Crohns Disease

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which can affect any tissue along the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the rectum. However, it is more common to find it occurring in the last section of the small intestines called the ileum.

Characteristics of Crohn’s disease include the thickening of the intestinal walls which would ultimately cause a narrowing of the intestinal channel.
Another characteristic of Crohn’s disease is that the inflammation may not be continuous. In other words, there is a skip pattern resulting in certain sections of the intestinal walls of the ileum unaffected.

Unlike other inflammatory bowel disease such as Ulcerative colitis all the layers of the intestinal walls are affected rather than just the inner lining. In some instances, adjacent organs may also be affected through the formation of fistulas.

Causes of Crohn’s disease
Like most gastrointestinal diseases, there is no conclusive evidence to determine what causes Crohn’s disease. Just like Diverticulitis, a diverticular disease, there is some indication that the disease could be very much diet related. In countries where there is significantly less consumption of processed food, there seem to be very much less incidences of Crohn’s disease.
However, in America, where consumption of processed food is the norm, the incidence of Crohn’s disease is ever increasing.

Some studies have indicated that Crohn’s disease may be the result of the following factors:
1. Low fiber diets
2. Fast foods
3. Cigarette smoking
4. High consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates
5. High consumption of animal protein
6. Low consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids normally found in fish oil
7. Over consumption of antibiotics
8. Over consumption of wheat and dairy products leading to food allergy.

Crohn’s disease is also considered to be an autoimmune disease.
What it means is that the body’s immune system overreacts and attacks its own cells and tissues as though these cells are foreign agents such as bacteria and viruses. It is highly likely that a person suffering from leaky gut syndrome could very well develop Crohn’s disease as well.

Leaky gut syndrome is the name given to the condition where the small intestines become so porous that it allows undigested food to pass into the bloodstream.
Food allergies then develops as the body considers these undigested food particles as foreign agents.

Crohn’s disease symptoms
Crohn’s disease is characterised by inflammatory lesions throughout the entire thickness of the intestinal walls of those affected sections.
As a result, the following are the common symptoms of Crohn’s disease:
1. Abnormal weight loss
2. Abdominal plain on the right side
3. Diarrhea with or without bloody stools and mucus
4. Nausea with vomiting
5. Loss of appetite
6. Flatulence
7. Fever