Your digestive tract is the path that food takes through your body after you eat it. Food goes from your mouth (eating) to your anus (passing stool). Your intestine is the long tube in your digestive system that connects your stomach to your anus. It digests food and absorbs nutrients.
You have a small intestine and a large intestine. The small intestine, or small bowel, is very long with many coils. The large intestine, also called the colon or large bowel, is shorter and wider.
What is Crohn disease?
Crohn disease is long-term inflammation in your intestines. Crohn disease is one of the two diseases called inflammatory bowel disease. The other inflammatory bowel disease is ulcerative colitis.
Crohn disease usually affects the small intestine. But it can affect the large intestine or both the small and large intestines.
Crohn disease is an inflammatory bowel disease
The cause isn't known, but it may be due to a problem with your immune system
Symptoms come and go and can include diarrhea, crampy pain in your belly, fever, not feeling hungry, and weight loss
Doctors use colonoscopy and imaging tests to diagnose Crohn disease
There's no cure for Crohn disease, but treatment with medicines and sometimes surgery can decrease the symptoms
What causes Crohn disease?
Doctors don't know what causes Crohn disease. It may be a problem with your immune system that causes your intestine to overreact and become inflamed.
The risk of Crohn disease is increased if you:
Have people in your family with the disease
Are Jewish and your family comes from Eastern Europe
Smoke
Are a woman and take birth control pills
What are the symptoms of Crohn disease?
Symptoms come and go. Usually symptoms are severe for a few days or weeks and then go away or at least get better for a while. For most people, symptoms continue to flare up on and off throughout their life.
The most common symptoms in adults include:
Diarrhea, which is sometimes bloody
Crampy belly pain
Fever
No appetite
Weight loss
If a flare up is severe, you may have:
Severe, constant belly pain from a pocket of pus (abscess) around your intestines
Heavy vomiting from a blockage in your intestines
If you have Crohn disease for a long time, you can have:
Skin rash
Joint pain and swelling
Red eyes
Liver and gallbladder problems
Sores on your anus, and sometimes anal fissures
Increased risk of cancer in your intestine
Children can have belly pain, diarrhea, and fever, but they can also have:
Slow growth
Swollen joints
Fatigue (feeling weak and tired all over)
How can doctors tell if I have Crohn disease?
Doctors do tests depending on your symptoms and how suddenly they come on:
Sudden, severe belly pain: CT (computed tomography) scan or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of your belly
Off and on belly pain for a while: Sometimes, x-rays or CT scan of your belly after you drink a liquid that shows up parts of the intestine, or swallowing a special capsule with a tiny camera that takes pictures as it passes through your digestive tract
Diarrhea: Looking in your colon with colonoscopy (a doctor threads a thin, lighted tube with a small camera through your anus to look at your intestines)
Doctors will also do blood tests. Blood tests can't diagnose Crohn disease but can tell if you have certain complications.
When Crohn disease affects only the large intestine, it is sometimes hard for doctors to tell the difference between Crohn disease of the colon and ulcerative colitis because many of the symptoms are the same.
How do doctors treat Crohn disease?
There's no cure for Crohn disease. Treatments can help reduce the inflammation and relieve symptoms.
Medicines may:
Help stop diarrhea and belly pain
Lessen inflammation in your intestine
Change the way your immune system works
Doctors may suggest special fluids that have extra nutrients in them, especially for children with slow growth.
Doctors will also ask you to:
Quit smoking because people who smoke are more likely to have their symptoms come back after treatment
Avoid nuts and raw fruits and vegetables when you have a flare-up
Try a dairy-free diet to see if it eases symptoms
Not take certain medicines that can cause a flare-up, such as painkillers called NSAIDs
Avoid stress
Most people with Crohn disease need surgery at some point. In this surgery, doctors remove part of your intestine. This helps with symptoms. Half of the people who have surgery need a second surgery later.
