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Own Your Crohn's

Empowering the Chronically Ill & Disabled to Lead Fuller Lives

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  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  Crohn's,  Diet,  immunocompromised,  invisible illness,  J-Pouch,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Traveling with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    How to Own Your Crohn’s & Ostomy While Traveling to India

    February 18, 2025

    By Tina Aswani-Omprakash As IBD warriors, it’s always nerve-wracking to travel with our conditions and/or an ostomy. For me, it’s been 7 years of me traveling all over the U.S. and Europe for patient advocacy work. And even though I’ve spoken many times virtually for events in India and Pakistan, I hadn’t traveled to the region to speak given the pandemic. Now that we are out of the pandemic and back at in-person conferences, it was fantastic to be invited to speak about my experiences as an IBD patient & ostomate at Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin’s (GAPIO’s) conference in Mysuru, Karnataka, India. Plus, traveling to Karnataka meant…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    The Value of Awareness & Advocacy During the Holidays

    December 21, 2018

    12 News to Your Health IBD Segment

    June 23, 2018

    Fistulas: What You Need to Know About a Common Side Effect of Crohn’s

    May 17, 2019
  • Biosimilars,  Crohn's,  health insurance,  living with IBD,  Patient Voice,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    Key Takeaways from Advances in IBD (AIBD) 2024

    January 5, 2025

    By Tina Aswani-Omprakash & Natalie Hayden **This article has also been published on Natalie’s blog: Lights, Camera, Crohn’s ** As two bloggers and patient thought leaders in the IBD community, we were thrilled and honored to attend and speak at the Advances in IBD conference in December 2024 in Orlando, Florida. In the article below, we come together to summarize key learnings for our IBD patient and caregiver community. Management of Crohn’s Disease Crohn’s can be a very progressive disease, meaning it can worsen over time and cause complications, often leading to fistulae, strictures, and therefore surgery and bowel loss. In a debate between two of the co-chairs, Dr. Miguel Regueiro…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Sophia’s Chronic Illness Journey: Forced Switching to Biosimilars in Canada

    December 15, 2019
  • Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Digital Healthcare Innovations,  health equity,  Healthcare Disparities,  living with IBD,  Patient Voice,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Highlights from ACG 2024: SAIA’s IBDesis’ Patient Experience

    December 4, 2024

    By: Madhura Balasubramaniam, Sharan Khela & Tina Aswani-Omprakash Our patient advocate team, SAIA’s IBDesis, were honoured to participate in the American College of Gastroenterology’s (ACG) Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, USA, between October 25th to October 30th, 2024. As patient advocates, we are grateful for the opportunity to learn about the latest advancements in the IBD and GI space more broadly. Here are some of our key takeaways from the conference! Understanding the Treatment Landscape (Madhura Balasubramaniam) Dr. Miguel Regueiro provided a comprehensive overview of the various therapies available today to treat IBD and their safety profile, as illustrated by the safety pyramid: It is very heartening for us…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Saravanan’s Exercise Tips as a Crohnie & Ostomate

    September 30, 2021

    World PTSD Day 2019: The Faceless Woman

    June 27, 2019

    How Ostomy Surgery Impacted My Life

    October 5, 2024
  • Crohn's,  health equity,  Healthcare Disparities,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Patient Voice,  Stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  Women's Health

    SAIA is proud to announce Tina Aswani-Omprakash, MPH as our full-time CEO!

    November 18, 2024

    SAIA is honoured to announce that Tina Aswani-Omprakash, MPH, is now our full-time Chief Executive Officer 🎉🎉 Written by Madhura Balasubramaniam, Sharan Khela, Dr. Neilanjan Nandi & SAIA’s Board of Directors Tina is a patient advocate and thought leader par excellence, with several years of experience in spearheading international health advocacy efforts within and beyond the GI space. Tina’s work with Own Your Crohn’s has been groundbreaking for communities of colour, especially the South Asian community, where discussions around inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have historically been clouded by cultural stigmas and misconceptions. Tina brought to light and underscored these hidden cultural considerations that shape healthcare for communities of colour across the world.…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    IBD Insider: IBD 101 Live Discussion on Facebook

    January 16, 2020

    Demystifying the COVID Vaccine for IBD Patients

    January 10, 2021

    Madhura’s Journey in India: Coping with Stigma around IBD & Feeding Tubes

    May 16, 2021
  • chronic illness,  Colorectal Surgery,  Crohn's,  Cultural Stigma,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  Stigma,  Ulcerative Colitis,  World Ostomy Day

    How Ostomy Surgery Impacted My Life

    October 5, 2024

    How ostomy surgery gave Tina Aswani-Omprakash her life back and the impact these surgeries can have in IBD treatment. Originally published on IBD Social Circle’s Blog It is estimated that approximately three-quarters of Crohn’s disease patients and a third of ulcerative colitis patients will need surgery at some point or another in their disease journey. What’s often not discussed enough, though, is how many of those surgeries will lead to ostomies. So, what is an ostomy and how does it help patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)? According to United Ostomy Associations of America (UOAA), ostomy surgery is a lifesaving procedure. It allows bodily waste to pass into a medical…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    What I’ve Learned About Starting an Advanced Therapy for Crohn’s Disease

    March 2, 2024

    Managing Crohn’s Disease and Going Back to School

    September 4, 2024

    Navigating Mental Health in Crohn’s Disease 

    December 5, 2024
  • Crohn's,  Cultural Foods,  Diet,  J-Pouch,  Nutrition,  Ostomy,  Ulcerative Colitis

    How to Enjoy Your Favorite Cultural Foods Living with Crohn’s Disease

    December 19, 2023

    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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    Incredible Innovations: A Brand New Wireless IBD Medication Delivery Solution

    February 18, 2021

    A Valentine’s Day Special: Dating & Relationships with an Ostomy

    February 25, 2020

    IFFGD #DDHChat: Nutrition for the Ileostomy – The Dietitian & Patient Perspectives

    October 18, 2020
  • 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

    February 24, 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…

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    Tina Aswani Omprakash

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    Bachatera with a Bag: Theodora Shattering Ostomy Stigma Through Dance

    April 27, 2021

    How to Own Your Crohn’s & Ostomy While Traveling to India

    February 18, 2025

    When Diagnoses Accumulate: My Sjögren’s Story

    April 13, 2022
  • advocacy,  affordable drug pricing,  autoimmune disease,  awareness,  chronic illness,  drug pricing,  health insurance,  pharmacy benefit manager

    A Direct-to-Patient Model: How Online Pharmacy Marley Drug is Revolutionizing Drug Pricing

    September 8, 2022

    Sponsored by Medicure’s Marley Drug. All thoughts & opinions are my own. As patients, have you ever wondered if forgoing health insurance could perhaps save us money on prescription drugs? I honestly hadn’t considered it and this concept blew my mind when I first heard about it. For me, it always seemed like a no-brainer: go through my insurance policy to get access to prescription medications so I can contribute towards deductibles and meet my out-of-pocket costs many months later. But that can take forever and cost quite a lot of money…The reality is we might not have to do that and it might sometimes save us money to bypass insurance. I…

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    October 21, 2018

    The Value of Awareness & Advocacy During the Holidays

    December 21, 2018

    Owning My Crohn’s Mindfully This New Year

    January 5, 2019
  • coping with flares,  Crohn's,  fatigue,  living with IBD,  Ostomy,  sleep,  Ulcerative Colitis

    My Feature in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News!

    August 1, 2022

    Very honored to have been featured in Gastro & Endo News with regard to addressing sleep issues in IBD. This is something I’ve struggled with for a long time because I often need to use the facilities overnight and have trouble falling back asleep. Learn more about sleep issues and how to help us patients by visiting the article link here: https://www.gastroendonews.com/Article/PrintArticle?ArticleId=67175 As patients, sleep can really make a difference in our care and our overall ability to take each day as it comes. If our gastroenterologists aren’t able to address sleep concerns during our appointments, it may be best to bring up to our IBD nurses, NPs or PAs to…

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    December 5, 2020

    My Pelvic Pain Story

    October 26, 2018

    Talking Gut Podcast Episode 20: Tina Aswani Omprakash on Resilience & GRITT

    May 30, 2020
  • advocacy,  autoimmune disease,  COVID-19,  Crohn's,  immunocompromised,  living with IBD,  Ulcerative Colitis

    Dropping Mask Mandates: A Time of Anxiety or Joy?

    March 15, 2022

    Last week I went back to school in-person for the first time in 2 years. There was a part of me that was excited, yes, but the other part of me was nervous as all heck. Meeting professors and students I had gotten to know virtually over the semesters felt like there was a human connection again outside of Zoom! And I have to admit that I really enjoyed going to class and being around like-minded people before this pandemic started. It was definitely a loss to go virtual but at the same time, going virtual meant people with disabilities like us could take care of our health while being…

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Recent Posts

  • Feb 18, 2025 How to Own Your Crohn’s & Ostomy While Traveling to India
  • Jan 05, 2025 Key Takeaways from Advances in IBD (AIBD) 2024
  • Dec 05, 2024 Navigating Mental Health in Crohn’s Disease 
  • Dec 04, 2024 Highlights from ACG 2024: SAIA’s IBDesis’ Patient Experience
  • Nov 18, 2024 SAIA is proud to announce Tina Aswani-Omprakash, MPH as our full-time CEO!

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