[mikessss]

I have Crohn's disease and I find that MMJ helps with the vomitting and the stomach cramps. MMJ has even kept me out of the hospital several times. I often find it helps better than other prescibed medicines, such as prednisone or zofran, What do other crohn's or GI patients think?

Do sativas or indicas help your gut better? I feel indicas work the best for me. Thanks

[Knottyone]

Originally Posted by mikessss

I have Crohn's disease and I find that MMJ helps with the vomitting and the stomach cramps. MMJ has even kept me out of the hospital several times. I often find it helps better than other prescibed medicines, such as prednisone or zofran, What do other crohn's or GI patients think?

Do sativas or indicas help your gut better? I feel indicas work the best for me. Thanks

hey mikessss, usually heavy indicas and indica concentrates do the trick for me, they stop the symptoms in their tracks, unfortunately I am still on lots of meds, hoping to taper of some in the coming months....if youre in socal, come check out the Crohns/IBD MMJ support group:

http://weedtracker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32988

[mikessss]

thanks, a friend of mine and I are both crohn's mmj patients. Maybe i'll come check it out.

[Crohnie]

Hey Mikesss, I prefer sativas during the day and indicas at night. I have found the Grand Daddy Purple to be one of the best strains to help for my Crohn's, always seems to calm the gut down. It sounds like you might be getting some intestinal blockages with all the throwing up, when that happens you may want to consider switching to an elemental diet during those times, which is liquids only, to give the digestive tract a rest. Elemental diets can help as much as steroids. You can get "Optimental" from Ross.com, which also makes Ensure. Or you can try what I use which is Absorb Plus, and you can get it from, http://www.holistichealthshoppe.com/index.php. These items are not inexpensive but they do work. Hope this helps.

[mikessss]

Thanks, I too find that GDP or other really strong indicas work really well for crohn's. I've tried out absorb plus before. Haven't tried an elemental diet though, I might look into it. Thanks for all the help.

[pushinweight]

CANDIDA : what is it?

Candida albicans, and other strains of Candida are yeast that normally inhabits our digestive system: the mouth, throat, intestines and genitourinary tract. Our immune system is suppose to keep it under control, together with "friendly" bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus , B. bifidum, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, S. thermophilus and L. salivarius, ...). If the number of friendly bacteria is decreased ( antibiotics, pesticides, chlorine, )... in relation to a number of Candida, the immune system is weakened or other conditions for yeast proliferation occur (diet high in sugar, improper pH in the digestive system) Candida albicans will shift from yeast to mycelial fungal form and start to invade the body. In the yeast state Candida is a non-invasive, sugar-fermenting organism, while in fungal state it is invasive and can produce rhizoids, very long root-like structures. Rhizoids can penetrate mucosa or intestinal walls, leaving microscopic holes and allowing toxins, undigested food particles and bacteria and yeast to enter the bloodstream. In other words "Leaky Gut Syndrome". One step to healing the gut is to kill the candida. This requires a diet along with correct treatment and recolonization of "friendly bacteria".

CANDIDA DIET:

In order to do a correct Candida diet, you MUST avoid these foods:

SUGARS

Candida not only eats sugar it THRIVES on it. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that natural sugars are ok. This is absolutely false. You must avoid ALL sugars including, fruit, honey, agave , maples , even sugars in vegetables such as onions. (STEVIA is a natural substitute you can use)

YEAST

ALCOHOL

FERMENTED FOODS

FUNGUS / MUSHROOMS / MOLD

GRAINS

GLUTEN

VINIGER

SIMPLE CARBS

DAIRY

DO NOT EAT PROCESSED OR INORGANIC FOODS (THEY HAVE ANTIBIOTICS, HORMONES, PESTICIDES ETC, ALL THINGS NOT GOOD FOR PEOPLE WITH THIS CONDITION)

Yes folks, Candida eats almost EVERYTHING!!! Best bet would be to stick with proteins, fish, meats, oils...

INTESTINAL FLORA : THE STUFF OF LIFE

In our intestinal tract we have what's called "intestinal flora / good bacteria / beneficial flora". The flora is responsible for ALOT of things such as maintaining a balance between "good" and "bad" bacteria in our gut. As long as we have enough flora in our intestines we can prevent harmful pathogens from invading our health.

We kill our flora every time we take antibiotics, and often times we don't replace what we have destroyed. To replace them you need to take "Probitoics".

Here are some specific types of intestinal flora and their functions.

Probiotics & Prebiotics - Acidophilus - Bifidobacteria

LEAKY GUT SYNDROME (INCREASED INTESTINAL PERMEABITLY) :

Leaky gut syndrome is the name of a very common and very under diagnosed / misdiagnosed health disorder where the intestinal lining is more permeable (porous) than normal. The abnormally large spaces present between the cells of the gut wall allow the entry of toxic material into the bloodstream that would, in healthier circumstances, be repelled and eliminated.
The gut becomes leaky allowing bacteria, fungi, parasites and their toxins, undigested protein / food, fat and waste to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

CAUSES:

Leaky gut syndrome is basically caused by inflammation of the gut lining. This inflammation can be caused by -

Antibiotics because they destroy the beneficial flora in our gut. By killing our line of defense we then become susceptible to the overgrowth of fungi ( candida ) parasites and bacteria such as giardia lamblia, cryptosporidium, blastocystis hominis , helicobacter pylori, klebsiella, clostridium difficile, pseudomonas and others.


NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ASA, ibuprofen, indomethacin,
Prescription corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone)

Mold and fungal mycotoxins


WHAT HAPPANES TO OUR BODIES WHEN WE HAVE A LEAKY GUT:

The first thing that starts to happen is Autointoxication. (Self poisoning) our intestines are like our sewer pipes. Now there is a leak in the pipes and we are being filled with our own waste.The bloodstream is invaded by bacteria, fungi and parasites that, in the healthy state, would not penetrate the protective barrier of the gut. These microbes and their toxins are then collected by the liver. Our liver is like a filter that detoxifies our blood.When the liver now has to also clean up what is being leaked from the gut it can overwhelm the liver's ability to detoxify. This results in symptoms such as confusion, memory loss, brain fog , headaches, dizziness, pain, or facial swelling when the individual is exposed to chemicals such as perfume, cigarette smoke, hairspray, car fumes, cleaning agents, paint, etc... that he or she had no adverse reactions to prior to the development of the leaky gut syndrome.
This is called Multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome / chemical sensitivities / environmental illness. When the liver is overburdened by toxins it starts to deposit these toxins in areas of our body for storage until it can get back to eliminating them when its "less busy". This causes us to have pain and inflammation in these areas. Basically we are now suffering from FIBROMYALGIA.

NOTE: all fibromyalgia means is "you have pain and no one knows why". This is a load of crap. There are many reasons why you can have fibromyalgia. Also not all pain is fibromyalgia yet when a Dr cant find the cause he/she will just diagnose you with this and tell you its chronic, then try to prescribe antidepressants , antiinflammitories etc which only make the problem worse. There are some Drs who actually still believe this is a psychosomatic illness. BULL SHIT. Symptoms of pain are designed to let the person know there is a physical problem that needs to be looked at. fibromyalgia is a symptom not a disease on its own. Find out why you have it and treat that.

At this stage our body is over working, polluted and invaded by bacteria and fungus. This causes us to have Chronic Fatigue syndrome. This pretty much makes you feel like a zombie. The level of fatigue can only be understood by someone who is suffering from this. On top of wanting to sleep all day you also suffer from insomnia. Your bodies day/night clock is now all screwed up.

Leaky gut syndrome is almost always associated with autoimmune disease and reversing autoimmune disease depends on healing the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. Any other treatment is just symptom suppression. An autoimmune disease is defined as one in which the immune system makes antibodies against its own tissues. Diseases in this category include lupus, alopecia areata, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Sjogren's syndrome, vitiligo, thyroiditis, vasculitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, urticaria (hives), diabetes and Raynaud's disease. Due to the enlarged spaces between the cells of the gut wall, larger than usual protein molecules are absorbed before they have a chance to be completely broken down as occurs when the intestinal lining is intact. This means food is now able to leak out of the gut and enter the blood. The immune system starts making antibodies against these larger molecules because it recognizes them as foreign, invading substances. The immune system starts treating them as if they had to be destroyed. Antibodies are made against these proteins derived from previously harmless foods. Human tissues have antigenic sites very similar to those on foods, bacteria, parasites, candida or fungi. The antibodies created by the leaky gut against these antigens can get into various tissues and trigger an inflammatory reaction when the corresponding food is consumed or the microbe is encountered. Autoantibodies are thus created and inflammation becomes chronic. If this inflammation occurs in a joint, autoimmune arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis) develops. If it occurs in the blood vessels, vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels) is the resulting autoimmune problem. If you suffer from such problems you should request allergy tests from your Dr. Ask for blood tests looking for types of Immunoglobulines to foods, candida, and molds.

Here are the classes of immunoglobulins : IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD, IgE

ALLERGIES

*This is probably the part of the Leaky gut that will make you suffer the most*

NOTE: despite what Drs may tell you, IgE allergies CAN go down in numbers if you are treating the problem at its root. I know this because mine have declined.

It is important to realize that food allergies grow the more you expose yourself to the food you are allergic to. Some Drs may think that test results under 1000 are insignificant and shouldn't give you any symptoms. This is absolutely WRONG. I have had allergies ranging under 100 and they have caused me most of my symptoms, including what Drs labeled "Fibromyalgia" and "Cluster headaches". I was bed ridden for 9 months due to on going migraines that made me want to kill myself. Drs didn't know what was wrong. It turned out to be food allergies that according to some Drs were "not high enough" to cause this. Sure enough when I stopped eating the offending foods the migraines disappeared. Allergies can strike you in many ways, pay attention to the foods you eat if you suffer from unexplained symptoms. Also remember, allergies don't have to look red or swollen, most of the time you wont even see any visible sign but will feel sick in one way or another. Food allergies can also effect you up to 2-3 days after you ate the offending food. This makes it hard to pin point what's causing you the problem. Some reactions may be seen on the skin (rashes etc), others can be dizziness, diarrhea, pain, fatigue, and headaches.

The inflammation that causes the leaky gut syndrome also damages the protective coating of antibodies of the IgA family normally present in a healthy gut. Since IgA helps us ward off infections, with leaky gut problems we become less resistant to viruses, bacteria, parasites and candida. These microbes are then able to invade the bloodstream and colonize almost any body tissue or organ.

Leaky gut syndrome also creates a long list of mineral deficiencies because the various carrier proteins present in the gastrointestinal tract that are needed to transport minerals from the intestine to the blood are damaged by the inflammation process. For example, magnesium deficiency (low red blood cell magnesium) is quite a common finding in conditions like fibromyalgia despite a high magnesium intake through the diet and supplementation. If the carrier protein for magnesium is damaged, magnesium deficiency develops as a result of malabsorption. Muscle pain and spasms can occur as a result. Similarly, zinc deficiency due to malabsorption can result in hair loss or baldness as occurs in alopecia areata. Copper deficiency can occur in an identical way leading to high blood cholesterol levels and osteoarthritis. Further, bone problems develop as a result of the malabsorption of calcium, boron, silicon and manganese.

SO TO PUT IT SIMPLY... LEAKY GUT SUCKS....

THE LEAKY GUT TEST:
It exists but is not approved by the FDA.
You can get it at Great Smokies Diagnostic Lab.

The way it works:
The Intestinal Permeability Assessment directly measures the ability of two nonmetabolized sugar molecules mannitol and lactulose to permeate the intestinal mucosa. Mannitol is easily absorbed and serves as a marker of transcellular uptake, while lactulose is only slightly absorbed and serves as a marker for mucosal integrity. To perform the test, the patient mixes premeasured amounts of lactulose and mannitol and drinks the challenge substance. The test measures the amount of lactulose and mannitol recovered in a urine sample over the next 6 hours. If a high level of lactulose is recovered then this means that on its way through the intestines it leaked into the blood stream where it was picked up by the kidneys and released in the urine. Note that the size of the lactulose molecules are equivalent to large food particles. This also enables you to see that if lactulose is leaking into the blood then so can food. And when undigested food leaks into the blood it causes the immune system to react and create an allergy to that said food. Not to mention toxins, viruses, and bacteria is also able to leak into the blood stream like the lactulose.

Other ways to test for this are microscopic examination of the lining of the intestinal wall as well as the bloodstream with phase contrast or darkfield microscopy of living whole blood.

[Crohnie]

Excellent post, pushinweight!

[SmokeTheState]

fffffffffffff

[red_eye_ked]

I have a cousin w/ Chron's I am pleaseed you found MJ and it helps.. I wish I could suggest it to my cousin. His mom would flip if I suggested he spark up a joint. He is 16, and although I don't think kids need mj for the most part, I do support its use when used as medication even for minors (Not just for fun).. I have seen first hand how Chron's can basicly ruin your life. Never knowing if eatting this time will make you ill? this is just another perfect example of how the goverment had dropped the ball w/ health care and mj laws.

[strictly seedless]

i will def be checking out the group. thanks.