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Moderate amounts of social alcohol should be fine in Crohn's disease. There are certain diets and dietary plans that may call for complete elimination of alcohol during the diet, such as exclusive enteral nutrition. During that period, you're essentially strictly on protein shakes to rest the bowel. And in that specific treatment algorithm alcohol is not recommended most of the time, however, when patients are in remission and their disease is well controlled, social alcohol, is acceptable.
Moderate amounts of social alcohol should be fine in Crohn's disease. There are certain diets and dietary plans that may call for complete elimination of alcohol during the diet, such as exclusive enteral nutrition. During that period, you're essentially strictly on protein shakes to rest the bowel. And in that specific treatment algorithm alcohol is not recommended most of the time, however, when patients are in remission and their disease is well controlled, social alcohol, is acceptable.
Lifestyle is very important in any disease process, but in particular with Crohn's disease. Smoking is a very, very, very important risk factor that anyone with Crohn's disease should absolutely eliminate. Crohn's disease has been repeatedly shown to be associated with many complications of Crohn's disease. So if you take someone with Crohn's disease and they are a smoker, they're more likely to develop strictures or blockages. They're more likely to develop fistulas. They're more likely to have complications that are more likely to require surgery. So I highly recommend that all my patients with Crohn's disease immediately stop smoking cigarettes. Physical activity is very important. Patients with Crohn's disease should maintain an active lifestyle and try to get regular physical activity.
Thanks to developments in the area of inflammatory bowel disease, patients with Crohn's disease can lead very normal lives. Thankfully, we have very effective and safe treatments for patients with Crohn's disease. We have learned a lot over the years about Crohn's disease, and we're now able to educate our patients better, treat them better, monitor their disease in ways that we weren't able to do before. And so I think with all of the research and all the developments that science and medicine, have seen in the last several decades, we are able to see people living very normal, happy, productive lives.
Especially in our female patients there's questions about the effects of Crohn's disease on fertility and the effects of Crohn's disease during pregnancy. So in terms of fertility, the most important thing is that the Crohn's disease is well controlled. Well controlled Crohn's disease is the best thing one can do for chances of fertility. Certain medications of course can affect fertility in men or women. And so that's something that people need to discuss with their doctor if they are trying to get pregnant. In terms of pregnancy, the most important thing when it comes to the health of the baby is the health of the mother. So a pregnant person with Crohn's disease must make sure the disease is well controlled during the course of the pregnancy and there are a number of different medications that now have been shown to be very, very safe during pregnancy. And so a person should consult with their doctor, their OBGYN and their gastroenterologist, to come up with a regimen that is both safe and effective to make sure that the disease is controlled during pregnancy. I would not recommend for someone who's got poorly controlled Crohn's disease to get pregnant. It's advisable to get the disease under control before trying to get pregnant.
So diet is very important in Crohn's disease. Traditionally patients have been told "don't worry about it, eat whatever you want." But now we have a lot of research and data that shows that what you eat plays a very, very important role in your response to medications and the overall course of Crohn's disease. One specific diet for example, that is gaining a lot of attention lately due to research and great outcomes. Is this specific carbohydrate diet. We call it the SCD Diet. Basically a diet that is lactose free, grain free, gluten free, and a lot of other components such as avoidance of processed food. And when patients adhere to this specific carbohydrate diet, they see remarkable improvements in their overall energy and their disease severity and response to treatment. For patients with really severe disease, a exclusive enteral nutrition, basically supplements protein shakes exclusive to the digestive tract, have been shown to be very effective in calming the digestive tract's inflammation and improving outcomes. Both of these diets, you could read about it online, but it's highly recommended that you see a dietician with expertise in this because we want to make sure that you're getting enough nutrients, enough nutrition. We don't want you to be losing the weight on these diets.
Complications of Crohn's disease are variable. There are complications such as nutritional deficiencies because patients with Crohn's disease have inflammation of the digestive tract. They may have vitamin deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies. Those are very important to make sure that they're dealt with. Patients with Crohn's disease should be on multivitamins, their nutrient levels should be checked by their physician regularly, and replenished. Other complications of Crohn's disease include blockages, so intestinal blockages, we call them strictures. And those are very serious and those need to be dealt with. If there's active inflammation still, we are able to relieve the obstruction with immunosuppressants and patients do not require surgery. But occasionally if they've had inflammation for a very, very long time, then those strictures are what we call fibrotic, they're basically scarred. Sometimes surgery is necessary to remove that area so that patients can move on with their treatment. Infections are another potential complication. If patients develop an abscess, which is basically a collection of bacteria or puss as a result of a Fistula, which is an abnormal connection between bowels of intestine that result from inflammation. That needs to be addressed with antibiotics, sometimes surgical drainage, where we relieve the abscess surgically. Those are the main complications of Crohn's disease.
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