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HEALTH
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT
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Is Intestinal Illness
A Jewish Disease?
BEN GALLOB
XSIUka,
Special to The Jewish News
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1988
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MONKEY • HAWISQUARE!BELLY DANCERS
",,,
ew York — A debate
is underway among
medical experts as to
whether inflammatory bowel
disease, IBD, is a Jewish
disease like Tay-Sachs, and
Gaucher's, whose principal
victims are Jews.
The elements of the debate
are spelled out in a report in
the September issue of Mo-
ment
magazine, which
describes the struggle of a
Jewish couple and the suffer-
ing of their daughter, Tanya.
William and Wendy
Dreskin of San Francisco
found that pediatricians con-
sistently misinterpreted their
infant daughter's loss of
weight and rectal bleeding as
nothing more serious than
colic.
It took the Dreskins two
years to obtain an accurate
diagnosis and treatment of
the illness. They had to per-
suade a doctor to perform a
sigmoidoscopy, a procedure to
examine the rectum and
descending colon with a
special scope; to take biopsies
to examine the tissue; and to
check for inflammation in the
colon.
The doctor was staggered by
the findings. A pathologist's
report confirmed the inflam-
matory reaction in Tanya's
colon. Tanya had IBD, and
"the problem was in Tanya's
gut, not in our heads," the
Dreskins write.
The problems the Dreskins
faced are in part because the
symptoms of IBD are similar
to those of other gastro-
intestinal afflictions.
The illness has two forms —
ulcerative colitis and Crohn's
Disease. Though the illness is
rarely fatal, it is both painful
and embarrassing because of
the frequent symptom of
diarrhea.
The Dreskins, infuriated by
the medical dogmatism and
disbelief they encountered,
examined the disease on the
own.
They learned that IBD
is a common gastrointestinal
disease affecting about 2
million Americans.
As for IBD being considered
a Jewish disease, the
Dreskins reported that "it is
not purely coincidental that
we are Jewish — in the
United States a risk of IBD is
about four times greater than
the risk for the general
population, according to the
National Foundation for Il-
eitis and Colitis."
The medical debate is fed by
several factors. The Dreskins
learned that IBD tends to
cluster in families.
Describing IBD as "a
genetic riddle awaiting a
solution," the Dreskins recall-
ed that "the myth of Jewish
diseases became a scientific
reality when Tay-Sachs
disease (a fatal nerve disease)
and Gaucher's Disease (which
affects the bones, spleen and
liver) were found by
geneticists to be genuine
Jewish diseases."
Dr. Albert Mendeloff of the
Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine pioneered
the study of IBD in the
Baltimore area in the early
1960s.
He found that Jews were
The Dreskins,
infuriated by the
medical
dogmatism and
disbelief they
encountered,
examined the
disease on their
own.
about three times more like-
ly to have IBD than the
general population, "but 20
years later doctors have yet to
find a simple inheritance pat-
tern or genetic mechanism for
IBD and Dr. Mendeloff now
preaches caution on the sub-
ject."
In different parts of the
world, Moment reports,
epidemiologists have produc-
ed findings that only com-
plicate the understanding of
IBD, but they do not rule out
the possibility that Jews may
be particular targets.
In the early 1970s, it was
found that ulcerative colitis
in Jews in Tel Aviv was lower
than that of the general
population in many parts of
Europe and the white popula-
tion of the United States.
Yet in Malmo, Sweden, the
incidence of Crohn's Disease
among the small Jewish
population was found to be 15
times that of the Jews in Tel
Aviv.
Another study showed that
Israelis born in Europe were
twice as likely to have
ulcerative colitis as were
Israelis from Africa and the
Middle East.
This led to the hypothesis
that IBD, like Tay-Sachs and
Gaucher's, is primarily a
disease of Ashkenazic, not
Sephardic Jews.