

Scientists may have may have identified why people develop Crohn's disease

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Sounds like a good first step to creating a treatment. Crohn's isn't very fun. :(

People with Crohns disease know the uncomfortable symptoms of the chronic condition all too well: diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue, among others. But what doctors have not been able to tell the approximately 565,000 people in the U.S. with Crohns is why theyve developed the inflammatory bowel condition in the first place.

Most experts suspect the condition is the result of the bodys immune system attacking healthy cells, mistakenly triggered by bacteria in the digestive tract. Now, a new study has identified a specific fungus and two bacteria they think play a key role in what leads some people to develop the disease.

Among hundreds of bacterial and fungal species inhabiting the intestines, it is telling that the three we identified were so highly correlated in Crohns patients, the studys senior author Mahmoud A. Ghannoum, professor and director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, said in a press release.

Research has previously identified that E. coli bacteria contribute to Crohns symptoms, but this is the first study to show the bacteria Serratia marcescens and the fungus Candida tropicalis are also involved.

Crohns disease has other factors that impact it: Number one is genetics and number two is environmental factors, such as what people eat, Ghannoum told HuffPost.

This study is distinct because it compared patients with Crohns disease to both healthy strangers and to their own family members who did not have Crohns. This is important because family members share genes, household environments and food, and researchers were able to further isolate what distinguishes the microbiomes of those with Crohns from those around them.

This cuts a lot of the noise, Ghannoume said.

The researchers analyzed fecal samples from 20 patients with Crohns and 28 healthy patients without Crohns from nine different families, as well as from 21 patients from four other families who did not have relatives with Crohns. They found high amounts of E. coli and Serratia marcescens and Candida tropicalis in the patients with Crohns &#8213; significantly more so than in the family members without Crohns, as well as the individuals from families without a history of Crohns disease.


Better treatment options are now on the table

Thanks to this new finding, researchers have a big leg up on developing better treatments for the disease. One possibility is a probiotic with the right mix of good bacteria to control the bad bacteria that cause Crohns symptoms, Ghannoum said. Hes also hoping it will inform the development of drugs that prevent these two bacteria and specific fungus from working together in the first place.

For patients, this is a very good start because we now understand more about the disease and how we can interfere with it, Ghannoum said.


The bottom line for patients with Crohns: This is a big step toward designing more effective treatment options, but its still a pretty early one.


Thank goodness that I've been in total remission for years now. This is awesome news for people suffering from this thing..
Interesting news

When I had a colonoscopy several years ago (I'm long due for another for this same thing), I was told that I have some sort of a film in my stomach. They normally don't see it until people are in old age, and it's linked to stomach cancer in the elderly.

They did a test to see if the bacteria that causes it was still present, and said no.

There wasn't evidence of Chrohn's, though, or Collitis. I was told that they figured I just had IBS, and to come back in 3 years. My IBS is quite bad, though -- anything can set it off. Not getting enough sleep, drinking a couple of bottles of water, eating almost any meal, etc.

Now, it's to the point where I can't trust a fart. I'll go to pee, fart and have to do the other because it's randomly there. And, when at a friend's the other night (a girl I used to have a crush on, but who is now married with kids), it happened to me and got all over my pants and the floor. It was embarrassing.



Yep. I've been in remission as well after a surgery. There have been some signs that it might be coming back, but I'm trying not to worry about it. It would be nice if I never had to think about it again and it would be awesome if others that aren't quite as fortunate as us could finally get some relief from it.
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