Often, when we are first diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, our doctor will tell us about how there is no cure. It can be managed with drugs or other treatments—maybe even put into remission—but that it’s a life sentence.
Is that actually true?
It depends on who you ask.
From the conventional medical standpoint, the body is viewed as a machine. All the parts in our bodies (muscles, ligaments, intestines, hormones, etc) work together via physical and chemical “mechanisms.”
When something in that machine breaks, the two main ways of fixing it: drugs and surgery. Drugs alter the chemical mechanisms in the body, usually supplying something it lacks, or suppressing something it has too much of. Surgery changes the physical structures—in Crohn’s disease, usually removing super-diseased portions of the bowel.
In this model, if something breaks—it tends to stay broken. There will always be a “need” for a drug or an intervention of some sort. This is especially true for diseases like Crohn’s, because the cause is still unknown.
(There’s also the profit-model that’s built around selling medication to sick patients by pharmaceutical companies…but let’s not get into that right now.)
The short answer: a conventional doctor will probably tell you that a diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease means you’ll be on some sort of drug your whole life. If one fails, you’ll move to the next, and so on.
But there is another way.
Take an alternative view, shifting away from the body as a machine to the body as a living organism, one with intelligence and the ability to heal, to adapt.
Would such an organism, that is constantly learning and growing, ever need external help permanently? Not likely.
I, and many others, have come to this view of our bodies. We view health as something holistic, that encompasses our entire lives. Our bodies often react to external, environmental stressors and internal, emotional triggers.
By exploring environmental factors (diet, exercise, living space, etc.) and internal triggers (unprocessed trauma, anyone?), many people find that our intestines start to heal by themselves.
When we give our bodies what they truly need to function optimally, guess what? Our bodies start to function optimally.
When that happens, we step down on medication—or drop it completely.
Many people have healed from Crohn’s Disease by following a primal/paleo lifestyle, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the carnivore diet, and through meditation.
For me personally, I have been on multiple medications since my first diagnosis, including Prednisone and Remicade. After extensive work on my diet and lifestyle, and addressing some extra-intestinal related issues, I am currently medication free (whee!).
If you choose to go this route, know that it takes time and dedication. One of the reasons drugs are such a go-to for treatment is because they work quickly. Diet and lifestyle changes don’t.
But they are worth it.