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.

I utilize a "high value" type of model, where a lot of education and recommendations are provided at each session, with fewer total visits than most providers. On average IBD cases can expect to need 3-4 sessions in total, conducted every 4-6 weeks.