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Wearable devices help predict IBD flare-ups
One of the worst parts of living with an inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, is the unpredictability.
You can be feeling good, but suddenly, your symptoms flare up. Maybe you experience abdominal pain. But what if you know diarrhea is next?
There are times when this can be more than just inconvenient.
What if there were a way to predict your next flare-up so you don’t find yourself in that situation?
That’s the promise of a study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, who found that wearable devices may help sound the warning on IBD flares up to seven weeks in advance.
Getting ahead of uncomfortable situations and IBD flares
The researchers followed over 300 adults with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, who were equipped with wearable devices – including Apple Watch, Fitbit or the Oura Ring.
The devices certainly proved their value far beyond counting steps!
By measuring signals in the body associated with an imminent flare, the devices helped predict an IBD flare 7 weeks out. These signs included:
- Longitudinal heart rate (or changes in heart rate over time)
- Resting heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute at rest)
- Heart rate variability (the variation in time between each of your heartbeats) or regularity
- Number of steps (an indication of the amount of daily physical activity)
- Oxygenation (also known as pulse ox, which indicates how much oxygen the hemoglobin in your blood is carrying)
According to Rudolph Bedford, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist, these findings provide hope for IBD control, since up to this point, there has been no way to predict symptom flare-ups, unless you just so happened to get a stool or blood test right before one occurred.
But by leveraging these easy-to-use devices, “(IBD patients) may be able to make some changes in what they’re doing before that occurs, whether that’s an adjustment of medication or an adjustment of diet.”
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Improvements for the long haul
Knowing when your next flare could occur could certainly help keep you from ending up in an uncomfortable situation. But let’s take it further…
Inflammation is a hallmark of irritable bowel disease. That means learning to lessen its grip could be a better tool for managing flares and improving your health over the long haul.
Following the autoimmune disease protocol (AIP), a diet focusing on foods that help tamp down inflammation, is a good place to start.
Begin with a six-week elimination phase, removing grains, legumes, nightshades, dairy, eggs, coffee, alcohol, nuts and seeds, refined sugars, oils and food additives from your diet. These foods are considered triggers for intestinal inflammation, microbiome imbalances and food intolerances.
In addition to avoiding these gut-irritating foods, choose more gut-supporting foods like fresh, nutrient-dense foods, bone broth and fermented foods.
After the elimination phase, you can add back foods one at a time to determine which ones adversely affect your
Finally, I recommend taking a krill oil supplement daily to provide your gut with the omega-3s it needs to douse inflammation without the stomach upset that comes with fish oil.
Research has demonstrated that higher levels of essential fatty acids can help guard against chronic or uncontrolled inflammation through two important mechanisms.
- First, high levels of omega-3s in cell membranes trigger the release of an elevated level of omega-3-derived metabolites. This helps switch off the inflammatory response and switch on the body’s natural healing powers.
- Second, these fatty acids positively influence the types and amounts of microorganisms that live in the gut, called the gut microbiota.
It’s a one-two punch to help knock out symptoms and avoid flares.
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Sources:
Wearable devices like Fitbit can predict IBD flares 7 weeks in advance — Medical News Today
How can you tell if your IBD is getting worse? — UchicagoMedicine
Omega-3 Fatty Acids And Inflammation — You Are What You Eat! – NIH
By Virginia Tims-Lawson
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