The WANTED: Crohn’s End blog has a post up about the possibility of the Long Beach, WA organic farm Green Angel Gardens having their land foreclosed on. I am a big fan of locally produced food as I think it could solve a lot of problems such as reducing consumption of oil as well as making everyone healthier.
The farm needs to come up with $9,000 by April 15th, 2011. You can help by donating on their website or at their Astoria, Oregon fundraiser on April 9th, 2011. If you don’t have the funds to donate, please tweet, blog or tell your friends the old fashioned way(in person) about the situation.
There have been a lot of recent news stories regarding people dealing with Crohn’s Disease. I thought I’d go over some of them here. It just goes to show that there are people of all walks of life who are having to deal with the issues that arise with Crohn’s Disease & other chronic illnesses.
Jennifer Jaff was a successful trial lawyer until both Crohn’s Disease & Gastroparesis brought her career to a halt. As she searched for answers and help about her own condition from others, she found that her skills as a lawyer could help those facing the same illnesses as her. She started helping others with basic questions about things like health insurance, Social Security disability requirements & the Family & Medical Leave Act. Eventually someone asked if she could help them with their disability retirement appeal, which she did & won. She has since created the non-profit organization Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness so that she can help more people dealing with chronic illnesses. She is also writing articles on EmpowHER.com. Continue reading “Stories Of People Living Life With Crohn’s Disease” »
Some interesting analysis from both Pacific Northwest National Laboratory & University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey has found unique protein types in the spinal fluid of those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome(CFS) & Neurological Post Treatment Lyme Disease(nPTLS). Those with CFS were found to have 738 proteins that were unique from a healthy individual or someone with nPTLS. Those with nPTLS were found to have 692 unique proteins that were not found in a healthy person or someone with CFS. What’s interesting as well is that there were also 305 unique proteins that were shared by those with CFS or nPTLS, but not with someone who was healthy.
While the test group was relatively small(79 people), it does shed more light on both of these hard to diagnose diseases. Lyme Disease is somewhat well known, but notoriously hard to diagnose & treat. Meanwhile Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, until recently, has usually been labeled as a “psychosomatic illness”, as in it being “all in your head”. These proteins do seem to back up the notion that there are physical differences between a healthy person and one who has been dealing with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Lyme Disease. Hopefully it will open doors to better testing & open the minds of some doctors.
Full Study PLoS Online
An interesting study by Dr. Gerard E. Mullin(John Hopkins University) provides some evidence that vitamin D3 may be of some use to people dealing with Crohn’s Disease. Dr Mullin gave patients with Crohn’s disease a 1200 IU daily dose of vitamin D3 & tracked the results for 12 months. After those 12 months, of the 46 given the vitamin d3 dosage, only 13% showed a relapse with their Crohn’s Disease. The 48 patients who received a placebo saw a relapse rate of 29%. While the total number of patients was only 92, these results are still pretty impressive, especially given how simple oral vitamin D3 supplementation is.
Some news articles are stating that 1200 IU is a high dosage, really it’s not that high at all and is easily obtainable in supplement form. If you’re interested in buying some vitamin D3 supplements you might want to check out Now Foods 2000 IU Vitamin D3.