Highlights of the CCFA "Progress in CD" Event

On Wednesday October 6th the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation hosted an event with Dr. Jonathan Braun, MD, PhD from UCLA detailing new research findings and certain treatments that have happened over the past year. I listened in on the call and give you the highlights of the event with some thoughts. If you would like to hear the call in it's entirety check out the link at the bottom of the post.

The Presentation Highlights
There is a peak onset in teens yet all ages are affected by Crohn's Disease and this can affect the growth and development in their bodies because of mal-absorption. Which is why we shouldn't be feeding our kids junk food for school lunch.

There are essentially 3 contributors to the cause of Crohn's Disease and most digestive diseases. The organisms inside and outside our body, the genes we inherit from our family, and the environmental factors we are exposed to. It would seem to me that the western lifestyle has been the main cause of the tremendous increase in the disease, i.e. environmental factors. Haven't we always had the same traits passing down in our families? It was stated later on that the cases of IBD has increased over 20 fold since WWII and it has spread to more countries than ever before. Check out the picture below for the amount of countries affected.

There have been over 70 genes discovered that are associated with Crohn's Disease and there are likely many more to be discovered.

Those with digestive diseases lack the proper amount of mucus int he intestine meaning the bad bacteria are allowed to have access to the body. This mucus acts as flypaper to trap this bacteria.

Researchers with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation are working toward creating a genetics toolkit to help doctors spot and treat Crohn's Disease in patients from the beginning. Should take at least two years to develop.


There are about 1 trillion cells that make "us" up but our gut/intestine numbers between 10-100 trillion cells. Can you see why it is so important to make sure this "bacteria" is healthy and helping us digest properly?


The Q&A
The 45 minute presentation followed with a question and answer session. Some of the answers given were very interesting and gave much more information on how the information presented affected patients. 

If you would like to hear the fully recorded event click here.

If you were on the call or listened later on what are your thoughts on what was presented?

Picture: "Progress in CD" Slides