Question:
I want to know if anyone else has crohn's and asthma. I was diagnosed
with the latter a month ago through an allergy test and blood test.
The blood test showed an elevated IGE level. However, the blood test
did not show any "inflammation" but I am not sure what that test
exactly is. The crohns has much improved over the last 2 years of
treatment with entocort. For a treatment of the athsma I am on
Singulair and started allergy shots for airborne allergens of birch, an
outdoor mold, cat, and dust. Prior to the shots I had NO crohns
symptoms. I was really happy about that. But after I started the
shots I got them back and they are getting worse by the week over the
last month.
Answer:
I have a friend with Crohn's and a severe egg allergy. I have Crohn's and
when I stopped drinking milk in 2003 I notched up several points on the
feeling good scale - still feel pretty lousy though, but I have a lot of
other things going on. I am not allergic to milk but would describe myself
as intolerant and probably have a lactose in addition to a casein
intolerance.
With respect to your symptoms coming back on receiving the shots, I am no
expert in the field, but even as a layperson it would not surprise me that
if your immune system is being challenged with a strong cocktail of
allergens and your immune system is dodgy because you have an (auto)immune
disease/dysfunction then the autoimmune disease might be
exacerbated/triggered with the stress that the current treatment is placing
on your immune system. After all your immune system is being taught to
respond appropriately to the allergens. As an aside, I hope that the
treatment will be successful.
I agree with the postulate that food allergies/intolerances can be very
important with Crohn's/UC. Some IBD sufferers benefit from lowering the acid
in the diet - no citrus fruits, no coffee/tea/(hot)chocolate/cola, no red
meat, no spices, etc. and/or removing dairy products from the diet. The
leaky gut syndrome is much spoken about and it makes sense to me that if you
have a leaky gut from active IBD you are going to develop intolerances and
perhaps allergies to certain foods.
A lot of Crohn's sufferers end up with multiple morbidities, but I would not
say that because of this that Crohn's and certain diseases are related. I
have GERD and Crohn's, but they are two separate diseases albeit gut
related. There is a lot in the literature about Crohn's and MS and we have
patients here with various diseases such as rheumatism, diabetes together
with Crohn's. My personal analysis is that we have been blessed with mixed
bag of dysfunctional genes and unfortunately it does not necessarily mean
that only the IBD part of the genes are dysfunctional, but because there is
overlapping with such as (auto)immune diseases, such as asthma and MS, then
it is not uncommon to find IBD patients with other immune dysfunctions.
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the allergy may be causing the -flare- but it most likely did not cause the
problems. Genetics is still the most promising factor involved. You may have
already had the potential to get Crohn's (and asthma).
-
My ex-wife has asthma, has had it all her life. She wasn't diagnosed with
Crohn's until after our second child was born. But looking back at all the
little ailments she had over the years it was apparent she had been suffering
from undiagnosed Crohn's for a LONG time. Nothing was ever severe enough, or
enough symptoms at once, to cause concern. My ex-wife doesn't get shots for
her asthma though, all she uses is an inhaler, usually only needs a puff or two
a day, although some days more. But then she also smokes, and I am sure that
is a factor agrivating the asthma.
-
Guess what I am saying is there is no real way to know if they are related or
not, if medication from one caused the other to "exist" or just finally be
noticed. There are many other factors at work that you may not be thinking of. i have a similar history as scw, in fact, diseases, timing and meds are
identical (for the allergies, cd a little different). my allergist and gi believe that the allergy shots work on a different
portion of the immune system, they are also of the opinion that allergy
shots don't phase cd activity. it has not been my case either.
