Bulking with Crohns

[MrCrohns]

Hello everyone,

Not sure if anyone could help, so if anyone suffers with crohns or knows someone that has crohns and can give some tips, it will greatly be appreciated.

Currently suffering with crohns, a disease that sucks for anyone trying to put on weight.

Stats: 23 yrs, 5'11, 125lbs, very skinny

My diet has to stay clean, I have refused to take the medications used for crohns patient since I believe it hurts more than help. Because of this I have to keep up with my diet to stay in remission.

I have eliminated many things from my diet: sodas, sugar, caffeine, milk, gluten

I am not sensitive to what I listed above, but all those can cause flare ups so I avoid them.

My meals basically consist of:
- Ensure Plus Drinks
- Whey Protein Shakes (99% lactose free) mixed w/ almond milk
- Eggs (half whole)
- Chicken Breast / Beef / Roast Beef / Turkey
- Nuts / Sunflower Seeds / Beef Jerky

I have to space my meals out evenly and my appetite is very small. I try to avoid overeating since I think it allows my intestines to absorb better.

My supplements are Vitamin Code, Fish Oil, and BCAAs.

I am thinking of jumping on creatine but I am not sure how harsh it is on the intestines.

Putting on the weight is tough, I work out 4 times a week and try to keep it short. I go in and do mostly compound exercises and leave.

If anyone has some advice on how I can push past 125 it would be great.

 

[bdcc]

So much to say it is impossible to get it into one post. I will try and keep things concise. Please keep in mind these are my own opinions and findings and do not take as medical advice etc etc.

- Anything you can do to heal the ulcerative tissue is paramount. Building muscle is way down on the priority list of what your body wants to do with the nutrients it receives.
- Juiced white cabbage (2 pints per day split into four sittings) has been studied repeatedly by one doctor decades ago. Hospital time for ulcer patients was less than a week compared to one month for those on conventional anti-ulcer medication. Complete healing was brought about in a huge percentage of patients as confirmed by endoscopy.
- Pepzin (zinc-carnosine) has showed promise for ulcer healing as well as action against h pylori. Supposedly chews are better absorbed than capsules.
- Elemental diets (liquid) are recommended to bring people into remission however evidence suggests as soon as someone switches back to whole foods the benefits are lost. Implying you would have to stay on this indefinitely.
- Free form aminos are easily absorbed and therefore often used in patients with malabsorption issues.
- Crohn's patients tend to have lower levels of DHEA. A very small preliminary study brought remission in a few patients with supplemental DHEA. On the other hand there is also research to suggest supplemental DHEA can alter a feedback loop which hinders people getting out of adrenal fatigue (I don't know any more details than this).
- Fish oil has shown to be beneficial as well as shown to do nothing. Personal preference dictates although anything to bring down inflammatory markers would be sensible, even if remission rates weren't significantly different.
- Keep PUFAs low to help keep inflammation down (balancing omegas).
- I personally have had success bringing down inflammatory markers using Designs for Health Inflammatone and Curcumin. Bringing my CRP down from 136 where corticosteroids on their own weren't doing anything for 2-3 weeks previously.
- Many people recommend coconut oil for Crohn's sufferers. I personally cannot confirm nor deny it's success.
- A lot of people also recommend the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) as you will be aware most carbohydrate forms can often be problematic.
- If you have been on corticosteroids to bring remission it is quite probably that your insulin and cortisol levels will have been thrown way out. After being on a course of them I originally couldn't eat an apple on it's own without feeling tired afterwards, I had to eat single pieces of fruit following meals to mitigate the damage.
- If you are feeling very tired then an abbreviated programme in terms of volume would be a good idea as recovery will be easier and making it easier on your adrenals.
- Healing ulcers is crucial to improve your appetite.
- Difficulties can be experienced digesting fats. Some herbs and supplements are designed to improve this.
- Ensure is horrible. A nutritionist told me that my grass fed cold processed and naturally sweetened whey was bad for my kidneys as it only contained protein and no carbohydrates. She then recommended Ensure which is essentially whey, sugar and additives. As it had a carbohydrate source it was described as 'balanced' and therefore much better for me. Sugar is shown to be inflammatory as well as temporarily lowering immune function.

You have to improve your health to the point where your body is happy putting on weight. If you are still chronically deficient in minerals and have a lot of healing to do a proportion of what you consume is going to do that rather than helping you put on weight.

I hope this is helpful

 

[MrCrohns]

So much to say it is impossible to get it into one post. I will try and keep things concise. Please keep in mind these are my own opinions and findings and do not take as medical advice etc etc.

- Anything you can do to heal the ulcerative tissue is paramount. Building muscle is way down on the priority list of what your body wants to do with the nutrients it receives.
- Juiced white cabbage (2 pints per day split into four sittings) has been studied repeatedly by one doctor decades ago. Hospital time for ulcer patients was less than a week compared to one month for those on conventional anti-ulcer medication. Complete healing was brought about in a huge percentage of patients as confirmed by endoscopy.
- Pepzin (zinc-carnosine) has showed promise for ulcer healing as well as action against h pylori. Supposedly chews are better absorbed than capsules.
- Elemental diets (liquid) are recommended to bring people into remission however evidence suggests as soon as someone switches back to whole foods the benefits are lost. Implying you would have to stay on this indefinitely.
- Free form aminos are easily absorbed and therefore often used in patients with malabsorption issues.
- Crohn's patients tend to have lower levels of DHEA. A very small preliminary study brought remission in a few patients with supplemental DHEA. On the other hand there is also research to suggest supplemental DHEA can alter a feedback loop which hinders people getting out of adrenal fatigue (I don't know any more details than this).
- Fish oil has shown to be beneficial as well as shown to do nothing. Personal preference dictates although anything to bring down inflammatory markers would be sensible, even if remission rates weren't significantly different.
- Keep PUFAs low to help keep inflammation down (balancing omegas).
- I personally have had success bringing down inflammatory markers using Designs for Health Inflammatone and Curcumin. Bringing my CRP down from 136 where corticosteroids on their own weren't doing anything for 2-3 weeks previously.
- Many people recommend coconut oil for Crohn's sufferers. I personally cannot confirm nor deny it's success.
- A lot of people also recommend the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) as you will be aware most carbohydrate forms can often be problematic.
- If you have been on corticosteroids to bring remission it is quite probably that your insulin and cortisol levels will have been thrown way out. After being on a course of them I originally couldn't eat an apple on it's own without feeling tired afterwards, I had to eat single pieces of fruit following meals to mitigate the damage.
- If you are feeling very tired then an abbreviated programme in terms of volume would be a good idea as recovery will be easier and making it easier on your adrenals.
- Healing ulcers is crucial to improve your appetite.
- Difficulties can be experienced digesting fats. Some herbs and supplements are designed to improve this.
- Ensure is horrible. A nutritionist told me that my grass fed cold processed and naturally sweetened whey was bad for my kidneys as it only contained protein and no carbohydrates. She then recommended Ensure which is essentially whey, sugar and additives. As it had a carbohydrate source it was described as 'balanced' and therefore much better for me. Sugar is shown to be inflammatory as well as temporarily lowering immune function.

You have to improve your health to the point where your body is happy putting on weight. If you are still chronically deficient in minerals and have a lot of healing to do a proportion of what you consume is going to do that rather than helping you put on weight.

I hope this is helpful

Thank you!!! Very very helpful, thanks for taking the time to put this together.

 

[MrCrohns]

I did see a eastern medicine type of doctor and he told me to take adrenal pills since my adrenal glands are probably overworked from the inflammation. You have any info on that?