Chrons Disease basics

Some Basic Chrons Disease facts: What it is and some of the main Chrons Disease Symptoms

Often when you are trying to research a medical condition like Crohn's Disease, you get bombarded with long words and medical terminology. In this article I will try and explain what chrons disease is in really basic terms. Hope it helps

So What is Chrons Disease?
Basicall Chrons disease is a medical condition that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract which is sometimes known as the gut.

So what is the gut then?
When medical people talk of the gut, they mean your oesophagus (where your food first goes down after swallowing it!), your stomach, and your small and large intestines.

People cant be affected by Chrons disease in any part of the gut, but it seems to occur more often in the lower part of your small intestine, this part of your intestine is known as the ileum.

How do I know if I have Chrons Disease and what are the basic Chrons Disease symptoms?
The most common symptoms of chrons disease include, pain, which is often in your lower abdomen or stomach, ulcers and diarrhoea.

What can be done to help with the Chrons Disease Symptoms?
If you are diagnosed with Crohn's disease, you may be given medication that you will take daily that can help relieve your symptoms. Sometimes the medication will not work and you may have to have surgery to remove part of your gut, that has been affected with chrons disease.

So how common is Chrons Disease?
Chrons Disease is probably more common than you may have thought, about 1 person in 1,500 people have Chrons disease.

Chrons Disease can start at any age, but most often first shows up between the ages of 15 and 40. The disease also seems to affect slightly more women than men.

What is the Prognosis of Chrons Disease?
If you have Chrons disease, what is your outlook? This can be difficult to answer as it will depend largely what part of your gut has the disease and how bad a case of chrons disease you have. But if we work on an average case of Chrons, most people will experience some symptoms from time to time - this is called a flare up.

Most people who have chrons disease (about 80 %) will eventually have surgery at some time, probably to remove the diseased part of your gut.

Only in very rare cases where there is a complication, will Chrons Disease be life-threatening.