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

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

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

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IBD Stories: John Hardisky