Stress causes inflammation and depression

Click this link to watch the video

I think this video confirms the validity of my approach of using mind-body interaction to reduce and eliminate Crohn's and Colitis Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) symptoms. See my earlier posts on this subject by searching on "stress" and "genes" using the blog search facility above and right. This one in particular is an overview of my philosophy that underpins the BUDI program "Crohn's genes point to internalised stress."

Rejection really can break your heart and inflame your guts

Here is a digest of a paper by George M. Slavich et al. at UCLA which indicates a clear causal link between the stress from feeling socially rejected and inflammation. This reports one of his many papers looking at the effects of mind-body interaction and would appear to be very relevant to the repeated flares characteristic of  IBD, (the autoimmune conditions known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which includes Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis). Being the reluctant Black Sheep really does seem to have an inflammatory effect!

Image courtesy of uwillreadnews.blogspot
 http://uwillreadnews.blogspot.com/2010/08/rejection-affects-health.html  
Here is an abstract from the original paper:
"Although stress-induced increases in inflammation have been implicated in several major disorders, including cardiovascular disease and depression, the neurocognitive pathways that underlie inflammatory responses to stress remain largely unknown. To examine these processes, we recruited 124 healthy young adult participants to
complete a laboratory-based social stressor while markers of inflammatory activity were obtained from oral fluids..........
For the full paper click here:

 http://www.georgeslavich.com/pubs/Slavich_PNAS_2010.pdf

Stress, Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease flares

Here is a WebMD article on the relationship between stress and Ulcerative Colitis. It includes a neat summary of the mechanism which applies equally to the role of stress in the inflammation exhibited in Crohn's Disease. It includes patient accounts of how stress causes their Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) to flare.

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/ulcerative-colitis/features/link-between-stress-ulcerative-colitis

Image courtesy of  healthyalways.net

Inflammation in Crohn's Disease
Image courtesy of medicablogging.blogspot.com

Eye problems associated with Crohn's and Colitis

It is generally accepted that certain eye problems can be a complication of IBD including episcleritis (inflammation and redness of the white of the eye) and iritis (inflammation of the iris). Iritis needs to be treated by an opthalmologist. Episcleritis occurs in 3-4% of IBD patients and iritis occurs in 0.5-3% of IBD patients (mainly males with Ulcerative Colitis). Please seek medical advice if you are at all concerned. None of my information is intended to constitute or replace medical advice. http://www.eyecasualty.co.uk/maincontent1/episcleritis.html