Personalized dietary therapies for treating inflammatory bowel disease

The Challenge

Alberta has one of the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world and costs the Canadian health-care system over $50,000/year/patient. Current treatments with anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive medication can cause unwanted side-effects, and often surgery.

The Project

Use metabolomics to develop and monitor effective dietary therapies for IBD and develop Alberta-grown food product based IBD diet therapies to reduce relapse.

The Results

Dietary modifications that lower intake of inflammatory-type foods and increase anti-inflammatory foods can prevent colonic inflammation in clinical remission ulcerative colitis patients.

Grower Benefits

Canola oil helps prevent colonic inflammation in individuals suffering from IBD through an ‘anti-inflammatory’ diet, consisting of an increased consumption of omega-3 fatty acids.