HELLO: I AM 55 YRS. OLD WHO WAS RECENTLY DIAGNOSED WITH CROHNS . MY LATEST BLOOD TEST SHOWED HIGH SED RATE LEVELS AND LOW PROTEIN LEVELS AND ON THE EDGE OF ANEMIA. CAN ANYONE SUGGEST WHAT VITAMINS TO START TAKING. I ALREADY DRINK ABSORB PLUS, ONLY ONCE A DAY BECAUSE I AM OVER WEIGHT AND DO NOT WANT TO GAIN.

Hi Nancy,

As you may know, a high sed rate can be an indication of either an infection or inflammation from an autoimmune disease or both. This makes sense with your Crohn's Diagnosis, considering that inflammation is present and some physicians believe Crohn's is caused by or at least has an infectious component.

Based on the results of your test, it seems vital to 1) reduce inflammation, 2) treat the infection (if present) and 3) boost your protein levels. The good news is, AbsorbPlus does all of these things. You may also want to do Jini's wild oregano oil protocol, which will help with the infectious component (whether bacterial dysbiosis or MAP) of your condition.

You can use AbsorbPlus to lose weight very easily, if that is what you feel you need. If you have Jini's book, just consult the section which outlines how to calculate your caloric intake based on your goals. Then drink the appropriate number of shakes per day. You can reduce the amount of oil added to the shakes to keep them low in calories. However, the oils Jini recommends are very healthy oils and have crucial health promoting qualities (including anti-inflammatory properties) that would be very important for you. These healthy fats are not going to cause you to gain weight like hydrogenated oils and other omega-6 vegetable oils that are very common to the American diet.

If you feel you need additional micronutrient (vitamin) support, I recommend a pharmaceutical grade formula clinically proven to boost the immune system. It can be found at http://www.k-pax.us.

Hope this helps,
Chris

THANKS CHRIS FOR YOUR HELP. THIS IS ALL NEW TO ME AND SOME OF IT IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND. THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN AND THE DRS. DON'T SEEM TO HELP TOO MUCH

Yes, we really have to be our own advocates. The upside of that is that it really forces us to trust our own intuition rather than rely solely on an external "authority" to tell us what to do. On the other hand, it is very helpful to have someone to guide us through that process.

You're very welcome.

Hi, Nancy.

Besides the great advice that Chris already gave you, here are a couple of other suggestions.

First, on the General Treatment Plan for Crohn's which can be found on the CD that accompanies Listen to Your Gut, here is what Jini has to say on vitamin supplementation for people with Crohn's:

"Take a full-spectrum multi-mineral/vitamin supplement. Zinc, selenium, folic acid, vitamins A, E and B12 (sublingual) will be particularly beneficial for your condition. Definitely take an additional antioxidant supplement like Grapeseed Extract, Coenzyme Q10 or Pycnogenol."

I don't know how anemic you are, but I'll share my experience and you can take from it whatever you feel may be useful or "clicks" with you. I have been anemic since I came down with Crohn's, despite supplementation with Ferrasorb and liquid chlorophyll. On a recent consultation with Dr. Dean, I questioned why this might be so, even though I'm supplementing with iron and not bleeding intestinally. Basically, because iron can also provide energy to pathogens, in an infected state, your body may choose to sequester existing iron stores and not to absorb much in the way of "new" iron.

As Jini has said, with holistic healing, it is sometimes (maybe often) necessary to treat the more serious symptoms first while letting less serious symptoms ride. Because my energy at this point is actually quite good, despite anemia, and based on Dr. Dean's feedback, I'm focusing my efforts on following the various stages of Jini's Wild Oregano Protocol to treat any infectious element of Crohn's rather than trying to aggressively treat my anemia with iron supplementation at this point.

You'll have to weigh in with your own gut as to what is the most serious symptom you need to address at this point, but I just wanted to share my experience as a point of reference.

Also, shortly after my diagnosis with Crohn's, I followed the IBD Remission Diet for six weeks and that gave me a really big jumpstart on healing. If it's something you can commit to, I highly recommend it. Compared to my sick, weak condition at the start, I felt like a different person by the end.

If you don't already own Listen to Your Gut and you are interested in treating your condition holistically, don't hesitate to purchase it. It is truly encyclopedic in nature; the wealth of information will pay for the cost of purchase many, many times over.

Wishing you well,

Nicole

Don't forget that you can see all the vitamin and mineral supplements that I recommend (and use myself) at:

http://www.HolisticHealthShoppe.com

Even if you don't want to buy from the site, most of the brands we carry are commonly available in health stores, so you can just read what I have to say about them and use it to make your shopping list.

As an all-round supplement, I recommend the Nature's Way Prenatal - don't let the name put you off. Because it's formulated for pregnant and breastfeeding women, this supplement contains extra amounts of the key vitamins and minerals needed, in stomach-friendly forms. It also contains iron. Many of my male readers take this supplement as well, since it contains nice high levels of key nutrients for much cheaper than "mega-supplements" aimed at "regular" people. I guess the manufacturer feels they can't charge extra just because a person's pregnant!


take care,
Jini