Charity's £50k award to Crohn's research

Cure Crohn’s and Colitis, whose chair is Newton Mearns lawyer Roy Provan, has donated £50,000 towards “CD-TREAT” a new dietary treatment aimed at combating the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

It is hoped the carefully selected solid food diet will mimic the results of a restrictive tube-fed liquid diet called Modulen, which is successful, mainly in children.

Lead researcher is Vaios Svolos, a PhD student in Human Nutrition at Glasgow University, who himself has Crohn’s disease.

He said: “We are looking closely into the role of diet and gut bacteria in Crohn’s disease.

“We did a trial with 25 healthy people and the diet was successful in changing the gut germs in the same way the liquid diet did.

“We want to see the long-term effects of this diet”.

A 12-week pilot trial of the diet on 20 Crohn’s patients - 10 children and 10 adults – has started this month.

Vaios said: “We provide all the food, which is all ready-made cooked meals. Trial participants will need to follow it very strictly. They will get home visits from myself and there is support lines. They will be monitored at four, eight and 12 weeks”.

He added: “I can say the 
diet tastes quite nice. It’s pretty good!”

Vaios is being supported in the trials by a number of doctors, nurses and dieticians, including gastroenterologist Dr Daniel Gaya, who is on the board of trustees of Cure Crohn’s and Colitis.

The charity gives 100 per cent of all donations to medical research into Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, two devastating forms of IBD, mainly affecting young people. Visit www.curecrohnscolitis.org