Crohn's Disease Recipes and Information

The Harmony Cuisine Knowledge Base offers a wealth of information regarding your condition and the effects your condition can have, below is a sample of the data available to you once you become a member.

Definition

Crohn's Disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  It typically causes ulcerations to form in the small and/or large intestines but it can affect the digestive tract anywhere from the mouth to the anus.  It is related closely with ulcerative colitis, another inflammatory bowel disease, which only affects the colon (large intestine).

The condition was named after Dr Crohn, the physician who diagnosed the disease in 1932.  Some medical professionals also call Crohn's Disease: granulomatous enteritis or colitis, regional enteritis, ileitis, or terminal ileitis.

Crohn's Disease is characterised by relapsing episodes of chronic inflammation that can affect any part of the gut, involving the deeper layers of the gut lining. Sometimes this inflammation can cause serious damage to occur to the digestive tract.  Periods of disase activity (relapses or flare-ups) and often followed by intervening phases of remission that can be virtually symptom free¹.  Periods of relapse and remission are renowned for their unpredictability.  This is mainly because it is seldom that one Crohn's patient experiences the condition in exactly the same way as another Crohn's patient.  However, over time, patients identify triggers and solutions to facilitate a good quality of life.

Crohn's disease can be defined by its position in the gut.  For example, terminal ileal Crohn's is so called because the disease is active at the end of the small intestine called the ileus².  It can also be classified depending on the appearance of the disease e.g. inflammatory Crohn's, where inflammation is seen on the gut lining or stricturing Crohn's where narrowing in the gut is seen.  This may be because of scar tissue from previous Crohn's flare-ups, as observed by placing a camera in the gut (known as endoscopy).

Terminal ileal Crohn's disease is the most common site of Crohn's Disease, at the end (terminal) of the small intestine³.

Crohn's Disease inflammation usually starts in one or more areas of the mucosa that lines the inside of the intestines.

• Crohn's Disease may attack deeper tissues of the intestinal wall and spread to involve more areas of the bowel.
• Ulcers may form at the sites of the most intense inflammation.
• The ulcers may spread and become very large but are usually separated by areas of relatively healthy tissue with little or no inflammation.
• The mucosal lining of the intestines in Crohn's disease is often described as looking like a cobblestone street, with areas of ulceration separated by narrow areas of healthy tissue.

The exact causes of Crohn's Disease are unknown but there is discussion about genetic causes and body-cell defects⁴, as well as immune causes.  Problems are thought to exist in the normal immune function of the gut lining, leading to a faulty immune response that causes the inflammation in Crohn's Disease^1/3.

Crohn's Disease is a debilitating and embarrassing illness for many. However, with medical treatment and other measures, used to reduce the discomfort of relapses, most people learn to cope with the condition.  The majority of people with Crohn's Disease can live a normal life with appropriate support and can expect a normal life expectancy.

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Prevalence

As many as 1.4 million persons in the United States and 2.2 million persons in Europe suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases⁶.  The incidence of Crohn's disease in the UK is around 5-10 per 100 000 per year with a prevalence (number of cases at any one time) of 50-100 per 100 000.  The prevalence is likely to be an underestimate, because this implies an average disease duration (prevalence/incidence) of 10 years for a condition that is known to last for life⁷.

Crohn's disease is more prevalent in Western regions such as Europe and America than Eastern regions such as Asia and Australia².

Crohn's disease is on the increase and is growing in incidence in both developing and developed countries^5/7.  It is more common in 10-40 year olds (20% of patients develop Crohn's disease in childhood and adolescence), and the over 60 years population⁹.

More than 70-90% of Crohn's disease patients are operated on during their lifetime^8/10.

Next Steps...

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