Crohn's Disease is caused by common pharmaceutical drugs?

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a long-term condition that causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the digestive system. Inflammation can affect any part of the digestive system but most commonly occurs in either the small or large intestines.

Abdominal pain and diarrhoea are the most common symptoms, but it can also cause include rectal bleeding, weight loss, arthritis, skin problems, inflammation of the eyes, and fever. Severe cases can be extremely painful and distressing.

What is the cause of Crohn’s disease?

NHS Causes does not know “the exact causes” Crohn’s disease, but they say that the factors contributing to it are thought to be genetics, the immune system, smoking, previous infection, and environmental factors. They also say that there is “no treatment” for the disease. Several drugs are are used in treatment, however, including anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, cortisone, immune system suppressors, Remicade, antibiotics, and anti-diarrheal drugs.

It is also suggested that Crohn`s disease is an auto-immune disease where the body`s immune system attacks the tissues of the digestive system.

History and facts about Crohn’s disease

Although there is literature purported to describe Crohn’s disease dating back to the 18th and 19th century, even to Hippocrates, the disease was not ‘discovered’ or described until 1932 by Dr Burrill Crohn.

Crohn's disease is now becoming more common. It can be found in both men and women, usually but not exclusively in teenagers and younger people. In 2011 the St Mark’s Foundation estimated that there are about 90,000 people living with Crohn’s disease in Britain, but that this figure is rising with more that 8,000 being diagnosed each year. In North America it now affects about 400,000 to 600,000 people, about 1 in 1000. About 1 in 20 people with the disease go on to develop bowel cancer within 10 years of diagnosis.

Another estimate, in 2014, said that in England, Crohn’s disease had increased by 300% between 2003 and 2012, for young people aged between 16 and 29.

The rise of Irritable Bowel disease, which includes Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis is discussed on this Family Practice News website. It describes a literature review that found 260 studies on the incidence and prevalence of both diseases throughout the world. The findings suggested “that the global prevalence of IBD will continue to increase substantially”.

Pharmaceutical drugs that can cause Crohn’s disease

Various food additives have been implicated as the cause of Crohn’s. But it is known that the disease can be caused by some of the most common pharmaceutical drugs.

Antibiotics

Dr Ryan Ungaro Icahn School of Medicine, New York, conducted a meta-analysis of eleven observational and case control studies, involving over 7,000 cases, and discovered that exposure to antibiotics was associated with Crohn’s disease.

"Exposure to antibiotics may somehow contribute to alterations in the microbiome and result in dysbiosis, which is known to be part of the pathogenesis that leads to IBD”.

Antibiotics are usually taken by mouth, and are known to upset the microbial balance of the gut, so a connection with Crohn’s disease is perhaps not surprising.

Aspirin

This common painkiller is also linked to Crohn’s disease. This is perhaps unsurprising as aspirin has been notorious for its harmful impact on the gastrointestinal system. The Science Today website published an article, “Regular use of aspirin increases risk of Crohn's disease by 5 times, study finds” in 2010. Dr Hart, of the University of East Anglia, who conducted the research said.

"This is early work but our findings do suggest that the regular use of aspirin could be one of many factors which influences the development of this distressing disease in some patients”.

Accutane

This drug was used for the treatment of acne but has been linked to Crohn’s disease. The drug was introduced in 1982, but was withdrawn in 2009 because of the number of lawsuits taken against the manufacturer, Roche. The drug was also associated with birth defects and suicide. However, the dangers have not passed! Generic forms of Accutane are still available! The background is outlined on the Drugwatch website.

“Researchers analyzed all adverse drug reaction reports submitted to the Food and Drug Administration between 1997 and 2002 and found 85 cases of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, including cases of Crohn’s disease, associated with isotretinoin (Accutane) use. Of those 85 cases, researchers found that, Isotretinoin use was highly probable as the cause in four cases, probably the cause in 58 cases, and possibly the cause in 23 cases.”

Other drugs

This is not an exhaustive list of the pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Crohn’s disease, but it is hopefully sufficient for anyone taking, or planning to take any pharmaceutical drug to undertake a thorough web search for any possible associations.

This article was first published on the "Disease Inducing Effects of drugs and vaccines" website.

NHS Overspend - again!

The mainstream media is reporting yet another NHS overspend this morning (18th June 2014). 

Of course, this is not new news - such overspends have been a regular feature of NHS health news for the last 60+ years and more. The usual reasons given (including by the BBC Today programme) is that the NHS is underfunded (currently the spending freeze is highlighted), and there is an ageing population. Yet the BBC Today programme featured two other health-related features.

• One concerns new NICE guidance to doctors regarding the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation - stop using Aspirin - and start using blood-thinning drugs like Warfarin.

• The other feature concerned Crohn's Disease, which it said had increased by over 300% over the last 10 years, and that one of the reasons for this was the prescription of antibiotic drugs to young children.

These news features were not linked by the BBC, of course, although there is a very clear link, as I have pointed out, in considerable detail, in my e-book, "The Failure of Conventional Medicine" (click here to read this). Conventional, drug-based medicine has always been expensive. Some drugs can cost £30,000 per annum per patient, and a few much more than this. 

Yet whilst the cost of conventional drugs is an issue it is NOT the fundamental reason the NHS is constantly found to be overspending. Indeed, the reason for NHS overspends are contained within the BBC's own reports today on Aspirin, and on Crohn's disease.

The NICE guidance on aspirin overturns conventional medical practice that has been in place for decades. What does this mean? It means that the NHS has now recognised that people have been taking a drug is not very effective.

"Aspirin has been used for years to help protect patients from strokes, but mounting evidence suggests the drug's benefits are too small compared with other treatments".

Yet the main problem with aspirin is not just that it is ineffective. There is a growing recognition that aspirin is positively dangerous to our health, especially when taken on a long-term basis. This, of course, was not mentioned by NICE, or by the BBC, but it could well be the primary reason for the change in advice.

Indeed, there is evidence, reported in the BMJ some years ago that the use of aspirin can actually triple the risk of stroke - the very condition it has been given to prevent!.

In terms of cost, this means is that the NHS has been using a largely ineffectual (and harmful) drug on the basis that it was doing us some good. This is not a one-off situation. It has been repeated regularly over the years - we are given a drug because it is supposed to be effective, only later for us to be told it is not effective! 

We are, however, not usually told that the drug we have taken for years is also dangerous.

However, this is not the case with the BBC's feature on Crohn's disease. The cause of this particular epidemic was actually mentioned. Antibiotic drugs. And particularly antibiotics given to young children. The dangers of antibiotics drugs have rarely been discussed by the mainstream media. The conventional medical establishment have, said for over 60 years, that these drugs were "very safe", and it has been on this understanding that most parents have allowed their children to take them over the years. 

The admission that Antibiotic drugs meddle with our gut flora, disrupt our digestive system, and can ultimately cause Crohn's disease, was mentioned in this BBC feature - but the issue was not pursued. The mainstream media, including the BBC, has rarely, if ever, discussed the issues of medical drugs causing such epidemics of chronic disease. There are many examples of this but they appear to be 'no-go' areas for our media!

Incidentally, there is also evidence that aspirin can also cause Crohn's disease!

So what are we facing in this situation? What are we missing? Basically, we are missing a vicious circulatory in the way we are delivering health services to sick people, and the outcomes.

• Start with an overspending NHS......
• Then consider the use of drugs, over decades, that are eventually found to be ineffective (and also harmful to our health).....
• Then consider the epidemics of chronic diseases, like Crohn's, often new diseases, caused by conventional drug treatment, which add to the levels of illness the NHS is having to cope with.....
• Then consider the additional demands this places on NHS services......
• And then ask the question - why does the NHS overspend its huge budget......

I wonder when the Media is going to be allowed to do some 'joined-up' thinking on the issue of health, and the domination of conventional drugs within the NHS?

Pharmaceutical Drugs cause Disease!

The idea that pharmaceutical drugs cause disease is fast growing in acceptance. I have written extensively about this in my e-book, ‘The Failure of Conventional Medicine’.

What pharmaceutical drugs do is not to cause ‘side-effects’, or even ‘adverse reactions’. These terms are quite inadequate to describe what they do. Drugs cause diseases, which is why I have used the term, DIEs, or ‘Disease Inducing Effects’ to replace these two wholly inadequate descriptions. The ‘D’ can, of course, stand for either ‘Disease’ or ‘Death’ so the term is doubly relevant, and aptly descriptive.

So it is not a surprise to read this in the e-magazine, Natural News.

               A recent U.S. News & World Report piece highlights new studies that point to serious problems down the road for the over-medicated population. According to reports, more than 60 percent of American adults now take at least one drug every day for a chronic health problem, and more than half of seniors take at least three medications every day. But the end result is more diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, arthritis and cancer.

http://www.naturalnews.com/032016_pharmas_disease.html#ixzz1JEGUeLH1

Aspirin, Crohn's Disease, and Homeopathy

My mother used to tell me that you could take as many aspirin as you wanted, it did you no harm! How wrong could she be? And of course, most people believe that such common ConMed drugs are safe, even if some of the more exotic drugs are not.

Many people regularly take an aspirin a day to ward off heart problems. But it has now been found that by doing so they are greatly increasing their chances of developing Crohn’s disease. So a simple pain killer can cause a debilitating gut problem!

Of course, this is the disease-inducing effect (DIEs) of ConMed drugs in action. Researchers at the University of East Anglia have discovered that people increase their chances of developing Crohn’s 5-fold if they take an aspirin a day for more than a year after tracking 200,000 healthy volunteers in Europe. Crohn’s Disease causes inflammation and swelling in the digestive system, and under ConMed requires lifelong medication, with surgery in more serious cases. Some sufferers go on to contract bowel cancer.

Crohn's Disease is eminently treatable with homeopathy, and anyone who wishes to treat the condition with homeopathy should consult a qualified, registered homeopath
(see www.a-r-h.org/FindMembers/find).

(Source: What Doctor's Don't Tell You Newsletter, 5th May 2010; Digestive Disease Week conference, New Orleans, May 3, 2010).