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The Nature Of Crohn's Disease

Crohn's Disease is a disorder that most commonly affects the colon or small intestine. Crohn's disease is chronic and causes inflammation of the digestive or gastrointestinal tract. Crohn's belongs to a category of illnesses known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One disease related to Crohn's is known as ulcerative colitis, and also belongs to IBD category of disease. The symptoms of both diseases are very similar and it is often difficult to accurately diagnose. Nearly one in ten of ulcerative colitis and misdiagnosed as indeterminate colitis. The strong, and to some what, identical symptoms of the two diseases both show signs or cause the response of the bodies immune system to be described as abnormal.

in our immune system we have cells and proteins to protect us. attacks often occur on intestinal bacteria or microbes thinking they are foreign and so begin attacking what is in fact cells that occur naturally in our bodies. This process inevitably causes ulcerations and bowel injury. This occurs because the white blood cells that move in to affected area produce chronic inflammation. These are the symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Crohn's disease can affect the gastrointestinal tract and is most commonly found at the beginning of the large intestine and the end of the small intestine. The other disease mentioned earlier, ulcerative colitis, is only seen to occur in the colon, and only affects the superficial layers of the colon. It usually begins at the anus and moves progressively towards the colon. In Crohn's disease, all layers of the bowel can be involved and the disease can affect different isolated areas within the bowel.

What the exact cause of IBD is still unknown. It seems to appear that the immune system once turned on, knows not how to turn it's self back off. Some studies suggest that foreign particles trigger the immune system defenses, but there is no conclusive evidence to back up this theory. You may be wondering just how safe are you from developing an IBD disorder. Again there is very little known about this but it can be caused by a complex interaction of factors. Some of the factors that may contribute to someone developing Crohn's disease are environmental factors, human genetics, possibly hereditary, and the immune system itself. Many scientists now believe that it is foreign bodies (virus or bacteria) that trigger a response of the immune system to fight, and then lead to the disease it's self when immune system is unable to stop.

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