Why Surgery might Not be the Right Choice for Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis?

Are You Considering Surgery for your IBD?

I recently got an email from a dude who was in a bad place with his IBD. His Crohn’s Disease had gotten bad and was experiencing a long flare. He went to the doctor and they suggested surgery to remove his colon. 

Ironically, he was in remission for over 5+ years using a low-carb diet until his health spiraled out of control. I asked him what happened? He said he was eating lots of garbage and drinking excessively. 

I know it's a shitty situation as he’s tired of dealing with constant IBD symptoms. When IBD’s are active and flaring they wreak havoc on our daily lives. I understand why someone would seriously consider surgery if it offered a chance of having a normal life.

I'm writing this article because I want you to know you have options. You don't have to be stuck suffering with IBD symptoms.  

Surgeries for Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis

In most situations, I’m not an advocate of IBD surgeries 99% of the time. Whether having a colon removed, getting resections, and most fistula procedures. I’m not a doctor trying to give you medical advice, just sharing some insight and providing a different perspective.

For the 1%, I think there are extreme situations like blockages and potential ruptures that may require surgical intervention. The challenging part is determining what situations possess real danger vs perceived fear (instilled by doctors and loved ones).   

Can Crohn's & Colitis be Treated By Surgery

Standard surgery options for Ulcerative Colitis are usually a proctocolectomy. This is where your colon (large intestine) and rectum are removed. The 2 types of proctocolectomy procedures used to treat Colitis are: 

• Proctocolectomy with end ileostomy: where they remove the colon, anus, and rectum to create an external ostomy. 
• Proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (J Pouch): A surgery where they remove the colon and the rectum to create an internal pouch which eliminates the need for a permanent ostomy. This is the most popular surgical option for colitis patients as it helps to restore bowel function.

Standard Surgery options for Crohn’s Disease are some of the following: Colectomy, Bowel Resection, Ileostomy, Fistula Removal, Strictureplasty, and a few others. 

• Colectomy: Removes your colon, but leaves your rectum intact.
• Bowel Resection: Removes a part of your small or large intestine (diseased tissue) and connects the 2 healthy ends
• Ileostomy: Reroutes your poop whether temporarily or permanently using a hole in the belly called a stoma. This can be done to let your intestines heal from inflammation or to reduce inflammation. The stool then drains into an ostomy bag or j pouch. 
• Fistula Removal: Where a fistula is opened up, drained, or removed because it hasn't responded well to medication.
• Strictureplasty: Where a surgeon widens your intestines which may lead to potential blockages. 

Results Aren’t Guaranteed

You can go through the entire process and your symptoms might not improve. An expensive process whether the: surgery, hospital stay, recovery, or time away from work. 

In my experience, positive results are usually short-lived and work until they don't! IBD symptoms can return after surgery +. Too many IBD patients have to get future surgeries. Many people with Crohn’s Disease have 3-5 resection surgeries over the years to remove more diseased tissue. Sooner or later you’ll run out of tissue and could be facing a death sentence. 

Hopefully, you’ll be one of the lucky ones who gets 1-2 resections and feel good for the rest of your life.  Very few people end up being this lucky!  I’m not trying to be a downer, just keeping it real.  

Surgery is Not a Cure

Many doctors are quick to suggest IBD Surgery, but It's important to understand surgery is not curative +. In the future I hope allopathic medicine realizes we're too quick to suggest surgical intervention. Making this type of decision should be handled with the utmost care and never made out of fear or pressure from anyone.

Tunnel Vision

Sometimes when you feel sick NOW, it's hard to see a future where you feel good. Feeling crappy for extended periods of time creates tunnel vision that leaves you feeling hopeless. You forget how it felt when life was good! A time when you didn’t suffer from IBD symptoms and enjoyed life. This tunnel vision completely normal, and you need to realize your situation is temporary.

I find the easiest way to do this is by taking personal responsibility for my situation.  Am I responsible for my situation? 

• Have I been eating a good diet?
• Have I been overdoing junk food or garbage?
• Is there a diet or protocol that I haven’t tried yet?
• Have I been properly managing my stress?

Going through these questions will show you if you're partially responsible for your current state of health. It's easy to lie to others, have a pity party, but It's hard to lie to yourself! Deep down you know the truth one way or another. Prompting these questions is to make you admit your responsible for your situation. 

Because if you're responsible then you can change your situation. You don't have to be stuck feeling crappy. Change your behaviours and your life will change dramatically. 

100% Inflamed to Healed 

I’ve lost count of the people I’ve spoken with who went from a full-blown disease state to remission. This included people that suffered for 20-30 years with severe Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis and then achieved remission. People who were scheduled to have their colons removed but canceled their surgeries to try a new diet.  A few months later they felt better than ever. 

The Body Knows How to Heal 

Too many people like to complicate healing. Healing is built into the DNA (intelligence) of your body. Consider the last time you cut yourself, did it heal? If your answer is YES then don’t worry because your body still remembers how to heal. 

How to Reverse Your Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis

As I said before, your body knows how to heal. You just need to make some changes in your life and let your body do it’s thing. Stop over thinking every little detail and doubting your ability to heal.  

The following list is simple and to the point but If you're looking for a longer explanation you can access my free guide at the bottom of this article.

• Adopt a Low Carb diet like Carnivore, Keto, Paleo, or SCD (Carnivore is my favorite in the beginning because it’s simple and it works as it removes the most inflammatory foods and 99% of people tolerate protein without issues)
• Keep the carbs low "initially" (less than 30-50 grams per day) Carbs, especially complex carbs spike insulin and promote an inflammatory environment. Anything that normalizes insulin will have a positive effect on inflammation.
• Remove Sugar & Gluten  (both contribute to inflammatory process) 
• Eat Animal Protein  Your body is the equivalent of a 3D printer that requires protein and fat as raw materials to rebuild tissue and heal. Sorry Vegans! You will not achieve long term remission from Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis using a Vegan Diet. This is the rule and I don't care about the odd and rare exception. 
• Sleep 8 hrs per day.. Hard I know, but if your sick you need this time to heal, fix damage, and calm the immune system (SLEEP is magical) Make your sleep a priority and it will reward you! 
• Move your body: walk, hike and preferably outside. This helps cleanse your cells! 
• Strength Training 1-2 times per week max if your sick or flaring. Too much strength training is taxing on your immune system and will do more harm than good. Repairing muscles takes important energy away from healing your IBD. Most people reading this should probably wait until their condition is stable before doing strength training.  Focus on walking, hiking, then try some push ups and pull ups. If you do good with then try a few work out sessions and see how they affect you. 
• Address Your Stress: Remove negative toxic people, let go of resentment from your childhood especially towards your parents, and forgive people. Forgiving people is for you, not them.  The emotional stuff is no joke and is crucial to address if you're serious about overcoming your IBD. Psychological issues have physiological consequences that manifest in the form of disease in our bodies.
• Take Cold Showers or do cold plunges in the bathtub when you wake up, it will reset your immune system, improve circulation, and wake you up quickly +. I started out doing warm showers then switching to cold as it was easier.
• Keep track of your progress daily with a printed calendar or app. Keep track of what you ate, how many bowel movements,how you feel (symptoms), sleep, and others
•   FailForward: adjust and tweak along the way until you feel awesome

Reversing your IBD is Better than Surgery

Reversing your IBD takes time and requires GRIT but it's worth it! When you commit to healing, your body will reward you in direct proportion to your effort, discipline, and dedication. 

For many people surgery seems like their only hope. But in most cases people are relying on what they believe to be an Easy Fix. Most surgeries don’t give you instant results and if they do they're usually short lived. I’ve watched countless people go from one operation to the next chasing better results only to end up further away from remission.

Reversing your disease is a long term solution. By changing your behaviors you're addressing the underlying cause of your IBD. Once you’ve removed the factors that cause inflammation your body will heal and regenerate.  

Personal Responsibility

This is probably one of the most important concepts if you're looking to have a good life. Growing up in a poor single parent household I wasn’t taught this concept. Instead I grew up blaming the world and my circumstances for my troubles, stress, and the things I didn’t have. In essence I embraced being a victim until my worldview changed. 

Personal Responsibility is when you take full accountability for your actions, decisions, and thoughts. When you hold yourself responsible, it leaves very little room for blame games, and you develop better control of your life. 

Your life will change when you shift from being a victim, to accepting responsibility for your disease. It may not all be your fault but admitting you’ve played a vital role will help you change.

If you can make yourself sick THEN you can make yourself well! At the very least, you can dramatically improve your IBD symptoms.  

You Can Turn Your IBD around in 3-6 months

I know this may be hard to believe at the moment if your feeling that TUNNEL Vision. But you can change your life and go from barely surviving to thriving.  Go search for online testimonials if you need something to motivate you.

You can beat this crappy disease and get back to living a life that excites you! A life that's filled with happiness, goals, dreams, and people to enjoy these experiences with. 

Right now you're thinking that this autoimmune disease is a curse but one day you'll be grateful for it. We live in a world that's so fast paced, we have everything but feel like we have nothing, chasing likes, always scrolling, rarely present, and somehow never truly happy. When you overcome your Crohn's or Colitis it will be like a fresh start or a second chance at life. You will be more grateful for time and experiences because you know how it feels to have these things taken from you. 

I'm grateful everyday for my diagnosis because without it I wouldn't be trying to pay it forward to someone like you. Trust me, you can do this! I look forward to hearing your story after you achieve long term remission.  

You Got This!