Author Archives: Amber

IBD in the Hispanic Community With Oriana Damas, MD – About IBD Podcast Episode 144

As an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and the Director of Translational Studies for the Crohn’s and Colitis Center, Dr. Oriana Damas sheds light on the misconception that IBD only affects certain ethnicities. Her extensive research explores the connection between of environment and genetics in the development of IBD, with a special focus on its impact on immigrants from Latin America. Dr. Damas shares insights into the challenges of studying the role of diet in IBD, revealing key findings from her research and explaining how her work is reshaping our understanding of these diseases

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Positivity Beats IBD With Josef Miller – About IBD Podcast Episode 143

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What is it like to be a teen living with Crohn’s disease? If you’re like Josef Miller, you channel the challenges of the diagnosis and management of IBD into action. Josef has written a book about his experiences, entitled “The Purple Rose,” and created an initiative called “Positivity Beats IBD,” which creates inspirational cards for people living with IBD and other conditions. Learn about Josef’s journey with Crohn’s his multicultural background, and how and why he decided to write a book.

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Designer $hit: A Microbiome Love Story – About IBD Podcast Episode 142

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What options are you wiling to try to manage your ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease? How about putting someone else’s stool into your own colon? Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) — using stool from a donor to repopulate bacteria in the colon — are being studied for use in treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Filmmaker Saffron Cassady decided to try do-it-yourself FMT to treat her ulcerative colitis, using stool from the healthiest person she could find: her husband. The journey is captured in her film, Designer $hit, which explores both the science and potential behind FMT. Learn about why she decided to take a chance on FMT, how it has impacted her life, and where you can see Designer $hit.

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Coping With IBD While in Military Service – About IBD Podcast Episode 141

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What do all the new oral drugs available for treating IBD have to do with military service? Being diagnosed with IBD might mean leaving the military for some service members. Part of the reason is that it’s not possible to be deployed while receiving a drug that’s an injection or an infusion. But when a medication works well and happens to be in pill form: that’s a game-changer. Dr Anish Patel, the Medical Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Brooke Army Medical Center gives an update on how IBD is treated in the military, what he sees on the horizon for IBD, and his best advice for every patient living with a chronic illness.

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Learning to Accept IBD – About IBD Podcast Episode 140

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Being diagnosed with a chronic condition is a major adjustment. Digestive conditions like IBD (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) wind up affecting every part of our lives. Learning to accept the ways in which the disease affects life can be helpful. But it’s important to make the distinction between acceptance and complacency. Maalvika Bhuvansunder, a young adult patient living with Crohn’s disease, uses her experiences to help bring the concept of acceptance into focus for other people who are living with a chronic condition.

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Menopause and IBD – About IBD Podcast Episode 139

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Menopause is a topic that’s not well understood in general and there’s even less information when it comes to menopause and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). October is World Menopause Awareness Month. World Menopause Day is on October 18th every year. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of menopause and the support options available for improving health and well being. Learn more about how IBD may affect perimenopause and menopause, as well as the reverse.

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Designer $hit: A Microbiome Love Story

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Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is pretty much what it sounds like: taking stool (poop) from one person and putting it into another person’s colon. It is an idea that has been under study for use in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and ulcerative colitis especially, for many years.

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Having a Screening Colonoscopy – About IBD Podcast Episode 138

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Colon cancer is being diagnosed more frequently in younger people. It’s now recommended that most people get a screening colonoscopy at the age of 45. For people who have a family history of colon cancer, the first screening should be when they are 10 years younger than the family member was when they were diagnosed.

My guest is my husband, Michael Tresca, who recently had a screening colonoscopy after turning 50. He details his experiences in using a newer prep and how he managed the process.

If there is a person in your life that is due for their screening, I hope you’ll share this with them. And if you’re someone who is involved in administering screening colonoscopies, I hope you’ll listen to get an unfiltered perspective.

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Is Diarrhea Funny?

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A search of my computer shows that I’ve written on the topic of diarrhea several times already. It’s a recurring theme every few years, usually after a news event.

The latest circumstance, as I write this, is an incident that occurred on a flight between Atlanta and Barcelona in early September 2023. Reportedly, a passenger had diarrhea that was concerning enough to be considered a biohazard. According to CNN and other sources, the flight turned around after a few hours and went back to Atlanta. (CNN)

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Managing IBD Diet and Lifestyle With Clemmie Oliver – About IBD Podcast Episode 137

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Diet does matter in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Not only in how it affects the digestive system, but also in overall health. Adults with IBD have greater incidences of heart disease, lung disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, kidney disease, liver disease, and ulcers than do people without IBD. (Xu, 2018.)

For those reasons and more: thinking about diet and how it affects all these other body systems, as well as the IBD, is important.

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