Affecting about 0.8 million American people, Crohn’s disease is a disease which causes inflammation in the bowels. A patient of Crohn’s disease may experience severe diarrhea, abdominal pain or even weight loss. The location of inflammation may vary from person to person but revolves around digestive tract. Though underestimated by the people, Crohn’s disease has the capability to be very painful and debilitating. It may get life-threatening if not controlled at its earlier stages.

Crohn’s Diseases Causes

As of now, it is still unknown as to what causes Crohn’s disease. Not long ago, extreme stress and dietary choices were considered to be two main causes. However, recent researches have shown that these two factors may aggravate the condition but are not the exact causes. There are a number of factors that play a role in the development of Crohn’s disease such as heredity and malfunctioning immune system.

Crohn’s disease is more common in people who have first degree relatives with the same condition. This gives rise to the theory that genes may be playing a part in its development. Sometimes, the immune system may start to erroneously attack the health cells in the digestive tract. This gives rise to the development of Crohn’s disease.

There are several risk factors for this disease. Though there is no age limit for this, most of the diagnoses occur before the age of 30. One of the most important controllable risk factors for Crohn’s disease is smoking. Besides that, a lot of anti-inflammatory medications also cause bowel inflammation, thus making it easier for Crohn’s disease to develop. [i]

Crohn’s Disease Signs and Symptoms

In most of the cases of Crohn’s disease, small intestine is the only thing that is affected. However, for others, this condition may be restricted to the colon only. As far as the Crohn’s Disease symptoms are concerned, they start to show gradually. Only in rare cases do the symptoms show instantly, or do they disappear completely, for a time. However, diarrhea, fever and fatigue are three most common symptoms when the disease is active.

Some people complain about having an unexplained abdominal pain or sometimes having blood in the stools. Crohn’s disease also causes the patients to experience much reduced hunger and thus resulting in weight loss. Due to the inflammation, patients also experience severe pain near anus.

It is recommended to see a doctor when you experience anything like that. Keep a check on your bowel habits to be safe, and if you notice any unusual change, go see a doctor. Also, be on a lookout for a fever that lasts a day or longer and episodes of diarrhea. [ii]

Crohn’s disease Treatment

Only after ruling out the other possible signs and treatments could your doctor fully diagnose Crohn’s disease. No single test can diagnose Crohn’s disease as there are more than one tests required. Doctors may opt to use a combination of these tests to confirm Crohn’s disease diagnosis. These tests include anemia which is checked through blood sample. In some conditions, you may be required to present a stool sample so the doctor may check for presence of blood in it.

As far as the treatment of this disease is concerned, there is no single cure for it. Furthermore, no one treatment exists that works for everyone. Only thing that the treatment and medications can do is to reduce the inflammation level. This would decrease the symptoms to a certain level and in the best case scenario, it may lead to long-term remission.

Anti-inflammatory drugs

These are, in most cases, the first step or first choice of doctors in Crohn’s disease treatment.

  • Corticosteroids are greatly helpful in decreasing the inflammation in the body. However, these are not guaranteed to work on everyone. Doctors usually prescribe these when the patients is not responding to the other treatments.
  • Oral 5-aminosalicylates have sulfasalazine in them and have been proven to be of great use in the past. However, these are considered to be of little use nowadays. [iii]

Immune system suppressors

They have the same function: to decrease the inflammation but by targeting the immune system. This is because inflammation is caused by the immune system’s function to produce such substances. However, a combination of such drugs work better for more patients rather than just 1 drug alone. Infliximab, Natalizumab and Azathioprine are the most commonly used immunosuppressants. However, it is not recommended to start taking these on your own. Get in touch with your doctor to know about any possible side effects and whether they would suit you.

Antibiotics

These are very useful in diminishing the drainage. According to a few researchers, it is the antibiotics that reduce harmful intestinal bacteria. These are the bacteria that are known for causing inflammation by activating the intestinal immune system. Ciprofloxacin is the top choice of doctors.

Nutrition Therapy

The doctors may seem fit to inject the nutrients directly into the vein. Prior to that, a special diet may be decided by the doctors. However, this whole process is meant to fix the overall nutrition level of the body and let the bowel rest. Ultimately, this results in less inflammation in the body. [iv]

Doctors highly recommend limiting the dairy products and focus more on low-fat foods.

Surgery

If all the medications and diet control have failed, the doctors may opt to go for surgery, as a last resort. At least 50% of Crohn’s Disease usually require surgery once in their lifetime. What the surgeons do is remove a part of the infected digestive tract. They then reconnect the healthy sections. Though mostly successful, major benefits of the surgery are only temporary as the disease comes back. This is why, the doctors recommend surgery with medication as to minimize the risk of Crohn’s disease coming back.

[i] https://www.crohnsandcolitis.com/crohns/causes

[ii] https://www.healthline.com/health/crohns-disease/symptoms-trouble

[iii] https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/172940-treatment

[iv] https://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/crohns-disease/crohns-nutrition-therapy