Advice for Crohn's symptoms

I am a complete newbie when it comes to medicinal herbs.  My wife suffers from Chrons disease and she recently asked me what would be good herbs to help aid in digestion. I would love to be able to grow something she could make tea from that would help.

My husband also has Crohn's. He's on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which means no starches (potatoes, wheat, other grains, etc) or sugars other than those in fruit and honey. This means that some of the commonly prescribed herbs like marshmallow and plantain that have mucilagens (which are a type of polysaccaride/starch) aren't allowed.

BUT, mint seems to really help! Not only does it sooth the stomach (it acts as a carminative, reducing gas), but mint has also been shown in some studies to reduce stomach ulcers in mice (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2999094/). So far, it really seems to be helping!

I've also heard lots of good things about oregano, which is also in the mint family.

Another in the mint family of plants is Self-Heal. I recently ran across this information from Baker Creek Seeds (https://www.rareseeds.com/self-heal/)

A photogenic, unobtrusive, mild-tasting perennial mint that is loved by pollinators and herbal tea drinkers alike! In clinical studies, it was found to have a very high antioxidant activity and contained active compounds such as rosmarinic acid, rutin and quercetin. The highest amount of compounds were extracted by water, but this plant also makes a great infused vinegar! Known for a high mineral content and high antiviral activity in several studies, it is considered by the Chinese to “change the course of a chronic disease”.

 

I couldn't find any information about it in Dr. Tilgner's book, and would love to know if the info listed at Baker Creek seeds is accurate, or inflated to sell seeds (EDIT: Baker Creek no longer seems to offer Self-Heal seeds, and their webpage about it seems to be down. Here's a link to info about it at Mountain Rose Herb). Regardless, I've got the stuff growing around my garden, so I've begun adding it to my husband's daily tea.

I especially like that self-heal is supposed to have quercetin in it. A few months back, my husband started supplementing with quercetin, as it was shown to heal ulcers. He had some horrible Crohn's-caused ulcers on his feet. He'd been battling them for months, without any respite. He started taking quercetin daily, and the ulcers were gone in a week, and haven't been back since. If the healed the Crohn's ulcers on his feet, we can only hope they are also healing the ulcers in his gut!


I read in Dr. Tilgner's book that bitter herbs--like dandelion leaves and chamomile--which work in various ways upon the digestive system to help it digest food better. I.e. those--like my husband--who have a lot of undigested food in their stools, can really benefit from adding some bitter herbs before dinner. My husband was having a bit of a flare-up, and I'd read this in Dr. Tilgner's book, and so went out and started adding dandelion leaves to my husband's tea. Every day since we started adding in the dandelion, his stools have gotten progressively more formed, with less undigested food in them. I'm hoping it's the dandelion helping, and will continue to add dandelion to his tea!

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Two other things that we use, that aren't necessarily herbal, but seem to really help are

Saccharomyces Boulardii: This is a probiotic yeast, that has been used for many years to treat C.Diff, as it outcompetes the C. diff bacteria. Since Crohn's is thought to be caused in part by the immune system overreacting to an overgrowth of bad gut bacteria and yeasts.

Low-dose Naltrexone: My husband was on a differnt medication (sulfasalazine), but it started causing his kidneys to have labs that indicated kidney failure. We quit taking that, and the labs improved. We visited a naturopath and were able to get a prescription of Low-dose natrexone, which has little-to-no side effects. So far, his crohn's is as stable as it was on Sulfasalzine, and he has no side effects.

I would like to share my experience as I was diagnosed with a similar disease in the mid 1980's.  My predicament was ulcerative colititis.  The doctor actually laughed when he told me there was no cure and laid out a grim time line of what was going to happen to me as the disease progressed.  He prescribed three drugs for my immediate care.  Fortunately, I was horribly allergic to one of them and had a bad histemic reaction.  I threw all the drugs away and started looking for better solutions.  

I used a lot of aloe vera gel/juice in the early stages.  I also use oregano oil in gel caps daily.  I never used a special diet of any kind like the doctor recommended as food didn't seem to affect me as much as stress (NOTE: I don't include "fast food" in the category of food as eating at "Mickey D's" can throw me for a loop on a good day.)  I also use bone broth and collagen powder to strengthen my gut.  I make sure to get enough vit. D, C, and magnesium as these are areas where I noticed when my body is crying out for something.  I eat according to the instructions given to us in Scripture (OT).

{My mom has a similar problem with a diagnosis of diverticulitis.  The oregano helps her to stay healed also.}

The problem I've found with these diseases is that the solution is individual-based.  Not everyone reacts to everything in the same way.  You've got to be willing to try some things and adjust yourself to what works and what doesn't.  I've been completely symptom free of this disease since 1997.  During that time, I lived in Thailand for 11 years in remote areas with compromised food and water sources without a problem and traveled around the world and throughout the U.S.  I've shared my story more as a message of encouragement that healing is possible.  I don't know what will work for anyone else, but I do know that our bodies are designed to heal and be healthy.  Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

I've included my pic here just so you can see I'm a real person.  <Enjoy!>

Plantago indica seeds, one teespoon stirred in one glass of water and taken before every meal, is really good for stool regulation. It forms a gel that binds a surplus of liquid and creates a favourable consistency.

Thank you for the advice guys!

Nicole, do you you dry the dandelion leaves or use them fresh? My lawn is currently glowing yellow with dandelions, so I really like the thought of that helping.

We use the dandelions fresh! We walk outside just before making tea, and pick some dandelion leaves and chop them directly into the pot. Sometimes we send our four-year old out, and he picks a bunch :).

Drying them would be an extra step, and we probably would never get around to drying them. But, we have dandelion leaves all year round, so it's just easier to go out and grab some to chop and throw in the pot.

Since my climate has a killing winter that we must prepare for, right now is a great time to be picking leaves and freezing them. Ice cube trays help if you are mashing the leaves and freeze in either water or more tea. Ad to smoothies or soups or?

Blanching a bunch like spinach, cooling quickly and freezing in zip locks is also a great way to put up greens.
I like to add a variety when freezing greens. Since Red Beat leaves are good for us plus lambs quarter,and mustards, turnip greens, fresh dill or more herbs all together is a taste of summer in the middle of the winter! Do not forget to add good for us oils or fats since the vitamins absorb best with their help.  

My son has Ulcerative Colitis (or had since he is now sans colon).  He still has difficulty with loose/ watery stools.  Oatmeal daily for breakfast and Chia seeds have helped tremendously.  Still anemic related to poor iron absorption...the doc said eat more red meat (yuck) but it is helping.  Nettles are one of the highest iron content plants, started him on infusions (1 oz dried herb in quart jar covered with boiling water, covered, allowed to steep overnight then strained).  Drink throughout day or over two days, rinse, repeat.  Pic is nettles.  You can also order it dried easy peasy.

I have had Crohns 21 years. I just discovered last year that CBD from hemp stops bleeding for me but makes my chronic fatigue worse. It may be something that works for others though. It is supposed to be legal in all 50, but opinions differ. I use aloe vera and charcoal in lieu of CBD for the bleeding and normalizing of bowel function. Still challenged with fatigue though.

Slippery elm - soothing to all mucus membranes.

L-Glutamine - amino acid aids in leaky gut and healing of the lining of the intestines in general.

Curcumin/Bioflavinoids/buffered form of vitamin c - antiinflammatory and aid in healing

Avoid common allergens - wheat, DAIRY, eggs, any white carbs, usually cruciferous high fiber veggies which is a shame because if you ferment them they are teeming with beneficial bacteria, artificial sweeteners

Toxicity and stress are probably playing a role in more than one way - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually - Think about how you are irritated/irritating

Red Clover tea is a blood cleanser

Frankincense/Boswellia - antiinflammatory

This is not herb, but clay:
"A man with ulcerative colitis so bad that he was considering having part of his colon removed drank one to two quarts of Redmond Clay water every day for a month. He felt so much better than he had been when he was taking up to 30 pills a day (including some steroids which had some nasty side effects) that he quit taking all medications and just continued to drink the bentonite clay water. After 6 months of being symptom free, he had a colonoscopy and they found his colon looked better than it had for ten years. The doctor said, “It is as if you had never had the disease”.

I had (mostly anyway had, once in  while I still get some)IBS symptoms after particularly nasty stomach flu, and what I feel helped me the most was slippery elm powder and prebiotics taken with probiotics together. Slippery elm is tasty, so I  just add it to the yogurt and my other herbal powders.
Raw vegetables have lots of fiber, which is prebiotic, however as we cook them they are converted into digestable starches, and loose their probiotic fiber.  Eating raw vegetables, especially root is great, but it is a good idea to use 3-4 tablespoons of prebiotic fiber additionally to them to increase food for good bacteria.
Good powders to use -potato starch, inulin (usually from sunchoke), acacia fiber, dandelion root, burdock root, chicory root, apple peel, asparagus, green banana, orange peel, baobab fruit, Larch bark fiber -arabinogalactan, tigernut, flaxseed, psylium husk.
Now do not start with tons of raw vegetables and full amount of prebiotic powder, because you would suffer with severe bloating and gas. Start slowly with small amounts and increase gradually. But either way, expect battle in your tummy as good bacteria kills out the bad, and dead bacteria releases ammonia and other not so nice stuff. I used activated charcoal before bed (as to not reduce nutrient intake) to help with that. Then even if gas is there, at least it doesn't stink. But it helps to reduce it and takes in not good stuff dead bacteria emits.
Good probiotic strains are boulardii and reuteri.

SueJean Heinz wrote: I would like to share my experience as I was diagnosed with a similar disease in the mid 1980's.  My predicament was ulcerative colititis.  The doctor actually laughed when he told me there was no cure and laid out a grim time line of what was going to happen to me as the disease progressed.  He prescribed three drugs for my immediate care. [snip]
The problem I've found with these diseases is that the solution is individual-based.  Not everyone reacts to everything in the same way.  You've got to be willing to try some things and adjust yourself to what works and what doesn't.  I've been completely symptom free of this disease since 1997.  During that time, I lived in Thailand for 11 years in remote areas with compromised food and water sources without a problem and traveled around the world and throughout the U.S.  I've shared my story more as a message of encouragement that healing is possible.  I don't know what will work for anyone else, but I do know that our bodies are designed to heal and be healthy.  Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

SueJean, thank you for sharing this. Our son, 21, has been dealing with ulcerative colitis for five years. We've gone the medical route (his dad/my husband is a doctor), and it just isn't doing any good. Doctors say he would be worse if it weren't for the meds, and from a fear-based place, we don't test the theory. But I'm tired of seeing him suffer and limit his activities so that he's not far from a toilet or embarrassed or something. I went to a permaculture presentation around functional medicine and am encouraging him to investigate this and other healing paths that are outside of the medical route.

Take a look at Yummy Mummy Emporium youtube channel. She is Canadian naturopathic doctor, that extensively researches, and I found amazing info there, that I didn't know despite being interested in natural health for a while. She covers many topics on digestion. so very likely you will find something useful. In Gerd video she described person in a very bad condition, who was close to death, and just in a week he started turning around with diet and supplements such as aloe vera juice.

I just read somewhere that all the commercial dairies in the United States has issues with Crohn's disease.  You would have to study for yourself to see if you think that's true.

I cured my chrons, acne, lethargy, depression, anxiety, lightheadedness, insomnia, asthma, etc. with this "diet" (actually not a diet but an understanding of food nutrition).

Its hard to accept but its likely that every disease you have ever suffered comes from a lack of nutrients in your body. People accept that you need iron in your diet, if not you can't produce heme for hemoglobin, and so you can't transport oxygen. Your body simply can't do it without the proteins built off of that element. Well iron isn't special, this is the case with all nutrients. I am not a persuasive writer, so if this is uncompelling I emplore you to watch the video.

Secondly, after nutritional content, diseases are caused by the toxic qualities of our food. This is very important and causes many diseases, but one mistake I often see is considering toxicity before nutrition (this happens a lot on permies).

Its scary to think about my old diet. It had near no nutrients, I do not know how I survived at all (I guess I did technically die a few times in the hospital). Now I am thriving.

The last piece of knowledge that permaculture needs to accept is proper nutrition. We know how to grow foods in the best way, now we need to grow the foods that truly provide our nutrition. Other permaculturists have largely failed in this regard, theres still too much "LOL XD BACON" around these parts.

Anyway, I know this post is all over the place, but I tried to throw out as many hooks as possible to get people to watch this video. It fixed my life, I hope it helps someone else too.

This recent RadioLab revolves around host’s Chrons’ ordeal,  and escape from the misery into studying neanderthals.  He learned our ancient human cousins also got Chrons’, and may well have taught modern humans how to treat it and other ailments with their millenia of prior experience with the biota of Europe. They clearly had medicine and cared for their sick, and the host Latif Nasser is always a great storyteller (hope he and you all feel better!):

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?i=1000566019372

Coffee enemas.. saved my life
Rejuvajar.com for the best durable medical grade glass enema kit
They sell coffee on the website too...

For more coffee enema information, the rejuvajar.com website has an extensive article on the benefits

Happpy cleansing ♡♡

Give carnivore a try. Eat meat, eggs, seafood, etc. Animal fat to bowel tolerance. Drink water. Ease your way into it just in case you've accumulated a sufficient quantity of oxalate to cause a kidney-shredding oxalate dump if you go cold turkey. You may find that you need to supplement unrefined salt. That varies widely. For some people meat itself has enough salt and more is counterproductive. I need more.

Some people do OK on plant foods, certainly better than industrial food-like products. If you have Crohn's you're not one of them. You don't need plant fiber and toxins scratching up your intestines. Definitely not high-oxalate plants.

Plant medicines and seasonings are a different matter. Small quantity, high quality. Doesn't mean they're all safe for everyone but I wouldn't eliminate them without reason. I moderate high-oxalate seasonings, you may have salicylate sensitivity, etc.  

I wonder if the Dr Terry Wahls whole foods protocol would be worth checking out?
https://terrywahls.com
Basically it is 9 cups of highly coloured fruits, vegetable and sea vegetables per day, plus some meats and organ meats. Eatlike a huntergaterer. ALittle to no grains, eggs. Antiinflammatory. She cured herself of Multiple Scleriosis as a clinical physician, continued to practice, the hospitalimplementedher programme for otherpatients and she became fully mobile, taking bike trading and horse riding holidays.
Then there is Anthony Williams with useful whole foods protocols for sneaky Virals like Epstein Barr that are the root cause of most disease.
Blessings on your (and our) journeys.
From New Zealand, where this early autumn morning there is light rain. A blessing after months of Northland drought, and the best time of year if you need to dig up clay to create new garden beds....... then run the clay through the compost so that, come spring, you have masses of wonderful stuff to go on and in your new over wintered beds.
Hugshugs! janette

Reading through these posts, I think it's interesting that there are such a wide variety of responses. I think, rather than only one person being right and everyone else is wrong, that it shows that our bodies can be pretty different from each other and one must be very observant and listen to their body.

It reminds me of gardening and permaculture, how I really must observe the site and take notes over time to see what my site needs and the climate and weather and sunlight and wildlife and soil conditions, etc. Most changes are best made in small steps so I can continue to observe and correct mistakes. And then over time, I might remove certain plants that end up being problems or aren't suited to the site and bringing in new plants to try out as conditions and needs change. And I get wonderful ideas and advice from people all over the world but when it comes down to it, I have to use my own experience and judgment because my land will never be a carbon copy of someone else's land.

As someone with IBS, food allergies, and food sensitivities for my whole life, the more I treat my body like my garden, the better I feel.

Check out Dr Brooke Goldner. Her program doesn’t rely on anything but whole food. She gives the information away for free. A person can book an appointment (for a fee) if the free information is not enough.

I'm going to second the recommendation to go carnivore, at least for a few weeks to try it.  It's been reported to help a lot of people with Crohn's; I know from personal experience that it helps with a lot of other things, and it makes sense that it would help with that, too.  Yeah, if you have to permanently change your diet, it's going to change your permaculture plans, but is it worth sticking to your belief in eating only plants if the plants are making you sick?  Personally, I like eating vegetables, and especially fruits, but if my body doesn't do well with them, I'm (mostly) giving them up.  

We need a section where people talk about permaculture for carnivores, I think.

I completely cured my colitis starting in March this year. In addition, I lost 25 pounds so far, not even trying. I was bleeding from my colon after a bad bout of covid. Apparently it runs in my family as the same thing happened to my brother.  You don't need medicine for this. You need the Specific Carb Diet.  Look it up online.  In two months you will be healed and then stay on it a year for good measure. It is good for Chrons, Colitis, & Irritable Bowel.  Take it from me. It works. It works really well.  Let me know if you need a great bread recipe. I've got it. I am also taking Quercetin each night before bed to reduce inflammation. Good luck and God Bless You!

OK, get comfy, this is a long one...

Many years back now I stumbled onto a veterinarian's site,  Dogtor J (dogtorj.com).

The Doc started looking into why there's so much pet epilepsy in recent years and that led him to believe wheat, corn, soy and dairy in the pet food were the culprit.

He was having major health problems himself and decided to try quitting all the above.

End result was complete recovery from some serious stuff.

I was having a lot of the same  problems and more , tried it myself, and was amazed within 2-3 weeks at the difference. My major issue was joint pain but I gained unexpected benefits in a whole lot of other areas.

2-3 months out it got even better as I got some major mental benefits, the major one being a huge anxiety level decrease.

The (very) short version of why this works  -  unfamiliar (to your immune system) proteins get past your intestines into your bloodstream due to the wheat/corn/soy/dairy causing damage in your intestines. These proteins lodge in your joints and also  go past the blood/brain barrier. Your immune system goes nuts and destroys your joints and other things (which causes serious inflammation) going after the alien proteins.
The wheat and corn will seriously spike your blood sugar, with high blood sugar being linked to early ageing and diseases like Alzheimers and Diabetes.

Since finding this I've saved some friends from joint replacements, surgeries and a host of other things by suggesting this to them if they were willing to give it a go.

One great thing about it is quick results - you'll feel so much better at the 2-3 week point.

I was convinced I would never give up wheat and corn (I was quite expert at baking and loved it dearly) but the results were just too good to ignore or to risk backsliding back into how I was feeling before.

The wheat is particularly hard to quit because you actually have withdrawal from it. Wheat hits the same pleasure sensors in your brain that the opiates do.

Here's the longer, more technical version of this as explained by the doc himself:


"Villous atrophy of small intestine caused by dairy, wheat (wheat, barley, rye), soy,
corn

These four “foods” (gluten grains, dairy, soy, and corn) are the only four foods
that I know of that can induce the changes in the intestinal tract (primarily the
duodenum)seen in celiac disease (gluten intolerance. The lesion is known as villous
atrophy and involves damage to and atrophy of the tiny finger-like projections of
the intestinal lining, which are responsible for absorption of nutrients.
The main nutrients absorbed by the duodenum are calcium, iron, iodine, B
complex, C, and trace minerals such as zinc, magnesium, boron, lithium, chromium,
manganese, and more. It is easy to understand why people suffering from the
food intolerances often have the worst osteoporosis, iron deficiency anemia,
thyroid problems, failing immune systems, and poor skeletal systems.

In addition, gluten, dairy, and soy contain very high levels of dietary estrogens,
which are inflammatory, immune suppressive, and neurologically stimulating. (PMS
anyone?)

They are also rich in the non-essential, neurostimulating amino acids glutamate
and aspartate, the parent proteins in MSG and NutraSweet respectively. These
contribute greatly to ADHD, epilepsy, pain syndromes, neurodegenerative
diseases (e.g. MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s) and more. See The GARD and Epilepsy
section for more details.

5) What is this “glue food” thing I keep reading about on your site?

Each of the “big 4? foods (gluten, casein from dairy, soy, and corn can be and
have been used to make industrial adhesives. They have made powerful
waterproof industrial adhesives from gluten, casein, and soy. In fact, soy protein
is used to make incredibly strong super-glues with which they assemble your
automobile. Your rear view mirror is stuck to the windshield using a soy-based
super-glue. Wow!

Why is this important to see? Because it illustrates the tenacity of these food
proteins. These trouble foods are “glycoproteins”…part carb, part protein…from
their main structure right down to their molecular components (lectins). The
lectins of these foods are very sticky and adhere to cells in the body inducing
inflammation. Some individuals are much more intolerant of these lectins than
others but the fact is that very high numbers of people are afflicted by one or
more of the “big 4?.

The “glue” principle is simply the thing “seen” to help us understand the things
“unseen”…the adherence of these sticky proteins to tissue and blood cells,
resulting in arthritis, neuropathies, blood disorders, and many other previously
misunderstood conditions.




Those of faith point out that our Old Testament ancestors ate wheat and drank
milk, so “How bad can it be?"
We made some very serious mistakes in our nutritional history, starting with the
blending of wheat by our Germanic ancestors. In the 4th century AD, they took
original wheat (Einkorn wheat – Triticum monococcum) and blended with it two
other grasses in the Triticum family, thus creating “common wheat”, from which
our present day wheat is derived. We know now that this act not only
dramatically increased the gluten content but also introduced the harmful
ingredient into gluten to which so many are now reacting

The next big mistake occurred when our English ancestors jumped ship from
goat’s milk (the universal foster milk) to cow’s milk as their source of dairy
products. The difference in the casein fraction is subtle but immunologically
immense. Plus, we know now that these Anglo-Saxons chose the wrong cows back
in the 1500’s when they picked what are now termed “A1 cattle” (the western
European varieties – the Jersey, Guernsey, and Holstein) vs the “A2? variety (the
Zebu or Brahma). A Google search tells you all that you need to know about the
ramifications of their choice – BCM7 (beta casomorphin 7), the origin of type 1
diabetes and “the milk devil”.

Recently, researchers have isolated the protein that triggers type-1 diabetes.
They have known for years that our children who get cow’s milk in the first five
days of life have a 40-50 times higher rate of type-1 diabetes than the  general
population. But they also noted that Africa’s Masai, who drink the milk of the
Brahma, never experience type-1 diabetes. So these scientists took a group of
diabetes-prone, non-diabetic rats and divided them into two groups – those to
receive A1 milk from the western European cattle and those to get A2 from the
Zebu/Brahma. Nearly half of those receiving A1 milk developed diabetes and none
of those getting A2 developed the condition. The researchers went on to isolate
the single protein that was causing the problem and, in that protein, they found
one alteration in the amino acid sequence that made the difference. That’s the
razor’s edge on which we live, just like the exact nature of the earth’s orbit
required to sustain life.

The Asian Mistake

The “third plague”, as I like to call it, is soy….the Asian mistake. This
health-robbing legume was buried underground in one remote area of world and
used for years as a non-edible plant used in crop rotation to add nitrogen back to
the soil. It took the Asians years to decide to eat it but first they had to develop
the means to make it safe for consumption. They learned that fermentation made
soy more tolerable just like our ancestors discovered with dairy products (e.g.
yogurt, kefir). Interestingly, rice and rice-based wines turned out to be antidotes
for some of the harmful properties of their newest culinary creation, in the same
way that Italians learned to consume wine, high fat meats, olive oil and vinegar to
protect themselves against their passion for pasta. But we should know that any
food that requires as much processing as soy – just to make it safe to eat – will
cause problems in individuals even when properly prepared.

And yet, the soy industry tried to tell us that soy was a health food and that
Asians were healthier because of the soy they consumed. Thankfully, we quickly
found out the truth. The only reason that Asians (in Asia) are healthier than
Americans in some aspects is because their traditional diet has NO gluten, NO
dairy, and NO corn. Soy was their mistake and its gut and tissue-damaging
lectins, its overwhelming levels of isoflavones, and its wide array of anti-nutrients
tell the tale. No one talks about the fact that Asians actually only live one year
longer than the Swiss (and I don’t see them pounding down the soy) and lead the
pack in the incidence of stomach cancer.

Like dairy, soy has altered the outward appearance and the internal mechanics of
our children. The most notable fact is that the first menstrual cycle of our little
girls is occurring much earlier than normal. It was generally accepted in the past
that the first menses occurred at 15 years of age. We know from studying this
event in the Japanese children before and after WW2, that increased dairy
consumption (Americanization has its toll) brought this age down to 12. But soy
has dropped this age down into the single digits. It is now reported that nearly
20% of our little girls have their first menstrual cycle by age 8. Wow! If that is
not bad enough, I was giving this “lecture” to a woman on the local school board
the other day in my office and she told me that there were three nine year-olds
in our school system that were pregnant . Unbelievable. Isoflavones are a very
real threat to our children’s development, including our males. I’ll leave that part
to your imagination and Google.

That leaves corn – the “gift of the American Indian”, as many of us view it. “Corn
must be healthy if the Indians ate it”, a number of people have said to me.
Ahhh…but the history of corn is one of the most interesting. It took thousands of
years for the Hispanic ancestors to create the ear we see now. It started out as
a useless grain in a single valley down in meso-America. And everywhere corn was
introduced, pellagra (niacin deficiency) broke out. Wikipedia incorrectly blames
this on the fact that niacin is deeply locked in the kernel of the corn. That would
be the answer IF corn was their only source of niacin, which it was not. No…corn
caused the niacin deficiency because it induced villous atrophy in those sensitized
individuals who consumed it, just as it does in countless people and animals today
(with rising corn allergies being the outward sign). That’s why pellagra broke out.
They could not absorb the niacin from any dietary source once the lining of the
gut was damaged. Yes…corn is nasty stuff, supported by the fact that corn
gluten meal kills other plants (a “natural herbicide”) and corn meal can be used to
kill insects. That’s why it puts fat on anything that consumes it: Fat is the body’s
recycle bin and we form new fat cells in order to shuttle bad things out of the
general circulation and into the “trash file”.

Our Body Knows What It is Doing

The only other things that damage our villi in the way that these foods do are
viruses and fluoride, both of which give us important insight into why gluten, et al
do this to our intestinal lining. Why does a toxic does of fluoride cause extreme
damage to those finger-like projections called villi? To keep us from absorbing it.
The same thing holds true for gluten, dairy, soy and corn. This drastic change is
meant to be a temporary means of protecting us. But what part of the cell makes
the decision to shrink our villi? Our residential microorganisms do this. Yes,
viruses and pleomorphic bacteria are responsible for this amazing adaptive
process. I guess we should stop dissing them so badly, eh? Much of what we call
“disease” is simply an outward sign of this adaptive process. These resident
microbes are on our side!

The bad news is that the damaged food chain does not end here. Have you heard
that we can be “secondarily glutenized” by eating the flesh of animals that are
fed these food items? This is a very real issue and I am now getting testimonials
from people who have seen major advances in choosing grass fed beef and free
range, range-fed chicken and their eggs over the grain-fed varieties. This can be
especially important in the treatment of immune-mediated diseases as well as
neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Oats ARE high in glutamate. That’s why I recommend that those with epilepsy,
migraines, fibromyalgia, etc avoid them until they see a good resolution of their
problem. They are gluten-free unless contaminated with other gluten grains (e.g.
wheat) during harvesting, which unfortunately does occur with regularity. Gluten,
of course, is not the only rich source of glutamate, as nuts, seeds, cheese, soy,
etc are also rich. The problem with nuts is that we just eat too many of them. All
we need is about 7 almonds or 10 peanuts to get what we need from them for
the day. How many people do you know that eat only 7-10 peanuts.


When the intestinal villi are damaged badly enough by the “big 4" foods, the gut
releases a substance called zonulin. This hormone “opens” the intestinal immune
barriers in order to facilitate the absorption of nutrients that was being carried
out by the healthy villi. This, along with the amazing ability of the ileum to
compensate for this damage, is the intestine’s “plan B” for nutrient absorption.
But as often occurs, plan B comes with a price, which is the fact that some things
that normally wouldn’t pass through the intestinal barriers manage to do so and
get into the bloodstream. This included macromolecules of food (partially
undigested) that the immune system no longer recognizes as normal, resulting in
antibodies being formed to that food. But it also includes chemicals and infectious
agents that we now know play a role in the development of secondary health
issues, such as type 1 diabetes and juvenile pancreatic atrophy (digestive enzyme
deficiency). Google zonulin for a very interesting read.

This process is the known pathomechanism behind secondary food allergies, which
occur when we form antibodies to otherwise healthy foods such as eggs, meats,
tropical fruits, tree nuts, shellfish, vegetables, and the like. The primary allergens
are the “big 4?- gluten (wheat, barley, rye, and all forms of wheat), dairy soy and
corn- because they are the ones doing the intestinal damage and eliciting the
immune response. All others are secondary by nature. Some of these secondary
foods are totally healthy for us (e.g. eggs, fruits, vegetables) but some of the
secondary food allergens make perfect sense, as the Food Allergies appetizer
discusses.


The Food Opioids

The following is an Email that I sent to the Friends of DogtorJ concerning these
critically important morphine-like derivatives from dairy and wheat. Beta
casomorphin 7 (BCM7) from cow’s milk (A1 variety) is ten times more powerful
than morphine. Wow! You will be shocked- but not surprised- to see the role they
play in our every day lives (e.g. post meal depression, autism, chronic fatigue, the
down cycle of ADHD). And yet…most have never heard the terms.




Casomorphins and Gliadomorphins- The Food Opioids

Dear Friends,

I just received the two links below from a friend suffering from this exact issue.
These morphine-like substances (casomorphins and gliadomorphins) that we derive
from dairy and wheat, respectively, are critical to our understanding of the
power of these two foods. They help to explain why 75% of the calories in the
standard American diet (SAD) come from these wheat and dairy alone. Food
addiction is a very real thing and these opiods play a huge role.

As noted in one of the articles, many autistic children are completely addicted to
wheat and dairy, which is consistent with the idea that we become addicted to
what will make us ill (cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and food ). There are no healthy
addictions and food is no exception. If an individual feels like they cannot give up
cheese or bread, then they are very likely to be having a problem with one of
these foods. I counsel people like this all of the time and can use that dependency
to help them see that those very foods are a major contributor to their IBS,
arthritis, depression, or other typical signs associated with food intolerance. And
withdrawal from these foods can lead to classic drug-withdrawal symptoms as
the articles below point out.

These sedating compounds are also the single biggest contributing factor to
post-meal drowsiness. I have proven this in my own life as I used to become
extremely sleepy after meals starting in my late 30’s. My wife was beginning to
think I was a narcoleptic. I would literally pass out during our favorite TV show. I
no longer exhibit this annoying and even dangerous symptom now that I am gluten
and dairy-free. In fact, it has been stated that more people die from falling
asleep at the wheel while driving than from alcohol-related accidents. What could
be doing this? What could keep us from doing the most important thing (staying
awake) while driving down the Interstate at 65-80 mph? Now you know. Throw
alcohol into the mix and you have a tragic situation just waiting to happen.

We need to become very familiar with these two terms. I have yet to casually
meet anyone who has heard them over the seven years following my first
encounter with them in the literature…not a doctor nor a lay person. Amazing.
And yet they play a vital role in the lives of the multitudes, contributing to food
addiction, clinical depression, chronic fatigue, caffeine addiction, autism, highway
deaths, and more.

Amaze your friends! Commit these to memory and talk about them at dinner
parties. You’ll be the focus of attention.

Here are the links:
http://www.corepsychblog.com/2007/09/brain-awareness.html
http://www.corepsychblog.com/2007/08/celiac-notes-op.html   "

https://dogtorj.com

Not directly applicable here perhaps, or maybe it is, but another thing that brought a huge health increase is the Linus Pauling vitamin C and L -  Lysine high dosages.
The  gains there so far are my vision holding steady at the same
prescription and some cataracts, torn retina problems and "floaters"  
that were starting up a few years back are gone. Supposed to be good
for heart and circulatory system too.
(update, I wrote this 10 - 15 years ago and I'm still getting the same benefits)

There's a lot on this if you Google it and Linus Pauling wrote a book

on it before he died:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Longer-Feel-Better/dp/0870710966

Or, a quick sumary here:

http://www.practicingmedicinewithoutalicense.com/protocol/excerpt_chp7.pdf

Hi. I too, notice there are many ways of healing. I just finished Dr. Gabor Mate’s book The Myth of Normal, in which he speaks of the mind/body/cultural context of disease. May be of interest. Also, I had a student who was failing to thrive physically and eventually his parents dicovered he had Crohn’s disease and a naturopath prescribed a very specific diet and this boy grew and gained weight and his whole mood lifted because he was feeling so much better and didn’t spend so much time in the bathroom or haunted by his digestion so it seems like diet can help.
What a great resource this thread!

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:I'm going to second the recommendation to go carnivore, at least for a few weeks to try it.  It's been reported to help a lot of people with Crohn's; I know from personal experience that it helps with a lot of other things, and it makes sense that it would help with that, too.  Yeah, if you have to permanently change your diet, it's going to change your permaculture plans, but is it worth sticking to your belief in eating only plants if the plants are making you sick?  Personally, I like eating vegetables, and especially fruits, but if my body doesn't do well with them, I'm (mostly) giving them up.  

We need a section where people talk about permaculture for carnivores, I think.

We don't techinically have a forum for carnivore diet, but I know there's quite a few threads on it. You might find some in Keto and Paleo recipe forums. Here's some threads I found:

My weird carnivore diet
Has anyone made a low-carb food forest?
My Experience Eating Nothing From Plants, aka Zero Carb (If I remember right, Matt goes not only into his diet, but also how he plans to grow/raise his own food)
https://permies.com/t/47669/Paleo-Diet-Permaculture-Diet

Not carnivore, but semi-related: Keto diet garden.. sesame seeds?

---

My husband isn't 100% carnivore, but he doesn't eat any grains and eat mostly meat, aged cheese, and eggs, with some berries, beans and cooked veggies. As long as nothing happens to set off his Crohns (like injury, medical procedure, high amounts of stress), he stays in total remission for years on end by diet alone (with the occasional medicinal tea of mint, ginger, tumeric, green tea, oregon grape root and quercetin).

Tamara Carroll wrote:I completely cured my colitis starting in March this year. In addition, I lost 25 pounds so far, not even trying. I was bleeding from my colon after a bad bout of covid. Apparently it runs in my family as the same thing happened to my brother.  You don't need medicine for this. You need the Specific Carb Diet.  Look it up online.  In two months you will be healed and then stay on it a year for good measure. It is good for Chrons, Colitis, & Irritable Bowel.  Take it from me. It works. It works really well.  Let me know if you need a great bread recipe. I've got it. I am also taking Quercetin each night before bed to reduce inflammation. Good luck and God Bless You!

Yes! My husband is on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and it really does work. It can take time if you're in the middle of a big flare up, and sometimes you might need something to help the Crohn's calm down (depending on how severe the flare up is), but it does work! My husband was in total remission for 4 years until a medical procedure (J&J vaccine) caused a nasty flare-up. He's now been in remission, again, by diet and his tea (which he puts quercetin in) for a year. When my husband saw that there were medical studies showing how quercetin interferes with the formation of ulcers, he started taking it. It really helps!

Tamara Carroll wrote:Let me know if you need a great bread recipe. I've got it.

Yes please to bread recipe!

There is a ton of good info in this thread....and most of it should be tested to see if it helps an individual case.  But I am going to throw out a completely different idea:  Years ago I had a 29 year old customer who came in every week and was often suffering from symptoms of Crohns.  He hated to take the medications his doctor was insisting on but his flare-ups were just too severe if he didn't.  I told him about a procedure I had read about where Crohn's patients were given whip worms (from pigs and harmless to humans) to teach the immune system to leave human tissue alone but attack foreign tissue.  By sheer co-incidence his sister was a pig pathologist in a nearby agricultural school and had access to such a thing.  But she was aghast at the idea and flatly refused.  He then moved away and I did not see him for 5 years.  He always said he watched his diet very carefully but after reading these posts in this thread, I'm not sure the diet advise he was getting from his doctor was necessarily the best.    Five years later he walked into my store again and told me his Crohn's was gone and he had fantastic health.  Of course I was immensely curious and asked him what had cured him.  His reply: "I haven't washed my hands since I last saw you and I lick public doorknobs!  I keep my immune system so busy it leaves me alone!"

Razer

I second the psyllium husk!
It was a game changer for me. Went from diarrhea for 6months - with an unclear diagnosis of Crohn’s- to almost back to normal in a couple days!
Just one teaspoon a day. I drink mine in the morning in camomile tea. If you don’t like the gel, I’ve heard other people take it in Jogurt.

A change to elimination diet didn’t do much for me, I was already eating pretty healthy. Stress and mold were also negative factors for me.

Best wishes!!!

More details on what Ray was saying about intestinal worms:

https://www.wired.com/2012/11/whipworm-immune-regulation/

Let's see what clinical trials have been done on this topic.
Head over to PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A few search tips:
• Type your query using boolean terms (i.e., AND, OR, NOT) in ALL CAPS between your keywords.
• Use quotes for multi-word strings. Crohn's disease will return every study for the keyword crohns and every study for disease, so use quotes like this "crohn's disease."
• Angiosperm as a search keyword will pull nearly all plant medicine (not fungi/mushrooms, though).
• Using an asterisk will search multiple endings of a string: nutri* will find nutrient, nutrition, nutritional•
• Studies on plants or nutrients are often given a vague title. The name of the herb might not be supplied, instead it'll say, for example, "Usefulness of a natural agent or natural product for Crohn's... " so use the word natural as a keyword to find these papers too.  
• [TI] specifies that keyword must appear in the title.

I searched:

   Crohn's [TI] AND (angiosperm OR nutri* OR diet* OR gluten OR vitamin)

Once your initial search comes back, use the filters on the right. Here, I selected "Clinical Trial" (review papers can also be very helpful for quickly getting an overview).
There are more than 300 clinical trials for this search above!
"Display Options" in the upper right corner lets you choose to view the full abstract of each paper, and switch from 10 studies per page to 50, 100, 200...
Many papers are open source and you can read the full text!

If you're not adverse to using AI, elicit.org will let you use natural language search, and will give you a summary of the top 4 trials. You can sign up for free.

I'd be particularly interested in studies on vitamin D. Because Crohn's has an autoimmune component, boosting ones blood level of vitamin D3 to 60-80 µg/L will address
the root cause, reduce intestinal inflammation pathways, and induce immune self-tolerance. [Note that toxicity for vitamin D starts at blood level of 150 µg/L, so there is a wide safety margin here.]
Don't use vitamin D3 supplements alone, select a product with vitamin K2 (as MK-7) so you don't create a functional deficit in vitamin K2 when using vitamin D supplements.  Take it with food
that has some healthy fats so you can absorb it (vitamins D and K are fat-soluble). Vitamin A is often take together with D3 and K2, but if you're being exposed to glyphosate—it's ubiquitous in diets that contain grains or legumes, for example, even organic—this herbicide impairs your ability to break down vitamin A and your levels could be too high.

A lot of newer studies have identified the gene pathways implicated in Crohn's: JAK, for example. This offers you the opportunity to use your fork, spoon, and lifestyle choices for epigenetic modification.
In other words, your self-care, lifetyle choices (sleep, movement, mood, time in nature, avoidance of excess blue light) and diet can shift the EXPRESSION of genes. I'd go upstream from JAK to NFkB, the "master switch." NFkB governs hundreds of genes and it is easily suppressed with culinary spices and herbs: mint, thyme, oregano, curries, cumin, pepper, sage, parsley... all of them.