Most people are not bothering about controlling their urge to breaking some of the cheat diets given by the concerned dietician to follow. Visiting hospital is becoming a routine task; many people try to avoid it despite having a major health scare. This is because they are afraid of the rigorous procedure as instructed by their concern doctor.
Most of the patients are finding it easy to follow their appropriate medications through Medicine Tracker, an application that helps to set reminders to take their pills on time with the amount of dosage set in it. Doctors have easy access to log into the patient’s day to day log entries with charts and health reports. They can use this application with the help of an Android phone or iOS as well as signing up the website as per the requirement.
What is Crohn’s & Colitis?
Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) are autoimmune diseases in which the body’s immune system attacks the intestines, causing intestinal inflammation, bleeding, and abdominal pain. They are under inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) category.
The only difference between these two diseases is mainly where the inflammation occurs. In case of Crohn’s disease, it may affect any gastrointestinal tract part from the mouth to anus occurs mostly at the end of the small intestine whereas UC may affect the colon and rectum part of the large intestine.
Symptoms
The symptoms in both these diseases may vary differently depending on the severity of inflammation. Few symptoms are similar in both these diseases that include:
1. Diarrhea
2. Fatigue
3. Fever
4. Abdominal pain
5. Weight loss
6. Rectal bleeding
7. Delay in growth among children
Other symptoms that differ in these IBD diseases are:
| Crohn’s disease | Ulcerative Colitis (UC) |
| Sore mouth | Rectal pain |
| Fistula – Pain around the anus due to inflammation | Urgency to defecate |
Inflammation of eyes, skin, liver, bile ducts, etc. are few other symptoms of Crohn’s disease. In some cases, due to similar signs and symptoms, it may be challenging to know the exact condition.
Causes of the disease
As of now, the real cause of Crohn’s & Colitis disease is still unknown. Many researchers believe that both these diseases cause due to the diet and stress, but most of the doctors claim immune system and heredity as the factor similar in the case as the cause in both this disease.
1. Heredity
Both Crohn’s and Colitis are common among the people who have family members history with this disease. But in a few cases, most of the people with Crohn’s and Colitis disease do not have a family history.
2. Immune system
In both these diseases, another similar cause is malfunctioning of the immune system.
Diagnosis
Doctors may suggest conducting specific tests to confirm the diagnosis in both Crohn’s and Colitis diseases.
1. Blood tests to check if there is any case of anemia or other infections and stool sample test to rule out any other disorders regarding the symptoms.
2. Other tests like MRI, CT scan, Colonoscopy, endoscopy, etc. are done to know the exact condition of both diseases.
Risk factors
Some risk factors are common in both Crohn’s, and Colitis diseases include:
- Age
In the case of Crohn’s disease, it happens at any age. But most people are diagnosed with this disease around 30 years of age. But in the case of Colitis disease, it occurs at any age, but most people are diagnosed before 30 years or after 60 years of age.
2. Race
However, both this disease can affect any race or ethnicity of people. Most people who belong to Ashkenazi Jewish descent have the highest risk of having one of this disease.
3. Family history
If any of the close relatives such as a parent or sibling with any of this disease, there is a high chance that one of the family members has this disease.
Risk factors of Crohn’s disease
1. Cigar Smoking
It is one of the risk factors for developing Crohn’s disease. It gets a more severe illness and a high risk of undergoing surgery.
2. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications
These medications do not cause Crohn’s disease, but it increases inflammation of the bowel that makes this condition even worse.
3. Locality
In case if one lives in an urban area or an industrialized place, it is more likely to develop Crohn’s disease. Even environmental factors that include high diet in food, it plays a significant role in Crohn’s disease.
Treatment
Crohn’s disease
As of now, there is no cure for Crohn’s disease and no treatment that works in this condition. The main goal is to reduce the inflammation that triggers the symptoms of this condition.
1. Prescribing medications
Doctors prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs (Corticosteroids), antibiotics, immune system suppressors and other medications related to vitamin and mineral as well as iron supplements, etc. These medications help to control the symptoms before the condition worsens if untreated.
2. Nutrition therapy
Doctors suggest using nutrition therapy when other treatments are not valid in most cases. They may recommend following a special diet instructed by the concerned nutritionist, i.e., enteral nutrition (nutrients given via feeding tube) and parenteral nutrition (nutrients injected into a vein). It improves overall nutrition and reduces bowel inflammation.
3. Surgeries
Doctors may take operation as another option for treatment. Even though, surgery does not cure Crohn’s disease. The removal of the damaged portion of the digestive tract is the only solution conducted by the surgeon.
Colitis disease
The treatment given in this condition may be either prescribing medications or surgeries, just like Crohn’s disease, but the medicines provided are the same, and operation conducted are entirely different from the latter.
1. Eliminating Colitis through surgeries
In some cases, proctocolectomy (removal of entire colon and rectum in the large intestine) and a procedure ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (eliminating the need to wear a bag to collect stool) is done to prevent from further health complications.
2. Cancer surveillance
Routine screening for colon cancer, there is a high chance of having this due to the health condition.
Using the Medicine Tracker application, patients now have a schedule of their therapy, physical activity, medications reminder, etc. It helps the doctors to plan out their treatment methods if there is any room for improvement.
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