IBD Stories: Christine Barron
by Christine Barron
The thing I like about track cycling is that there’s always a bathroom within 250m.
I started racing bikes at 14 - which was an unusual sport for a teenage girl. I’d ride at the LA velodrome after school for hours and race every weekend. By the time I was 17, I’d won a few national titles, and I was starting to compete internationally. I’d just spent a month racing in Australia when my IBD symptoms started. Though at the time, I assumed I’d picked up a stomach bug travelling. But my symptoms kept getting progressively worse.
Not only was I terrified by the symptoms, but also how my fitness was deteriorating. A few weeks earlier I was winning races, and now I was too fatigued to do anything but sit in bed. For weeks I didn’t tell anyone what was going on, since it was way too embarrassing to talk about. I eventually went to a doctor, and my fecal calprotectin was high. That was the first time I’d ever heard of IBD - and also when I learned Colitis runs in my family. They scheduled me for a colonoscopy, and I finally got a diagnosis: “Indeterminate Colitis”. I learned that IBD isn’t just UC or Crohns - it can present in a lot of different ways. This news was a shock, and my ambiguous diagnosis made it even more confusing and alienating.
Christine Barron
Over the next decade I grappled with the disease, which only partially responded to treatments. My performance in cycling continued to decline. I stopped training and racing altogether - still too embarrassed to tell my friends, coaches, or team why. But I took all the energy I had focused on cycling and poured it into taking care of myself and better understanding my condition.
In cycling, I’d seen that training hard was only one component of success - to be the best, it required treating your body as a system and focusing on marginal, continual progress. This idea came from Sir Dave Brailsford, the head of the British Cycling team: He theorized that if you break down all the factors that affect cycling performance and improve them by 1%, it adds up to substantial improvement. This led them to test for the best massage gel, travel with mattresses so athletes could have the best sleep, etc.
Christine proudly representing Ride4IBD
I applied this same mindset to having a chronic disease. The immunosuppressants weren’t working, but instead of giving up I focused on other factors like my autonomic nervous system and microbiome. I’ve been really fortunate to have doctors that are supportive of my integrative approach, and made sure I did this safely.
I took anti-inflammatory supplements with a good track record like Curcumin (turmeric), flavonoids, and vitamin D. I also took supplements like glutamine and zinc to fortify the intestinal barrier. The more I read about autonomic nervous system dysfunction, the more I prioritized meditation, sleep hygiene, and breathing exercises. I made dietary changes to help my microbiome, cutting out processed foods and refined sugar - and emphasizing probiotic foods. While none of these interventions are transformative on their own, all of them combined (plus medication) made a substantial difference in my quality of life. It takes a lot of trial-and-error to find what’s right for you, but I built up incredible marginal gains and am now symptom-free. This process has been empowering, and gave me a sense of control and hope.
One of the most critical evidence-based interventions has been routine daily exercise, and a decade after quitting I’ve started riding again. Another major factor in my quality of life has been community and support - If you’re interested in connecting or just want to talk to someone about having IBD - please reach out!
Christine is an IBD patient from Los Angeles CA. A former member of USA Cycling track team, IBD advocate, and currently working in tech.
Follow Christine on Instagram @chrisscheme