Living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be a challenge, not only for those of you who have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, but also for those of you who have a family member or close friend afflicted with one of these disorders. Meeting this challenge requires the help of knowledgeable health-care professionals. Knowing what impact Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis may have on your life and what management strategies are available is also very important. A well-informed patient will have the best chance for recovery and remaining healthy.

However, the amount of information you can find when trying to learn about inflammatory bowel disease can be overwhelming. There are so many possible sources of information — doctors, nurses, books, pamphlets, websites, patient associations, Internet chat rooms, friends, and relatives. Often this information is confusing and contradictory. The quality of the information varies greatly from source to source. This information overload can leave you confused and frustrated, thus making it even more difficult to deal with these chronic diseases.

We have written this book in order to provide patients, families, friends, and health-care professionals with a clear, current, and concise account of the possible underlying causes, clinical features, and effective treatments of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Rather than simply presenting a list of facts about the disorders, we have given them an applied clinical context based on our years of experience with many hundreds of patients who have been evaluated, followed, and treated at the Mount Sinai Hospital IBD Centre. We have also tried to make this information directly relevant to IBD sufferers and their families by recounting case histories and answering the questions patients frequently ask. We hope to provide another means for dealing with these diseases, which we are only now really beginning to understand.

CHAPTER 1

What Is This Disease?

CASE STUDY Kelly

Kelly, a 22-year-old university student, developed symptoms of abdominal cramping, urgency to move her bowels, diarrhea, and blood in the stool. The symptoms came on gradually and were at first intermittent. They began during the month before her first-term exams, and, although they seemed to improve after she finished the exams, the symptoms continued into the second term. She went to the university health clinic, where she was examined and referred to a specialist. The specialist carried out some tests and told Kelly that she had inflammatory bowel disease, specifically, ulcerative colitis.

Kelly was really upset — ulcerative colitis sounded like a serious disease. Besides, the doctor told her there is no cure, other than surgery. It wasn’t fair. “I’m young,” she protested, “and no one in my family has had this disease. I’ve always been very health conscious… I eat a healthy diet, including milk and dairy products. I’m physically active and I don’t smoke.” She couldn’t stop asking questions in her effort to understand why. “What is inflammatory bowel disease? Is colitis an infection? Can I take antibiotics to cure it? Did the stress of my exams cause it? What if I eat a different diet? Could the ibuprofen I take for headaches have an impact?”

Her doctor calmed her down and began answering Kelly’s questions…

(continued)

What Is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease is not a single disease or medical condition. The term describes, in a general way, any condition or disease that results in inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Strictly speaking, this definition would include infections of the intestine — for example, infection caused by salmonella bacteria. However, the term “inflammatory bowel disease” (IBD) is usually reserved for two similar disorders, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Specific causes for these disorders are not yet entirely known.

Inflammation Location

In Crohn’s disease, inflammation occurs most often in the lower part of the small intestine, called the ileum, and the large intestine, also known as the colon. Crohn’s disease can also affect the esophagus, stomach, and upper parts of the small intestine (duodenum and jejunum).

Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease probably dates back to the early 19th century, based on descriptions of cases of similar ailments in the medical literature of that era. In 1932, Drs. Crohn, Ginzburg, and Oppenheimer at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York first described the condition as a specific disease entity. The form of the disease they originally described focused on inflammation of the ileum, the last part of the small intestine. They called the condition regional ileitis, with “ileitis” indicating inflammation of the ileum. Several years after Dr. Crohn and colleagues described the condition, it was given СКАЧАТЬ

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