Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Ulcerative Colitis & Crohn’s disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are diseases that cause the inflammation of the large and and small intestines. The major types of IBD are Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
These are very serious and very debilitating diseases as I can attest.
IBD is a general term that covers two distinct disorders: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). However, some evidence suggests they are part of a biologic continuum.
Here are some details from the web:
What are the inflammatory bowel diseases?
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“Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation within the rectum (known as “proctitis”) and the colon (“colitis”). The inflammation irritates the inner lining of these areas of bowel, but it does not spread into the muscle layers deeper within the intestinal wall. Crohn’s disease, by contrast, can cause inflammation or complications anywhere from the mouth to the rectum, and
the inflammation can injure the full thickness of the intestinal wall. Arthritis means inflammation of joints. Inflammation is a body process that can result in pain, swelling, warmth, redness, and stiffness. Sometimes inflammation can also affect the bowel. When it does, that process is called inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disorder that causes an inflamed and swollen digestive tract or intestinal wall. When the digestive tract becomes inflamed or swollen with IBD, sores (ulcers) form and bleed. This in turn, can cause abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, blood in the stool, fatigue, reduced appetite, weight loss, or fever. The two most common forms of IBD are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). A healthy digestive system removes nutrients from food so they can be absorbed into the bloodstream. It then stores the unwanted waste until it passes out of the body. Food moves from the esophagus to the small intestine, where the nutrients are absorbed. The leftover water and waste move to the large intestine (colon), then through the rectum and out the anus.
Inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation that results in clinical symptoms such as diarrhea, bleeding, abdominal pain, fever, joint pain, and weight loss. These symptoms can range from mild to severe, and may gradually and subtly develop from an initial minor discomfort, or may present themselves suddenly with acute intensity. IBD is a prevalent cause of chronic illness in a large segment of the patient population. It can manifest itself in two different forms: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD). Although the two conditions can appear clinically very similar, UC primarily involves inflammation of the colon and rectum, as opposed to the upper GI tract. Crohn’s Disease, on the other hand, impacts a greater area of the upper intestinal digestive tract, and is thus more likely to trigger malabsorption, along with chronic vitamin and nutrient deficiencies.
The two primary types of inflammatory bowel disease are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These two diseases have many similarities and sometimes are difficult to distinguish from each other. However, there are several differences. For example, Crohn’s disease can affect almost any part of the digestive tract, whereas ulcerative colitis almost always affects only the large intestine. The cause of these diseases is not known. More recently recognized inflammatory bowel diseases include collagenous colitis, lymphocytic colitis, and diversion colitis.”
from: http://digestive-disorders.health-cares.net/inflammatory-bowel-diseases.php
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pm and is filed under IBD & Meds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
