High Fiber Diet

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

IBD means Crohn’s Disease (CD) or Ulcerative Colitis (UC).  CD is an inflammation of the lower small bowel and/or the colon.  Bacteria actually invade and cause inflammation in the entire wall of the intestine.  UC, on the other hand, is an inflammation just of the lining of the colon.  It usually starts in the rectum and left colon and may spread to the entire colon from there.  It is now known that in both CD and UC that the bacterial make up is abnormal.  This means that there are significantly more of the bad bacteria present than the good ones.  These abnormal bacteria are called Firmicutes.