This Seven-Time Marathoner Gets Candid About Running With Crohn’s Disease

When most people scope out a new gym, they tend to focus on the quality of the equipment, range of class offerings, and amenities in the locker room. Alison Feller, however, wants to know about the bathrooms. “I go to Orangetheory because they have three,” she says.

Feller has Crohn’s disease, so knowing that there are plenty of restrooms nearby is pretty important. During a flare, patients often have frequent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and fever. Pain, fatigue, and weight loss are common, too, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Mayo Clinic.

Although every patient is different, Feller, who was diagnosed at age 7, finds that living with the inflammatory bowel disease means dealing with extremes. “I either feel amazing or I’m flaring and feeling horrible,” she says. “There’s really no middle ground.” Equally frustrating? When she’s having a flare, she never knows when it will end. “I’ve had flares that lasted two weeks and flares that lasted two years.”

When Feller’s in the midst of a flare, mornings are especially rough. She’s often stuck sitting on the toilet or really close by for fear that she won’t make it back there in time. “Few things in life are more discouraging, disheartening, and embarrassing than having a toddler-style accident in my own apartment, steps from my own toilet,” she writes on her blog. “I am 33 years old, and sometimes I poop my pants. It is my least favorite thing about myself.”

Feller says that the messy accidents—coupled with the physical discomfort and unpredictable nature of her condition—often get her down, and have caused her to struggle with bouts of depression on and off throughout her life.

I have no issues with cbd, nor even smoking weed for any reason.

A year ago this week my wife’s intestines ruptured, and she almost died twice. I was actually called to the hospital at 11 one night because she went septic. I was home with our 4 year old.

I am insured now. My health insurance is about 1500 dollars per month. While insurance helps, I am on the hook for twice-monthly Humira doses which cost $8000 per month. Entyvio is an injection but the costs come out the same.

A friend of mine had crohns with fistulas. Hey body builds little tunnels between her stomach and surrounding organs. Her reproductive organs fill with bile. No medication works. She had get intestines shortened by 3 feet and my wife had about 2 feet removed in an emergency surgery.

Legit science had told us that our food production may be to blame. Also, even natural sunlight pays a role in prevention. New science in “gut health” also say that this is caused by a sort of depression. Strange stuff, the stomach.

My daughter may likely have it. Women get it mostly, and my daughter is susceptible. We are actually moving down south because throughout the south people have it less than the north. About a 60 percent reduction in cases. It would make sense that cbd would do the trick.. but sufferers of these diseases can’t just drop everything and do it.

Nor is it appropriate to make us feel badly about it. Things are tough enough already without that sort of thing.

I suggest you find some research yourself. Not claims, but research.

Real research is out there. Decades worth. It's been going on for a very long time, and much has been learned about how the endocannabinoid system in mammals reacts to and utilizes cannabinoid like THC and CBD.

For instance, it's now known that THC kills cancer cells of all types, by causing those cells to go into a state of what's called apoptosis, or cell death. Interestingly, THC does not cause that reaction in healthy cells.

A 2007 Harvard Medical study published in the journal Science, found that THC significantly reduced the size of lung cancer tumors and greatly restricted the cancer cells' ability to metasticize.

The Truth About Cancer (episode eight)

i hope you don’t think i was tryign to make you feel bad about having crohn’s? I certainly wasn’t- I was trying to point out that crohn’s is not due to food imbalances, or stress, or anything like that- but rather a genetic disorder that causes the body to attack itself- while foods and stress can aggravate the condition, they do not cause the condition, and ‘eating healthy’ will not sure crohn’s, but can only manage to calm some symptoms IF they aren’t too bad- people that claim such and such a diet ‘cured their crohn’s are people that are mistaken, as their disease simply went into remission, likely because their condition wasn’t that bad to begin with, and their lifestyle choices changed and they cut stress, and as such their condition settled down a bit- Stress causes loads of bad things in the body- one being aggravating crohn’s, but again, it does not ‘cure’ crohn’s when you cut down on stress and certain foods- many many people have gone on diets that claim to ‘cure crohn’s only to see no improvement at all- especially those with severe crohn’s- they could have been getting treatment, real treatment all along, but they fell for the anecdotal evidence based claims that such and such a diet ‘cured crohn’s’- Crohn’s is a complex genetic condition that has nothing to do with environment or food or stress- stress will not cause crohn’s nor will getting rid of it cure crohn’s- it can only help to calm it some-

Crohn’s is a complex genetic disorder, and people that get it likely got it from having their condition activated by something like bacteria exposure- which would explain why people down south have less chance of getting it because certain bacteria aren’t as prevalent there- and less people predisposed to Crohns’ are exposed to it

Food and diet doesn’t cure crohn’s- at best, it can only calm mild crohn’s by not aggravating the condition like certain foods can do- avoiding trigger foods and stress can only calm mild disease, but these folks who claim to be cured were close to remission naturally anyways- and cutting out food triggers helped speed the process- that’s all- they still have the disease, but it’s in remission- these anecdotal evidences however give sufferers false hope- many folks have tried these diets and foods and supplements that claim to ‘cure crohn’s’ only to find out they wasted tons of money for nothing-

The best advice for people with crohn’s or other bowel or autoimmune diseases is to avoid trigger foods, reduce stress if possible, exercise, eat healthier, and CAREFULLY find herbs that can help calm the disease- but i stress CAREFULLY because many herbs and vitamins actually boost the immune system, which is bad for people with autoimmune diseases, who’s systems attack their bodies because of malfunction

Anyways- again, i certainly was not trying to make you or your daughter feel bad for trying to help your crohn’s, i merely was pointing out that Crohn’s is genetically caused very likely, and is triggered by something, like bacteria, but that diet does not cause or cure crohn’s- and I get upset at people making false claims that such and such diets or programs can cure the disease- anecdotal evidence based claims are dangerous- but many people put off seeking proper care for a terrible disease like crohn’s because they fall victim to the outrageous claims- that is not to say that things like diet can’t help- they certainly can’ by reducing triggers, but the disease is still there- and diets can’t cure this genetic problem- all one can hope for is calming severe cases, and hopefully going into remission

The subject is canabis and Crohns.

I know. Cannabis is so effective at treating so many diseases, it's hard to keep these conversations narrowed to just one.

"A 2012 study published in Digestion noted that people who had had IBD for a long time responded favorably to marijuana, experiencing an increase in appetite, weight gain, better social functioning, improved ability to work, and an improvement in depression and pain after three months of treatment with inhaled cannabis. Earlier studies have also indicated positive effects.
For example, an Israeli study was the first to show that use of marijuana in people with Crohn’s disease could provide a positive result. Twenty-one of the 30 patients in the study experienced significantly improvement after using marijuana, and the need for drugs was significantly reduced as well."

https://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/marijuana-helps-crohns-disease-ulcerative-colitis

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