SUCCESS STORY - CROHN´S

GUT PATIENT – CROHN

 







FOREWORD
My name is Tommi Sundqvist from Finland, 46 years today (2015). After loosing my health for decades and gaining it back with determination my mission is simple: Be healthy and share the knowledge. I write my story as an inspiration to you – to anyone – who wants to live healthier. I have a severe Crohn´s disease (inflammatory bowel disease, IBD, an autoimmune disease). Since the changes that started in my life at 2004 I have lived 100% better quality of life. It took 35 years for me to find better solutions for the rest of my life. I hope you don´t have to look them as hard as I did. If you find at least one good tip to improve your life from this story – it makes this worth writing.

      Topics

• Why I chose my path
• Putting medicine on hold
• Autoimmune diseases
• My TOP-14 in getting better

Important Disclaimer!

In serious conditions like Crohn´s, please always seek medical advice from your doctor. The choices I made, may not work for you cause we are all individuals. If you do anything recommended, without the supervision of a licensed medical doctor, you do so at your own risk. This information is provided with the hope that it may be helpful for those who choose to take a greater responsibility for their own health.

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WHY I CHOSE MY PATH?

Small choices we make every day have a greater meaning in our life than we may understand. The following choices have helped me enormously. Even if I can´t get rid of Crohn´s, the goal is to live symptom free life. I had to be 35 years before I really understood that it´s possible for myself. The decision what I made was not easy and didn´t happen overnight. I was steadfast on one thing: No matter what the change is going to be, I will do it!

Doctors words were pretty much always this: You can treat Crohn´s with medicine and with surgery if it gets really bad. Food doesn´t have a big role in this disease. So, I had been taking medicine (Asacol, Prednison, Pentasa, Remicade etc.) for about 15 years (ages 19-35) without a solution. Same time I also ate like many young people do. Too much fast food, sugary sweets and grain (glutein). Now I realise that they were not good for me. Doctors who took care of me were not educated enough to tell about nutrition and how food can either destroy or heal your gut. My way of learning was the hard way and I most definitely don´t suggest that to anyone.BLESSING IN DISGUISE

I thank the head surgeon who made the 2nd operation to save my life. I also now understand that all these happenings had a bigger meaning. Crohn´s disease has been a blessing to me in the long run, allthough I had to go through hell by constant pain, diarrea, anemia, bowel obstructions, osteopenia, surgery, temporary stoma etc. Also the medicines I got didn´t help me enough. To be honest, I was lost until the age of 35. I remember 2003 christmas when everyone else was eating in the table and I was trying to zip blueberry drink in the sofa, legs up so that it wouldn´t hurt so much. Things went terribly wrong in every scale in 2003, I couldn´t eat anything without vomiting. I was put in a surgery , where part of my intestines were to be removed. Here are some major happenings concerning the surgery that made me change my life.
1. January 5th 2004 first surgery, 1,2 m of small intestin was removed. After a week it was discovered that it has failed. Huge pain despite of pain pump use.

2. 12th of january 2004 Emergency operation, opened, fixed and sealed again, this time a temporary stoma (3 months) was put in order to calm the rest of intestines. The operation and stoma was a life-saver.

3. I got MRSA from a fellow patient, who went crazy and took all his drips / cannulas away and landed on my stomach which was just operated. Outch! I thought what else is going to happen? I was not the happiest guy in the planet that time.

PUTTING MEDICINE ON HOLD
A removal programme from MRSA was planned. It consisted of 3 different antibiotics at the same time. My intestines were bombed with many antibiotics before the surgery and after, so that´s when I finally decided to open my eyes with medication. I felt like I had to try something else. I refused to eat those antibiotics (partially of a fear of clostridium difficile, antibiotic diarrea that can cause severe damage to your body´s overall resistance). Same time I decided to try and treat Crohn´s mainly with natural way, without medicin which started by changing my diet upside down. I´m still on that road and it´s been 11 years so far!

SLOW RECOVERY AND BIG DECISIONS

So here I was lying home, my weight at 49 kg/108 lbs and had no idea what happens next. I had one thing clear, I desided to do everything I can on my part to be healthy again. If I have to get rid of unhealthy food, I will. It wasn´t easy. How to say No to chocolate when you crave for it? So of course I tried, I took two bites of chocolate and my intestins started leaking blood. It was that serious for me. If I wanted to stay healthy, I had no other choice than quit sugary sweets, burgers etc. for 1-2 years. Today when I´m in good shape, my intestins can take little amounts of sweets, but I prefer raw cocoa bar instead of a chocolate bar. The life-lasting gathering of information started that time.

BACKGROUND ABOUT CROHN AND OTHER AUTOIMMUNITY DESEASES (AD)

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. Bear in mind that when reading about IBD-inflammatory bowel diseases, it is important to know:
1. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are different types of IBD. The symptoms of these two illnesses are quite similar, but the areas affected in the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) are different.

2. Crohn’s most commonly affects the end of the small bowel (the ileum) and the beginning of the colon, but it may affect any part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, from the mouth to the anus.
3. Ulcerative colitis is limited to the colon, called the large intestine.
4. Symptoms include: low abdominal pains, diarrea, bloody diarrea, fewer, losing weight, anemia
5. It is treated with medication and surgery

AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES ARE GROWING

To name few AD´s there are diagnoses like Rheumatoid artritis, Multiple sclerosis (MS), Psoriasis, Crohn, Ulcerative colitis, Scleroderma, Lupus, Type 1-diabetes, Thyroid disease etc. Autoimmunity contributes to more than 100 serious cronic (and growing) illnesses that involve almost every organ system in the body. It is estimated that even 10% of the western world people has at least one AD. Women are more likely to have AD, some statistics say 75% are women. It is believed that women´s immune system is ”softer” to the autoimmunity response.

AD is an illness that occurs when the body tissues are attacked by its own immune system. Imagine you´re playing football and suddenly your teammates are attacking your own goal. You would be more than amazed. What the fans would say about that? So you need a great coach. Today researchers are trying an age-old trick to teach the immune system that the body's cells and proteins are not the enemy.

University of Bristol researchers proved that in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) another serious AD. They started with a minimum amount of myelin (nerve-insulating protein) that the immune system by mistake attacks in MS. Then they simply gradually added more. The immune system became progressively less reactive to the myelin. The same cells that had attacked myelin were ”reprogrammed” to recognize it as a friend, rather than an enemy which hopefully leads to an improvement in the disease symptoms.

Science progresses every day, but so far there is no cure or a simple, universally effective treatment for AD. Some patients get some relief from medicine like I did from Remicade infusion. Its downsides are the costs (2500 € / 400 ml / every two months) and side-effects as in many medicines that forced me to stop taking it.

In allergy problems the immune system learns to tolerate larger and larger doses of the problem substance — scientists also hope that would work for AD. Unable to get the idea to work in practice, doctors have turned to silencing the patient’s entire immune response with medications. If you tell your defensive linemen that it´s ok to let the bad guys to pass what is the endresult? (*2)

The CD4 T cell is thought to play a vital role in the immune response resulting in inflammation within the central nervous system (CNS). When scientist find how to control CD4 T cell we may have a good solution to all autoimmune diseases. (*3)

AD IS NOT CONTAGIOUS

You cannot catch an autoimmune disease from another person like you a virus or bacteria. Autoimmune diseases are not contagious by sex or by blood. The only known transfer of autoimmunity occurs between mother and fetus during pregnancy, and even that is still rare even in affected mothers.
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MY TOP-14 IN GETTING BETTER

1. Good relationship and family support from your loved one´s are keys on path to recovery just like in my case, that´s why I thank my spouse for being my support.

2. Reducing the following items.
- commercial sweets

- bread and other glutein-products

- sugary drinks, cider´s and other alcohol-products

- smoking and drinking has never been a big part of my life
Lowering carbohydrates with SCD-diet was crucial in 2004-2006. It has changed after that, but still the golden idea comes from SCD.

3. Home-made yogurt 2004-2006 was a big part of my recovery (SCD)

4. Smoothies, great way to get nutrition in your body.

5. Vitamin-D, minimum of 100 µg / daily. Tests indicate a potential role of vitamin D in the prevention of autoimmunity deseases, allthough more tests are still needed. (*4)
6. Vegetarian food. When intestines have recovered after 2006 I have added more vegetarian and raw food in to my diet, meat is occasionally in allthough I can feel myself better without it.

7. Chocolate and sweets. I have changed it 95% to a ”homemade” version without white sugar and other sweeteners and additives

8. Stress. This subject is one of the toughest one to beat and is ongoing.

9. Aikido and yoga relax my body. I´m very active in sports, also ice-hockey, gym, cross-fit belong to my favorites.

10. Being in nature and travelling are our getaways

11. A will to be healthy was enormous and I was willing to make the changes needed.

12. An allergytest made me aware what food I should eat less or have a total break
13. I allowed me to be sick and to recover. One of the biggest obstacles in allowing you to be what you are is your ego. That is an ongoing prosess :)

14. HESE – A SPECIAL DOG

Dog can be part of the cure. One of the miracles happened when my spouse, Heli got information at 2004 that we will have a 3 yeard old labrador in our house who needed home. He came the same day I came from the hospital. Isn´t that amazing timing!

 

His name was Hese, funny coincidence, but he was named after a fastfood chain in Finland. I remember when he had been with us a short time – we went to lake nearby and there were ice partially still in the water. Hese saw a ball on ice and I immediately realised that he will have problems after falling in the ice. So I jumped in the water with my stoma and pulled him out with all my (weak) strenght I had. That bonded him even more to me and to our family. He was most definitely an angel and blessing to my recovery. Did you know that interacting and petting animals creates a hormonal response in humans that can help fight depression. Hese helped me to live in this moment and enjoy it fully. We noticed the change in Hese´s health if we gave him lower quality dry-food vs raw food. His fur was so much better and eyes were clear when he got raw food. Also omega-3 was good for him. That motivated me also to make healthier choices. Hese lived a healthy and a happy life till the age of 13 (2014). He will be remembered forever.

Sources:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16531187
2. http://www.healthline.com/health-news/off-switch-for-autoimmune-diseases-090514
3. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18207698
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22776787

I will reveal more in the near future.
I wish you all the best in your life!

Tommi Sundqvist

tommisun(at)gmail.com