MNT Investigates: Can 'Good' Bacteria Treat Crohn's Disease?

[Julieanne]

Youssef Soliman
June 7 2022

• Experts believe that Crohn’s disease results from an abnormal immune response to gut bacteria in people with a genetic predisposition to the condition.
• Researchers are studying a variety of treatments to promote a healthy balance of gut bacteria. The treatments include probiotic supplements, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and exclusion diets.
• More research is necessary to understand the potential benefits and risks of different treatment approaches
• .

Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that involves chronic inflammation in the digestive tract. It causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, weight loss, and fever. People with Crohn’s disease typically experience periods of remission, during which the disease is inactive, alternating with periods of relapse, when the symptoms return or worsen.


Read more: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...740408e9475469

[Islander]

During the time that I was a medical marijuana caregiver, I treated a patient with Crohn's disease for five years. During that time he was occasionally hospitalized but I don't believe that he ever received a fecal transplant. (I really have no way of knowing whether he would even qualify for such a procedure or find it helpful). Toward the end of our treatment. He did have a colostomy — an awkward condition to manage but one that gave him immense pain relief. At roughly the end of those five years, a shadow on lung x-rays suggested the potential of a cancerous tumor and his doctor advised him to discontinue medical marijuana while they worked on a diagnosis. I have not heard from him since but wouldn't be surprised to learn that he had lung cancer, since his immune system was poor. He had already survived Covid, along with the rest of his family.

His was the most severe of all the patients I treated over a 10-year period, but there were at least two others during that time that were diagnosed with cancer but were treated and survived, and cannabis was a part of that protocol in both cases. In the third, the patient had been treated for skin cancer twice, after which she began a daily intake of a bit of bud with her tea. It's been at least three years and there has been no recurrence. In her case I think it's safe to say that cannabis is a preventive.