I was forwarded this link from my friend Marla today.
Thanks, Mar!
Before I discuss it, a brief aside about Marla.
Marla is one of my BFFs from high school, and although we were supposed to attend Northwestern concurrently, she didn't disown me when I went to Kalamazoo instead. Good for me, because there are few truer friends that one could have than Marla. Although all my friends love me (I think) and know about my Crohn's, Marla is probably my friend who remembers it the most, and is most supportive of my various Crohn's/GIRF-related endeavors. I have convinced her to come to a lot of Crohn's-related events, and she always does, despite instances where she has been cornered by people who swear they know her from somewhere...
Anyway, Marla is getting married in October to Allen, who in addition to being our friend, is our insurance guy (If you are looking for an outstanding insurance agent in the greater Chicagoland area, drop me a line and I'll send you his digits). Also, Allen has Crohn's. Which is kinda fun for me because it is nice to have a friend that you can complain to about all your Crohn's-y things and they really understand, so I got lucky when Marla met Allen. And it needs to be pointed out that Marla has always been supportive of me (even pre-Allen), so if you think she's only nice to me because her fiance is saddled with the same disease, it's not true (though I'm sure it makes me even more sympathetic, if that's even possible). So basically what I'm saying is that I'm really glad that Marla and Allen found each other because they are an awesome couple, great friends, and Allen would be really hard-pressed to find someone who will take better care of him than Mar (except maybe Eileen, but she's mine). Holla!
OK, so now I'm mixing up what kind of post this is and I need to get back to the story. Basically, this group at Cornell found a link between the presence of a nasty strain of E.coli and Crohn's disease. I hadn't heard of this particular study before, but there have been many groups looking into associations between different bacterial species and Crohn's. The cool thing about the research going on now is that they can actually do something about it. There have been a lot of advances in genetic analysis, so it is possible to isolate gut bacteria and see what genes they might be expressing that can lead to an inflammatory response...and then it is possible to potentially target these genes so that the bacteria are not so pro-inflammatory. Also, comparing the bacterial composition of Crohn's people vs. healthy people can further give us an idea about what might be going on in the disease.
Did you know that you are mostly bacteria? Apparently we have more bacterial cells living on or in us than we do our own "human" cells. And because of this, the interaction between host (us) and symbiote (the bacteria--remember, they do good stuff for us in our guts, too, and that is why Dannon is trying to get you to buy their Activia yogurt that apparently is chock full o' bacterial goodness) can really influence our health. So researchers are trying to get at what signals are being transmitted between bacteria and human that might influence an individual's disease state...it's getting at a very central part of the environmental component of Crohn's (remember, Crohn's is thought to be due to environmental factors interacting with a genetic predisposition to induce disease). They are doing a lot of this kind of stuff at U of C now, also.
Always at the "Forefront of Medicine!"
PS I think eating yogurt is good for you, but any yogurt should do (just don't get ones sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. It's bad for you.)
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I think that cranberry juice works in the urinary tract by stopping the e.coli from adhering to the bladder lining....wonder if this is how it would work/works in IBD? - as my reading of some of those studies is that it is the adherence of the e.coli(vs. passing through) that is the problem? Regards, DB
PS: is it the N:0157 strain? if so, you should get your hands on a copy of Omnivores Dilema and see how the grain/corn feeding of cattle promotes e.coli contamination (doesn't happen when they are grass fed as nature intended). One thing is for sure, between the Chinese contamination of everything and the US contamination via industrial farming+genetic engineering, gastroenterologists will be in short supply.
PSS - Cranberry juice cocktail is not the same as cranberry juice. Buy the 100% pure unsweetened cranberry juice and add Stevia to sweeten - makes a good ice tea, which you can make even healthier if you use Rooibos tea (tons of antioxidants, an herb so no caffeine, lower in fluoride than green tea - tho a trade off, no ECGC like the green tea)
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