Manage Crohn’s Disease Symptoms With Diet
If you have an upset stomach that sometimes becomes severe then you might have Crohn’s disease. It is a painful medical condition where you will face difficulty in digesting food. And your diet can play a crucial role in Crohn’s disease management.
Understanding Crohn’s disease
Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that involves inflammation of the digestive tract and it could lead to malnutrition, weight loss, abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, and fatigue. The disease can affect any region of the digestive tract from mouth to anus and it can even spread deep inside the bowel. But it affects different areas in different patients.
Crohn’s disease is a painful medical condition that has to be checked in the beginning stages as it could lead to life-threatening complications. While there’s no cure available for Crohn’s disease, changing diet and therapies can help improve the symptoms and condition.
A diet that can help in Crohn’s disease
Food is certainly not a cause for Crohn’s disease but the food you eat could trigger flares.
Once you are diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, your doctor will send you to a registered dietician (RD) that will educate you about the role of food in triggering flare-ups. He will describe the role of food in Crohn’s disease. The education will help in understanding how certain food items can trigger flare-ups that could worsen the symptoms. Also, you will understand how bringing changes in your diet could help in improving the symptoms.
You will be asked to maintain a food diary where you will mention your food habits, the food you take, the number of meals, and what do you feel after taking those food items. The detail will help in understanding how food is affecting the development of Crohn’s disease.
Your food diary will provide necessary data about your food habits, food items you eat, and how those food items are affecting the Crohn’s disease symptoms in your body. Your RD will study your food habits to find whether your food habits are causing flare-ups and what food should you eat.
The right diet for your Crohn’s disease
Since the disease affects different areas of the GI tract of different persons, a diet plan suitable for one patient might not be suitable for others. Your diet will be exclusively for you as your RD will suggest a diet after going through your food habits.
The first thing to find the food that could help. And you need to keep track of your symptoms like abdominal pain and fatigue as you add or remove food items from your diet. The good thing is that making changes in lifestyle and diet can reduce the recurrence of symptoms and their severity. There will be complications that won’t be severe.
Adjust fiber intake
Fiber intake could be good but some people could have problems with the residue from high fiber foods. For example, the residue from fruits and vegetables could aggravate the GI tract and trigger flare-ups. If you take a high fiber diet and getting flare-ups then you need to switch to a low residue diet. It is called adjusting fiber intake so that you get quick and long-time relief from the painful symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
Limit fat intake
Your body breaks fat to absorb it completely, but Crohn’s disease could reduce the ability of your body to break fat allowing unabsorbed fat to travel from your small intestine to your colon where it can develop diarrhea. It is your RD that will study how fat intake is affecting your Crohn’s disease and what is the right amount of fat for your body. He might not reduce your fat intake but limit it.
Limit dairy intake
You might not have lactose intolerance but could develop after getting Crohn’s disease. You could have difficulty in digesting specific dairy products and develop problems like upset stomach, cramps, and diarrhea in some people. If it is the case with you then you will need to limit your dairy intake to control Crohn’s disease symptoms. Your RD will help limit your dairy intake so that you get the right amount of amount and other products.
Drink enough water
In Crohn’s disease, your body will lose its ability to absorb water from the digestive tract and it could lead to dehydration. And the risk of getting dehydrated will be higher especially when you have diarrhea or intestinal bleeding. So, you need to drink water in a sufficient amount to stay hydrated.
Consider alternative sources of nutrients
In Crohn’s disease, your body won’t be able to absorb nutrients from the food items. Also, taking nutrient-dense food won’t help in this condition as your body won’t be able to absorb the nutrients. Here you need to take multivitamins. Your RD will suggest some multivitamin tablets or tonics to help improve the Crohn’s disease symptoms.
Natural treatment of Crohn’s disease
Some people rely on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to reduce the severity of the symptoms of Crohn’s disease. But the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve these medicines to include in the treatment of Crohn’s disease.
Probiotics: It is live bacteria that can prevent microorganisms from disturbing your gut’s natural balance that could result in flare-up of Crohn’s disease. But there is no scientific data to prove that probiotics could help.
Prebiotics: It is food for the good bacteria in your gut and the good thing is that you can find prebiotics in plants like bananas and leeks.
Fish Oil: Omega 3 is considered good for controlling Crohn’s disease but the benefits of omega 3 fish oil found in fish are yet to be proved by science.
Aloe Vera: Aloe vera has anti-inflammatory properties and some people believe that it can help in controlling intestinal inflammation caused by Crohn’s disease.
Conclusion
Crohn’s disease can’t be cured but it can be effectively controlled with the help of a healthy diet. You need to talk to a registered dietician to find the right diet for your needs. Changing diet can improve symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
Disclaimer: Diet can play a crucial role in managing the painful symptoms of Crohn’s disease but you should take the diet suggested by a registered dietician.
