How does diet impact my Crohns disease or ulcerative colitis?
Your diet may affect the types of microbes or bacteria that you have in your intestines, which are a major contributor to the immune reaction in your gut. Your gut has the biggest immune system in your body. IBD researchers have been able to create genetically-modified rats and mice that get colitis much like that seen in IBD. The genetic defect in these animals usually causes an abnormal and overactive immune system which in turn leads the animal’s immune system to attack its own colon. This immune attack gives the rats and mice an illness similar to Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. The genetically-modified animals experience diarrhea, weight loss, blood in the stool, bloating, fatigue, poor appetite, etc. When the researchers place the genetically-modified animals that get colitis in a germ-free environment (i.e. put them in a bubble- like environment without any bacteria or microbes), these animals do not get colitis; irrespective of how badly damaged the rat’s immune system is. Thus
