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First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

florey.edu.au

71–80 of 129 posts

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there are other foods that bother different people, but we haven't managed pin down exactly which foods bother which people. It's a hard problem Sounds like a job for a neural net. If people would log all what they eat and how they feel. If the neural net had access to all the components of the foods they are inputting, surely with enough data a pattern would emerge of what common component in what they eat…

Not that easy. I have sibo and depending on what I eat and how I eat it, it changes the effects it has on me. Also the amount and frequency. For example, if I have raisins at the start of my meal then I don't see issues, but if I have them at the end of my meal then I do. If I have it here and there then no issues, but if I have it a few meals in a row then it'll give me issues. And raisins affect me within 20min, bu…

You may benefit from speaking to a nutritional therapist. You might have a biofilm problem at specific points along your digestive tract but I would let them make that determination and come up with a personalised treatment plan. Nutritional therapy is about "eating yourself well" and you might be surprised how effective it is. Good luck!

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#72

We have so many "bandaids" but very few cures these days. Perhaps AI systems will allow us to find root causes of these insidious diseases.

I mean, we have a pretty decent understanding of the causes and mechanisms behind Crohn's and colitis. The problem is that "your immune system is going nuts" is a hard problem to solve once it gets started, and the human immune system loves to go nuts on a moment's notice.

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#73
post #3

[flagged]

My two half-brothers have Crohn's. My step-sister's two boys have Crohn's. I don't have Crohn's. She doesn't have Crohn's. There's research ongoing into the genetics of Crohn's. Changing diet can help ameliorate the symptoms, but it won't cure it any better than "taking the air" in Switzerland will cure asthma. And stating so boldly that a "wrong diet" causes it? Just to reiterate, of five kids raised on the same die…

Crohn's has very strong genetic links, so anyone blaming it on diet is very silly :P

I'm guessing your half-brothers and half-sister's kids have the HLA-B27 gene, which is the big one for autoinflammatory diseases.

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one she has been on in the past. She has gone thru about 8 trying to find one that works best for her. She is currently on tremfya

Thanks for the response. I have a family member about to start on Rinvoq and cancer risk is weighing on my mind as well.

I am probably sensitive because my mom passed away due to stroke prior to my wife being on Rinvoq but that was a bigger concern for me when my wife went on it. Learn to identify stroke symptoms.

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#75
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of them increase risk of cancer (EDIT: upon further review, maybe not all of them? Or maybe just with combination therapy?) and severe infection. Many of the biologics are also quite new, and the long term effects of taking them are not well understood. Plus, in some cases they don't work well enough alone and so multiple drugs are required (a biologic in combination with something like methotrexate or azathiopri…

I had a severe anaphylactic reaction to Remicade, it was a terrifying experience. The doctor had seen it a few times before so apparently it's not uncommon.

On your first injection or a little while in?

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there are other foods that bother different people, but we haven't managed pin down exactly which foods bother which people. It's a hard problem Sounds like a job for a neural net. If people would log all what they eat and how they feel. If the neural net had access to all the components of the foods they are inputting, surely with enough data a pattern would emerge of what common component in what they eat…

Biological systems are highly nonlinear and time-dependent, and also very individual! People have been trying learning techniques in glucose control since the early 2000s, and have only seen limited success in very controlled scenarios. I think a simple neural net would fall short of catching all that complexity, at least using the current architectures

Yes. I have celiac disease and I know people report following a strict gluten free diet for a whole year or more before they start to feel better. For me, I never did feel better, but blood tests show that certain celiac-related antibodies have returned to normal levels.

That's a very delayed and weak signal.

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#77
post #24

I initially wrote this as a reply to a comment by "NotGMan" mentioning fasting/paleo that got flagged. They could have approached the subject more delicately but I believe they have a point. About 3 years ago I had gut issues so bad I thought I was close to death. NHS couldn't see any problems and were basically telling me I'd gone nuts. They refused to do any further testing. After a year of suffering I tried a 7 da…

Decades ago, about 30% of the people who had celiac disease would waste away and die, especially children. Until a doctor noticed that if the people ate 12 bananas a day they seemed to do better. Of course, 12 bananas a day is a kooky diet, but people who eat 12 bananas a day tend to eat less of everything else, including less bread and gluten and so they would do better. Later science figured out bread was a problem…

I don't recommend everyone follow the same diet, but for whatever it's worth, eating junk food has helped my relative, true story.

Crohn's disease affects each patient differently. Depending on what part of the gut is being attacked [1], different digestive processes are implicated. That will lead to different kinds of foods being potentially problematic (as well as leading to a need for different kinds of supplementation).

The bottom line is: your mileage WILL vary.

(I've had Crohn's for nearly 45 years, since I was an adolescent.)

[1] My doc once told me about a patient he had that was affected in the throat!

ETA: for my personal experience, the one thing I can't eat is whole-kernel corn in any non-trivial quantity. It actually clogs me up. Oddly, popcorn is perfectly fine, as are corn tortillas and the like. It's happened to me twice. The first time I went to the ER and said I thought I had an obstructed bowel, and the admitting nurse said "can't be, if that were the case, you wouldn't be able to walk in yourself". I think that gives some perspective about what kinds of pain you can get used to. Second time it happened, I didn't bother, since there turned out to be nothing the ER docs could do other than monitor me. I just let it work itself out over the course of a couple days.

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#78
post #60
post #24

I initially wrote this as a reply to a comment by "NotGMan" mentioning fasting/paleo that got flagged. They could have approached the subject more delicately but I believe they have a point. About 3 years ago I had gut issues so bad I thought I was close to death. NHS couldn't see any problems and were basically telling me I'd gone nuts. They refused to do any further testing. After a year of suffering I tried a 7 da…

I'm convinced that dietary restrictions are extremely powerful for treating Crohn's and similar diseases, but patient adherence is so bafflingly low that the treatment may as well not exist in doctors' eyes. Just as an example of a more studied case, the probability that an overweight person reattains normal weight through diet and exercise is well under 1% [1]. Now consider that diets for Crohn's (like a water fast…

What are the 8 major allergens you're avoiding? Do you avoid anything else?

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#79
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vagus nerve sits inside the collarbone right next to the carotid artery. As a doctor told me once, if you're able to physically stimulate your vagus nerve, you need to get to A&E posthaste, lol

What's A&E? Googling only shows the cable network

British for "emergency room."

Re: First-in-human implantation of bionic device to halt Crohn's disease (2023)

#80

We have so many "bandaids" but very few cures these days. Perhaps AI systems will allow us to find root causes of these insidious diseases.

We have so many cures that we simply forget about many diseases entirely.

Depending on how they are counted there are between 10000 and 70,000 different human diseases, and treatments only exist for around 500 of them. Further, the overwhelming majority of these treatments are not cures, i.e. treatments that end medical conditions in an individual.
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