super poop

Could Your Poop Be Your Hidden Superpower?

Most of us aspire to be something great: an artist, hero, teacher, or leader. Maybe you just strive to be a great parent, neighbor, coworker, or friend. But there’s probably one place you never expected to find a hidden superpower: your poop. The Gut Microbiome A microbiome is the collection microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi)…

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Medical Marijuana and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Medical marijuana is gaining traction across the US. To date, 33 states have legalized pot for medicinal purposes. In 10 states plus Washington D.C. marijuana is legal for both medical and recreational use. So, what about using weed to manage digestive diseases? Good question. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation recently commissioned a white paper summarizing all…

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Is your doctor (unintentionally) holding you back?

We love doctors. One of the reasons we created GIThrive is to help gastroenterologists. GIThrive is designed to bridge gaps in care, making it easier for patients to follow GI docs’ advice. That said, here’s a summary of another academic article our gut health nerds found interesting… In a 2016 study, researchers wanted to learn…

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Managing the Cost of Digestive Disease: Therapeutic Nutrition

To be blunt, the medical community is largely ineffective when it comes to educating patients on how big a role diet plays in their health. It’s not that providers don’t try; it’s the system itself. Due to limited face time between docs and their patients, missing resources, and a lack of collaboration between providers, patient…

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Stacked Coins that Compare Health Issues

The Growing Cost of Gut Trouble in the US

Getting sick is expensive. When it comes to gastrointestinal (GI) issues, the numbers are shocking. The report below examines the healthcare costs of GI symptoms like heartburn, diarrhea, and vomiting, as well as chronic GI diseases like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). New numbers show that GI trouble is not only…

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SCD for Crohn’s: A Diet Review

Using food as treatment therapy for Crohn’s disease isn’t a new idea. In fact, it’s a concept that has been around for decades, but only recently has it started to gain traction in scientific circles. In a push to find alternative treatment options, researchers are exploring just how much of an impact diet can have…

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Yep, Poop Transplants are a Real Thing

Okay, technically it’s not called a poop transplant. The actual name of the procedure is fecal microbiota transplant, FMT for short. FMT is based on a simple idea: Take a sample of bacteria from the gut of a healthy individual and transfer it to someone who’s got a disease, like Crohn’s or colitis, two inflammatory…

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Social Status: It’s complicated (for IBD)

Where are you getting your information? No surprise, the answer to this question is probably the Internet. What is surprising is that Facebook comes out on top as an info source for important health information. Hmmm… The study According to the article below, a group of researchers from Boston University gathered data from over 1,900…

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