Newsgroup: alt.support.crohns-colitis
Here's a snippet from an article I found this week, may be of
interest to some...
Take from a supplement of a national newspaper dated 28 July 96
:-
That Gut Feeling :
Scientists at St Georges hospital in London are claiming there
is a link between Crohns disease - a debilitating digestive problem that
affects more than 40,000 people in the UK - and drinking milk. Professor
John Hermon-Taylor, a surgeon, and his team have reported finding minute
traces of an organism known as myco-bacterium paratubercolosis in two thirds
of the intestinal tissue removed from Crohns patients after surgery and
although the National Dairy Council has disputed such claims on the basis
of its own studies, the hospital researchers say they have also found the
organism in supplies of whole, pasteurised milk.
Hermon-Taylor and his colleagues are suggesting mycobacterium,
which causes Johnes disease in sheep and cattle (a condition similar to
Crohns disease in humans), is being transferred through food and water
systems and can sometimes survive the process of pasteurisation. The full
results of the study will be published in September and these may be convincing
enough for sufferers to be told, for the first time since the condition
was originally diagnosed in 1932, that scientists have discovered a concrete
cause.
Although public awareness of the condition is still limited, 3000
new cases are diagnosed every year. Crohns affects both men and women equally.
The incidence has doubled in the past 20 years.
Crohns disease can affect any part of the digestive tract but
is more commonly found in the small intestine where it causes inflammation,
deep ulcers and scarring to the intestinal wall. The main symptoms - tiredness,
urgent diarrhea and loss of weight - can be controlled by drugs but surgery
is frequently necessary to remove the damaged or narrowed sections of the
intestine. There is no known cause, and no known cure, for Crohns, although
there is evidence of a genetic predisposition.
Sisters Sue Middleburgh 44, and Ruth Ardley, 40, have both suffered
from Crohns disease since their teens. Middleburgh, a financial adviser
who was first diagnosed at 16, remembers passing out from the crippling
stomach pain but being told her symptoms were psychological "After one
operation at the age of 24, I turned to acupuncture and for the past 12
years I have coped with the disease without further surgery, although there
are times when it does get me down", she says.
Ardley a part time book-keeper and mother of two, says Crohns
affects not only her life but her whole family. "Fortunately, I have an
understanding husband but it is a difficult disease to live with. When
you need the toilet you have to go straight away and people don't understand
the urgency". The national association for Crohns and colitis (NACC) issues
its 24500 members with a can't wait card, designed to facilitate quicker
access to public lavatories in shops and also runs support groups across
the country for sufferers. Richard Driscoll the NACC director is cautious
about the new research linking Crohns with milk and says one problem is
that no other research group has as yet been able to repeat the results
reported by the group at St Georges hospital.
"Aside from the genetic aspect we believe there may be environmental
factors that give rise to the disease. There must be something about our
modern way of living that is causing an increase in sufferers" he says.
"It may be there is more than one external agent that triggers the disease,
but the sad fact for sufferers is that, once they have it, it is a lifelong
condition for which there is no cure"
Researchers at the Royal Free hospital in London have suggested
the measles virus may be linked to the disease. The hypothesis is that
measles may cause lasting damage to the blood vessels lining the bowel
wall, triggering the onset of Crohns in some people.However like the milk
hypothesis, this research is in its infancy and, despite a suggestion that
a measles vaccine given to children could lead to Crohns in later life,
the consensus of medical opinion is that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh
the unproven risks of a link with Crohns.
Driscoll emphasises that there is no link between Crohns and irritable
bowel syndrome - one does not lead to the other and there is in fact, no
tissue inflammation with the latter and no obvious sign of damage to the
intestine.
Another problem facing Crohns sufferers is that it can take up
to a year to rule out similar conditions and many are sent packing by their
GP's who mistakenly believe the symptoms to be psychosomatic.
"The best way to describe the condition to non-sufferers is to
tell them to think of the worst tummy bug they have ever had on holiday
and then to try to imagine living that every day," Driscoll says.
"Sufferers never know how they will feel from one day to the next,
which is debilitating enough and although Crohns is more common that multiple
sclerosis and almost as prevalent as Parkinsons disease, people know very
little about it"
Last updated: 17-Jul-97, 00:01 EDT
Subject: Crohns disease and milk - Research
From: meph
Date: Sat, 03 Aug 1996 14:38:17 +0100
Send questions, comments or additions to donwiss at panix com