Possible to live life with Crohn´s
Crohn’s disease or Morbus Crohn is an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can affect the entire Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, from the mouth till the end of the rectum. According to the Mayo clinic, it most often affects the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the colon. It causes swelling & irritation of the tissue, which can lead to for example ulcers & fistulas, which in turn create severe pain, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, malnutrition, weight loss & more.
The main area Crohn’s affects the body is the GI tract, but it can also affect areas, such as the eyes, joints & skin.
The reason why you get Crohn’s hasn’t yet been firmly established, but it is thought to be a collaboration between genetics & an overactive immune system, environmental factors i.e. what we eat, smoking, how much antibiotics we’ve used & pollution, as well as & disturbances in the gut microbiome.
According to verywellhealth, 1,06% of the US population have Crohn’s. It is most commonly diagnosed in the white population of Western countries, but can affect anyone regardless of ethnicity. The more industrialized a country becomes, the more occurrences of Crohn’s in the population.
According to verywellhealth, men & women seem to be affected by Crohn as often. It can happen at any age, but onset is usually between the ages 15 and 35.
What Are The Symptoms Of Crohn’s?
Regular symptoms of Crohn’s:
- Stomach pain & Cramping
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Unintentional weight loss
- Reduced appetite
- Fatigue
- Mouth sores
- Blood & mucus in the stool
- Anal pain
- Urgency
Other symptoms of Crohn’s:
- Inflammation of the skin, eyes & joints
- Inflammation in the liver or bile ducts
- Kidney stones
- Iron & nutrient deficiencies
- Irregular sleep
- Children might fail to grow properly
How Do You Treat Crohn’s?
Living with Crohns can be very debilitating & complications can become life threatening. There’s no cure for Crohn’s, but today there are many different types of medicines that can help keep the symptoms at bay.
Medical Treatment– Different types of corticosteroids & immunosuppressants are used to treat the symptoms, & vitamin supplements to treat malnutrition. What medicine you get depends on different factors, for example where the inflammation is most active & how severe it is.
Surgery – In some cases medicine isn’t enough & a part of the intestines has to be removed. Sometimes this also leads to a form of ostomy/stoma, where a part of the intestines is redirected into a bag on the stomach. Only 10% of ostomies are permanent, most are only put in temporarily to alleviate the symptoms.
Food – can have a major impact on how you feel, even though it can’t set off a flare. Depending on if you’re in a flare or in remission you might be able to eat different things. What works for one person might not work for another. It’s a question of trial and error, especially in the beginning.
Things that can aggravate the symptoms can be:
- Gluten
- Fructans
- Night shades like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant
- Alliums such as garlic, onion, leek etc
- Red meat can be hard to digest
- Dairy, especially from cow’s milk, goat, sheep and buffalo cheese might work because the levels of lactose and milk protein are different
- Alcohol
- Sodas
- Chewing Gum, this can be due to the fact that when you put something in your mouth the stomach starts producing stomach acid to digest the food, but nothing is coming except air, so there’s an excess of acid & air. Most chewing gums also have artificial sweeteners which have a diuretic effect, ie makes the stomach work harder.
Sugar & artificial sweeteners - Grease such as butter and oils
So what do you do when you can’t eat everything?
Often your body tells you what is safe foods for you and what aren’t. Just be mindful of the effects you feel from certain foods, which can be hard when you’re mid-flare. .
Becoming best friends with your blender or food processor is a good thing. Soups and smoothies are often easier to digest. Depending on how much liquid you use when blending, you get more or less fibres left.
Choose your cooking method. Boiled or oven baked vegetables are a lot easier to digest than fried or deep fried. When you fry the vegetables you use more fat, the burnt/crisp surface & the fact that you might not cook them all the way through makes them harder to digest. Steamed vegetables are very healthy & you keep more nutrients than if you boil them for longer, but it also means they are less cooked, which can be hard to digest.
Stress can be a factor in aggravating a flare, i.e. a bad period. Therefore, working with things like stress management, sleep hygiene, pacing, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, taichi, qigong & breathing exercises can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which can help keep your pain level down while in a flare.
Different types of therapy like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) can also help you manage pain & stress.
Everyone’s experience of Crohn’s is different, so all you can do is try & see what works for you.
Sources:
- mayoclinic.com
- verywellhealth.com
- magtarm.se
- britannica.com
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