Mayo Clinic on Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis: Strategies to Manage IBD and Take Charge of Your Life

by Dr. Francis A. Farraye

Tired of having your gastrointestinal issues be the center of conversation? Ready to wrangle your symptoms and corral your pain so that they can take a back seat in your life? Worried about sexual intimacy, fertility and pregnancy? Want to feel like you’re in control of your future?

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—known collectively as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD—can appear at any age, but most often develop in a person’s late teens to early 30s. These chronic conditions can take a physical and emotional toll, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

No matter if you’re recently diagnosed, you’ve struggled for several years or you have a child with IBD, Mayo Clinic on Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis offers help and hope. This comprehensive, easy-to-understand reference guide can help you chart a path back to health.

You’ll learn the science behind IBD and how it strikes, what medications to discuss with your doctor, when to consider surgery, how the disease can affect other parts of your body, and ways to change your lifestyle to manage and live well with your illness.

Written by world-class medical specialists, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting trusted information and expert insight.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

Published September 20, 2022

Reviews

[Sam Daab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be tremendously helpful, informative, and easy to understand. Most of the information in this book put my mind at ease. Even despite speaking with my doctors over the last few months, this book was able to answer questions I didn’t realize I had, and I particularly found the section on different medications and how they work to be informative and helpful. I would recommend this to anyone else who has been recently diagnosed and is seeking some reliable information.

[Emily * ˚ ✩ · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent review of all things crohn’s & colitis for someone who is looking to learn. My only qualm is the nutrition section was a bit lackluster. Glutamine FTW ig

[Megan Fielden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book if you’re newly diagnosed, or in my case someone in your close family has been diagnosed. This book offered many suggestions, and confirmed the course of treatment we’ve been trying which brought me peace. It also helped explain some of the symptoms and issues that my spouse has experienced, and gave us some new ideas of things to try. I am really thankful I found this and read it. It will serve as a resource as we seek management of the disease. We are about 5-6 months post-diagnosis.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informational but utterly horrifying as a newly diagnosed patient. A great source for info but may have been too much, too early for me.

[Jorge Leal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A practical and useful guide for anyone with Crohn’s disease or for those who work in the field.

The book touches, in a subtle but meaningful way, on the power of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), therapy in general, and good sleep. Crohn’s is a complicated disease to treat: some people respond better to certain medications, while others improve with completely different ones. As someone who started with budesonide (steroids), later moved to azathioprine, and was advised to begin biological therapy as soon as possible, along with removing a third of my colon, I can say that, beyond all these treatments, what helped me the most was giving sleep the importance it deserves and treating stress management as a central part of my wellbeing.

It would be irresponsible on my part to argue against the statistical evidence supporting medical treatments. However, it would be equally irresponsible to hide a data point like mine, in which the most effective treatment was not any of the highly expensive or invasive options, but rather prioritizing sleep and managing stress.

Fortunately, I did not start biological therapy, something that is difficult to reverse once begun, nor did I undergo surgery. I have now been in remission for almost two years, and I attribute a large part of that to improving my sleep and managing stress.

[Casey Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but mostly tells you a lot of stuff that you've probably already heard from your doctor. Goes a little bit too wide in trying to talk about every kind of IBD simultaneously and suffers a little bit from that. Most helpful stuff is the discussion of "supplemental" treatments like turmeric and marijuana, but also the diets are very helpful. Will probably purchase a physical copy at some point to have the sample diets on hand, especially the section "eating during a flare". Makes things seem very managable but is also realistic about how bad things can get. Pretty helpful for anyone with any level of severity I'd bet.

[Elizabeth Theiss Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive, not-too-technical, practical look at how to manage IBD. After reading it through once I have a much better idea of what to expect. It’s not comforting but it is very helpful in maximizing the chances of controlling the disease and making good choices. I’m sure I will refer back to this book often.

One astonishing omission is a discussion of the role that caffeine and alcohol play in IBD. Recent research suggests that both substances contribute to the disease. In my case, eliminating both from my diet and taking steroids for a month brought on remission.

[brianna ☁️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this would be a great book for newly diagnosed patients. if you've just been diagnosed and are looking for a resource on crohn's and colitis that explains things simply and clearly, i'd recommend this book.

if you've had the disease for a while like i have, this book may only provide a few tidbits of brand new information. however, it could help clear up any confusion you may have on things you already know.

i checked this book out from my local library!

[Keri Karman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good overview of IBD that seems to be a little more up to date than other resources. However, there are parts that directly contradict each other including the potential role of folic acid and cancer risk. A good starting point that points to the need for much more research in this field.

[Loraine Malaspina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, helpful with understanding the disease

[Daniel Cuomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has helped me a lot the last two weeks to understand what's going on with my body.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Annette Ridenour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super informative and helpful to know where we stand with knowledge in this field right now.

[Bill Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to demystify Chron's/