Despite the large number of people affected by digestive diseases, gastroenterologists maintain a less than optimal course of treatment.  The medical community has largely ignored the role that diet plays in treating and often curing gastrointestinal diseases.  In this paper, I will explain, through my own experiences and through the work of those who have promoted a specific diet for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, how the medical community is oblivious to an important treatment for patients struggling with digestive disease

Short, Patrick

University of Missouri: MOspace

Gastrointestinal Disease and DietBy Artifacts • Jan 28th, 2010 • Category: Issue 4, Life WritingBy Patrick ShortAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are just over 7 million visits tothe emergency room each year with a digestive system diagnosis and nearly 40 million visits tooffice based physicians for digestive system symptoms.[1] Between 60 and 70 million people areaffected by digestive diseases, a classification which includes a wide variety of diseases.[2] Thecause of inflammatory bowel disease “is unknown,” and is not “caused by tension, anxiety or anyother psychological factor or disorder,” contrary to popular belief.[3] Common symptoms include“blood in…stool, changes in bowel habits, severe abdominal pain, unintentional weight loss, andheartburn not relieved by antacids.”[4] Despite the large number of people affected by digestivediseases, gastroenterologists maintain a less than optimal course of treatment.  The medicalcommunity has largely ignored the role that diet plays in treating and often curing gastrointestinaldiseases.  In this paper, I will explain, through my own experiences and through the work of thosewho have promoted a specific diet for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, how the medicalcommunity is oblivious to an important treatment for patients struggling with digestive disease.Last year, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease.  Mygastroenterologist made it clear that there was no way to cure this disease, that it was “chronic.” The course that it would take would be determined at about two years, he said.  If it did not getworse by then, it probably never would.  If it did get worse, then it would need to be treated withsteroids, and if steroids proved insufficient, then surgery was the next and last alternative.  Atabout nine months my condition started to get noticeably worse.  My doctor doubled the amount ofpills I was taking, which seemed to help, but at the same time was expensive and not curing theactual disease.Shortly after going on the increased pill dosage I went on a raw vegan diet, which I found in abook that promised to cure ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s.  This diet seemed to be working but wasvery restrictive.  A few weeks later, I found out about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), asdescribed in Elaine Gottschall’s book Breaking the Vicious Cycle:  Intestinal Health Through Diet.  Ihave been on this diet ever since and found my condition to be improved to the point where I wasable to stop taking my pills just three weeks after I was on the diet.  My doctors made no mentionof diet playing a part in my disease, except when I was first diagnosed and my doctor told me thatI probably should not eat fried food.  Although the SCD was not invented by Gottschall, she wasthe first to present all the material in a way that the non-specialist can understand.  The SCD isimportant because it is the most common diet used by patients to treat a wide variety ofgastrointestinal diseases and although it is probably impossible to find out its success rate,especially without the support of the medical community, it is certainly more successful than pills,which frequently fail at effectively controlling inflammatory bowel diseases, only to be replaced bysteroids and surgery.The number of gastroenterologists who recommend the SCD or other similar diets to their patientsis unknown.  There are about sixty doctors listed on the official website for the book, who use thediet in treatment, half of those being in the United States.[5] Other doctors remain either unawareor skeptical of the diet.  Neither of the gastroenterologists who I talked to had heard about it.  Oneof the doctors acknowledged that he was not trained in nutrition in medical school and as a resultArtifacts » Issue 4 Life Writing » Gastrointestinal Disease and Diet http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=1011 of 5 7/20/2010 9:24 AMknew very little about the effects that diet can have in treating diseases (especially in his field ofspecialization).  My doctors encouraged me to continue with this diet if it worked but seemed todoubt that it would be effective.  In medical school, soon-to-be doctors learn all about thecomposition of the body and the effects that chemicals have on the processes of the body butapparently not much mention is given to the effect that diet can have on the functioning of thebody.  Gottschall explains the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in her book in a way that would seem toget the attention of the medical community.Gottschall describes gastrointestinal diseases as resulting from “bacterial overgrowth in thestomach and small intestine.”  This overgrowth can be caused by “continual use ofantacid…decrease in acidity of stomach” due to aging, “malnutrition or a diet of poor quality”causing a weakened immune system, and/or “antibiotic therapy resulting in a wide range ofmicrobial changes.”[6] Gottschall explains how the healthy digestive system operates:  “In thehealthy intestinal tract, intestinal microbes appear to live in a state of balance; an overabundanceof one type seems to be inhibited by the activities of other types.  This competition betweenmicrobes prevents any one type from overwhelming the body with its waste products or toxins.”[7]The basis of the SCD is “the principle that specifically selected carbohydrates, requiring minimaldigestive processes are absorbed and leave virtually none to be used for furthering microbialgrowth in the intestine.”[8] These specifically selected carbohydrates are single sugars ormonosaccharides which “require no further splitting in order to be transported into thebloodstream.”[9] Foods that contain disaccharides and polysaccharides cannot be digested easilybecause “the structure of the intestine is dramatically altered during intestinal disease.”[10] “Thelast step in the digestion of starch” occurs in the microvilli, which become “injured and blunted”with this disease.[11] The SCD takes these damaged digestive processes into account andrecommends a diet consisting mostly of fruits, vegetables, and meat, and absent of foods thatcontain complex carbohydrates and added sugar, such as most commercially prepared foods.The SCD is not the only diet used to treat gastrointestinal disease. There are many different dietsexpounded in books written by people who have beaten gastrointestinal disease.  Many of thesediets are very similar to the SCD and nearly all condemn the use of enriched flour and sugar bypeople affected with digestive diseases.  The Cleveland Clinic, on its website, says, “Our diets cancontribute to digestive system difficulties.  Many people eat too much processed food and sugar,and not enough fiber, fruits, and vegetables.”[12] Another perspective is offered by David Klein,Ph.D. in Self Healing Colitis and Crohn’s.  Klein takes a position contrary to most doctors who tryto cure diseases “externally.”  Klein says, “Disease is not something which invades our bodies fromoutside, nor is it something to be cured or stopped…disease symptoms are a manifestation thatthe body is ‘curing’ itself.”[13] The causes of disease, according to Klein, are “toxic diet, drugs,”and “mental/emotional, lifestyle stress.”[14] A healthy diet according to Klein is “a low-fat,fruit-based alkalinizing, properly combined vegan diet”[15] None, if any, of the gastrointestinaldiets are as restrictive as Klein’s, but they all maintain the importance of strict adherence to theirdiet in achieving a cure.The authors of diet books for gastrointestinal disease patients are aware that the medicalcommunity is ignoring their advice.  Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D., in the foreword to Breaking theVicious Cycle, writes, “Unfortunately, the chances of wider acceptance of the dietary approacheslike this one are small…gastroenterologists…scarcely acknowledge the role diet can play.”[16] TheSpecific Carbohydrate Diet is not new and does not seem to be on the verge of gainingacceptance.  Breaking the Vicious Cycle was first published in 1994 under the title Food and theGut Reaction.  In 1951, Sidney V. and Merrill P. Haas, the originators of the Specific CarbohydrateDiet wrote a book entitled Management of Celiac Disease, which was written for the medicalArtifacts » Issue 4 Life Writing » Gastrointestinal Disease and Diet http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=1012 of 5 7/20/2010 9:24 AMcommunity and “documented the doctors’ experiences in treating and curing hundreds of cases ofceliac disease,” a gastrointestinal disease, with the SCD “for a minimum of one year,” after whichthey returned to “a normal diet with complete and permanent disappearance of symptoms.”[17] Agroup of faculty members from the University of Birmingham later published an article thatseemed to shed new light on Haas’ findings. The article blamed “the protein, gluten in wheat andrye flour” instead of “the starch in the grains” for celiac symptoms.[18] The problem with a“gluten-free” diet is that even in patients whom the diet seems to be helping, the “biopsy samples,as viewed under a microscope, showed intestinal cells that were still markedly abnormal.”[19] TheSCD eliminates “all grains which contain gluten or gluten-like proteins” and “has been shown tocompletely cure most cases of celiac disease if followed for at least one year.”[20]The founders of the SCD, Drs. Haas, cured “hundreds of cases of celiac disease”[21] with the dietthey formulated specifically for that purpose.  The medical community has cured nobody with pills,steroids and surgeries.  The goal of the medical community is simply to control the digestivedisease, whereas the goal of the SCD is to cure the patient.  Although it does not work for allpatients, it is based on sound medical research and does not rely on the holistic or occultremedies some of the other gastrointestinal diets use.  I am convinced that the SCD works,because it has worked for me.  After my condition started getting worse, I discovered the SCD andafter about a month and a half on it, practically all of my symptoms have disappeared.  Doctorswho are skeptical of the diet may say that my disease just went into remission without any helpfrom the diet.  What gastroenterologists think of the diet concerns me less now since I hopefullywill not need one anymore.  I tried their methods for a year and then tried Haas’ method for amonth and its clear which method works.The fact that the medical community has ignored the role of diet in treating gastrointestinaldiseases just means that it might be necessary for patients to realize that there are othertreatments and that if they want to be cured they might have to find a  source other than themedical community.  The good news is that there are no risks associated with going on a diet totreat gastrointestinal disease.  However there are risks in not going on a diet, such as the SCD, forexample the risk of the disease getting worse and the patient possibly having to undergo surgery. After a year or two on the SCD, most patients can return to their old diets.  The reason whydoctors do not recognize the importance of diet in treating digestive disease is a matter of debate,but more important is the fact that diet actually works to treat and cure these diseases.[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Digestive Diseases,” National Ambulatory MedicalCare Survey:  2006, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/digestiv.htm (accessed April 22, 2009).[2] National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, “Digestive DiseasesStatistics,” National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/statistics.htm#specific (accessed April 24, 2009).[3] National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, “Facts and Fallacies aboutDigestive Diseases,” National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse,http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/facts/index.htm (accessed April 22, 2009).[4] U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Digestive Diseases,” MedlinePlus, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/digestivediseases.hthttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/digestivediseases.html(accessed April 22, 2009).[5] Kim Hesche, “SCD Friendly doctors and health practitioners,” Breaking the Vicious Cycle: TheSpecific Carbohydrate Diet, http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/friendly_docs/doclist2.htm#ca(accessed April 22, 2009).Artifacts » Issue 4 Life Writing » Gastrointestinal Disease and Diet http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=1013 of 5 7/20/2010 9:24 AM[6] Elaine Gottschall, Breaking the Vicious Cycle:  Intestinal Health Through Diet (Baltimore,Ontario: The Kirkton Press, 2007), 13.[7] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 12-13.[8] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 20.[9] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 27.[10] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 24.[11] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 24.[12] Cleveland Clinic,“Healthy Eating for the Digestive System, http://my.clevelandclinic.org/healthy_living/nutrition/hic_healthy_eating_for_the_digestive_system.aspx (accessed April 22,2009).[13] David Klein, Self Healing  Colitis & Crohn’s (Sebastopol, California: Colitis & Crohn’s HealthRecovery Center, 2008), 2-9.[14] Klein, Colitis & Crohn’s, 2-13.[15] Klein, Colitis & Crohn’s, 4-27.[16] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, iii.[17] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 1.[18] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 37.[19] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 40.[20] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 43.[21] Gottschall, Vicious Cycle, 1.Artifacts » Issue 4 Life Writing » Gastrointestinal Disease and Diet http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=1014 of 5 7/20/2010 9:24 AMArtifacts is a publication of The University of Missouri.Email this author | All posts by Artifacts4 Responses »Patricia A. McAnany on February 4th, 2010 at 1:39 pm:First rate writing and scholarship! This personal account of a commonly misdiagnosedmedical syndrome is compelling and extremely well research. This student definitely has acareer option in writing about diet, disease, and nutrition. I applaud his professors at MU andthe discipline and insight of this young up and coming writer, Patrick Short.1.Lesley Ann McDaniel on June 19th, 2010 at 9:00 pm:Thank you for writing this paper. Most people, even doctors, have no idea of the importantrole diet plays in disease prevention and healing. It would seem like the obvious first line ofattack, especially with a disease like Crohn’s which impacts the digestive tract directly.In addition to the resources sited in the article, I highly recommend “The Maker’s Diet” byJordan Rubin. He too suffered from Crohn’s and saved himself through a diet based on thereferences made to food in the Bible. It sounds much less restrictive than the raw diet youwere on. I highly recommend the book.Thanks again for this enlightening work.2.sheila Reingold on June 21st, 2010 at 6:38 pm:I completely agree with the author of this article. I have had Crohn’s disease for over 35years. It was first diagnosed when I was 11 and I am now 50 years old. Elains Gotschall’sbook did not exist when I was diagnosed. About two years ago we found out that my 13 yearold son had Crohn’s. I discovered Elaine’s book and found it was very helpful. My son hasbeen doing very well and although we no longer follow the diet religously, I still follow manyaspects of the diet and use her recipes and list of low lactose cheeses on a regular basis. Irecommend her book to anyone who is struggling with this awful disease.3.Michelle Rodulfo on June 24th, 2010 at 8:17 am:An excellent article. It’s so unfortunate that the medical community has not or refuses, or isjust not trained to recognize the link between food and disease. For me dairy and wheat arebig no no’s. But unfortunately I’ve had to learn this the hard way. You may be intersted tocheck out a new book called Clean which builds on the whole idea of toxicity and our needto detoxify in order to restore natural balance.4.Leave a ReplyArtifacts » Issue 4 Life Writing » Gastrointestinal Disease and Diet http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=1015 of 5 7/20/2010 9:24 AM

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