I am watching my friend's dd right now while she takes her dh to the gastro to talk about surgery for his Crohns.

I know that I have read about people with Crohn's that have benefitted from being gluten-free. Does anyone have any helpful links that I could give them? I've found a few to give them. I mentioned it to him last year, but it sounds like maybe he's ready to try it now.

Thanks!

Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2005 Jul;11(7):662-6.Links

High prevalence of celiac disease among patients affected by Crohn's disease.Tursi A, Giorgetti GM, Brandimarte G, Elisei W.
Digestive Endoscopy Unit, "Lorenzo Bonomo" Hospital, Andria, Italy. antotursi@tiscali.it

BACKGROUND: Recent literature has shown a correlation between Crohn's disease (celiac disease) and celiac disease, but a prospective study has not been performed. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence of celiac disease in a consecutive series of patients affected by celiac disease, in whom the disease was diagnosed for the first time. METHODS: From January to December 2004, we diagnosed 27 patients affected by celiac disease (13 men and 14 women; mean age, 32.3 yrs; range, 16-69 yrs). In all patients, we performed antigliadin, antiendomysium, and antitransglutaminase antibody tests, and the sorbitol H2 breath test evaluation. In case of antibodies and/or sorbitol positivity, esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed for a small bowel biopsy. RESULTS: Antigliadin, antiendomysium, and antitransglutaminase antibody tests were positive in 8/27 (29.63%), 4/27 (14.81%), and 5/27 (18.52%) patients, respectively, whereas the sorbitol H2 breath test was positive in 11/27 (40.74%) patients: all of them underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Nine of 11 patients showed signs of duodenal endoscopic damage, and 5/9 (55.55%) showed histologic features of celiac disease (18.52% of overall celiac disease population studied): 2 showed Marsh IIIc lesions (1 patient affected by ileal celiac disease and 1 affected by ileo-colonic celiac disease), 2 showed Marsh IIIb lesions (all of them affected by ileo-colonic celiac disease), 1 showed a Marsh IIIa lesion (1 patient affected by colonic celiac disease). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of celiac disease seems to be high among patients affected by celiac disease, and this finding should be kept in mind at the time of the first diagnosis of celiac disease; a gluten-free diet should be promptly started.

There are a number of studies on pubmed.gov that reference Crohn's, Celiac, and gluten-free diet.

A neat link with abstracts re: IBS, Crohn's, Celiac

Thanks!! I'm going to print this out for him and go to that site.

forgot to post the other link: http://jccglutenfree.googlepages.com/crohn's,ibd,ibs