If you are interested in using vitamin A or E supplements, check with your doctor first to see whether they are a good idea for you, or if simply eating a well-balanced, plant-based diet is enough for you to get adequate levels of these in your body.

Six years ago, I had not heard of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. I lived in a world where I was blissfully unaware of inflammatory bowel diseases, where the debilitating symptoms didn't impact my life. Then I met my now-husband Dan, and everything changed.

We have long known that bacteria living on and in our bodies outnumber our cells -- which themselves sum up to a number that exceeds any hope of real understanding -- by 20 to one. We are a rounding error in our own skin.