Infliximab helps with weight gain in Chrones Disease patients

Research carried out at the University of North Carolina in the US, people treated with infliximab who also have chrones disease experience weight gain which so far can not be explained.

It was reported that some crohn's disease patients put on as much as 75 pounds, which is far more than any weight gain that had been witnessed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and treated with infliximab.

A clinical research fellow at the Universit, Cristal Brown said that chrones patients were often malnourished and that this could help if the fight against the disease. The difficult question to ask is that what if they were to push chrones disease sufferers into obesity and all the associated problems that come with that?

Chrones patients who used Infliximab gained almost five times as much weight as patients with arthritis (4.97 kg versus 1.1 kg) and some people with Crohn's gained as much as 20 to 30 kg. There was no difference in weight gain between patients with luminal versus fistulous disease or by steroid use, baseline body mass index, smoking status, or chrons disease activity. These findings were based on the records on 92 people with Chrons disease and 51 rheumatoid arthritis patients. All of whom were at least 18 years old and who had received three or more infusions of infliximab.

It is thought that many patients with the disease would probably benefit from a small weight gain as the disease often led to some degree of undernourishment, but there is a need for a larger study to determine the cause of this weight gain and the role of leptin in the weight gain.

Chrones Disease & Stress

I have often felt that how I feel in general can affect my Crohn's and like others I wonder if stress has an effect and even make the symptoms of Chrones disease worse?

As far as I have been able to ascertain there no hard evidence that stress can cause chrones disease in the fist place. However it is true to say that people who suffer with chrones do often experience the increased stress in their lives when compare to people without the disease. But this is mainly due to having to cope with a chronic illness.

I have seem some reports that suggest that people with Crohn’s disease have flare ups more often when they are going through a particularly stressful situation in their lives.

Based on this the best advice is that if you feel that there is a connection between your stress levels and a worsening of your chrones disease symptoms, try researching relaxation techniques like slow breathing exercises and possibly even meditation.

Also as always, make sure you eat well and correctly, get enough sleep and contact your doctor.

Nicotine, Smoking & Chrones Disease

The effects of Nicotine and Smoking on Chrones Disease

The general thought is that smoking cigarettes actually has a detrimental effect on Crohn's disease. The statistics show that people who smoke, or who have smoked in the past, have a bigger chance of developing Chrones than non-smokers. If you already have Crohn's disease and you smoke, you are more likely to have an increased number of relapses, repeat surgeries, and may require aggressive immunosuppressive treatment.

Most people with People Chrones disease are strongly encouraged by their doctors to stop smoking in order to prevent flare-ups of the disease.

Location of Chrones
A study conducted a few years ago and then published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, has shown that there is a link between smoking and Chrones Disease.

What the study seemed to show is that smoking may actually decide which part of your intestinal tract is affected in people who have Crohn's Disease.

The Importance of the Findings
The importance of these findings cannot be underestimated as where chrones disease is located in your body often determines if you will need surgical treatment or not.

The results suggested that crohn's disease seems to appear more often in the small intestine and not the colon in smokers. Chrones disease located in the small intestine is often more penetrating and thus causes more damage and as a result has to be treated with surgery more often.

More Information
Amazon.com have a number of articles related related to Smoking and Chrones available for download, including an article from Internal Medicine News by Bruce Jancin on how if you stop Smoking it helps to Cut Crohn's Surgery Repeats:
Smoking & Crohn's Disease