Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis affect the Gastro-Intestinal Tract

Patrick Hanaway describes the gastro-intestinal tract as 'the tube within a tube' that connects us to our environment through a dynamic interface that is larger than a tennis court. He says that over the course of our lifetimes, we ingest many tons of macro-nutrients, micronutrients, chemicals, and toxins.

He says that experts vary on the tonnage, but figures range from 30 to 60 tons of food consumed in the life-time of the average well-nourished adult¹. These materials provide the building blocks for everything human.

• Imbalances in our functional ability to make the most of these nutrients have ramifications for every aspect of our being
.
• Imbalance in the gastrointestinal system has implications that extend far beyond gastrointestinal symptoms.

Classically, the functions of digestion and absorption are considered the principal roles of the gastro-intestinal epithelium. The impact of diet and nutrients on the balance of commensal* flora is considerable.

Digestion and absorption provide proper macronutrients and micronutrients, while responses such as:

• appropriate physiologic inflammation
• the development of oral tolerance
• the production of neuro-chemicals by the "second brain" (Michael Gershon's term for the enteric nervous system ²) and
• the appropriate excretion of waste

must all function effectively and in balance with each other in order to foster health and well-being.

Hanaway says that dysfunction within the gastro-intestinal system manifests in typical digestive disease such as:

• Crohns Disease and Ulcerative Colitis - i.e. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)³
• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)⁴
• and even colorectal cancer (CRC)⁵

Hanaway continues to explain how gastro-intestinal dysfunction can also manifest as imbalanced immunologic function, thereby creating and/or contributing to both atopic illness ⁶(including allergy and asthma) and autoimmune dysfunction ⁷ (including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis). He adds that other diseases of immune dysregulation and gastrointestinal dysfunction now include the autism spectrum disorders⁸.

He tells us that the evolution of these diseases begin long before the presentation of symptoms and thus the opportunity for prevention and early intervention can have tremendous impact on the burden of suffering and disease.

He stresses that dietary approaches provide the most effective means of restoring balance within the gastro-intestinal system. It allows us to intervene along a continuum from illness to wellness, where the approach is of value at each level:

• addressing treatment of disease
• relief of symptomatic imbalance even before pathologic disease has manifested,
• prevention, and
• optimal wellness
.

Hanaway suggests that Diagnostic testing helps to illuminate and clarify the degree of dysfunction. Evaluation of stool provides information on parameters of digestion, absorption, inflammation, infection, and altered gut flora (known as dysbiosis).

*Commensal: DEFINITION: Living in a relationship in which one organism derives food or other benefits from another organism without hurting or helping it. Commensal bacteria are part of the normal flora in the digestive system.



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