What Is Crohns Disease
If you enjoy this post, please share it using the buttons to your right >>, or email it to a friend, we'd really appreciate it! You can also get natural health articles delivered free by email or RSS - AND get a free mini-course on the Healing Art of Reflexology! What is Crohns Disease? Crohns is a multifaceted condition that affects your digestive tract from your mouth to your anus with inflammation and ulcers. Most commonly Crohns affects the lower small intestines and large intestines but it can affect other organ systems as well.
The symptoms of Crohns disease can come and go during your lifetime. The times they are gone are called remission and the times you have the symptoms is called relapse. There are many effective medications that affect and help the symptoms but at this time there is no cure. Interestingly there also is no known cause of the disease. When scientists are able to pinpoint the causative factors of a condition they usually are able to work toward better control or a cure but with Crohns there is no known cause or cure at this time.
Doctors do have several medication regimens that will help control the inflammation, pain and abdominal cramping.
When Crohns disease first appears there are usually shallow erosions in the intestinal walls. As the disease progresses the inflammatory response increases the size and depth of the erosions until they become ulcerations. Researchers believe that the cause is biological and not emotional. So people with specific types of personality are not more or less prone to this condition. There are several current theories about a causative factor such as low stomach acid, autoimmune or bacterial but there hasnt been conclusive evidence found that points to the cause of Crohns.
People with Crohns disease suffer from abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, weight loss, loss of appetite and possible obstruction, ulcerations and fistulas. People with the disease can also experience reddish tender skin nodules or inflammation of the joints (like arthritis), spine, eyes and liver.
The pain and swelling in the intestines can cause the intestines to empty frequently which can also cause cramping, pain and bleeding around the anus. Doctors will use barium enemas and x-ray of the small bowel as well as a colonoscopy to diagnose the problems with Crohns disease.
Once its diagnosed doctors will advice people to learn the foods that irritate their intestines and then to stay away from them. You may want to try an elimination diet where you eliminate most foods from your diet and then gradually reintroduce one food at a time to see what causes issues. Doctors will also prescribe medications to suppress the inflammation or the immune system such as steroid, antibiotics or surgery.
Crohns disease will affect men and women equally. It appears to affect the Jewish population more and the Black Americans less than any other ethnic groups. The condition is often diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 30 but children can be affected as well as older adults.
The answer to what is Crohns disease is complex and varied. Although the symptoms are straight forward the reasons that people suffer from these symptoms isnt. Doctors continue to struggle to find a cure for this disease or ways to better manage the symptoms they experience.
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