A twenty percent chance of survival - words nobody expects to hear. Thankfully, Mesha made it. After he rebuilt himself, another obstacle put his life on hold. He was diagnosed with IBD. But today? Today, it feels like a battle he can win.
Mesha's gut story
From a burst appendix resulting in a medically induced coma, to an inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis (IBD) and having a stoma bag fitted, Mesha's story is full of unexpected twists and turns. Entrepreneur, campaigner and content creator, Mesha Moinirad, sits down to share his gut story with The Gut Diaries host Susannah Constantine.
In this episode Mesha speaks candidly about his traumatic health experiences. How he went from being a fit and healthy university student with his whole future ahead of him, to having to start his life again, building both his physical and mental health back up.
While recovering from appendix surgery a wave of other symptoms started. After months of testing, Mesha was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a diagnosis which gave him a sense of relief at knowing what was behind the symptoms and a real fight to survive.
Having lived with IBD for 4 years with treatment, Mesha felt like he was existing but not living and made the decision to have a stoma bag fitted. Since then, he has been working on small steps to take back control of his life. Finding his love for exercise again, supplementing and knowing how to advocate for himself.
Today, Mesha is the proud business owner of Mr.Cc stoma support belt that he designed himself, a personal trainer and rehabilitation coach and campaigner, encouraging others, especially men, to talk about living with chronic conditions.
Thank you, Mesha, for sharing your gut story so openly with us.
Over to Dr Chris George to find out more about IBD
“The exact cause of IBD is unknown but we tend to think there’s lots of factors involved. There’s definitely an immune response that we’re looking into in response to IBD."
So, what’s happening with the immune system?
"What usually happens with our immune system is when we come into contact with an infection, our body produces an immune response. That’s upregulated to fight infection, and then once we clear the infection the body’s immune system down regulates again and goes back to normal.
When someone has a condition like ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease, that immune system is overreactive and continues even though there's no infection and that damages the lining of the gut.”
Tell us more about the gut microbiome in this case?
“What we see in patients with ulcerative colitis is the microbiome tends to be significantly different to someone who doesn't have it. The main thing being that the diversity and richness is less in patients with ulcerative colitis and the number of bad organisms that live there increase in people living with ulcerative colitis.”
Thank you, Dr Chris.
If you have any concerns about the issues discussed here, please contact your GP for further advice and support.
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