Groundbreaking New Study May Have Idenitified the Cause of Crohn's Disease
At least 565,000 Americans have Crohn’s disease (Including me! Oh man, do I have it!), a debilitating, incurable condition affecting anywhere in a patient’s digestive tract.
On September 20, Case Western Reserve University released findings identifying a fungus as a common thread in Crohn’s patients, which very well may be a giant step toward finding better treatments and a cure.
Though it was known certain bacteria are found in Crohn’s patients, the role of fungi hadn’t been studied. These researchers compared the fungi and bacteria levels in patients with those of their first-degree relatives through fecal samples and found “strong fungal-bacterial interactions in those with Crohn's disease: two bacteria (Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens) and one fungus (Candida tropicalis) moved in lock step,” and that “the presence of all three in the sick family members was significantly higher compared to their healthy relatives, suggesting that the bacteria and fungus interact in the intestines.” They compared these samples to those of people who came from completely Crohn’s-free families.
Never before has Candida tropicalis been found in humans being studied with Crohn’s. The study notes it had previously been found in mice with the disease. While the difference in “gut profiles” between Crohn’s families and non-Crohn’s families were “[striking],” moving forward, researchers “have to be careful, though, and not solely attribute Crohn's disease to the bacterial and fungal makeups of our intestines,” the study’s senior author Mahmoud A. Ghannoum said: “For example, we know that family members also share diet and environment to significant degrees. Further research is needed to be even more specific in identifying precipitators and contributors of Crohn’s.”
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Though this is nowhere near a cure, it is a huge step in identifying more effective treatments for those suffering now-the study mentions better-targeting probiotics to help battle the fungi-bacteria relationship found.
Keep trucking, y'all.
source: www.cosmopolitan.com
