When the ailment is in advanced stages, the inflammation occasioned by Crohn’s Disease is usually severe. It runs far beneath the layers in the affected sections of the gut. The inflammation causes excruciating pain that leads to an inability to perform everyday activities, and if left untreated for too long, IBD can become a life-threatening condition.
Among the significant complications that may occur due to Crohn’s include bowel obstruction due to scarring. Open wounds develop in the gut, anal areas, and around the genitals. IBD may eventually cause a patient to develop fistulas, which causes the gut’s contents to spill in areas where they shouldn’t. These fistulas are open sores, and they are at a very high risk of infection due to their regular contact with bacteria. If they get infected, they form abscesses, which can lead to the patient’s death.
Having Crohn’s Disease increases a patient’s vulnerability to colon cancer. It also makes it difficult for a person to eat, and even when they eat, the sick sections of the gut are unable to play their role in absorption. All these factors work together to cause malnutrition in the patient. Cases of anemia are common in IBD patients due to increased digestive systems’ inability to absorb iron and vitamin B-12.
While all the scary situations described above are possible, many people with IBD live productive lives every day. The condition only needs to be managed effectively.
One of the reasons ulcerative colitis is such a menace is that its cause is unknown. Conventional medical wisdom previously held that some types of food or stress cause Crohn’s Disease, but recent research has discounted this position. The recent discoveries agree that the two factors can aggravate the condition, but they aren’t the original cause. At the moment, scientists believe that the disease has some autoimmune and genetic attributes.
Many researchers believe that Crohn’s Disease appears when your body is trying to fight off a bacterium or a virus. The immune system then proceeds to attack the gut, which is an abnormal reaction. It is also believed that some people come from gene pools that make them more susceptible to the condition. The genetic angle means that if there are people in your family who have suffered from IBD, you are at a higher risk of contracting it.
It is also noteworthy that most people usually get Crohn’s when they are around 30 years of age. This doesn’t mean that people of other ages can’t get it. This doesn’t mean that people of other ages can’t get it; it only means that people over thirty are less likely to get it even when their family has a history of the disease.
