Fasting to help your autoimmune condition

[MollyHuaCha]

I know there are a few fasting threads already on MN, but they seem focussed on weight loss.

For the last week I've been trying a 16:8 approach to hopefully help Crohn's symptoms. I fast for 16 hours each day (I have lots of water and herbal tea). This leaves 8 hours for two meals.

The theory is that Crohn's is fueled by a certain kind of gut bacteria. When you fast, you deprive these rogue bacteria of their food, therefore they cannot thrive as abundantly. I'm not recommending this for anyone else by the way! Can't have that responsibility...

I think it's helping me - not a huge amount, but moderately and the amount of times I get woken up in the night by abdominal pain is definitely decreasing .

If you have any thoughts on this topic, please add to the thread!

Hello! I fasted for 6 weeks and cleared my psoriasis! I drank 2 litres apple, 2 carrot and 2 beetroot daily. One meal of fish brown rice and broccoli....it worked!

Also try taking heavy duty probiotics, I took 2 daily as well.

My p is back now and I'm facing another fast when I get home from hols.

If you're looking for info, try Josh Axe (gut), dr pagans ( he does psoriasis but I believe it's all related)

You need prebiotic as well to feed the bacteria, so ferment your own sauerkraut etc

Hi South, yes definitely all related. I've just searched Josh Axe and the book I found was called Eat Dirt. Is that the one you meant?

Yeah, it's amazing! He's so handsome ... swooon

What sort of help do you get (from go) with chrons? Is it all dietary?

Sorry, from go?

What sort of help do you get (from go) with chrons? Is it all dietary

No, heavy duty meds from consultant in my case, otherwise I relapse into constant runny poo, fistulas and abcesses.

Every Crohns patient will have different things that they can/can't eat though e.g. out for me are steak (too tough to digest) and bananas (give me blockages). Got to be carefully with gassy veg and other high fibre foods (no wholmeal bread). Others will have different triggers.

Molly if you think your fasting is helping, keep doing it. Anything that helps is worthwhile. I need to stay high-carb which is a bummer for the weight gain, but low carb sees me shitting through the eye of a needle!

Thanks Gobbin. Today was my ninth day of 16:8 fasting and I felt the best I've felt for ages. So I shall continue for a while more. How are you by the way? Hope your Crohn's is under control.

South, I realize now that 'go' is autocorrected 'GP'! Sorry, was feeling a bit thick there. Actually, I've never met a doctor who has been very interested in the dietary control of Crohn's. They view it as a bit fringe and seem to prefer medicines and surgery.

Hi Molly, sorry, yes, it was GP! ive been travelling all day and read a book about gut health by Michael moseley....going to give that a go, my skin is a mess right now.

have you ever tried probiotics btw?

Have any of you taken turmeric for crohns? I'm tempted by one that keeps popping up on my Facebook but it's £19!!

just put turmeric on everything, plus a diet high in black pepper, shallots, onions, cruciferous veg are apparently great for bowel health. Also, I always thought tht red wine was a myth but apparently it helps to repopulate bowel bacteria!