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.

About Chrons Disease

I found this excellent video about chrons disease which explains all the main details including:

Chrons Disease Definition
Chrons Disease Diagnosis
Chrons Disease Treatment

So if you get tired my writing, take a look at the video, it may answer a few of your questions:

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Chrons Disease

I had not realised until recently that the Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready suffers from Chrons Disease. I only found out because I found this great video on YouTube of a guy who tells of his experience of the disease with a Perl Jam backing track, which he uses because of the fact Mike McCready has chrons Disease.

Anyway here is the video:




Apparently the Perl Jam guitarist announced that he had chrons in 2003 and the main reason he decided to go public was because of the strength of a teenager who had suffered through 6 surgeries and still had a long way to go to get to grips with chrons.

During his speech which he made on stage, Mike spoke of a particularly embarrassing incident to demonstrate how Chrons can come at any time. He said that whilst playing onstage at a gig, he would always make sure he was aware of where the bathrooms were "When Crohn's hits, I have to run, or it won't be pretty. It happened when we opened up for the Rolling Stones in 1997 in Oakland. It was our first show with them, Five minutes before we went on, I went up to Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder and I said, 'Look man, can we play 'Sometimes'? — which is a slower song that I'm not really on. I was in pain. I went running offstage looking for a bathroom, and there wasn't one. Then, all of a sudden, there was one. It was a honey bucket. I heard my band play that song from inside a portable toilet!"

I am sure may people who have chrons disease can relate to this story!

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.

Chrons Disease basics

Some Basic Chrons Disease facts: What it is and some of the main Chrons Disease Symptoms

Often when you are trying to research a medical condition like Crohn's Disease, you get bombarded with long words and medical terminology. In this article I will try and explain what chrons disease is in really basic terms. Hope it helps

So What is Chrons Disease?
Basicall Chrons disease is a medical condition that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract which is sometimes known as the gut.

So what is the gut then?
When medical people talk of the gut, they mean your oesophagus (where your food first goes down after swallowing it!), your stomach, and your small and large intestines.

People cant be affected by Chrons disease in any part of the gut, but it seems to occur more often in the lower part of your small intestine, this part of your intestine is known as the ileum.

How do I know if I have Chrons Disease and what are the basic Chrons Disease symptoms?
The most common symptoms of chrons disease include, pain, which is often in your lower abdomen or stomach, ulcers and diarrhoea.

What can be done to help with the Chrons Disease Symptoms?
If you are diagnosed with Crohn's disease, you may be given medication that you will take daily that can help relieve your symptoms. Sometimes the medication will not work and you may have to have surgery to remove part of your gut, that has been affected with chrons disease.

So how common is Chrons Disease?
Chrons Disease is probably more common than you may have thought, about 1 person in 1,500 people have Chrons disease.

Chrons Disease can start at any age, but most often first shows up between the ages of 15 and 40. The disease also seems to affect slightly more women than men.

What is the Prognosis of Chrons Disease?
If you have Chrons disease, what is your outlook? This can be difficult to answer as it will depend largely what part of your gut has the disease and how bad a case of chrons disease you have. But if we work on an average case of Chrons, most people will experience some symptoms from time to time - this is called a flare up.

Most people who have chrons disease (about 80 %) will eventually have surgery at some time, probably to remove the diseased part of your gut.

Only in very rare cases where there is a complication, will Chrons Disease be life-threatening.