Can IBD Heal Itself?
One of the things I wondered the most when I was first diagnosed was can IBD heal itself?
The short answer to this question is no. Which of course is unfortunate news. IBD will not heal itself if you don’t make any changes.
However, there are steps that we can take that can change our bodies environment. And make progress in creating the right environment to help IBD heal itself.
We will now delve into;
- Exactly why IBD cannot heal itself
- What you can do to help heal it
- Your body’s own ability to heal itself
When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, I mostly ignored the diagnosis. I thought that IBD would somehow go away on its own. I just wanted to ignore the disease and continue living my life as I had been.
This of course did not work out as I intended. Instead, by ignoring the disease, I allowed it to get worse. I knew that I did not want to take long-term medications. But I also did not want to make any diet or lifestyle changes.
So I basically did nothing about my diagnosis.
I cannot stress this enough: doing absolutely nothing about your IBD will only harm your body. It will make the disease worse. Trust me, I made this mistake for years.
A Wound vs. Inflammation
If you have ever cut your arm, you will have noticed that over a few days, or weeks the cut heals itself. This happens because red blood cells create collagen. This collagen is the foundation for new tissue.
Unfortunately, IBD is not like a cut on your arm. Inflammation in our bodies does not heal the same way. In fact, how inflammation heals is not very well understood.
In IBD, there are many factors at play that create inflammation in our guts.
- There is a genetic component. Something in our genes has predisposed us to have inflammatory disease.
- Second, there are environmental triggers. This can include pollution, viruses, medication, and food.
- Third, there is dysbiosis in our gut. Patients with IBD often have an overgrowth of bad bacteria and too few good bacteria.
If IBD is ignored, with all these factors still at play, healing will not happen. Doing nothing will most likely make the inflammation worse. Inflammation spreads, bad bacteria take over, and symptoms worsen.
If we perpetuate the body environment in which the disease was created. The disease will only perpetuate. We must create an environment where healing, not disease, can flourish.
The Right Diet
Eating the right diet is the single most important thing you can do to manage most diseases in the body. And diet has proven beneficial in managing symptoms many IBD patients.
Providing the body with nutrient-dense foods, that it can easily digest. Is the most important thing when managing IBD symptoms. A diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods, will help reduce inflammation in the body. And heal gut dysbiosis, by providing the body with lots of pro, and pre biotics.
When dealing with IBD there is another important step: working out which anti-inflammatory foods your body can currently digest. According to your current health status. The IBD-AID diet has broken down anti-inflammatory foods into three phases. These phases are based on your current symptom level.
IBD-AID is a clinically proven diet in helping patients manage IBD symptoms.
Your Body’s Ability to Heal Itself
Your body repairs and heals itself every single day. About 1% of your cells are replaced each day inside your body. That means that in 100 days, 30 trillion cells will be replenished – the equivalent of a new you!
In fact, your intestine is the more regenerative organ in your body. It completely regenerates its lining every five to seven days. This continual renewal allows the GI tract to withstand the constant stresses of digestion, and absorption. While also managing waste elimination. All of these functions are essential for our survival.
To allow our bodies to heal themselves, we will most likely need to make some dietary and lifestyle changes. Remember, healing cannot happen in the same body environment the disease happened.
There are countless stories out there of people healing from disease. From cancer, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and IBD. All by changing their body environment.
Some factors that affect the body environment include:
- The food and drink you put into your body
- The people you surround yourself with
- Your own mental talk and personal life views
- You gut biota
- Your exposure to toxins (found in cleaning products, make-up, household items, pollution etc.)
- Sleep patterns
- Stress management
By changing your body environment, you can heal disease.
Fuel for the New Cells
Because your body is constantly regenerating, it needs a fuel source to build new cells.
This fuel source comes from the foods we eat. If you spend your life eating potato chips, cake, and cookies. Foods that have little to no nutritional value. The materials your body has to build new cells are of poor quality.
If you eat lots of nutrient-dense foods, like fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins. Your body has an excellent source of materials to build new cells in your body. It has the materials and ability to build strong, healthy cells.
You are what you eat. 100%. If you choose to eat toxic crap, your body will suffer. There is no way around that. If you choose to eat nutrient dense foods, then your body has the materials it needs to be successful.
Remission vs Healing
I have personally experienced when an IBD flare seems to go away on its own. Without making any major changes to my diet or lifestyle.
So, does this mean that IBD can heal itself?
While this type of healing is amazing, it is often not long term. The disease will reappear if you continue to create the same body environment.
I know that this is not long-term healing, or ‘deep remission’. Which is my ultimate goal.
My goal is to get my body as close to its optimum health as possible. I am not always entirely sure what that looks like. But I do know that creating the right body environment is a crucial step in getting there.
IBD cannot heal itself on its own if you do nothing to help it. If you continue to create the same body environment that created the disease. The disease will continue to flourish.
And if you make dietary, and lifestyle changes to your body environment. You are helping to create a body environment where healing can occur.
So that we can all reach our own version of optimum health and wellbeing.