Posts tagged crohn

rates of autoimmune disorders, like Crohn’s and multiple sclerosis, have more than doubled in the last four decades.

Current treatments focus on the symptoms, but do little to address the root cause of Crohn’s, including the potential role of bacteria. Whether infection plays a role remains a hotly contested area among experts. The theory, however, is gaining ground as evidence mounts supporting the connection.

Infection has emerged as a causative agent in other diseases, but not without resistance. Con sider Australian researcher Dr. Barry Marshall, who faced an uphill battle when challenging the medical doctrine by suggesting that a bacterium causes most ulcers–a discovery that has changed the course of treatment and quality of life for millions, At that time, the then-radical notion and its proponents were widely ridiculed. Dr. Marshall believes that infectious agents may play a role in other diseases, including Crohn’s.

if a microorganism causes Crohn’s, what is it and how is it transmitted?

Researchers point to a persuasive body of evidence linking the bacterium, called Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), to the disease and underscore the route of transmission into the human population through one of our most popular drinks–milk.

MAP infection causes a debilitating disorder called Johne’s disease that commonly occurs in cattle throughout the world, including the United States. Cows with Johne’s share similar symptoms to people with Crohn’s. infected cows secrete the mycobacterium in their milk.

Individuals with a genetic susceptibility to Crohn’s may thus pick up the disease. Supporters of the theory note that Crohn’s is most frequently found in developed countries where milk consumption is high, except in countries where milk is boiled prior to consumption–an extra measure of precaution that some suggest would be prudent today.

The dairy industry, however, vigorously maintains that current pasteurization techniques are adequate to eliminate the bacteria, while critics highlight studies of the milk supply where MAP survived conventional pasteurization processes. Several European countries, such as Britain, have called for more stringent pasteurization procedures to ensure eradication of the microorganisms from the milk supply.

“The rate of detection of MAP in individuals with Crohn’s disease is highly significant,” said the researchers, writing in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. “The discovery that the MAP bug is present in the vast majority of Crohn’s sufferers means it is almost certainly causing the intestinal inflammation.”

Hermon-Taylor: Endoscopy as done in the past wouldn’t detect it, but the paper that we published in the U.S. in the July 2003 Journal of Clinical Microbiology shows that if you take endoscopic mucosal biopsies fresh from the endoscopy suite into the lab–and test them by the methods that our science has very carefully optimized and perfected–you can detect MAP with great accuracy. Read more at goliath.ecnext.com