The Foundation for Nutrition and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Children, Inc. (NIBD)
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the problem:
I am the founder of The Foundation for Nutrition and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Children, Inc. (NIBD) www.nibdinkids.com. NIBD was formed to raise awareness and foster further research in nutrition and growth factor interventions currently available to patients with IBD. Our nutrition research, “Effect of exclusion diet with nutraceutical therapy in juvenile Crohn’s disease,” was published in June 2009 in The Journal of The American College of Nutrition (vol. 28, no.3, pp 277-285). Our goal is to present a pilot study of our work to the medical community and offer families vital and complimentary “missing links” in living and succeeding with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. To date my foundation has helped over 250 people from all over the world, many of them are between the ages of 3-21. All of these people were severely ill. Now with the help of our foundation, their health and quality of life is either somewhat or significantly better than prior to them beginning our nutritional protocol. Many of them are in full remission, and some whom were ill from the effects of chemotherapy & dangerous medications, are now drug free.
vital stats:
people impacted:
250people involved:
6why it's important:
At the age of 12, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. My symptoms were chronic abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloating, gas attacks, vomiting, fevers, skin rashes, anemia and indolent sores in her mouth. I had lost 30 pounds in 6 months and had stopped growing resulting in a 2-year growth delay as well as a failure of normal teeth development.
At the beginning of treatment, I was prescribed steroids and chemotherapy medication that I willingly took for one year, despite the fact that I showed no improvement at all. My condition worsened, and, to make matters worse, my hair began to fall out. I had missed 60 days of school and was now becoming reclusive.
I had been admitted to the hospital several times for dehydration and after my last hospitalization I was recommended to a clinical nutritionist,
Dr. Melvyn Grovit. Dr. Grovit was keenly aware of my plight, as he himself had experienced the ravages of Crohn’s disease as a child.
Dr. Grovit had developed a nutrition protocol over the past 30 years and introduced it to me. Dr. Grovit then teamed up with Dr. Alfred Slonim, my endocrinologist, who had also been working with Crohn’s disease patients from a growth factor perspective. Together, they forged a team approach to my medical nutrition and growth factor needs.
The nutrition protocol was easy to follow and is tailored to the individual’s needs and personal food idiosyncrasies. After beginning the diet and nutraceuticals, I gained 8 pounds in 10 days, became energetic again and began to rapidly return to my happy self. My orthodontist could not believe what he was seeing as all of my missing teeth spontaneously came in after several weeks on the nutrition protocol. On the nutrition protocol alone, I grew 5 inches in the first year. In the second year, Dr. Slonim felt that my growth chart reflected a plateau and it was now time to introduce growth factor therapy in conjunction with the nutrition protocol. After a few days on the growth factor therapy, I noticed I had even more energy and an increased sense of well being. In that second year I grew an additional 4.5 inches.
I am now 21 years old, gained 30 lbs and grew 10 inches. I am a junior at New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York, majoring in Art & Computer Graphics.
My foundation, NIBD, was formed to raise awareness and foster further research in nutrition and growth factor interventions currently available to patients with IBD.
Now that our research paper has been published in The Journal of The American College of Nutrition, our goal is to expand our research with a multi-center trial and educate physicians about the benefits of nutrition with IBD.
the plan of action:
We are currently planning fundraisers over the next year that we are certain will allow us the opportunity to begin the multi-center trial. One fundraiser will be in conjunction with The Comedy Green Room in Toronto Canada. We already had two successful fundraisers with the Comedy Green Room back in 2005 and 2006. This fundraiser would be an International Comedy Festival featuring comedians from all over the world. All proceeds would go to our foundation.
We have also submitted our video interviews (links above) to several television network talk shows such as; The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show, just to name a few. Our hope is that they will see the vital need for our message to be heard to the 1.5 million people in the US alone suffering with these diseases. We want these severely ill people to know that there is hope that they can live a healthy and happy life with the implementation of nutrition into their daily health regimen.
how you can get involved:
Others can help by spreading the word about this tremendously helpful nutritional plan. People should contact our foundation through our website, www.nibdinkids.com.
We will introduce them to our team of doctors who will consult with them to determine what positive course of action to take that can allow them to live a healthier and happier life.
