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More Insight Into Crohn’s Disease

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Recently the news media exploded with coverage of a new study suggesting that fungi could play a role in Crohn’s Disease. The theory holds that certain types of fungi can react with certain bacteria to create the sort of systemic inflammation which is the hallmark of the disease.

Now another strong correlation has been discovered – a history of food poisoning:

According to the authors, who used a mouse model to study the pathogens, acute infectious gastroenteritis caused by food-poisoning bacteria accelerates the growth of adherent-invasive E. coli, the bacterium associated with Crohn’s disease.

Unlike many forms of gut flora which are either eliminated or allowed to remain without adverse effects, this bacterial population seems to grow in strength over time and create a cascade of symptoms familiar to anyone with Crohn’s.

Granted this isn’t a human study, but it’s a tantalizing clue that something deeper than genetics may be at play in the development of Crohn’s Disease. If you have a history of food poisoning and experienced the symptoms Crohn’s Disease, this new study may represent an avenue worth pursuing.

Have We Cracked Crohn’s Disease?

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It was the science news story heard round the world: a strongly supported study that may have isolated one of the causes of Crohn’s Disease.

The answer may be related to some common fungi which appear to wreak the system wide havoc that Crohn’s sufferers know all too well:

“Most of the studies that have looked at this disease looked at bacteria only,” the study’s senior author, Mahmoud A. Ghannoum, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, told CBS News. “We looked at both bacteria and fungi because it is very well known that these organisms both live in our body and definitely interact with one another. So to look at bacteria alone, we didn’t really have the full story.”

The fungus in question, Candida tropicalis, is thought to interact with two kinds of bacteria – Serratia marcescens and E. Coli – to create some of the telltale distress of Crohn’s Disease. But the actual mechanisms are still poorly understood, and the evidence to date is a correlation and not yet proven as causal.

Still, this is a breakthrough nonetheless – one which could open up new avenues of study for Crohn’s Disease and related chronic ailments of the digestive system.