Eating with Crohn’s disease can be a challenge as it is, and especially so during cultural events when there are food and festivities galore. I’ve struggled immensely with my diet as a South Asian American woman living with Crohn’s disease. Coming out of the hospital flare after flare, surgery after surgery, it was difficult to get care that would consider the cultural foods I was accustomed to eating… Read more on the Healthgrades website: healthgrades.com/right-care/crohns-disease/how-to-enjoy-your-favorite-cultural-foods-living-with-crohns-disease Originally Published on Healthgrades.com, Written by Tina Aswani-Omprakash, Medically Reviewed by Lisa Valente, MS, RD
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- autoimmune disease, Crohn's, Diet, invisible illness, living with IBD, Mental Health, Minority Health, Nutrition, Ostomy, Ulcerative Colitis
Key Takeaways from Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023
The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023 took place last month in Denver, Colorado, bringing together more than 1,300 healthcare professionals and researchers from across the globe to share the latest advancements in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To summarize some of my key takeaways: **Goal is to improve patient care by halting progression of disease** So, own your Crohn’s, own your ulcerative colitis, and stay abreast of the latest and greatest research in the IBD space to advocate for your own best care! To read more about Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2023, please visit the full blog post on the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s IBDVisible Blog. As a patient advocate myself, I…
- Caregiving, Crohn's, Cultural Stigma, Family Planning, IBD Parenthood Project, invisible illness, living with IBD, Motherhood, Nutrition, Patient Voice, Pregnancy in IBD, Ulcerative Colitis, Women's Health
~OYC Trailblazers~ Tanya’s Pregnancy Journey Living with Crohn’s Disease in India
Written by Tanya Manohar My name is Tanya, and I live in Chennai, India. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1999, a time when little was known about IBD in India. This means that I have segments of intestinal narrowing and scarring throughout my small intestine known as strictures caued by Crohn’s. I had one small bowel resection in 2009. A treatment regimen, comprising Azathioprine and Mesalamine, was the cocktail my Gastroenterologist Dr. Ashok Chacko prescribed to treat my Crohn’s. In combination with a restricted and closely monitored low-fiber diet, this regimen has kept me fairly stable. It has allowed me to live alone in a foreign country, pursue…
- Clinical Trials, Colorectal Surgery, Crohn's, Diet, J-Pouch, living with IBD, Mental Health, Nutrition, Ulcerative Colitis
Key Takeaways from IBD Insider 2022: Patient Updates from the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®
Originally Published by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation on their IBDVisible Blog on February 14th, 2022 By: Tina Aswani Omprakash The third annual IBD Insider was, as always, a great culmination of the events from the 2022 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®. As patients, we often have many questions about what goes on at these medical conferences and how to understand the research in bite-sized, digestible pieces (yes, pun intended). IBD Insider does just that by bringing to us the newest research updates in IBD for us to stay abreast of the latest and greatest, but also to enable us to make the best shared decisions with our physicians in our care. The…
- Colorectal Surgery, Crohn's, hydration, living with IBD, Mental Health, Minority Health, Nutrition, Ostomy, Ulcerative Colitis, World Ostomy Day
Saravanan’s Exercise Tips as a Crohnie & Ostomate
As an ostomate and IBD patient, many people often ask me if I am able to play sports. I tell them ‘YES’. Yes, we can actively participate in sport activities, but there may be some restrictions. For example, Larry Nance Jr. is an NBA star who has Crohn’s disease (CD). But his illness does not prevent him from staying active. Although I am not a professional athlete, I do play sports for fun with my friends and it helps my physical and emotional well-being. However, as an ostomate and CD fighter, I have to take extra precautions while being physically active. I used to play football, badminton and volleyball before…
- Crohn's, Cultural Stigma, extraintestinal manifestations, feeding tube, Healthcare Disparities, living with IBD, Minority Health, Nutrition, Stigma, Women's Health, World IBD Day
Madhura’s Journey in India: Coping with Stigma around IBD & Feeding Tubes
My name is Madhura Balasubramaniam and I live in India. I have been locked in battle with my intestines for as long as I can remember. I spent a large part of my early childhood dealing with constant spells of stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting and rashes. I struggled to meet my height and weight targets and had multiple nutritional deficiencies. When I was 10 years old, I was given a tentative diagnosis of celiac disease and I have been gluten-free since. While this diet seemed to provide pain relief, I remained underweight and anaemic. In mid-2018, I began to experience occasional bouts of watery diarrhea and fatigue. I was travelling…
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Dietary Guidance in IBD – A South Asian Approach
On March 5th, 2021, Dr. Neilanjan Nandi of Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA, hosted Dr. Sumit Bhatia of Medanta The MediCity Hospital, Gurgaon, India as well as Neha Shah, RD, of University of San Francisco, CA, USA, and me, Crohn’s & ostomy patient advocate of New York, NY. We sat down to discuss dietary guidance as provided by Dr. Bhatia along with practical tips of what South Asian foods to eat, how to customize them and how to include more protein in our diets to promote healing. Dr. Nandi also shared many important insights about diet from a South Asian American perspective and I also talked about what has worked…
- Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Crohn's, Diet, IBD Parenthood Project, Nutrition, Ostomy, Pregnancy in IBD, Ulcerative Colitis, Vaccinations
AIBD 2020: Hot Topics for IBD Patients
This year’s Advances in IBD conference was my first time attending and it sure as heck did not disappoint! AIBD may have been virtual due to the ongoing pandemic but it was nevertheless very well-organized and informative. The sessions shared many important studies and topics for us to learn and know all about. As a patient advocate who was sharing information across platforms, there were several topics buzzing in the IBD patient community around the world. Below are my picks for the top highlights from AIBD for IBD patients: COVID-19 & IBD According to the SECURE-IBD registry, IBD patients are not necessarily at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. Rates of…
- Colorectal Surgery, Crohn's, Diet, living with IBD, Nutrition, Ostomy, Ostomy Awareness Day, Ulcerative Colitis
IFFGD #DDHChat: Nutrition for the Ileostomy – The Dietitian & Patient Perspectives
The Diet & Digestive Health (#DDHChat) Twitter chat series with the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD), co-host Tina Aswani Omprakash and lead host dietitian Neha D. Shah, MPH, RD, CNSC, CHES. We are excited to help to educate patients, caregivers, and others about Nutrition for the Ileostomy: The Dietitian and Patient Perspective. Recap originally published by IFFGD on October 6th, 2020: https://www.iffgd.org/blog/october-2020-ddhchat-recap.html IFFGD – introductory tweets and remarks: The views and experiences shared by our participant are their own and do not reflect the official positions of IFFGD. Each patient is different. Always consult with your health care provider or a registered dietitian (RD) on a diet treatment plan…
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IBD Insider: IBD 101 Live Discussion on Facebook
Last Wednesday night I was honored to moderate a panel discussing IBD at the 101 level with two physicians who specialize in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: Dr. Jami Kinnucan of Michigan Medicine and Dr. Rajeev Jain of Texas Digestive Disease Consultants. IBD 101 is meant to be a precursor to IBD INSIDER, the more intermediate level discussion that will take place on January 25th, 2020 at Crohn’s & Colitis Congress, a premier conference sponsored by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) in Austin, TX. In our discussion, we covered topics ranging from what Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis are to the treatment of these…
