Symptoms of Crohn's Disease

I know that some of the articles this week pointed out the general symptoms that persons with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis have such as abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and hematochezia. I wanted to know more of the details on the symptoms people with Crohn's disease possess and the severity of them.

People with Crohn's disease will have diarrhea but the kind of diarrhea they will experience depends on the location that is involved, whether it be in the small intestines or colon will cause them to have large-volume watery feces or small volume but of high frequency. Many people have more than 20 bowel movements a day. There is less visible bleeding in Crohn's disease than ulcerative colitis. They may also experience primary sclerosing cholangitis which is where the bile ducts are inflamed as well, and this can lead to liver failure. Other symptoms that may be involved in Crohn's disease are aphthous ulcers affecting the mouth and will cause difficulty in swallowing.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that can cause growth failure in children as well as retardation of growth. In addition, due to all the unpleasant symptoms many people experience weight loss because they either lose their appetite or do not eat. Also if their small intestine disease is severe, weight loss can be caused my malabsorption of lipids or carbohydrates.

This disease has been known to affect other organ systems such as the eye, joints, blood, endocrine system, and skin. People with Crohn's disease may experience inflammation of the eye that cause eye pain and if not treated loss of vision. Many people with Crohn's disease have inflammation of the joints and some have reported arthritis in the spine. The skin can develop skin lesions such as red nodules and pyoderma gangrenosum. There is an increased risk of obtaining blood clots as well as developing a condition where the immune system ends up attacking the red blood cells called autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Other potential symptoms are difficulty breathing, deformity of the ends of fingers, and osteoporosis.

Additionally, Crohn's disease has been reported to have an affect on the nervous system which some of the symptoms include: stroke, depression, headache, seizures, and myopathy. Furthermore, there is a large increase risk of getting cancer in the inflamed areas of the small intestines and/or colon.

After learning about all of the complications and symptoms someone with Crohn's disease has a tremendous risk of obtaining, I was amazed by all the different parts of the body that can be effected by one disease. The vast amount of different systemic and extraintestinal symptoms that Crohn's disease can cause a person to have is overwhelming. I do not feel that the articles this week went into as much depth in discussing the symptoms as they should have.

Sources:
http://www.ccfa.org/info/about/crohns
http://www.aolhealth.com/conditions/crohns-disease-major-1/symptoms