Crohn's Disease

What is Crohn’s disease?

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation in any part of your digestive tract. The disease most often affects the end of your small bowel and the beginning of your colon.

The inflammation of Crohn’s disease can affect the entire thickness of your bowel wall, although it can also leave patches of healthy tissue between the inflamed areas.

Ulcerative colitis, another type of IBD, is similar to Crohn’s disease but the inflammation only affects the large intestine.

The underlying causes of Crohn’s disease and other IBDs aren’t well understood. The condition can develop at any age, especially between 15-35, and stress and poor diet can aggravate symptoms.

What are the symptoms of Crohn’s disease?

The chronic inflammation of Crohn’s disease can cause a variety of symptoms that vary from person to person. These symptoms include:

• Constipation
• Rectal bleeding
• Persistent diarrhea
• Abdominal pain and cramping

You might also feel an urgent need to move your bowels or the sensation that you can never completely empty your bowels.

Without treatment, Crohn’s disease can cause complications like tears in the lining of your anus (fissures), a narrowing of your intestines (stricture), or a fistula, an abnormal channel that forms between your intestines and other organs.

Specialists in Gastroenterology offers on-site health evaluations and diagnostic testing like colonoscopy and capsule endoscopy to determine if you have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

How is Crohn’s disease treated?

The goals of treating Crohn’s disease are to manage your existing symptoms and prevent recurrent flare-ups.

While there’s no cure for Crohn’s disease, Specialists in Gastroenterology can customize a care plan to help you manage the condition. Your plan might include:

Nutrition counseling

Improving your diet and ensuring your body gets the nutrition it needs to function can help reduce the severity of your symptom and the frequency of your Crohn’s disease flare-ups.

Medications

Medications like steroids that suppress your body’s immune system can reduce chronic inflammation and ease symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Surgery

Even with dietary changes and medications, many people still require surgery at some point to remove damaged parts of the GI tract and reconnect the healthy portions.

You might be a candidate for surgery if medications are no longer effective at reducing inflammation or if you develop a fistula or an obstruction in your intestine or colon.

If you need help managing Crohn’s disease, you can find reliable, consistent care at Specialists in Gastroenterology. Call the office or schedule a consultation online today.