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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    Early stages of IBD, should I expect it to get worse?

    Related Topics
    Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Digestive Health Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
    I've had a colonoscopy & gastroscopy and the nurse told me the biopsy results show I may be in the early stages of IBD. I will know what that actually means in 2 weeks when I talk to the specialist. I went to the doctor thinking I had IBS.

    I have constipation and diarrhea and I feel like fainting at times when passing a bowel motion. I usually have sharp stabbing pain when passing stool and sometimes throughout the day. I have air and bloating and feel nauseous a lot. Sometimes waking up with night sweats. Occasionally I have intense back pain in conjunction with abdominal pain. I have no blood in my stool and the stool and blood tests were all fine. Scopes were fine only the biopsy came back abnormal. Mum had very severe UC for 10 years and never went into remission, then had her bowel removed.

    If I am in early stages of IBD, should I expect it to worsen? Is it possible to have the start of IBD but not be passing blood? I can't find any info on early stages of IBD.
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    Kristen Ross

    Counsellor, Kinesiologist

    Kristen Ross is a qualified Kinesiologist, Counsellor and Sports Therapist.Affinity Wellness is her holistic wellness practice offering a holistic wellness experience by focusing on all … View Profile

    Inflammatory bowel disease is considered to be an auto immune condition, that would mean that your immune system is attacking parts of your digestive system. 

    What I would highly recommend for you at this stage is that you see a naturopath, kinesiologist who specialises in nutrition or another nutritional therapist to treat this issue directly so that it doesn't get any worse. 

    You are very likely to find that your diet will need to be reworked as it highly likely that there is a food source that triggers your body to attack itself. You may find that certain foods may need to be removed, often people with your symptoms do well when removing caffeine, sugars and gluten from their diets. This may include fructose, wheat, lactose and sucrose based products. You may also discover that you have nutritional deficiencies which will need to be addressed in order to help your body recover and reduce inflammatory reactions. 

    I would definitely reccommend that you investigate the above options as soon as possible.

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    Tarn72

    HealthShare Member

    Thank you for your answer! As soon as I found out my Mum immediately started me on an organic diet (no preservatives), similar to what she used to eat when she still had a bowel. I'll look into those foods and see if I'm still eating them. I'm going to a naturopath in a few weeks too. It's reassuring to know I'm on the right path so far! Thank you!

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    Elizabeth Newsham-West

    Dietitian

    Specific foods will not progress or delay the progression of the disease. The manipulation of food is usually done to treat the symptoms' of this disease, help with mucosal healing if ulcerated or prevent obstruction if stricture present or meet increased nutritional needs if growing ( children/adolescents).

    Certainly having a healthy eating and lifestyle habits ( not smoking) is helpful for bowel health. And dietary changes are done in UC to manage the symptoms, improve feeling of wellbeing as mentioned above. Often the Mediterranean style of eating has shown to have some benefits  for prevention and managemmnt of many diseases.

    Presentation and management of of IBD can be different from person to person despite the pathology being the same. I hope your results are better than what you think they are or if you do have UC it is easier to manage than your Mum's.

    I would get an appointment with a GI specialist to dicsuss all your questions further. They will tell you what you should do. Remember research is being done in this area all the time so more is known now than when your Mum was first diagnosed. By the way it is easy to avoid preservatives and colourings by avoiding  processed foods.

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    Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith

    Health Professional

    My research interests include immunology and the mechanisms of amyloid formation. The latter has implications for people who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease … View Profile

    Tarn72, I am sorry to read  that you may have a version of inflammatory bowel disease.

    I suggest that you ask your GP to give you a referal to a clinical immunologist who has experience of helping clients with IBD.

    Such people are evidence-based clinical professionals.      Naturopaths and kinesiologists are not.

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  • Phil Bailey

    HealthShare Member

    The symptoms you have described are unfortunately nearly identical to my partner who was diagnosed with Crohns when she was in her teens. As her family has a direct history of crohns it was much more conclusive to test for this via biopsy where there was localised inflamation.

    Your specialists will likely confirm from biopsy if IBD is the most likely cause of your symptoms or not.

    I would wait for the discussion withn your specialist before making any decisions about how to manage with whatever is causing the gastric isuues.

    Keep in mind that there active and ongoing research with targeted response of the immune system that presents as IBD.

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