The University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine is looking for participants in a 16-week clinical trial to see if diet is a possible complementary treatment for Crohn's disease, a chronic, inflammatory bowel ailment that afflicts half a million Americans.

The pilot study, conducted by Dr. Amy Brown, is seeking 60 adult patients ages 18 to 75 who suffer mild to moderate Crohn's disease. The UH medical school received a $109,423 grant from the Broad Foundation to conduct the dietary research.

There is no cure for Crohn's disease, whose symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, malnutrition, loss of fat and muscle tissue, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight loss.

"The gastrointestinal tract is gravely affected by diet," said Brown, associate professor of medicine in the school's Complementary and Alternative Medicine Department. "Some Crohn's disease patients mention this to their healthcare providers, and yet no diet exists for these patients because this type of research is rarely conducted."

The diet to be used in the clinical trial was derived from extensive research of more than 1,000 medical articles investigating various dietary substances relating diet to Crohn's disease, Brown said. The findings have been combined into a balanced "Crohn's Disease Diet."

Volunteers will receive free dietary counseling and medical care during the study from Dr. Robert Jao, a co-investigator in the research who is a gastroenterologist and UH assistant professor of medicine.

Brown said she also needs the assistance of O'ahu gastroenterologists to recruit patients for the study. Doctors who assist could possibly become team members in the research, she said.

For more information, reach Brown at 692-0907 or amybrown@hawaii.edu. In a separate project, Jao is establishing Hawai'i's first registry of people with Crohn's disease, whether they plan to participate in the study or not. To learn more, call him at 263-4665.