Re: Thinking of terminating the diet AND what is happening with immune response

[Guest guest]

As far as your question about whether the diet stops your body from

> attacking your colon. I think the theory is that the bacteria produce

> toxins that harm your colon, so your body wants to get rid of them.

> However, the tissues/substance that makes up the bacteria is very

> similar to what makes up the lining of our intestine. Your immune

> cells get confused, and start attacking both the bacteria and your

> colon. Therefore, if you restore the balance of bacteria, your body

> won't feel a need to fight it, and therefore will stop accidentally

> fighting your intestinal lining. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on

> this)

I think I have some info to add to this:

It is not that the bacteria look like the cells in the intestinal tract. It is

that they attach themselves, and some of them are very stubborn. The only way

for the body to get rid of them is for the immune cells to attack the cells they

are lodged to to get them off before they cause further damage.

I read an article in the latest scientific american that helped me understand

this better. These bacteria are not just little blobs with wiggly things that

attach by " sticking " onto stuff. Ecoli, I think it was, hijacks the cell's

valves used for osmotic transfer and shoots stuff into the cell to start turning

the topology of the cell into a " platforms " onto which it and its buddies can

stay firmly attached. Another bacteria shoots virus-like DNA into the cell to

change its morphology into something else, can't remember what.

My guess is that as one layer of tissue gets colonized, other layers are

vulnerable. The body attacks the top layers, meanwhile any available surface

area is being colonized, so the attack sites can get deeper into the tissue.

This is why I think Crohn's is just an " advanced " stage of UC...but I could be

totally wrong. I don't know much about Crohn's.

When this happens in the small intestine (as will happen after enough of it has

gone on in the large intestine), the microvili that absorb nutrition are

attacked, so the body is no longer absorbing nutrition, so the stuff that would

be broken down goes into the large intestine, fueling the bacteria even more.

Hence " the vicious cycle. "

I think that is why it takes a LONG time to get better sometimes. The small

intestine needs to get repaired before many foods are able to be broken down,

but in order for the small intestine to be repaired, the body needs fuel, hence

food. So as we starve out the bacteria, not all at once - someone wrote that the

more stubborn ones hang out longer, and Elaine wrote that some go dormant and

then come back when they think they have more food - we get to absorb more food,

and then repair more tissue. But think of how long this takes when we are

starting at ground zero! We are running on empty trying to repair a major organ.

Most of us have probably been sick for many years leading up to our first flair,

so there is a lot of damage to be repaired.

Good news: I always thought aging was this horrible, painful process of losing

memory quickly, becoming more soar and tired every month, every year, losing the

ability to recognize information, faces, etc., with more autoimmune disorders

every so often, and no chance of gaining back a youth that I felt was stolen

from me by illness, and losing more and more the energy to do things I used to

love doing. That's just was growing up was. BUT! when I think of how much of a

drain this whole bacterial imbalance has probably been for many years, I can

imagine a day a few years from now, in my early 30's, when I am able to enjoy

many of the things I couldn't at age 22. I may feel like I am getting younger,

like I did during my yoga days before diagnosis. I may be imagining too much

improvement, but I have to hope!

Kat

27

dx UC June 2009

SCD Feb 2010

prednisone, iron, rhodiola rosea, other supplements