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Crohn’s and Colitis Treatment Plan
If you’re struggling with Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, I’m here to help you regain control of your gut health and improve your quality of life. My approach is based on a functional medicine model, focusing on both the root causes of your symptoms and long-term management strategies. Below, you’ll find the breakdown of the Comprehensive IBD Treatment plan, designed to meet your individual needs.
What’s Included in Your Crohn’s and Colitis Treatment Plan?
Based on case complexity, individualized gut healing plans are structured as either a single consultation or a 3–6 month comprehensive care package. If completing a program, meetings are conducted bi-monthly on the first month, and once every month thereafter, with support between sessions included. Following your discovery call, a program best suited for your needs will be recommended.
Initial Comprehensive IBD Evaluation
- Detailed history from both a medical and functional medicine perspective to help identify key areas of concern in your gut
- Education on pertinent lifestyle and diet changes and the rationale
- Detailed supplement recommendations tailored to you, with links
- Sample Daily Meal Plan, individualized
- If applicable, recommendations for further lab testing to request to be done by your doctor
- 1 month of email/text support
Second Comprehensive IBD Assessment
2 weeks after initial visit (on average)
- Follow up on lab markers to assess progress and make changes to the diet/supplements as necessary
- Troubleshooting of any areas of concern related to the diet or supplements
- Brainstorming of new food/menu ideas if necessary
- 1 month of email/text support
IBD Follow-Up Sessions
Monthly, over a 6 month time period
- Discuss long term goals and possible liberalization of the diet
- Set schedule for weaning off supplements as applicable
- Ensure you can make the diet/lifestyle an overall long-term lifestyle change to prevent relapse once stable
- 1 month of email/text support
Frequently Asked Questions
While I never guarantee results 100%, I have been working, researching, and immersed in IBD for so many years, and I consider myself (and am known to be!) quite the expert on the subject.
With Crohn’s and Colitis, I can confidently say that almost 100% of cases I have worked with have seen improvement, and > 75% of them significant. In fact, this is the diagnosis that I can pretty much almost guarantee improvement. I have seen calprotectin levels drop from the thousands down to 100 within 12 weeks. While not all will get the go -ahead from their doctors to reduce or go off of medications, their inflammatory markers are reduced, scopes and scans are clear, and quality of life is significantly improved. They are also more educated and empowered to understand their digestive process to prevent flare ups or reactions due to my focus on extensive education of clients. For those on milder medications or are newly diagnosed, we can often prevent the need for medication at all, or for progression to stronger meds.
I generally work off a mediterranean anti-inflammatory style of eating, combined with reducing toxic pesticide exposure, chemicals, and emulsifiers in the diet to the best of your ability, which I educate on how to accomplish. I try to tailor to the individual and their circumstances with practical ideas and recipes to make it do-able. If I see a client cannot make the full changes I would normally recommend, we prioritize the biggest factors (based off the research) that will likely help them to achieve better outcomes. I really feel a duty to bring healing to as many individuals as possible, and I understand that we may sometimes need to liberalize on diet in order to accomplish that. Any step in the right direction is better than nothing, and I am willing to work with individuals so long as they are ready to take some of those steps, even if not all.
Occasionally in more severe cases that are time-sensitive, I may need to start with a more limited healing diet in order to see outcomes, such as the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet, or a Mediterranean Diet combined with gluten and dairy free.
I don’t generally recommend the SCD diet based off of research that showed that Mediterranean principles showed similar outcomes to SCD with less restriction. Why un-necessarily restrict people? – is my thought process, especially if the more liberalized diet I utilize is equally effective.
While other dietitians working with Crohn’s/Colitis and IBS may focus mainly on managing symptoms or figuring out what foods currently cause symptoms, I don’t take that approach. Instead, I work to address the underlying inflammation and digestive difficulty so that today’s current limitations will no longer be pertinent in a few months. Why limit yourself to figuring out current intolerances when you can rather fix them?
There is usually room for liberalization at the 6-12 month mark. I always advise that it should be the exception and not the rule. Overall, you should still continue general healthy eating as your main lifestyle if you want to maintain the remission we achieved. I also educate on what are the most important factors to focus on sticking to long term, and which factors allow for eventual more room for liberalization.
I consider myself a partner with your medical team. I am happy to add to a client’s outcomes in conjunction with what medicine has to offer. That being said, I often can add a unique perspective to your case that a mainstream medical doctor may not be trained enough in or won’t have as much hands-on experience with.
I will never contradict medical advice or recommend you stop a medication your doctor advises. Some biologics once started may not be available to you once stopped, as your body can develop immunity to them. This makes taking a stable patient off of a biologic a weighty decision. In these cases, I consider my role to be helping people with Crohn’s or Colitis feel their best and get any inflammation entirely down while maintaining their original medication dosage. Once we have accomplished that, it is up to the doctor and patient to decide if medications can be reduced or weaned, taking into account the risk factor.
Based on case complexity, individualized gut healing plans are structured as either a single consultation or a 3–6 month comprehensive care package. If completing a package, we meet twice the first month, and once every month thereafter, with email and text support as needed.
Digestive wellness packages range from $650 for a one time consultation to $2,450 for a 6 month program. After your discovery call, we’ll have a clearer understanding of your needs and can recommend the package best suited to help you reach your goals. The cost of the discovery call is applied towards a 3-6 month program if purchased.
I strive to price my services fairly — making them accessible to most individuals while allowing me the time needed to invest intensively in each case to drive real results. Functional Medicine naturally costs more than traditional, insurance-based services for a reason: it demands extensive provider expertise, advanced training, significant time commitment, continuous education, and is still not widely available.
Unlike many Functional Medicine practitioners who require numerous ongoing sessions, my goal is to help the majority of clients within 3-6 months, depending on your diagnosis and condition. Typically, the combined cost of the program along with recommended supplements, averages around $2000-$3200 in total over the course of 3-6 months.
While many providers order thousands of dollars’ worth of testing, I have learned — through years of experience — how to streamline the process and achieve similar results without unnecessary expenses. After working with so many individuals over the years, I firmly believe that healing the body through a Functional Medicine approach is a one-time investment for a lifetime of better health.
There is no price tag on feeling good and living well.
Moreover, many clients find that their investment comes back to them — often in the form of lower medical bills, fewer medications, and fewer missed workdays. From the IBS or Crohn’s client who can finally get to work on time and engage fully in life, to the IVF client who requires fewer retrievals, the PCOS client who conceives naturally, or the rheumatoid arthritis or colitis patient who reverses disease activity and reduces medication — the financial (and personal) payoff is undeniable.
Want to hear more? See attached Case Study blog article of an IBD client’s story.
Read a story on the functional medicine approach to an IBD case here!
Still not sure?
Set up a 10 minute discovery call here, to see if I can help with the particulars of your case and if we are a fit to work together!