Crohn's, Colitis, and IBS are Inflammatory Bowel Disorders. In Colitis and Crohn’s disease some of the gastro-intestinal tissue has become damaged. This allows viruses to penetrate the lining of the intestinal tract. We all have over 10,000 viruses living in our intestinal tracts. If your immune system is in good health, the bad bugs will be kept in check and balance by your good bugs. When things go out of balance and the bad bugs move into damaged tissue, the immune system knows something is wrong and isolates the bugs to stop them traveling to other parts of your body. You experience this as inflammation.
About 30,000 new cases of Crohn's and colitis are diagnosed each year in North America alone.
IBS is similar in symptoms, but the underlying cause is somewhat different. The walls of the intestinal tract are lined with layers of muscle that contract and relax as they move food from your stomach through your GI tract to your rectum. Normally, these muscles contract and relax in a coordinated rhythm. But if you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the contractions may be stronger and last longer than normal. Food is forced through your intestines more quickly, causing gas, bloating and diarrhea. In some cases, however, the opposite occurs. Food passage slows, and stools become hard and dry.
The number of people suffering from Crohn's, Colitis, and IBS in North America is estimated at well over sixty million, and steadily increasing.
| Read More on Crohn's Disease | Read More on Ulcerative Colitis | Read More on IBS |
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Let's take a look at these conditions in a way that will help you understand what is happening to you, and also give you a way of dealing with them. Imagine you and I are sitting down to enjoy a meal. |
| Half-way through eating we feel our stomachs starting to heave – immediately we realize the food we've just eaten is off. |  |
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Next thing you know, we're racing each other for the bathroom to throw up.
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| When bad bugs get past the reactionary process of throwing up, and move down into the intestinal area, the body has another response in place that it uses. |  |
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It takes everything in the intestines, turns it to soup, and throws it out in the opposite direction – diarrhea. What the body doesn't realize is… |
| Under certain conditions in the gastro-intestinal system, the GI tract flushing itself out - diarrhea - can actually create the perfect atmosphere for the bad bugs to thrive in. So now your body gets locked up in this process as it continues trying to flush the bad bugs out, and as a consequence of this, you could end up running to the bathroom for years! |  |
Dimension 4™ Brings Health Out of Chaos
Dimension 4™ helps bring balance to the body's gastro-intestinal system by changing the environment and making it inhospitable to bad bugs, forcing them to leave, or die. The minerals in Dimension 4™ create an alkaline atmosphere, and the probiotics plus soil-based organisms (SBO's) will start to re-populate the gut with good bugs, crowding out the bad bugs. This is especially important for those suffering from Crohn's, Colitis, or other intestinal problems.
With the gastro-intestinal system working more efficiently, proteins and minerals will now come together to create the fuel cells our bodies need in order to work properly. When food is efficiently digested, it will be properly assimilated and the body will be receiving the nutrients it needs, starting right at the cellular level.
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DID YOU KNOW
Your intestinal tract can play host to up to 10,000 different viruses, and there are more bacteria living in our intestines than there are total cells in our bodies! It is vital to our health for us to make sure that these bacteria are predominately the beneficial kind.
About Crohn's Disease: Educate Yourself
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What is Crohn's Disease?
Affecting an estimated 500,000 people in the U.S. alone, Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation or swelling of the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract.
Crohn's disease can affect any part of the GI tract, though it usually occurs at the end of the small intestine, also known as the ileum, and the beginning of the large intestine, also known as the colon. Crohn's is often mistaken for other GI disorders that cause similar symptoms, such as Ulcerative Colitis, Diverticulitis, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Symptoms and Potential Complications of Crohn's Disease
Crohn's disease symptoms may range from mild to severe and can vary widely from person to person. Most people experience flare ups of symptoms, followed by periods of remission when the symptoms decrease or even disappear. Commonly reported symptoms include the following:
• Persistent diarrhea
• Abdominal cramps and pain
• Fever
• Fatigue
Rectal bleeding and loss of appetite may also occur. In addition to the effects on the GI tract, Crohn's disease can also affect other areas of the body such as joints, eyes, skin, and liver.
Along with painful symptoms, Crohn's can lead to complications, including an obstruction of the intestine due to swelling and the formation of scar tissue.
Other potential complications of Crohn's disease include the development of fissures (small cuts or tears in the anal canal), abscesses (localized infection or collection of pus), and fistulas (an abnormal tunnel that forms between two structures of the body).
About Ulcerative Colitis: Know the Facts
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What is Ulcerative Colitis?
Colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes ongoing inflammation and small sores (ulcers) in the inner lining of the large intestine, or colon. This inflammation makes the colon empty frequently, which leads to the most common symptoms of Colitis: diarrhea and abdominal cramps and pain. The symptoms of Colitis, as well as possible complications, will vary depending on the extent of inflammation in the rectum and the colon. Colitis symptoms can come on gradually or suddenly and vary in severity.
Is Colitis the same as Crohn's disease?
Unlike Crohn's, which can affect any area of the gastro-intestinal tract, Ulcerative Colitis affects only the colon.
Colitis inflammation also differs from that of Crohn's in that it starts in the rectum and extends up the colon in a continuous manner. In Crohn's disease, there may be areas of normal intestine between the areas of diseased intestine.
Also, Colitis affects only the innermost lining of the colon, whereas Crohn's can affect the entire thickness of the bowel wall.
Will Colitis lead to other health issues?
Research has shown that Ulcerative Colitis may make it more likely that a person will develop arthritis, eye inflammation, liver diseases and osteoporosis. It is believed that inflammation triggered by the immune system may play a role in these other health problems.
About 5 percent of people who have Colitis develop colon cancer, which is a higher rate than for people without Colitis. The risk of colon cancer increases in each decade after Ulcerative Colitis is diagnosed.
About Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Understanding IBS
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What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common disorders that doctors see. Though it's precise cause is unclear, it is thought to involve abnormal muscular movements within the intestine.
As many as one in five people are affected by IBS. Fortunately, unlike more serious intestinal diseases such as Colitis and Crohn's disease, IBS doesn't cause inflammation or changes in bowel tissue or increase your risk of colon cancer.
Signs and Symptoms of IBS
The signs and symptoms of IBS can vary widely from person to person and often resemble those of other diseases. Among the most common are:
• Abdominal pain or cramping
• A bloated feeling
• Gas (flatulence)
• Diarrhea or constipation - sometimes alternating bouts of both
• Mucus in the stool
Like many people, you may only have mild signs and symptoms of IBS. Sometimes these problems can be disabling, however, and can be made worse by anxiety, depression, or stress.
The Risk Factors of IBS
Many people have occasional signs and symptoms of IBS, but you're more likely to have IBS if you're young and female. IBS begins mainly before the age of 35 in people. Overall, about twice as many women have the condition, and genetics or heredity may also play a role.
Diarrhea and constipation, both signs of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, can aggravate hemorrhoids. As well as other intestinal diseases, IBS can interfere with your work, your relationships with friends and family, and your ability to live your life to the fullest. At times, you may feel discouraged or depressed. If you avoid certain foods to alleviate symptoms, you may also not be getting enough of the nutrients you need, leading to malnutrition.
Inner Environments
Our bodies are made up of different atmospheres. The hollow tube that starts at our mouth, and runs the entire length of our body, is one such atmosphere. In people who are healthy, this hollow tube has the correct atmosphere, making it inhospitable to bad bugs.
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Here is another way of looking at atmospheres: We are a living organism, a big bug; if the room we were in began to fill up with smoke, we would have to leave immediately. The atmosphere in the room has changed and is no longer friendly to humans. And so it is for all the organisms living within the atmospheres of our body. If you change the atmosphere and make it unfriendly for the bad bugs, they must leave. |
"Out of all the polite topics of conversation, the state of one's intestines is probably at the bottom of most people's lists. Let's face it: Irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, gas, diverticulitis and colon cancer are simply not things we like to discuss. And yet, as the old expression goes, death begins in the colon. Don't believe it? Ask any coroner. Autopsies often reveal colons that are plugged up to 80 percent with waste material."
-Vegetarian Times, March, 1998.
Dimension 4™ for Optimal Health
Our bodies are a collection of environments made up of billions of cells. Each of these living cells requires minerals for optimal functioning. Since our bodies do not produce minerals on their own, they must be provided through the food we eat. In order for our food to be able to provide us with minerals, they must get them from the soil they are grown in. Most of our food is grown in mineral-depleted soil, making it necessary for us to supplement our diets with high quality minerals.
Minerals are extremely important in both preventing damage to, and repairing any breakdown in cellular integrity caused by nutritional deficiencies.
Probiotics are becoming increasingly highly regarded for maintaining health and preventing disease. They cooperatively preserve a delicate balance between the gastro-intestinal tract and immune system. When this balance is disrupted, disease and inflammation result. Clinical studies have established that probiotic therapy can help treat several gastro-intestinal ills. Furthermore, several studies suggest that certain probiotics may help maintain remission of Ulcerative Colitis and prevent relapse of Crohn's disease and the recurrence of pouchitis (a complication of surgery to treat Ulcerative Colitis).
The gastrointestinal system is the gateway to the proper functioning of all the body's other environments. Like the roots of a tree, our gastro-intestinal tract processes and supplies the necessary elements to all our body environments. If our digestive system is not functioning properly due to lack of the necessary minerals, the effects will be experienced through all our environments. Take the minerals away from the roots of the tree, and all the other systems of the tree suffer as a result.
Dimension 4™ supplies the necessary macro & micro minerals needed to work as catalysts for vitamins and enzymes to do their jobs in our bodies.
The wide range of probiotics and soil-based organisms help ensure an optimum environment exists in our digestive tract, where all bodily processes begin.
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This information is provided for educational and informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for a health care provider's consultation.
sourced in part from: The Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com); Trusted MD (www.trustedmd.net); Jenson, Dr. Bernard and Mark Anderson. Empty Harvest. New York: Avery, 1990; Karatzas, Irene. "Gut Reaction" Alive Mar. 2008: 112-113.