I'm recently diagnosed with mild Crohn's. I've done quite a bit of reading, and I am interested in the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which has a number of adherents, but little data to support it. Why hasn't this approach been studied well enough to give patients better direction? It's infuriating that there could be a potential cure for many sufferers, but it has not been researched scientifically to prove or disprove it. What is a newly diagnosed person to believe?
Q: Why haven't double-blind, peer-reviewed studies of SCD been done as a treatment of Crohn's?
Answers (3)
9/ 6/08 4:30pm
I feel I need to take exception to JB's statement, "Doctors are reluctant to recommend dietary approaches for fear of malpractice.."
I don't believe there's any basis in fact for that claim; simply based on my own personal and professional experience, I find it to be untrue.
Hope
7/18/08 7:00pm
My wife has Crohn's and has NO symptoms while on the SCD. If she cheats just a little - boom - the pain and other symptoms come right back, but go away again as long as she sticks to the diet. For us, that experience is proof enough that the diet works, because she still does have Crohn's, but has no symptoms on the SCD. I Wish I could give you more solid proof, but hundreds of success stories like these merit consideration. The diet is inconvenient for sure, but I'd trade that any day for a dreaded disease like Crohn's! My suggestion is to go to the SCD websites like www.nomorecrohns.com for recipes, starter menus etc... THERE IS HOPE!
As to why the SCD has not been studied much, well, the drug companies are the ones with the money to fund the studies, and it is not in their financial interest to pursue dietary "cures". (Not that the SCD is a cure). Doctors are reluctant to recommend dietary approaches for fear of malpractice... So in the end, you have to decide to take your own health into your own hands. Nobody cares more about your health than you do, because nobody else has to live in your body.
9/ 6/08 4:53pm
For asult: In answer to your original question, "Why haven't double-blind, peer-reviewed studies of SCD been done as a treatment of Crohn's?" an experimental diet, where the the subjects were given a list of allowed foods, vs. prohibited foods, and instructed not to deter in any way from their particular list, would be a nearly impossible, if not impossible, research study to conduct as a double-blind study.
While the researchers might not know who was assigned to the experimental groups (the SCD group, vs. the group put on say, ASA treatment) vs. the control group (the group allowed to continue eating their "normal" diets), the two diet groups would easily know what groups they were assigned to.
At least, I can't see a practical way to double-blind a study for this question. Other methods would need to be used.
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