Tell
Me The Common Symptoms Of Crohn’s Disease.
Abdominal pain, abdominal cramping, and in
some cases the bloody diarrhea are often the
most common initial symptoms seen in those
suffering from Crohn's disease.
This disease is a very serious and chronic
inflammatory bowel disease of the
gastrointestinal or G.I. tract.
Crohn’s disease is
known to affect more than one million people
in North America and Europe today.
Crohn's disease
typically has an onset prior to the age of
40.
It is typically seen as a disease of young
adults; however, it does attack people of
all ages.
Tragically there are no current medical or
surgical cures for Crohn's disease. In fact,
there are very few treatment options which
currently exist that adequately treat
patients suffering with this chronic
inflammatory bowel disease.
So if the most common symptoms of problems
are abdominal pain, cramping and diarrhea
what are some of the other common symptoms
of Crohn's disease?
Patients often
describe abdominal pain that usually invades
the area just below or even with the belly
button. It is often also described as pain
in the lower right quadrant of the belly.
These painful symptoms seem to most
frequently present after a meal.
Other symptoms of Crohn's disease may be
seen as weight loss, loss of appetite,
rectal bleeding, fever, bloody diarrhea,
fatigue, joint pain, fistulas, anal skin
tags, and even symptoms of malnutrition. The
fistulas are one of the complications
associated with the symptoms of Crohn's
disease.
A fistula develops when ulcers that have
developed in the G.I. tract begin to form
tunnels to surrounding tissues as a by-pass.
Some patients may also experience a bowel
obstruction related to the Crohn's disease.
Anemia is a common complication of Crohn's
disease due to the excessive rectal bleeding
and bloody diarrhea associated with the
disease. The severity of the symptoms of
Crohn's disease seems to vary widely from
person to person.
Since Crohn's disease currently has no cure,
it is expected that almost three fourths of
all patients suffering with Crohn's disease
will endure surgery related to their disease
at least once during their lifetime. The
tragedy of this statistic seems to also be
for those who undergo surgery to remove a
portion of their intestinal tract almost 50%
of those same patients will experience a
relapse within a five-year time period.
Because Crohn's disease can also mimic many
other gastrointestinal diseases it is
important to get an accurate and early
diagnosis. Any of these symptoms described
above warrants a visit to your health care
provider.
It is vitally important to get an early and
accurate diagnosis so that you can get an
aggressive treatment plan started sooner
rather than later. The common symptoms of
Crohn's disease are simply not something to
mess around with.
See Also:
What Is
Crohns Disease
