The main symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease is diarrhea. This is often associated with
blood, pus and mucus. Patients can get cramping and abdominal pain. This is around the time
they open their bowels. They can feel generally tired and unwell. This could be due to the
disease being active possibly as side effects of the medication or just simply waking up
in the middle of the night on a regular basis to go to the toilet. They may lose the appetite
and have weight loss. This could be because they’re not eating enough or not absorbing
enough nutrients from their food because the inflammation in the bowel. They can just feel
generally unwell and feel feverish. They may develop anemia, especially if they are going to
the toilet and having lots of bleeding. Occasionally, some patients may have painful, tiny ulcers
in their mouth called aphthous ulcers. Inflammatory bowel disease can also affect
other parts of their bodies. It can cause arthritis especially in joints in their arms,
legs, and back. It can cause rashes called erythema nodosum and pyoderma gangrenosum.
It can also affect your eyes, a very common condition where episcleritis can occur which
is when the outer lining of the eye becomes inflamed, red, and painful.
There are certain recognised risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease. Living in
a Western society is a risk factor. This could be due to lifestyle choices such as diet,
possibly environmental pollution. However, recently, there has been an increase in incidences
of inflammatory bowel disease especially in Asia, again possibly related to lifestyle changes
such as diet. Being young is a risk factor. However, there
is also increase incidence of inflammatory bowel disease towards later stages of life.
People don’t know exactly why this is. Having a family history of inflammatory bowel disease
significantly increase the risk of you developing the condition. Smoking affects ulcerative
colitis and Crohn’s disease differently. It is a significant risk factor of Crohn’s
disease and makes the symptoms much worse. However, it is very protective for ulcerative
colitis and ex-smokers are more likely to develop the condition.
Certain gut infections are told to trigger inflammatory bowel disease such as campylobacter,
salmonella, and E. coli. It is thought that having the appendix taken out is protective
against developing ulcerative colitis. It is thought due to a change in the immune system
but people don’t know exactly why this happened. There are a range of drugs that I use to treat
inflammatory bowel disease. Initially, the treatment is given to heal the inflammation
and to bring about remission so that the patient feels better. Following this, the doctor will
keep their treatment goings so that you won’t get any more flare ups and the disease is
under control. This is called maintenance treatment.
Obviously, lifestyle choices will also help as well such as drinking a lot of fluids especially
if you have lots of fecal loss, avoiding trigger foods, and stressful situations. If you have
nutritional deficiencies, then you may need some supplementations such as vitamin D, iron
supplementation if you’re anaemic. This is the main stay of medical treatment. Occasionally,
when patients have really bad disease such as the developed stricture in Crohn’s disease,
then they may need surgery. The genetic causes of inflammatory bowel disease
can be prevented. However, by making lifestyle choices, you can release the risk of developing
inflammatory bowel disease and also release the chance of relapse. This can be done by
eating healthily, exercising regularly, and if you’ve got Crohn’s disease, then by
stopping smoking. There is no strict individualised plan that
patients must follow. There are basic principles that will help improve symptoms especially
during a flare such as having smaller meals, having them more frequently, eating in a nice,
relaxed atmosphere, avoiding insoluble fiber such as bran, vegetable, fruit, et cetera.
Avoiding greasy foods and avoiding trigger foods. Obviously, this can vary between individual
to individual. It is also important to increase the amount of food intake especially water.
Try to avoid drinks that contain caffeine because caffeine is a stimulant and it can
rev up the bowel and make the diarrhea worse.