Help for a newly-diagnosed member

Wendy_L

Hello dear community,

@Martie58 is a new user and has asked me to share these questions:

I am diagnosed with IBD. What is the difference between that and IBS. And how do I know if I have Crohn’s? I do have an appointment with my gastro in August and will ask him all these doctor questions.

I am so fatigued lately and was glad to hear it is related to this, not me just aging fast! I have taken to having 20 minute power naps in the afternoon lately. I have learned maybe gluten-free is best for me, limited dairy and beef too. Along with no nuts, seeds or kernels.

Wendy_L

@Martie58 , I can start to answer some of this for you...

IBD means Inflammatory Bowel Disease and includes both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease. IBS means Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the key difference being the words "inflammatory" and "disease". While a syndrome is certainly not pleasant to live with, the diagnosis usually indicates no evidence (through proper testing) of disease. (Although there are many out there who would argue that both IBS and IBD are the result of auto-immune issues.)

If your physician has stated you have IBD, that means further tests probably will be performed to narrow it down.

I'd like to note that some GI's will (stupidly) tell you that diet has nothing to do with it, but I think most everyone in the community will beg to differ. So if you believe going gluten free would help you, you are probably right and should give it a go. Then do your own research too.

I'm sure the community here will have other advice to offer too. :-) We're here for you.

Wendy_L

@Martie58 You also need to click on the Webinars tab and register for the July 27th Webinar because it will answer so many of these questions you have. :-)

Jackie_Z

@Martie58

I think Wendy did a great job with her replies, but I want to add just a couple more notes!

IBD VS IBS

Since IBD is the result of an inflammatory process that means it can live in your tissues, which means it can also present in other parts of your body, not just your GI tract. Here's a chart that helps to break it down. There are a lot os these types of charts on the internet so check them out but be sure to see where they are from, so you know its solid info. This one is from: https://www.chop.edu/news/understanding-differences-similarities-ibd-and-ibs

When knowing whether or not you have Crohn's that will have to come from various tests and it's also possible to be diagnosed with UC, and have that later changed to Crohn's. UC does NOT turn into Crohn's, but sometimes when initially diagnosed the disease shows up only where UC can be (which is the large intestine and rectum), but over time active disease can be in other places, which means it was Crohn's all long.

For me, when I was REALLY sick, diet didn't matter. No matter what I ate, I was incredibly sick. So while I think diet can be helpful in management if IBD, I personally would never consider it as the only treatment unless you have a very mild case of IBD. There are absolutely certain foods that can aggravate IBD in certain people, but there is no real blanket statement for how food works in our bodies when we are considering treatment for IBD. So if you want to try a diet to manage some of your symptoms, I would highly recommend an elimination diet and removing only ONE thing at a time!

Wendy_L

@Jackie_Z has excellent advice with the elimination diet and then re-introduction as you feel better. And to her point, if you are very ill, diet changes might not immediately help. But once you are in remission or showing great improvement, dietary changes can be the key to keeping yourself in that state.