Research
A brief history of human disease genetics
Genetic discoveries have substantially improved our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for many rare and common diseases and driven development of novel preventative and therapeutic strategies. Medical innovation will increasingly focus on delivering care tailored to individual patterns of genetic predisposition. Main For almost all human diseases, individual susceptibility is, to some degree, influenced by genetic […]
Research
Adding curcumin to mesalamine may benefit patients with ulcerative colitis
To investigate the potential antiinflammatory properties of curcumin, study authors searched various databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases) to obtain randomized controlled trials assessing its use as combination therapy in the treatment of mild to moderate UC. “The outcomes assessed were the pooled odds of clinical response and remission as well […]
News
Investigational hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) indications: inflammatory bowel disease
The recent HBOT experience HBOT for ulcerative colitis Until this point, all of the papers have concerned advanced CD, and none have combined UC cases in the mix. Pagoldh et al. designed a prospective, randomized, open-label clinical trial for HBOT intervention and UC, published in 2013. The primary objective of the study was to assess effects […]
Research
Anti-inflammatory effects of abdominal vagus nerve stimulation on experimental intestinal inflammation
A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that unilateral electrical stimulation of the left cervical vagus nerve is a feasible treatment in a rodent model of colitis (Meregnani et al., 2011; Sun et al., 2013). Following chemically-induced colitis in rats, cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) improved the disease activity index (DAI: weight and stool quality), decreased […]
Research
Infants born to mothers with IBD present with altered gut microbiome
IBDs, comprising Crohn’s disease (CD) and UC, result from aberrant mucosal immune responses to bacteria in genetically susceptible individuals.1 2 While family history is the strongest risk factor for developing IBD, the genetic loci associated with risk do not fully explain disease heritability.1 IBD affects women during their reproductive years and 25% become pregnant after diagnosis. […]
Research
Tailoring treatment withdrawal in inflammatory bowel disease
There is currently no cure for inflammatory bowel disease. Most recent treatments and treatment strategies allow for healing intestinal lesions and maintaining steroid-free remission in a subset of patients. These patients and their doctors often ask themselves whether the treatment could be withdrawn. Several studies in both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have demonstrated a […]
News
“There’s a lot more work to be done.” – Aida Habtezion
In the beginning of her career at Stanford, Habtezion was a fellow in the lab of Eugene Butcher, MD (professor, pathology). “Being in Dr. Eugene Butcher’s lab, learning about leukocyte trafficking, I became interested in why patients with ulcerative colitis would have their disease limited to the colon. Would leukocytes have specific things that targeted them to the […]
Research
Systemic inflammatory protein profiles distinguish IBS and ulcerative colitis,
Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involving the colonic mucosa, may suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)–like symptoms during periods of remission. It has been suggested that UC patients experiencing IBS-like symptoms during remission suffer from inadequately treated inflammation.1 Likewise, there are reports of systemic and intestinal low-grade immune activation in […]
News
Your genes suck at predicting your health
A new study this month is the latest to suggest that our genes really don’t do much to predict our health, at least most of the time. The study, published in PLOS One, is a review of the science surrounding genome-wide association studies (GWASs). These are studies that look at the genes of thousands, even millions of […]
News
Psychologists essential to address gut-brain link in IBD treatment
Deakin Associate Professor of Psychology Antonina Mikocka-Walus said the data showed it was essential psychologists be included in routine care for those with IBD, increasingly recognised as a disorder of the gut-brain axis. As part of her research, published recently in two sister papers in the Internal Medicine Journal and JGH Open, Associate Professor Mikocka-Walus surveyed 731 Australians […]
Latest Articles
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NewsTo help IBD symptoms, target your microbiome with these foods
Based on medical research, there’s no single plan that definitively offers relief. -
ResearchA brief history of human disease genetics
A primary goal of human genetics is to identify DNA sequence variants that influence biomedical traits, particularly those related to the onset and progression of human disease. -
Personal StoryCrohn’s disease dragged my body to a point where it barely functioned
I did not expect this to be my life; a 22-year-old female nursing student, chronically ill and fitted with a permanent ileostomy.
