Fasting-mimicking diet may help with Crohn's disease

• Crohn’s disease is a long-term autoimmune condition of the digestive system, that affects around a million people in the United States.
• It causes symptoms including abdominal pain, mouth ulcers, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss.
• Treatments, such as medication, surgery, nutritional supplements, and dietary changes, cannot cure the condition, but aim to alleviate symptoms.
• Now, a study has found that eating a calorie-restricted diet for a few days each month may significantly improve symptoms in people with mild-to-moderate Crohn’s.

Crohn’s disease is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects some one million people in the United States, and is becoming increasingly common.

It is a long-term autoimmune condition of the intestines, with symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and weight loss.

Although there is no cure, dietary changes and treatment with medications including 5-aminosalicylates (5-ASA), antibiotics, corticosteroids, immunomodulators, and biologics, can relieve symptoms. In severe cases, surgery may be needed to correct complications such as abscesses, perforations, blockages, or bleeding.

A new study has found that following a very low calorie, or fasting-mimicking diet for a few days a month caused significant improvement in both physical symptoms and biological indicators in people with mild-to-moderate Crohn’s disease.

Researchers suggest that their findings, published in Nature Medicine, may help physicians guide Crohn’s patients in finding a diet that helps their symptoms.

Eamon Laird, PhD — lecturer in human Nutrition at Atlantic Technological University Sligo, and adjunct assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, both in Ireland — who was not involved in this study, commented on the findings to Medical News Today:

“This is an interesting study with some early concept findings that these fasting-mimicking diets may have significant improvements for patients living with Crohn’s disease. […] However, I would like to see more in-depth trials within specific groups of obesity versus normal weight patients, flare ups and types of [Crohn’s] and the combined lifestyle approach of diet plus physical activity.”