About

IBD is a condition that affects over 10 million people.  There is even an annual day, called the World IBD day, which is held to bring people together and inform others on what this is.  This helps to get the public informed on what IBD is, and the debilitating nature of it.  

Here, we’ll go over what IBD is, and an overview of this condition. 

All About IBD

IBD is a disease that cause inflammation, irritation, and even swelling in parts of the digestive tract, including the esophagus, mouth, intestines, and even the stomach, which is responsible for breaking the nutrients down in order to absorb them, and then expel the waste. 

The two primary types are Chron’s disease, and ulcerative colitis, but there are other forms too. 

All about Crohn’s Disease

Chron’

S disease affects all parts of the tract, from the mouth all the way down to your anus. This can be sporadic in damage though, since it will reside right near healthy tissue. 

Usually however, this occurs near the small intestine or the colon mostly. This disease is affecting more and more people, and it involves pain and ulcers in the tract, fatigue, sores in the mouth and your gut, weight loss, fissures, bleeding in the anus, and a lot more. Many of these, however, depends on the location of where it happens. 

What is Ulcerative Colitis 

Ulcerative Colitis, or UC, is when inflammation happens in two locations: the colon, or the large intestine. 

Unlike Crohn’s though, the damage is not just sporadic, but occurs in a continuous area. 

There are different kinds, some are mild, some involve the entire colon, others involve the rectum and then the lower end of your colon, and then there’s some over the left side or the right side. These all do vary in severity, so the symptoms again, vary in a lot of cases. 

The most common typically is pain in your abdomen, and diarrhea which is bloody but also contains mucus. 

Inflammatory Bowel Disease and IBS 

IBD is sometimes confused with IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome. 

IBS is when you have symptoms that occur in your large intestine, where it moves too clow or too quick.  IBS is more functional than structural, so it’s about how things move, rather than the location of the disease itself. 

That’s why testing for IBS doesn’t necessarily show IBD as a cause.  IBD is more physical damage too, so when you’re looking at the diagnosis, they look at the way the nutrients move, rather than the damage to organs as well. 

Some also confuse IBD with celiac disease. However, they’re not the same. 

Celiac disease does have similar reactions, but that’s due to the digestion consumption of gluten in particular. 

Is there a Cause? 

Unfortunately, there is no specific cause for inflammatory bowel disease. 

At first, doctors thought this was due to diet and stress, and while this might aggravate IBD, this may not be the sole cause. 

Some also believe it might be an immune system reaction, where the abnormal immune response within your body causes your immune system to attack the digestive tract cells, causing this. 

Genetics might also play a part, where if you’ve got a family history of this, it’s more likely to happen. 

IBD also develops in people under 30, are white, smoke, or who use anti-inflammatory medications, since this can worsen the symptoms. 

The symptoms also come during different periods too. 

We hope that you learned a little bit about IBD, and how this may affect people.