FOOD INTOLERANCE MIGHT CAUSE CROHN’S DISEASE
The idea that food intolerance might cause Crohn’s disease is highly controversial. Almost all the work on this subject has been carried out by Dr John Hunter of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He finds that over 80 per cent of patients recover on an elimination diet, and then react to specific foods when these are reintroduced. By cutting out the incriminated foods, these patients can remain well. Some of them later relapse – as is common in Crohn’s disease – but after two years, 80 per cent of those still on their diet remain well. This compares favourably with the standard treatment, using corticosteroids. Of patients treated with these drugs, only 40 per cent are still well after two years of treatment.
Because patients with Crohn’s disease are often very ill, carrying out an elimination diet is not all that easy, and other doctors have been reluctant to try this new approach. The technique that Dr Hunter uses is to feed his patients on an elemental diet during the first part of the elimination diet, or to feed them in some other way – using an intravenous drip which puts nutrients straight into the bloodstream, for example. Other doctors, who are sceptical about food intolerance, suggest that the Crohn’s disease symptoms clear up simply because the patient’s gut is being given a rest from digesting real food, or because the patient’s nutritional status is improved. But if this were the case, one would not expect the patients to remain well afterwards, on a normal diet that just excluded certain food items.
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