Nutrition support in inflammatory bowel disease

The mechanisms of nutritional therapy in inflammatory bowel disease have not been thoroughly established. It is likely that a further understanding of the underlying disease process will allow better understanding of these forms of therapy, with a sounder rationale for the construction of specific diet constituents for therapy. Regardless, nutritional therapy is likely to be multidimensional, and various forms may affect different aspects of the disease process. Decreased inflammatory factors, decreased antigenic stimuli, provision of essential nutrients, improved immune function, and other factors may all be of varying importance in different patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Little work has been done on the role of diet therapy in the long-term treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease as a method of preventing relapse. Parenteral nutrition and elemental diets appear to have limited roles in this area. Some investigation has been done to see if minor modifications of the normal diet can prolong remission periods. Low-fiber diets are frequently recommended for patients with strictures. Whether this has any significant effect on symptoms, inflammation, or complications is unclear. Heaton et al suggested that a high-fiber, unrefined carbohydrate diet resulted in fewer and shorter hospitalizations. In a prospective follow-up study by Ritchie et al, however, these results were not able to be reproduced. Exclusion diets have also been suggested as a means of reducing relapse rates in patients with Crohn's disease. In a small, randomized, controlled trial of an exclusion diet versus an unrefined carbohydrate, fiber-rich diet, there were significantly fewer relapses among the patients treated with the exclusion diet at 6 months. These diets require intensive patient cooperation, but the potential side effects are minimal. Clearly, these findings need to be reproduced in large, prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread use can be advocated. A great deal of data exists on the use of nutritional supplementation in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, although little of it is in the form of large, randomized, controlled studies. Nutritional manipulation currently has a limited role in patients with ulcerative colitis; a much broader role exists in patients with Crohn's disease. The mechanisms by which nutritional therapy affects these diseases may include a combination of factors--decreased antigenic exposure, improved immune function, and provision of essential nutrients and calories needed for bowel regeneration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)