“Crohn’s Disease: Understanding Its Lifelong Impact and the Role of Treatment”

You may already be familiar with the constant fatigue, stomach aches, and diarrhea, all of which are inherent symptoms of living with a Crohn’s diagnosis. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Crohn’s is an autoimmune condition characterized by inflammation and injury to the GI tract.

Crohn’s disease may be a lifelong condition, but today, there is an abundance of effective treatments that can help bring relief to your symptoms and reduce your risk of experiencing more serious health complications. Here’s what an expert needs you to know about managing this chronic condition.

What is Crohn’s disease?

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease. It can lead to inflammation in any part or layer of your bowel; however, most often, it affects the end of your small bowel to the start of your colon, Mayo Clinic says.

According to Dr. Gil Melmed, MD, the director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Research at Cedars-Sinai, and associate director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai: Serious complications tend to come with untreated Crohn’s disease in the small bowel; it is much narrower than other areas of the GI tract.

The precise causes of Crohn’s disease are still somewhat unknown. Probably, it is likely an interplay between genetic and environmental factors, says Melmed. There is also an emerging literature that is exploring how the microbiome impacts susceptibility to IBD, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Issues.

• Missing doses of prescription medication intended for Crohn’s treatment
• Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Taking antibiotics
• An infection of the GI tract
• Smoking

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How does Crohn’s disease affect you?

Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis are the two most common forms of IBD, and they share many of the same symptoms. According to the CDC, common symptoms associated with IBD include diarrhea, stomach pain, extreme tiredness, nausea, and weight loss. Crohn’s disease also has some unique symptoms that are typically not characteristic of ulcerative colitis:

• Not typically bloody diarrhea
• Malnutrition
• Mouth sores

According to the CDC, people with Crohn’s disease are also at an increased risk for other health conditions, including ulcers or anal fissures. Cleveland Clinic adds that Crohn’s can increase your risk for developing anemia, blood clots, and colon cancer.

What happens if Crohn’s is left untreated?

One of the most severe complications of untreated Crohn’s is fistulas. This happens when an untreated ulcer perforates the bowel lining and creates an opening to another space in the body, Melmed explains. Fistulas also leave you exposed to developing an abscess, “which is an infection inside the abdomen that can make people get very sick,” Melmed says. The type of complication usually requires surgery.

Another complication of Crohn’s disease is potential bowel obstruction. Melmed reports that inflammation within the bowel turns into scar tissue in someone with Crohn’s disease. When the buildup of this scar tissue goes unchecked, the bowel walls become significantly thickened and narrowed, a process called an intestinal stricture, according to the CDC. Ultimately, if the bowel does become obstructed, a bowel obstruction will occur, and the only course of treatment may be emergency surgery, Melmed said.

Does Crohn’s disease ever go away?

There’s currently no cure for Crohn’s disease. And before, when there wasn’t such great medical therapy to manage the condition of Crohn’s, most patients were having to present with complications, and nearly all of those complications then required surgery to manage it,” Melmed says. “Luckily, “there’s been a number of new treatments that have evolved over just the last decade or so,” Melmed says. Now, “we’re seeing much lower rates of the need for surgery than we used to,” he says.

Everyone’s Crohn’s treatment will look a little different. There are a variety of prescription medications that can be used to help manage symptoms and reduce the likelihood of experiencing any serious complications.

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