Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a condition characterized by chronic inflammation in parts of the GI tract. IBD patients experience pain in their stomach and other discomforts depending on their IBD type. The two types are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which can cause permanent damage to the GI tract. If you have this condition, it’s essential to know what IBD is and how to manage it.
IBD can be defined as a group of disorders that cause chronic inflammation in the intestines. Inflammation includes swelling and pain, but it may not be easy to detect without medical training. The tissues in the digestive tract develop ulcers and cause discomfort and other symptoms.
There are two major types of inflammatory bowel disease. The first is Crohn’s disease, and the second is ulcerative colitis or UC. There are subtypes of each variety as well. IBD types differ in affected areas, damaged areas, and inflammation.
The first difference between Crohn’s disease and UC is what part of the GI tract is affected. Crohn’s disease primarily affects the intestinal walls, especially the lower part of the small intestine to the large intestine. On the other hand, UC affects the mucosal layers of the large intestine (colon), and the rectum.
Secondly, Crohn’s disease damages the affected areas in patches. Thus, swelling may appear next to healthy tissue. This makes treatment, especially surgery, for this condition radically different from that for UC. The damaged area in UC is a continuous spread of inflammation from the rectum to the colon.
The extent of inflammation also differs significantly. Inflammation in Crohn’s reaches throughout the gastrointestinal tract. UC inflammation only occurs in the inner layer of the colon lining.
Both types of IBD show some similar symptoms, and each has some distinct signs. Symptoms common to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis include:
In addition, there are symptoms peculiar to each type of inflammatory bowel disease. For example, Crohn’s disease is often characterized by malnutrition due to damage to the small intestine. This makes those suffering from the condition become anemic.
Meanwhile, ulcerative colitis causes more frequent abdominal pain associated with bowel movements.
There are no known causes of IBD. However, studies have shown that some factors contribute to the occurrence of IBD but do not cause it directly. These factors include inappropriate immune response, genes, and environmental factors.
What researchers understand so far about inflammatory bowel disease is that the immune system plays a huge role. The condition often stems from an inappropriate immune system response. What happens is that the immune system confuses unharmful body tissue and bacteria with threats. It then attacks them, resulting in pain and swelling in the gastrointestinal tract.
Little are known about what causes IBD, but there seems to be a genetic component. People with this condition tend to have close family members with the same condition. However, there are not enough IBD patients with genetic influence to generalize this as a cause.
The type of IBD most common in people with genetic influence is ulcerative colitis. In addition, UC pathogenesis is often affected by mitochondrial impairment, and epithelial dysfunction is common in those people.
Recent studies show that environmental factors can cause inflammatory bowel disease. For example, exposure to toxins, changes in lifestyle, diet, hygiene, and access to antibiotics may contribute to getting IBD. The influence of environmental factors is more common in patients with Crohn’s disease.
Besides these causative factors, IBD is often aggravated by other factors like stress and shock. More attention is on stress because it influences other digestive conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Due to this reasoning, stress is often discussed as a likely cause of IBD.
Early studies suggest that lifestyle occurrences like stress and shock cause IBD. However, newer studies show that stress does not cause IBD as much as it aggravates the condition. Even with this, it is clear that stress plays a significant role in the occurrence of IBD. Knowing the impact of stress on this condition is vital because adrenal fatigue becomes a possibility. This condition is caused by chronic stress and can cause other symptoms as well.
You should visit a doctor if you experience several of the IBD symptoms listed above. A qualified medical practitioner can diagnose inflammatory bowel disease through a series of tests. They include:
Your health professional will give you a definite assessment after reviewing the results of these tests. After that, you can start considering the available care options.
One key reason you should get an evaluation early is to prevent complications. Leaving IBD unmanaged can lead to complications like:
Besides these general complications, Crohn’s disease may cause other complications like fistulas, anal fissures, malnutrition, and bowel obstruction.
Separately, ulcerative colitis may cause toxic megacolon and perforated colon. To prevent these complications, you should seek a remedy to IBD as early as you suspect it.
In addition, side effects from medications for IBD, such as corticosteroids, include high blood pressure and osteoporosis.
Inflammatory bowel disease is a lifelong condition, but it can be managed into remission. However, the chances of reoccurrence depend on some risk factors like your age, gender, and race. Medications work great for mild cases, but severe ones require surgery to reduce the symptoms.
A certified medical professional will recommend medications to relieve the symptoms of IBD and put it into remission. Eighty percent of IBD patients respond well to anti-inflammatory drugs like:
Severe cases of IBD sometimes require surgery to remove the damaged part of the GI tract. Surgeries for Crohn’s disease focus on removing the damaged patch of the intestine. The ends are then joined, and the patient can live a healthy life. Ulcerative colitis surgeries remove the entire damaged area of the intestine, usually the rectum and colon.
Sometimes, nutrition coaches are enlisted to help remedy inflammatory bowel disease. These professionals work with consultants to create specialized diets that can help reduce IBD symptoms. The diets are commonly low in fiber, carbohydrates, and fiber. Elimination of dairy, sugar, and gluten can also be beneficial.
Instead, they feature nutritious food items like vegetables, fruits, and fiber. Certain supplements could also be used with expert guidance for Crohn’s which include fish oil, vitamin B12, folic acid, and Boswelia. For ulcerative colitis, butyrate enemas, fish oil, probiotics, vitamin A, zinc, vitamin E, vitamin C, and boswellia also have been studied to be beneficial.
The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) recommends assessing the conditions that trigger the symptoms. These include stress, anxiety, and depression. For instance, if you are often stressed, your doctor may suggest trying stress-reducing techniques. You may also need to avoid certain foods that trigger symptoms.
Other therapy options are under study but are yet to be approved for use. One of these is fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for ulcerative colitis. The efforts include studies into lifestyle-based therapy, personalized for each patient.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease is sometimes confused with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. However, both are different and require different therapy approaches. IBD must be cared for by a qualified medical professional, while IBS can be managed without going to the hospital. IBS can also go away on its own after a while, but you must manage IBD to be relieved of its symptoms.
One of their few similarities is that both are affected by stress. When going through a lot of stress, you may develop Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS). AFS is when the adrenal glands become fatigued due to extreme stressors. AFS should not be left unmanaged, as it can affect your quality of life.
Natural medicine professionals often deal with AFS. One of the best ways to understand the wide-ranging symptoms of the condition is through the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. The NEM is your body’s natural way of responding to stress. The NEM stress response system has six circuits, composed of related organs and systems, of which the Inflammation circuit is the most related to IBD. Inflammatory bowel disease affects the gastrointestinal tract, which is part of the inflammatory circuit.
A health coach can guide you in using NEM nutritional therapy to address IBD.
Inflammatory bowel disease often starts similarly to other digestive conditions. It has two major types, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. The two differ in the part of the gastrointestinal tract they affect and how they damage the affected areas. Symptoms common in both types include abdominal pain, excessive diarrhea, and rectal bleeding, among others.
The causes of IBD are still largely unclear, but studies show a strong correlation with some factors. These include genes, inappropriate immune responses, and environmental factors like exposure to toxins. One contributing factor that has been under review for a while is stress. If you are exposed to extreme stressors, you can develop AFS. So the way out is to address the stress to avoid triggering additional symptoms of IBD.
You can get more information about managing stress and IBD with a free phone consultation at +1 (626) 571-1234, where we can discuss your symptoms privately. We will explain the options available, and you can choose the most suitable one.
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Inflammatory bowel disease starts with symptoms like excessive diarrhea, rectal bleeding, gas, and fatigue. After a while, the symptoms can get more serious, depending on the IBD type you have. When that happens, you may require surgery. However, there are ways to put IBD into remission.
