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Crohn’s disease: Hucknall businessman hails Naltrexone treatment after years of pain and exhaustion
The 59-year-old had been living with debilitating flare-ups in his bowels for around seven years and since his diagnosis has had 10 different operations
By Lana Adkin, Trainee reporter
28 DEC 2023
Nottingham Post
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/health/crohns-disease-hucknall-businessman-hails-9000569
A man from Hucknall has shared his battle with suffering with an incurable disease leaving him “in so much pain and absolutely exhausted”. Business owner John Tarr, who lives in Hucknall, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2015.
The 59-year-old had been living with debilitating flare-ups in his bowels for around seven years and since his diagnosis has had 10 different operations, with many stays in hospital.
The chronic bowel disease causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to symptoms like abdominal pain and distension, fever, diarrhoea, fatigue, weight loss, anaemia, and arthritis. “It certainly is a bit of an eye-opener because when I first got it, it was really quite bad,” John said.
“You’re just absolutely worn out all the time because your body tends to not take in any nutrients and things like that so you're not getting all the stuff that you need. With Crohn’s disease, it comes and goes in flare-ups.
“I’d go into remission and have nothing, then all of a sudden it would just come back and get me and I wouldn’t be able to leave the house, I’d want to go to the toilet all the time and I’d just feel incredibly uncomfortable. I was in so much pain and absolutely exhausted like the energy had been zapped right out of me.
“In its mildest form you don’t kind of have it at all, in its average form you get it on a cycle, it just comes back and there’s no time length to that. It could be every couple of weeks or it could be every couple of months there’s no control over it really, you have to just find a way through whatever it gives you.”
Mr Tarr has undergone numerous treatments to help his condition including going to hospital for three-hour infusions of auto-immune system suppressants. He said his mindset was “you’ve got to try to find a way through it".
He continued: “One treatment involved going to the hospital and sitting there for three-hour infusions of auto-immune system suppressing drugs to stop your body attacking itself, which is what Crohn's is. But when we went into Covid, taking drugs to suppress my immune system was obviously not the right thing to do, I had to sprint away if I heard someone coughing.
“I'd been self-injecting every two weeks for about three years with that, then had some awful oral tablets which were chemotherapy drugs. They did keep the Crohn’s away, but they just knocked me sideways.”
John then explained that he researched and Googled alternatives to help him with his condition. He changed his lifestyle and eating habits and looked into other options for treatment.
He said: “It was something where I wasn’t going to lay on the sofa and give up, that’s not in my nature so finding alternatives and getting through it was on the cards. It does wear you out sometimes. I remember just going home and getting on the sofa and that was it, I was out cold after a day's work. Then I would just sleep and sleep - it was not a positive in any way.
“It’s made a really big difference. My journey really was that I really tried to look and find alternatives, and I completely changed the way I eat. I did some tests to find out what I should eat and shouldn’t eat that was the first start and that helped a little bit.
“I was very healthy in my eating and was avoiding stuff that would irritate my intestines. Then I was doing some research and Googling it then I came across LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)."
After doing some research, John decided that he would like a medically supported programme. He then began his “life-changing” journey on low doses of LDN with Bodyline Medical Wellness Clinics.
He was prescribed an extremely low dose of Naltrexone, with the dosage slowly increased in small increments over the course of 3 months. He said: “I’ve got so much more energy and I’m actually able to sleep now.
“I used to get really hot at night due to the inflammation, which meant I had difficulty getting to and staying asleep. I'm also clearer in mind, I know it sounds odd, but I can think a lot quicker. I just feel so much more energetic and I’m actually able to exercise now as well, which was a real problem before.
“I haven’t experienced any side effects from the medication, and I don't take any of the other drugs anymore either. Ten months in, I have a better standard of living and I can finally go travelling.
“I can just jump on a plane and go anywhere, whereas before I really had to consider how Crohn’s would affect me. I’m not nervous anymore, I can do anything. It’s not particularly expensive either - the medication - if people are prepared to spend some money on a medically qualified assisted journey as well, it can make a difference because it just made me feel a whole lot better about it.”