein, recent studies have shown this method to be successful in up to half of Chrons patients.


Laparoscopic surgery:

Another new innovation in surgery for people with Chrons disease is known as Laparoscopic surgery which are minimally invasive techniques requiring only a small incision and leaves very little external scarring. Laparoscopic surgery can take longer to perform than conventional surgery techniques, but lead to shorter stays in hospital, which not only saves money, but because chrons disease patients often spend long periods in hospitals can be very important to them.


Strictureplasty:

The technique of Strictureplasty has completely changed bowel surgery as the technique alows the surgeon to leave the disease affected length of bowel in place but widen it, it is "much like letting out the seams on a pant-leg," explains Dr Michelassi, who is a world renowned pioneer in the technique of Strictureplasty. This saves bowel tissue while "restructuring" it, so that intestinal contents can safely pass through. before Strictureplasty, surgeons would have to cut out whole sections of bowel affected with Chrons disease, shortening the organ which leads to the limiting of the gastrointestinal tract.

(Source: New advances in surgical treatment of Crohn's disease. Practical Gastroenterology: November 2008)

USA:
Books on Crohn's Disease from Amazon.com

UK:
Books on Crohn's Disease from Amazon.co.uk

Research may help painful Symptoms of Chrons Disease

In the USA today, there are more than half a million people with Chrons disease and if you break it down, more than 100 thousand of these are children. As we know so far there is no cure, so until we find a cure for chrons disease, the main angle of attack is to reduce the symptoms. (Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes the intestinal lining to become inflamed, and this causing severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and bleeding.)

The good news is that it now seems that some researchers may just have found a way to help reduce the painful symptoms of chrons disease.

The video below tels of Taralyn Allen, who is 15 years old who has had chrons disease for the last four years. Apparently there are still people out there who do not know that chrons can affect children, this is according to Howard Baron, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas. "The parents will assume it's the flu and it goes on and on and on."

Taralyn said that she felt sick all day every day and when she was correctly diagnosed with chrons, she was treated like many of us with steroids, this helped to relieve a little of the pain, but caused her to put on a lot of weight, going from 70 pounds to 130 pounds in just a few months.


She now no longer takes steroids and is the first child in the world to take part in a study of a new drug marketed at Humira (adalimumab). This drug has already shown to work with adults with chrons disease.

Humira (adalimumab) is an antibody that fights against a chemical that starts the inflammatory cascade in your body. It prevents white blood cells from migrating to the lining of tissues, which causes the inflammation and the pain.

Humira (adalimumab)does have side effects: It decreases the immune system and children with Chrons disease could be at a slightly higher risk for lymphoma.


Happily for Taralyn the Humira has worked and now for her Chrons disease does not exist anymore

Humira is still undergoing research and children as young as five can enroll in the clinical trial. The youngest patient enrolled so far is 10-years-old.

Video of Taralyn and her fight against Chrons Disease

The Crohn's Diet, Colitis Diet and Superfoods

Can Superfoods help cure Chrons disease?
Because Chrons disease affects the digestive system and certain types of food play a role in triggering the genes that cause this inflammatory bowel disease, a team of scientists in New Zealand are focusing their research on crones disease whilst looking to see if certain foods are linked to disease prevention in general. So for example they are looking for food that is linked to disease prevention, such as broccoli and colon cancer.

The research project consists of around 700 IBD and Chrons patients, who have all begun by listing the foods that their body cannot tolerate, or that cause them to have a flare up. They then compare the genetic differences in people who have chrons disease with their tolerances and in-tolerances of foods in their diet. The researches are also collecting details on the patients lifestyle as well as their symptoms.

Initial findings have shown that foods like Bananas, starchy vegetables, ginger and couscous have been pointed out as good foods for the Crohn's and Colitis diet, where as carbonated drinks, energy drinks, alcohol, coffee, food like hot curries, salami, grapefruit, cream, fruits that have small seeds and corn have generally shown to be bad foods for the Chrons diet.

Cabbage and the Colitis Diet: Their research has shown that certain chrons disease patients who have a certain gene find that cabbage causes a flare up where as other patients who do not contain the gene not only can eat cabbage in their diet, but have found that it actually is beneficial!

Generally The Good Chrons Diet contains things like:
Bananas
Couscous
Ginger
Starchy Vegetables

Generally The Bad Crohn's Diet contains things like:
Coffee
Alcohol
Energy Drinks
Carbonated Drinks
Hot Curries
Salami
Grapefruit
Cream
Fruit with small seeds

The New Zealand scientists are basically looking for two things in the Crohn's and Colitis diet: the gene "switch" that makes people prone to inflammation and a nutrient (or food) that turns it off the inflammation.
Ultimately it is hoped that this research will go on to other inflammatory illnesses like colitis and that they will be able to find other nutrients that turn off these harmful gene "switches". They are the fist to say that there is a long way to go, but it has already been shown that in Singapore, there has been an increase in western diseases as their diet changes and becomes more westernised. (In Singapore all babies are genotyped)

It is thought that, in the developed world, Chrons disease affects one in every 10,000 people, In New Zealand research has shown that they have an even higher proportion, with one in 600 people in the Canterbury area alone. Professor Lynn Ferguson of the University’s Nutrigenomics group says that "Chrons disease is on the rise, and it is important that we learn as much as possible about how diet affects symptoms and whether this is genetically linked."

No Chrons disease benefits with Omega-3s

There have been studies in the past that seemed to support the anti inflammatory potential of omega-3 fatty acids, but the most recent study seems to suggest that the oils are not effective for managing Chrons disease.

The Authors of the research said in the Journal of the American Medical Association that "Our results are important because the use of alternative medicines in general, and omega-3 free fatty acid formulations in particular, is widespread among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)"

People started to use omega-3 after the positive findings of some research conducted by Italian researchers in 1996 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Because of the most recent findings, the researchers said that "we do not endorse this practice (of using omega-3), since patients with Chrons disease who are at risk for relapse would be better served by taking medications of known efficacy".

Dr. Brian Feagan at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada led the new international study on omega-3 and Chrons Disease that included two massive tests involving seven hundred and thirty eight Chrons patients in the US, Europe, Israel, and Canada.

The importance of this large scale test cannot be over estimated as smaller trials often overestimate the true effects, that why it is important to conduct large-scale, randomised, multi-location tests in order to confirm preliminary results.

Chrons disease, current affects about one in 400 people in the west, Crohn's disease is currently incurable so patients are mostly looking to control the inflammation, (known as flare ups), relieve symptoms and prolong the time spent when the disease is in remission. And because of the anti-inflammatory properties of omega-3 fatty acids, the researchers wanted to test their effects on for Chrons disease patients.

Main results and Details of the Omega-3 Study and Chrons

The research was undertaken as mentioned before in two large trials involving 363 and 375 patients using high doses of omega-3 free fatty acids in Chrons disease patients who were in remission. The people with chrons were randomly given either a placebo or a daily omega-3 supplement that lasted for a total of 58 weeks.

The omega-3 supplement provided a dose of four grams of omega-3 per day, which consisted of 50% to 60% eicosapentanonic acid (EPA) and 15% to 25% docosahexanoic acid (DHA). These doses were placed in a delayed release soft gelatin capsules.

The researchers found no significant differences in relapse rates between people in the omega-3 and placebo groups in either trial. In one of the trials, 31.6% of patients in the omega-3 group experienced a relapse within the 360 days, compared to 35.7% of people with chrons who were in the placebo group. The other trial shoed 47.8% of patients in the omega-3 group experienced a relapse within 360 days, compared to 48.8% of chrons patients who were in the in the placebo group.
So basically high doses of omega-3 free fatty acids did not reduce the rate of relapse in people with Chrons disease.


On the plus side there is a lot of research that supports the role of omega-3 fatty acids for health in hearts this was first discovered in the 1970s by a group of Danish researchers and this recent report seemed to back up those findings.

Book on Chrons Disease
Living with Crohn's Disease from Amazon (USA)



Living with Crohn's Disease from Amazon (UK)



Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
Volume 299, Number 14, Pages 1690-1697
"Omega-3 Free Fatty Acids for theMaintenance of Remission in Crohn Disease: The EPIC Randomized Controlled Trials"
Authors: B.G. Feagan, W.J. Sandborn, U. Mittmann, S. Bar-Meir, G. D'Haens, M. Bradette, A. Cohen, C. Dallaire, T.P. Ponich, J.W.D. McDonald, X. Hebuterne, P. Pare, P. Klvana, Y. Niv, S. Ardizzone, O. Alexeeva, A. Rostom, G. Kiudelis, J. Spleiss, D. Gilgen, M.K. Vandervoort, C.J. Wong, G.Y. Zou, A. Donner, P. Rutgeerts

Chrons Disease With Fistulas Breakthrough

There is real hope for people who have fistulas because of their Chrons Disease as it was recently announced in France at the European Chrons and Colitis Organization (ECCO) annual meeting that HUMIRA (Adalimumab) is successful for the treatment of fistulas in people who have Crohn's disease.

So what is Chrons disease?

Chrons Disease is basically a gastrointestinal disorder where there is chronic inflammation of the walls of some part of the digestive tract. People affected with the disease suffer periods of flare-ups and then periods where they are in remission, this can continue through the whole life of the person.

Is Chrons Disease the same as ulcerative colitis?
The short answer is No, Chrons is considered medically as an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and it is similar to ulcerative colitis.

Fistulas and Chrons
In a recent study, it was suggested that almost half (43%) of Chrons disease patients will develop fistulas, which can be both painful and embarrassing.

What Are Fistulas?
Fistulas are basically tunnels that connect the chrons affected organs to surrounding tissues. These can include the bladder, vagina, or even the skin. Fistulas are very difficult to treat and can cause fecal discharge from abnormal locations, leading to not only embarrassment but also incontinence, infections, and other complications that will usually mean that the patient has to undergo surgery.

So how can HUMIRA (Adalimumab) help?
HUMIRA, or Adalimumab works by binding Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNF-α), which is an important part of the immune response pathway

Because of this, Adalimumab is related to infliximab and other similar TNF-α blockers. The good news is that it has already been given the green light in a few countries for treatment of many diseases that are autoimmune related including Chrons Disease, psoriasis and some types of arthritis.

The study that took place showed some very posetive results and did point to the fact that the healing of fistulas was a lot better in people who had been given HUMIRA:

• 60% of chrons patients showed fistula healing after 1 year of treatment
• 76% of patients who showed the improvement and healing after 1 year continued the healing up to 2 years
• 71% of patients showed a significant 50% reduction in the number of draining fistulas after 2 years of treatmen with HUMIRA.
  

During thsese 2 years that people with chrons with fistulas had a higher quality of life because the disease was in remission.

All sounds like excellent news, I would love to hear from anyone who has any first hand exprience, if you have please leave a comment.

Chrons Disease and Aggressive Therapy

A recent study has shown that if you treat chrons disease more aggressively, it resulted in a better outcome for patients. This study was performed by an international team of researchers.

The researcher's found that shortly after a person had been diagnosed with chrons disease, using more than 1 immunosuppressive drug was more effective in inducing remission than starting patients on corticosteroids.

One of the researcher's, Dr. Brian Feagan said that more studies needed to be conducted, but if you treat chrons patients earlier with more aggressive therapy it may be more effective than the traditional method. Doctors are always looking for ways to treat people who suffer from chrons disease without the use of steroids, so this could mean en exciting development.
Nobody really knows the true cause of chrons disease but basically what happens is there is an inflammation of the gut that often affects the small intestine, the swelling leads to pain and diarrhea. The current theory is that someone with crohn's disease has lost tolerance to normal bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. "The immune system is in a controlled inflammatory state. In Crohns disease, it is thought that the immune system is becoming unhappy with normal flora. White blood cells migrate into the tissue and release nasty things and cause damage." said Feagan, director of Robarts Clinical Trials at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.

The current usual treatment for someone with crohns begins with corticosteroids. If the patient shows really bad side effects to the steroid treatment or if some sort of resistance to the drug begins to show the treatment usually moves on to a range of immunosuppressive drugs like Rheumatrex (methotrexate). If this treatment does not help, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-blockers are often then used.

Remicade (infliximab) with Imuran (azathioprine)
In the research 133 people with chrons disease in Belgium, Germany and Holland had either combined immunosuppression or the traditional method. 67 had the joint immunosuppression with three infusions of Remicade (infliximab) with Imuran (azathioprine) at the start and then again a few weeks later and then again 4 weeks after that. The other 66 patients were given steroids ad then given Imuran and Remicade.

Study Results
Some initial findings show that after 6 months sixty percent of the patients on the combined immunosuppression had their chrons disease in remission with no need for steroids or any form of surgery. From the second group only 35.9% were in remission.

Later on, after one year the figures were:
61.5% of the combined immunosuppression group were in remission compared to ony 42.2 % of patients following the more traditional method of chrons disease treatments.

More research is to follow, but if they come to the same conclusion, the conventional treatment for Chrons could change.

Down sides to Remicade (infliximab)
Remicade is administered intravenously so the person has to go to a medical center to receive treatment.

Chrons Disease Drug Tysabri has been approved

There is some great news for people who suffer from Chrons Disease in the US as the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a drug called Tysabri (natalizumab).

Tysabri which is produced by Ireland based company Elan and Biogen Idec in the USA is to be used on chrons patients who have not responded to other forms of treatment, it was given the green light in 2006 to treat people who have elapsing multiple sclerosis and will now be given the all clear to be used with people suffering from Chrons Disese.

Possible side effects of the drug include the risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy which is a viral infection that affects the brain. This viral infection could cause severe disability or even death. Another possible side effect are anaphylactic reactions and possible liver injury.

Because of these possible serious side effects people with chrons disease who are prescribed the drug Tysabri will also be added to a restricted distribution program called Crohn's Disease-Tysabri Outreach Unified Commitment to Health (CD-TOUCH).

This program will allow doctors to check the chrons disease patients that are using Tysabri after three months and will be asked to stop using the drug if there if there are no signs of improvement in that time.

Drug Details
Drug Name: TYSABRI (Brand Name Drug)
FDA Application No. (BLA) 125104
Active Ingredient: NATALIZUMAB
Company: BIOGEN IDEC
Original Approval or Tentative Approval Date: November 23, 2004
There are no Therapeutic Equivalents

Chrons Disease is an incurable disease that affects the bowel. Symptoms often include diarrhea, fever, rectal bleeding, malnutrition, narrowing of the intestines, cramping, and abdominal pain. Chrons disease affects more than one million people around the world and can also lead to abnormal connections that are called fistulas from the intestines to the skin or internal organs.

New help to distinguish between Chrons Disease and Ulcerative Colitis in Children

Anti-glycan antibodies can help distinguish between Chrons disease and ulcerative colitis in children. This news was released at the United European Gastroenterology Week (UEGW) where researchers looked at the diagnostic relevance of serological anti-glycan antibodies in 110 young people less than 18 years old who had inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and 630 people older than 18 years.

There has always been a problem in diagnosing people who either have chrons disease or ulcerative colitis as they are very similar and have many overlapping features, but the correct diagnosis is important for the correct form of treatment. Traditionally paediatric patients often have to endure invasive examination of combined upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, and terminal ileoscopy with biopsies and atthe end of this the exact disease (crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis) in up to 30% of patients is still unknown and they are defined as "indeterminate colitis" or unclassified inflammatory bowel disease.

In adult patients, anti-glycan antibodies IBDX has been found to help distinguish between Chrons disease and ulcerative colitis, so it is highly likely that IBDX markers may also help in the diagnosis of paediatric IBD patients. The hope is that this will reduce the use of invasive examination in young children.

During the tests, the diagnosis of IBD for each person was based upon standard endoscopic, histologic, and radiographic criteria and serological analysis of antibodies against mannan epitope of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (gASCA), laminaribioside (ALCA), chitobioside (ACCA), and mannobioside (AMCA) were performed using IBDX ELISA panel.


The Results
In the results of the tests, children with IBD, who tested positive for at least one of the markers could be identified as Chrons disease patients with a sensitivity of 65% and specificity of 84%; the positive and negative predictive values were 91% and 50%, respectively. Children who tested positive for 2 or more markers could be identified as Chrons disease with higher specificity (94%) but lower sensitivity (22%).


There were also no significant differences in the results between children and adults with IBD.

The Conclusion
So in conclusion these tests show for the first time that similar to adults, anti-glycan antibodies can distinguish between chrons disease and ulcerative colitis in children with IBD.

Children with Chrons disease often picky eaters

In a new study that was looking into food and the eating patterns in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which is a condition that includes Chrons disease and ulcerative colitis, it was found that children with IBD and crohn's disease are more likely than other children to show signs of picky eating.

All the children in the study had either Chrons disease or ulcerative colitis and "Picky" eating was defined as not eating during meal time, trying to negotiate with their parents what they will or won't eat and completely refusing to eat certain foods.


Dr. Laura Mackner the author of the study from the Columbus Children's Research Institute and Ohio State University told said the results found that children with chrons disease or ulcerative colitis have a significantly more eating behavioral problems and these also occur more often than in healthy children. She also said that children with IBD often feel pains in their abdomen, which may make them not want to eat food. "If your stomach's hurting, you may not feel like eating," she said.

Chrons Disease and a Childs Diet
Often children who have a form of IBD, weather it be Chrons disease or ulcerative colitis are often smaller than other children their own age this often makes their parents try to force them to eat more, often creating tension and a power struggle over eating. Dr. Laura Mackner said that as a parent who has a child who's eating habits start to interfere with their health you should consider taking your child to a psychologist who has experience in eating behaviors.

Nutrition education and behavior management has helped children overcome eating problems in other diseases, and similar programs might also work for children with chrons disease or ulcerative colitis.

The study looked into the eating behaviors of 82 children all between the ages of 11 and 17. 50 of the children had inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the rest were healthy.

They also found that girls with chrons disease or ulcerative colitis and who were unhappy with their bodies showed a higher risk of eating problems. How much they weighed was not important. But with boys who had crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis weight was important, and those who weighed less than their peers were more likely to develop eating problems than normal weight boys with IBD.

These results of this study were presented during the recent meeting of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in Montreal.

Books on Children and Chrons Disease

Books for sale in the USA:






Books for sale in the UK:

New diet to help with Chrons Disease and ulcerative colitis.

Dr Richard Gearry who is a senior lecturer at Otago Universitys Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand, has been working on a new low carbohydrate diet that could help people who suffer with Chrons disease and those with ulcerative colitis, both of which are forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The low carbohydrate diet meant cutting back on wheat, onions, milk, ice cream, apples, honey and stone fruits. Legumes were also found to cause abdominal pain and diarrhoea. This study was carried out using 100 people from the at Box Hill Hospital in Victoria in Australia, who had a form of IBD (either crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis)

What happens sometimes is that some of the sugars and carbohydrates are not absorbed into the bowl as they pass though and the get into the colon where they can ferment and produce gas and thus pain. In the study the patients were put onto the diet for six to eight weeks. An important factor with this diet is that the taste is not too bad and it is easy to follow and so many people are able able to go through with it.

The findings from this study were presented to the Australian Gastroenterology Week conference in Perth and it is hope that it will help people who suffer with chrons disease and ulcerative colitis but other factors like exercise and stress may also be important.

Chrons Disease Weight Gain with Infliximab

In a study at the University of North Carolina people treated with infliximab who have chrons disease experience weight gain which so far can not be explained.

Some chrons disease patients put on as much as 75 pounds. This is far more than any weight gain that had been witnessed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and treated with infliximab.

Cristal Brown, a clinical research fellow at the University said that chrons disease patients were often malnourished and that this could help if the fight against crohn's disease, the difficult question to ask is that what if they were to push chrons disease sufferers into obesity and all the associated problems that come with that?

Chrons disease patients gained almost five times as much weight as patients with arthritis (4.97 kg versus 1.1 kg) and some Crohn's patients gained as much as 20 to 30 kg. There was no difference in weight gain between patients with luminal versus fistulous disease or by steroid use, baseline body mass index, smoking status, or chrons disease activity. These findings were based on the records on 92 people with Chrons disease and 51 rheumatoid arthritis patients. All of whom were at least 18 years old and who had received three or more infusions of infliximab.

Many Chrons disease patients would probably benefit from a small weight gain as the disease often led to some degree of undernourishment, but there is a need for a larger study to determine the cause of this weight gain and the role of leptin in the weight gain.

Chrons Disease and Smoking

A study that was published in May 2007 in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, has shown a link between smoking and Chrons Disease.

The research seems to show that smoking may determine which part of your intestinal tract is affected in people who have Chrons disease. This is very important as where the chrons disease is situated often determines if the patient will need surgical treatment or not.

The research showed that people with chrons disease and who smoke, the crohn's disease seems to appear more often in the small intestine and not the colon. Chrons disease located in the small intestine is often more penetrating causing more damage and thus has to be treated by surgery more often. This research does ask a few important questions like why does smoking effect the different parts of your intestine in different ways.

There is a theory that the physical differences in small and large bowel may explain the differences in location of chrons disease in smokers. Whatever the case this seems to suggest that more research needs to be done on the effects of smoking and Chrons Disease.

Chrons disease treated with cancer drugs

US researches have said that treatment with new cancer drugs could help regulate body's immune system and thus help fight Chrons disease. The new cancer drugs, known as histone deacetylases inhibitors, or HDACs might work very well at blocking overactive immune systems in people with chrons disease and other autoimmune diseases.

The Chrons disease treatment would improve the immune system’s ability to regulate itself, according to Wayne Hancock of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In one study that has already been conducted on mice, the drug helped reverse and even prevent inflammatory bowel disease. This drug also prevented the rejection of heart transplants in other mice.

So far, the drug has mostly been used in studying cancer, but that could change and more tests could soon be done for diseases like Chrons disease.

Perianal Fistulas in Chrons Disease

What is a Fistulas?
Fistulas are pretty common is people who have Chrons disease, so what are they? Well basically they are abnormal connections or passageways between organs or vessels that should not normally connect to each other.

What Are Perianal Fistulas?
A perianal fistula is an abnormal connections (fistula) between the anus and rectum with another organ or vessel such as the skin or the vagina. This can be a very debilitating condition, and can lead to a big drop in the quality of life for anyone who has Perianal fistuals and Chrons disease as they can cause anal incontinence and / or infections.

According to research about 12 percent of people with chrons disease have Perianal fistulas, this is a huge amount as there are said to be at least half a million people with Crohn's disease in the US alone.

How are Fistulas treated?
Current treatments rely mainly upon surgery, which unfortunatly has a pretty poor success rate and is obviously very invasive. Anti TNF-alpha, is also used which only has a sucess rate (complete absence of fistulae) of only 36%.
So there is a huge need for another more effective and less invasive treatment for people who have chrons disease and fistulas.

Help with Fistulas on the way?
Possibly! A product with the catchy tilte of Cx401, is in development and is to be used for the treatment of perianal fistulas common in people with Chrons disease.

What is Cx401?

Cx401 uses stem-cells not derived from embryo's to treat perianal fistulas in Chrons and also non Chrons Disease patients. There has already been a Phase 2 clinical trial which has shown the effectiveness and the safety of Cx401. The Patent application has been submitted, and fingers crossed for all people with Chrons Disease who have perianal fistulas, if it is granted it could provide protection until the year 2025!

Chrons Disease and Pregnancy

A few people have asked me to do a little research on the effects of having Chrons disease whilst pregnant, crohn's disease often affects women of childbearing age so it is a common problem. Here are my findings:

Risk of Preterm Birth
Recent studies have shown that having active chrons disease during your pregnancy raises the risk of having a preterm birth. I guess by "active" they mean that you are having a flare up? This risk was shown to be three times higher in women with active chrons disease.

This research was carried out at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark by Dr. Bente Norgard and colleagues. They examined the impact of chrons disease in 71 women with low to moderately high active chrons disease during their pregnancy and another 86 women with inactive Chrons disease during pregnancy (I guess this means remission?).

Good news
The good news is that the women with the active chrons disease during their pregnancy, were shown the risks of giving birth to a child of low birth weight and congenital abnormalities were not increased, compared to the women with inactive chrons disease.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, September 2007.