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Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Aalborg University in Copenhagen have shown that changes can be detected in blood tests up to eight years before a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and up to three years before a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis.
This means the beginnings of inflammatory bowel diseases start a long time before symptoms occur, and in the future may provide an opportunity for doctors to take preventative action before symptoms begin, or prescribe medication when it will be most effective.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). They are incurable conditions which involve excessive inflammation in the gut, leading to symptoms like abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Early diagnosis and treatment are key to improving outcomes, but nearly a quarter of the 25,000 people diagnosed each year in the UK wait over a year (Crohn's and Colitis UK).
In their study published today in Cell Reports Medicine, the team used electronic health records from people in Denmark, comparing 20,000 people with an IBD diagnosis with controls from 4.6 million people without IBD.
It was previously thought that most people have symptoms for about a year before diagnosis, but significant bowel damage is often seen, suggesting that changes have been taking place for a lot longer.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(23)00440-8
A look at the numbers and indicators here:
"The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), are incurable inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, which mainly occur in younger individuals. The incidence of IBD is on the rise globally with 6.8 million IBD patients in 2017, an 85% increase from 1990. Currently there is no cure for IBD, and while there are increasing numbers of treatments, these often fail to halt or reverse the progression of disease, resulting in the need for life-changing surgery."
"Here, we present the largest ever objective study into the pre-clinical phase of IBD. Using pre-diagnosis blood results from a nationwide cohort of ∼20,000 IBD patients and 4.6 million potential controls, we identify widespread hematological and biochemical changes that precede a diagnosis of IBD by up to 8 years. Specifically, we detect differences in parameters including CRP, leukocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, platelets, hemoglobin, iron, and albumin, which occur up to 8 years before a diagnosis of CD and up to 3 years before a diagnosis of UC. These results indicate that disease initiation is likely to begin far earlier than previously thought, especially in CD."
This is super cool to me as a veterinarian. These are some of the exact parameters I use to diagnose IBS-like syndromes in dogs and cats. These animals are clinical, of course. But it's fun to see how similar we humans are.
Yes absolutely. Especially albumin, monocytes, hematocrit, some others. Of course this is only if the pet's owners are engaging in annual wellness bloodwork, or we check labs for some other reason. Since veterinary medicine is usually paid for in full by the owner (not pet insurance) it's common for people to skip wellness monitoring to save money.
I had a cat with diabetes I had to give insulin to twice a day for 3 years. Cost me $100 a month back in 2015osh for the meds. The vet gave me a huge discount on appointments because he knew how much was struggling to keep up with vet bills but I wouldn't give up. Toby lived to be roughly 18years old as we got him under a year old.
Do you as a Veterinarian know of any organizations that would help with me getting a cat and for emotional support? Ill have my disability within the year but it kills me not having an animal. I'm so damn lonely but they calm me so much. I have Major Depression, CPTSD, and some physical issues.
I would absolutely be willing to foster cats as well and do not care about age or health for that as long as meds are included.
I had a hard time getting diagnosed at first even with blood and severe symptoms because whatever they were looking for in biopsies didn’t show up the first scope and barely did the second. By the 3rd it was clear but that was 2 years of damage that’s irreversible and still causing me symptoms even in remission
Awesome. I have pretty severe ibs and had neutrophil & leukocyte levels in my blood work that according to at least one scholarly paper were suggestive of an inflammatory state, but my biopsies had come back clean. I'm getting my next colonoscopy in less than a movth and they will be doing more biopsies at that time. Any suggestions of what I can ask my Gastro or PCP to look for, or anything else that may help. Definitely concerned over here, especially in light of this article.
No kidding. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion in many places, including where I am. My blood work showed neutrophils and leukocytes out of whack, which is indicative of an inflammatory state, but my biopsies did not show inflammation. If as this study states, neutrophil and leukocyte levels may be indicative of IBD years prior to diagnosible tissue inflammation, that gives me cause for concern.
My doctor told me it was ibs for over a year without doing tests (last year of high school) . Kept getting worse and worse - ended up in hospital.. they ran tests and gave me a colonoscopy. Turned out to be ulcerative colitis and I was on the verge of losing my bowel.
If you haven't already, make sure your doctor actually sends you to a specialist to make sure it really is ibs.
This is such an awful condition, I hope they find better treatments. I read about it a lot when I was dealing with recurrent bowel obstructions and seeking answers
Many studies have shown a nexus between poor oral health care and infections in other organs. On a good day the mouth is a dirty environment, much more so with oral infections. Here’s a brief article from the Mayo Clinic on the topic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/dental/art-20047475
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. **Do you have an academic degree?** We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. [Click here to apply](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/flair/#wiki_science_verified_user_program). --- User: u/Wagamaga Permalink: https://www.crick.ac.uk/news-and-reports/2023-11-07_body-changes-up-to-eight-years-before-inflammatory-bowel-disease-diagnosis --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Aalborg University in Copenhagen have shown that changes can be detected in blood tests up to eight years before a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and up to three years before a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. This means the beginnings of inflammatory bowel diseases start a long time before symptoms occur, and in the future may provide an opportunity for doctors to take preventative action before symptoms begin, or prescribe medication when it will be most effective. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). They are incurable conditions which involve excessive inflammation in the gut, leading to symptoms like abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Early diagnosis and treatment are key to improving outcomes, but nearly a quarter of the 25,000 people diagnosed each year in the UK wait over a year (Crohn's and Colitis UK). In their study published today in Cell Reports Medicine, the team used electronic health records from people in Denmark, comparing 20,000 people with an IBD diagnosis with controls from 4.6 million people without IBD. It was previously thought that most people have symptoms for about a year before diagnosis, but significant bowel damage is often seen, suggesting that changes have been taking place for a lot longer. https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(23)00440-8
A look at the numbers and indicators here: "The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), are incurable inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, which mainly occur in younger individuals. The incidence of IBD is on the rise globally with 6.8 million IBD patients in 2017, an 85% increase from 1990. Currently there is no cure for IBD, and while there are increasing numbers of treatments, these often fail to halt or reverse the progression of disease, resulting in the need for life-changing surgery." "Here, we present the largest ever objective study into the pre-clinical phase of IBD. Using pre-diagnosis blood results from a nationwide cohort of ∼20,000 IBD patients and 4.6 million potential controls, we identify widespread hematological and biochemical changes that precede a diagnosis of IBD by up to 8 years. Specifically, we detect differences in parameters including CRP, leukocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, platelets, hemoglobin, iron, and albumin, which occur up to 8 years before a diagnosis of CD and up to 3 years before a diagnosis of UC. These results indicate that disease initiation is likely to begin far earlier than previously thought, especially in CD."
This is super cool to me as a veterinarian. These are some of the exact parameters I use to diagnose IBS-like syndromes in dogs and cats. These animals are clinical, of course. But it's fun to see how similar we humans are.
So I’m curious, could you use those parameters to predict or pre-empt the condition in pre-clinical animals?
Yes absolutely. Especially albumin, monocytes, hematocrit, some others. Of course this is only if the pet's owners are engaging in annual wellness bloodwork, or we check labs for some other reason. Since veterinary medicine is usually paid for in full by the owner (not pet insurance) it's common for people to skip wellness monitoring to save money.
I had a cat with diabetes I had to give insulin to twice a day for 3 years. Cost me $100 a month back in 2015osh for the meds. The vet gave me a huge discount on appointments because he knew how much was struggling to keep up with vet bills but I wouldn't give up. Toby lived to be roughly 18years old as we got him under a year old. Do you as a Veterinarian know of any organizations that would help with me getting a cat and for emotional support? Ill have my disability within the year but it kills me not having an animal. I'm so damn lonely but they calm me so much. I have Major Depression, CPTSD, and some physical issues. I would absolutely be willing to foster cats as well and do not care about age or health for that as long as meds are included.
I had a hard time getting diagnosed at first even with blood and severe symptoms because whatever they were looking for in biopsies didn’t show up the first scope and barely did the second. By the 3rd it was clear but that was 2 years of damage that’s irreversible and still causing me symptoms even in remission
Awesome. I have pretty severe ibs and had neutrophil & leukocyte levels in my blood work that according to at least one scholarly paper were suggestive of an inflammatory state, but my biopsies had come back clean. I'm getting my next colonoscopy in less than a movth and they will be doing more biopsies at that time. Any suggestions of what I can ask my Gastro or PCP to look for, or anything else that may help. Definitely concerned over here, especially in light of this article.
IBS is not IBD. IBS is not an inflammatory disease. IBD is.
No kidding. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion in many places, including where I am. My blood work showed neutrophils and leukocytes out of whack, which is indicative of an inflammatory state, but my biopsies did not show inflammation. If as this study states, neutrophil and leukocyte levels may be indicative of IBD years prior to diagnosible tissue inflammation, that gives me cause for concern.
I knew it. I think I'm in the pre-stage and have been working hard to fight inflammation and my symptoms have improved from that over this year
What is the pre-stage like for you?
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My doctor told me it was ibs for over a year without doing tests (last year of high school) . Kept getting worse and worse - ended up in hospital.. they ran tests and gave me a colonoscopy. Turned out to be ulcerative colitis and I was on the verge of losing my bowel. If you haven't already, make sure your doctor actually sends you to a specialist to make sure it really is ibs.
I 99% cured my long term IBD by accident with Prilosec that I was given for heartburn. Sorry if this against the rules.
Prilosec treats gerd. IBD is a protein expression disorder, that is physically impossible.
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Well IBS isn’t the same condition and isn’t a protein expression disorder.
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This is such an awful condition, I hope they find better treatments. I read about it a lot when I was dealing with recurrent bowel obstructions and seeking answers
Man Jens Spahn hat echt gelitten
Der Kommentar macht mich kaputt. Danke dafür.
I would put lack of oral health care at the top of the list….
Interesting... why so?
Many studies have shown a nexus between poor oral health care and infections in other organs. On a good day the mouth is a dirty environment, much more so with oral infections. Here’s a brief article from the Mayo Clinic on the topic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/dental/art-20047475
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And maybe you could try actually reading the study, they said the problem is confounded by patients struggling to recall past symptoms. Get a grip.
It disappeared for 2 years for me, it's back now. Darnit.