Nestlé Health Science develops “paradigm change” diet-based platform for Crohn’s disease patients

26 Jul 2019 --- The results of a “breakthrough” study in the diet-based treatment of Crohn’s disease are lending support to Nestlé Health Science’s new mobile app for patients, ModuLife, which is incorporating this knowledge in its therapeutic practice. Researchers found that combining the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED) – the only whole-food based dietary approach to the disease – with a powdered protein that is often used as the sole nutrition source during the active phase of the disease, Modulen, led to 80 percent of patients reaching remission.

“This is a breakthrough,” says Professor Arie Levine, the leading Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Wolfson Medical Center in Israel, who designed the CDED and researched it in partnership with Nestlé Health Science. “The disruptive clinical data changes our view regarding the future treatment of Crohn’s disease. This highly effective treatment has no side effects and will be accessible to all healthcare professionals.”

There is no current cure for Crohn’s disease, and most patients are typically reliant on anti-inflammatory drugs and surgical interventions to manage symptoms. These treatments can be expensive, both for the patient and health care providers coping with disease incidence on the rise.A page from the ModuLife app, which hopes to offer significant lifestyle changes to those with Crohn's disease.

The trial demonstrated that 80 percent of patients on the combined therapy approach achieved remission from Crohn’s disease at week six, versus 73.5 percent of patients taking exclusively enteral nutrition; at week 12, the results were 70 percent and 42.5 percent, respectively.  

This new data further demonstrates the benefits of the CDED therapy on remission rates, gut microbiota and tolerance, the researchers note. Efficacies of this dietary approach is paralleled to the exclusive enteral nutrition treatment option, a proven dietary intervention and standard treatment for Crohn’s disease.

“The study was the first of its kind, and therefore required a different way of thinking about how to help people with Crohn’s disease – how to increase rates of remission while allowing them to enjoy whole foods,” Jacquelyn Campo, Senior Director of Communications, Neslté Health Science, tells NutritionInsight.

She further explains that the company has plans for innovation in a wide-range of consumer health areas, spanning from pediatrics, aging (healthy aging, dysphagia), cancer, metabolic disorders, gastro-intestinal (Crohn’s, IBD), milk protein allergies for small children and more.

ModuLife: A platform with lifestyle benefits
The ModuLife platform offers “significant lifestyle changes” to Crohn’s patients, namely that they can follow a diet and prepare all their own meals. Patients will also receive support for this from their healthcare team (doctor and dietitian) and the ModuLife App. The app helps the patient to stick to the plan through individual and group support and provides a wide range of recipes for variety, Campo explains.

ModuLife also reduces the dependency patients have on surgical interventions and drugs, by offering a treatment solution that can be used prior to or in addition to medical treatments. This can result in reduced financial strain on health care systems and patients.

The new platform wants patients to benefit from the essential nutrients of Modulen IBD, a partial enteral nutrition formula developed by Nestlé, while also enjoying whole foods. Because ModuLife is physician-supervised, patients and their healthcare providers can easily collaborate to ensure that patients receive ongoing support and maintain habits that prolong the remission of the disease.

ModuLife is a “paradigm change” for patients, says Greg Behar, CEO of Nestlé Health Science.The CDED is a novel dietary therapy that uniquely combines a whole food diet with partial enteral nutrition.

What is CDED?
The new platform combines CDED with Modulen IBD. The CDED is a novel dietary therapy that uniquely combines a whole food diet with partial enteral nutrition (in the randomized trial Modulen IBD was used). The treatment is designed to reduce the exposure to dietary components hypothesized to negatively affect the microbiome, intestinal barrier and innate immunity. This therefore helps reduce the components assumed to increase the risk of developing Crohn’s disease and increasing its severity. 

The CDEC is touted for providing these benefits without sacrificing the possibility of enjoying whole foods, which makes it highly acceptable for patients. Furthermore, the CDED is based on three distinct phases, which help expand the choices of “allowed” foods as the diet progresses through time, with the proportion of Modulen IBD reduced after stage 1 from 50 percent to just 25 percent of total energy, the researchers describe.

The new platform marks the second recent rollout from Nestlé Health Science and Nestlé in targeting consumer health ranging from pregnant women to diabetics. In June, the company began piloting OptiJourney, a weight management program for Type 2 diabetics and prediabetics, in six English Tesco stores. OptiJourney is based on a DiRECT study which found that a quarter of participants on a similarly low-calorie diet maintained a weight loss of over 10kg and a third of participants achieved remission from Type 2 diabetes after two years.

Also in June, Nestlé launched a probiotic solution for lactating mothers, to help them reduce the risk of breast pain and mastitis – a painful inflammatory condition of the breast – during breastfeeding. MATERNA Opti-Lac is a food supplement that contains a patented probiotic strain L. fermentum LC40, naturally found in breastmilk of healthy mums to support breast health. 

By Laxmi Haigh