Impact of Results
As of 2017, 6.8 million people worldwide were affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and this number continues to rise. The financial and healthcare strain of IBD on global systems is profound. Treating chronic diseases like IBD can triple an individual's yearly healthcare expenses from $7,000 USD to $23,000 USD. Though age-specific mortality from IBD decreased between 1990 to 2017, its non-fatal effects have surged. IBD's impact isn't just physical; it takes a toll on a patient's psychological, familial, occupational, and social dimensions. This can lead to heightened rates of anxiety, depression, and social stigma, among other emotional challenges, further compounded by associated inflammatory conditions.
The central premise of our NUTRIBIOTA-IBD research project is that through comprehensive dietary and lifestyle changes, we can positively influence the gut microbiota. By doing so, we hope to boost its interaction with the immune system in a way that mitigates inflammation, thereby affecting the progression of IBD throughout a patient's lifetime. Our research approach will test this hypothesis by contrasting results from "patients" with "healthy volunteers" and comparing outcomes "before" and "after" our intervention. Our aspiration is to achieve a compelling statistical power of 0.99.
If our hypothesis stands, the potential benefits are vast:
- Disease Management: Better disease control, leading to fewer hospital stays, fewer medical leaves, and reduced dependency on aggressive treatments such as drugs and surgeries.
- Cost Efficiency: Diminishing the priciest aspects of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) care. Dietary strategies don't necessarily inflate healthcare costs but promote more informed dietary choices. Opting for less red meat and more plant fibers, for instance, isn't about pricier food but about making healthier decisions.
- Quality of Life: Improved quality of life and decreased levels of anxiety and depression. Providing patients with tools related to diet and lifestyle empowers them with daily tactics to handle their disease, potentially achieving and sustaining remission. Such an approach can be transformative and immediately actionable.
- Long-term Health: Lowering the potential for long-term UC complications, including colitis-induced colorectal cancer. By adopting a health-focused diet and lifestyle, chronic inflammation in the colon might reduce, thereby lessening inflammation-related risks over time, such as tumor development.
- Innovative Metrics: We're set on devising new computational techniques, incorporating biostatistics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Deep Learning. These methods aim to correlate nutrition, lifestyle, gut microbiota composition, and UC-related biomarkers. This foundational knowledge could catalyze further advancements in treating Crohn’s and other akin diseases.
