re diet for crohn s ibd in article apr midway uchicago edu bmdelane quads uchicago edu brian manning delaney wrote one thing that i haven t seen in this thread is a discussion of the relation between ibd inflammation and the profile of ingested fatty acids fas i was diagnosed last may w crohn s of the terminal ileum when i got out of the hospital i read up on it a bit and came across several studies investigating the role of epa an essentially fa in reducing inflammation the evidence was mixed many of these studies are discussed in inflammatory bowel disease macdermott stenson but if i recall correctly there were some methodological bones to be picked with the studies both the ones w pos and w neg results in the studies patients were given epa a few grams day for most of the studies but if i recall correctly there was no restriction of the other fas that the patients could consume from the informed layperson s perspective this seems mistaken if lots of n fas are consumed along with the epa then the ratio of bad prostanoid products to good prostanoid products could still be fairly bad isn t this ratio the issue what s the view of the gastro community on epa these days epa supplements along with a fairly severe restriction of other fas appear to have helped me significantly though it could just be the low absolute amount of fat i eat calories brian bmdelane midway uchicago edu as you note the research is mixed so there is no consensus on the role of fatty acids in ulcerative colitis there is a role for short chain fatty acids in patients with colostomies and rectal pouches that are inflammed short is butyrate and shorter there may be a role for treatment of uc with short chain fatty acids and i am looking forward to the upcoming aga meeting in boston to see what people are doing you raise a hypothesis about the studies and restriction of other fatty acids you should contact the authors directly about that or even write a letter to the editor it is a good point by the way the abbreviation epa is not in general use so i do not know what fatty acid you are speaking about and to brian an u of c there is a physician named stephen hanauer there who is a recognized expert in the treatment of ibd you might give him a call he is interested in new combinations of drugs for the treatment of ibd if you call please say hello to him from me i was looking at u of c for a position and perhaps still am and be sure to look into joining the ccfa best of luck steve holland
