Re: 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.

No, they have different properties.

UC people - or at least some people with genetic UC (who knows how many

DNA mutations can lead to UC or any of these diseases) - are missing

something called the peacekeeper gene - which means that pathogenic

bacteria are able to penetrate through the mucosal and others levels of the

intestinal cell wall and at that point there is a belated inflammatory

overreaction to

that invasion.

If the UC people had the peacekeeper gene in the first place, they would have

kept the pathogenic bacteria in place.

I believe in some cases, there are some strains of bacteria that can evolve by

taking on some of the properties of the cell lining, in order to hide.

Here's the thing. At this point, there are an unknown number of bacteria all

behaving differently - and mutating together and swapping DNA in their

biofilm condominiums. Not to mention yeast, fungi and mold.

And yes, they have found e coli associated with Crohn's. But they haven't - yet

-

with colitis, as far as I know (which is imperfectly).

> 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!

You can always do yoga, even with diagnosis! It really helps a lot.

If nothing else start back with a gentle, restorative class. Restart there.

Mara