After reading a study that did not support that reducing salicylates can improve Irritable Bowel Disease or Crohn's Disease (which is ok!), I became curious about the numbers provided, and where my daily amount fits into the story. The Sivagnanam study (link below) was a survey and feasibility study to see as patients decreased their dietary salicylates if respiratory or digestive symptoms improved. I became very curious because it seemed like the numbers were quite high still, and I wonder if a therapeutic dose is needed (or maximum) to improve symptoms.
In the study, the range varied for patients between 1mg and 120mg a week, with the average at 31.7mg (Ulcerative colitis) and 22.7mg (Crohn's Disease). After calculating my daily consumption, my weekly amount (using Swain to match their standard) would run less than 0.5mg/week. For perspective, a baby aspirin is 80mg. I know that bumping up higher than 2-3mg/week would bring my irritable bowel symptoms back. On studies like this, I would have loved to see if people actually tried a low-salicylate diet to see if symptoms improved - but surveys and active studies are quite different.
Here are the tools I used to do the calculations:
- Salicylate Calculator: https://low-sal-life.com/living-life/salicylate-calculator
- Food List: https://low-sal-life.com/food-product-lists
- Cronometer, calorie/nutrient tracker: https://cronometer.com - they have an app too.
Sivagnanam P, Koutsoumpas A, Forbes A. Respiratory symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and the impact of dietary salicylates. Dig Liver Dis. 2007;39(3):232–239. doi:10.1016/j.dld.2006.08.001. View abstract at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16979961.