Crohn’s sufferers are told over and over and over again that Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease and the inflammation/ulcers are caused by an over-reactive immune response – virtually all Crohn’s suffers believe this. And because they believe it, they think Crohn’s is a life-long disease… but recent research proves otherwise!

For Crohn’s disease to be an autoimmune disease there MUST be an aggressive response in the gut. Let me say that again, for Crohn’s to be an autoimmune disease there MUST be an aggressive immune response in the gut to cause the inflammation and ulcers; that makes sense. If there is no aggressive immune response in the gut, Crohn’s is NOT an autoimmune disease!

Here a couple of definitions of autoimmunity that confirm an aggressive immune response are essential to autoimmune diseases.

U.S. National Library of Medicine:

An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue.
Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001819/

Wiki:

Autoimmune diseases arise from an inappropriate immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. In other words, the immune system mistakes some part of the body as a pathogen and attacks its own cells.
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease

So, do Crohn’s sufferers have an aggressive immune response in their guts? A few years ago a number of researchers began to test the immune response in Crohn’s sufferers, and their results were SHOCKING!

“In Crohn’s disease, a constitutionally weak immune response predisposes to accumulation of intestinal contents that breach the mucosal barrier of the bowel wall.” Read more: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)68265-2/abstract

“The cause of Crohn’s disease (CD) remains poorly understood. Counterintuitively, these patients possess an impaired acute inflammatory response, which could result in delayed clearance of bacteria penetrating the lining.” Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737162/

“recent molecular biological and clinical investigations indicate that CD is actually a primary immunodeficiency.”
Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20594132

These breakthrough studies above PROVED that Crohn’s sufferers have a WEAK immune response and not an aggressive one needed to cause the inflammation and ulcers found in the guts of CD sufferers. Crohn’s sufferers do NOT have an aggressive immune response in their gut, so Crohn’s cannot be an autoimmune disease!

It may be shocking to think that Crohn’s is not an autoimmune disease, but the scientific evidence is overwhelming.

Even Wiki has updated its Crohn’s page to include the latest research about Crohn’s weak immune response.

Crohn’s disease has traditionally been described as an autoimmune disease, but recent investigators have described it as an immune deficiency state. [Immunodeficiency (or immune deficiency) is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious disease is compromised or entirely absent.]

Here’s a great quote from Sherlock Holmes:

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

The researchers in the above studies PROVED that Crohn’s sufferers do not have an aggressive immune response; it may be hard to believe but it’s TRUE! So we have to accept that CD isn’t an autoimmune disease.

Here’s another great quote from Sherlock Holmes:

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

Again, it may be hard to believe, but there’s no data or proof that Crohn’s was ever an autoimmune disease (it’s an assumption). Yes, there’s inflammation and ulcers in the gut, but that does not prove they were caused by the immune system. Inflammation and ulcers can be found in the stomach but research has proven the most likely cause is bacteria (H. pylori).

I could go into a lot more scientific detail about why Crohn’s is not an autoimmune disease, but I’ll do that in another post.

If Crohn’s is NOT an autoimmune disease, then what’s causing the inflammation and ulcers… and, the most important question never asked, why don’t they heal?

In one way or another all Crohn’s drugs reduce a compound called TNF in the gut. For example:

• Corticosteroids can improve Crohn’s and corticosteroids inhibit TNF (study).
• Naltrexone can improve Crohn’s and Naltrexone inhibits TNF (study).
• Mesalamine can improve Crohn’s and Mesalamine inhibits TNF (study).
• Enbrel, Remicade and Humira can all improve Crohn’s and all are anti-TNF drugs.
• Ect.

So, here’s my last quote from Sherlock Holmes:

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Could too much TNF in the guts of Crohn’s be the cause of Crohn’s?

• Too much TNF affects the functioning of immune cells… and immune cells prevent normal gut bacteria from damaging the gut lining;
• Too much TNF is linked to wounds (and inflammation) that don’t heal or heal very slowly.

So, is Crohn’s all about TNF? But, where does all the TNF come from?

There are two types of bacteria linked to Crohn’s: MAP and AIEC.

MAP and AIEC invade immune cells in the guts of Crohn’s sufferers, and guess what the invaded immune cells do? They produce EXCESS amounts of TNF!

In my ebook Rapid Crohn’s Remission I show Crohn’s sufferers how to eliminate the excess TNF in their guts naturally and quickly so the inflammation/ulcers heal rapidly (this is PROVEN scientifically). My ebook also explains how to eliminate the bacteria that cause the excess TNF, and if you can eliminate the bacteria causing the excess TNF, there is a real chance of eliminating the disease!