Crohn’s dis­ease is a dis­or­der that causes chronic inflam­ma­tion of the gas­troin­testi­nal sys­tem, which includes the mouth, esoph­a­gus, stom­ach, small intes­tine, large intes­tine, and anus. Most com­monly it affects the ileum, which is the lower part of the small intes­tine, where it causes painful swelling of the intesti­nal lin­ing. Although many peo­ple expe­ri­ence peri­ods of remis­sion, the dis­ease has no cure. Treat­ment revolves around relief of Crohn’s dis­ease pain, relief of other symp­toms, and treat­ment of complications.

Crohn’s dis­ease dif­fers from another IBD, ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis, in sev­eral ways.

• Inflam­ma­tion in Crohn’s dis­ease can be discontinuous.
• Crohn’s dis­ease affects all lay­ers of the intesti­nal wall; ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis affects only the intesti­nal lining.
• Crohn’s dis­ease usu­ally* affects the small intes­tine; ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis is usu­ally* lim­ited to the large intes­tine. *usu­ally, but not always

Crohn’s dis­ease is usu­ally diag­nosed in patients ages 15 to 35. Inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­eases appear to run in fam­i­lies, so hav­ing a rel­a­tive with Crohn’s dis­ease or ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis makes a per­son more likely to develop Crohn’s disease.

Symp­toms and Com­pli­ca­tions
Symp­toms of Crohn’s dis­ease vary from patient to patient, but may include:

• abdom­i­nal cramps
• severe abdom­i­nal pain
• diar­rhea
• fever
• dif­fi­culty eating
• weight loss
• fatigue
• mucus in bowel movements

Crohn’s dis­ease causes severe inflam­ma­tion of the intesti­nal tract, which can lead to ulcer­a­tion and scar­ring. Ulcer­a­tion and scar­ring can lead, in turn, to:

• bowel obstruc­tion: for­ma­tion of a block­age in the intes­tine. In Crohn’s dis­ease, an obstruc­tion can be caused by swelling of the intesti­nal walls and/or for­ma­tion of scar tis­sue in the intestines
• mal­nu­tri­tion: Crohn’s dis­ease severely impairs the intestines’ abil­ity to absorb nutrients.
• abcess for­ma­tion: for­ma­tion of a pocket of infec­tion on the intesti­nal wall.
• fis­tula for­ma­tion: for­ma­tion of ulcers that pen­e­trate the intesti­nal wall, cre­at­ing “tun­nels” between the intestines and other body tis­sues. Fis­tu­las give intesti­nal bac­te­ria access to other parts of the body, which can cause seri­ous infections.

Crohn’s Dis­ease Treat­ments
Treat­ment for Crohns dis­ease focuses on deal­ing with the symp­toms and com­pli­ca­tions caused by the dis­ease. Surgery is used to treat com­pli­ca­tions such as block­age, intesti­nal bleed­ing, per­fo­ra­tion, and abscesses. The affected por­tion of the intestines is removed. This can help deal with Crohn’s dis­ease symp­toms and com­pli­ca­tions, but does not cure the dis­ease. [Editor’s note: the owner of this site, Sheri R., had sev­eral surg­eries over 2/3 years in the early 1990’s. Now, many years later–2012, there is no evi­dence of active Crohn’s Disease.]

There are also a num­ber of drug treat­ments that tar­get the under­ly­ing inflam­ma­tion seen in Crohn’s disease:

• Anti-inflammatory med­ica­tions such as sulfasalazine
• Steroid med­ica­tions such as prednisone
• Inflix­imab (also known as Rem­i­cade): a drug that interfere’s with the body’s inflam­ma­tion response
• Immune Sys­tem Sup­pres­sors such as 6-mercaptopurine and aza­thio­prine. These drugs block the body’s immune response.

Other treat­ments focus on deal­ing with fluid loss and malnutrition:

• Anti-diarrheal med­ica­tions help to relieve diar­rhea and the asso­ci­ated abdom­i­nal pain
• Replace­ment flu­ids and elec­trolytes are given to patients suf­fer­ing dehy­dra­tion, which can be caused by diarrhea
• Nutri­tional sup­ple­ments help patients who can­not absorb enough nutri­tion from food and patients whose intestines need time to heal

Crohn’s Dis­ease: Diet and Nutri­tion
Because Crohns dis­ease can decrease appetite as well as inter­fere with the intestines’ abil­ity to absorb nutri­ents, Crohn’s dis­ease patients need to take spe­cial care to fol­low a nutri­tious diet. Many peo­ple with the dis­ease find that par­tic­u­lar foods such as milk and spicy foods seem to worsen their symp­toms. Oth­ers feel that restrict­ing sug­ars and car­bo­hy­drates have proven very help­ful for them. Please do your own research and make choices based upon your own expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge, along with your doctor’s advice.

Crohn’s Dis­ease: Addi­tional Infor­ma­tion
The fol­low­ing orga­ni­za­tions can pro­vide addi­tional infor­ma­tion on Crohn’s disease:

• National Diges­tive Dis­eases Infor­ma­tion Clear­ing­house (NDDIC) www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov
• Crohn’s and Col­i­tis Foun­da­tion of Amer­ica, www.ccfa.org
• Spe­cific Car­bo­hy­drate Diet site, http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

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