whether participants in three major U.S. studies developed Crohn’s or colitis.
The three studies tracked nearly 290,000 medical professionals for decades, monitoring their lifestyle habits and noting the diseases that some eventually developed.
Researchers estimated that a low score on the modifiable risk factors list could have prevented about 2 of every 5 cases of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Similarly, having a high lifestyle risk factor score could have prevented 61% of Crohn’s disease cases and 42% of ulcerative colitis cases.
Researchers then verified the positive effect of a healthy lifestyle by testing their scoring systems on data from three large European studies involving more than 480,000 people. The results bore out their earlier findings; the healthy habits identified could prevent a large number of IBD cases.
How do these lifestyle factors contribute to IBD?
The lifestyle factors all contribute to IBD risk in different ways, Khalili says. Some promote inflammation, while others might be harmful to digestive microbes in the gut.
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These lists also might be of more benefit to older people, he adds.
“In older people, environmental factors probably play a bigger role than genetic factors,” Khalili shares. “It’s possible if you apply this same methodology to a younger cohort, you would see a lower proportion of cases that could be prevented as a result of adhering to a healthy lifestyle, because in younger people genetics may play a bigger role.”
While these lifestyle factors could help ward off IBD, it’s not clear whether they could help people who have already developed Crohn’s or colitis, says Dr. Manasi Agrawal, a gastroenterologist at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a cure for IBD in terms of modifying the course of the disease,” Agrawal adds. “Being on IBD medications and ensuring that inflammation in the gut and the body is controlled well is the most important step to maintaining health.”
Agrawal adds that it always makes sense to promote a healthy lifestyle because these factors have been linked with other health issues like heart disease and cancer. She notes that the study didn’t assess the impact of a healthy lifestyle once disease has occurred.