What is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?
Inflammatory bowel disease or IBD is presently used to describe a group of chronic inflammatory conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract.
Form
There are two main forms of IBD, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease:
- Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammation of the intestinal wall which can affect any part of the digestive tract. In 80% of cases, however, especially the lower part of the ileum affected.
- Ulcerative colitis is a chronic condition in which the colon (colon) and rectum (rectum) becomes inflamed and ulcerated there (ulcers) may develop, leading to inflammation with bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever.
- Collagenous colitis
- Lymphocytic colitis
- Ischemic colitis
- Diversiecolitis
- Behcet's disease
About 35,000 people in the Netherlands have IBD. There is during last 25 years, a marked increase in the number of people to see with Crohn's disease, and to a lesser extent also of people with ulcerative colitis. Approved each year in the Netherlands with about 2,500 people a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Usually this involves Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Since the 50s of the last century the number of patients steadily.
IBD is generally observed for the first time at a younger age. Crohn's disease is seen slightly more women and ulcerative colitis are slightly more common in men. IBD is a chronic disease. This means that most people with IBD short or long periods continue to deal with complaints.
Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms and causes
The main symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease include diarrhea, weight loss, the feeling can not stop the stool and blood loss in the stool.
The severity and type of symptoms vary among patients, but can the quality of life seriously affect.
The causes of inflammatory bowel disease are largely unknown. There are clear indications that both genetic and environmental factors play a role in causing these diseases.
Likely to play different responses of the immune system to intestinal bacteria an important role. The human body has in the intestinal mucosa of a defense against invaders such as bacteria and viruses. In IBD this defense mechanism is, as it were its own body, with an inflammatory response in the large and / or small intestine as a result. This is evident inter alia from the presence of activated T-cells, monocytes and macrophages in IBD.
A growing body of evidence points to an important role of intestinal flora and disturbed permeability of the intestinal mucosa.
Although hereditary factors certainly play a role someone with IBD, but a small chance of getting a child getting IBD later. In about 5 to 10% of the relatives of patients with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, IBD occurs. This percentage is higher than for people without IBD.
Stress and stress cause in most people of complaints of the gastro-intestinal tract, so also in people with IBD. Scientific research has indeed shown the influence of stress. The question is whether there is cause or effect. The course of disease is generally more advantageous for people who do not suffer from tension or stress. However, the disease can also cause stress.
Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for the Crohn's disease. It strengthens the intensity of the disease, it allows for more utterances, and can provide for poorer outcomes in operations. Stopping smoking reduces the number of revivals of Crohn's disease by forty percent. The explanation is that smoking promotes the formation of clots in the blood vessels (thrombosis) of the intestine, which makes an ignition can occur.
Diagnosis and research
A doctor makes the diagnosis of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis with the following information:
- the story about the symptoms of the patient (history);
- the results of physical examination;
- the results of laboratory tests;
- the results of X-ray or endoscopic examination of the small and / or large intestine;
- if the results of ultrasound or CT scan of the abdomen.
Inflammatory bowel disease treatment
Nutrition plays an important role in the development and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. A so-called elemental diet is used for several decades in reducing the disease symptoms of Crohn's disease. This is a complete food which is composed of "pre-digested" nutrients. Thus, the diet contains amino acids and / or short chains of amino acids instead of proteins; fat in the form of medium-chain fatty acids and carbohydrates in the form of glucose and short-chain carbohydrates. These can be easily digested and absorbed by the intestines. The effect of an elemental diet for obtaining a remission is as large as that of corticosteroids. When an elemental diet is and the former diet is resumed ended, many patients experience a relapse again.
As far as the underlying operation is of an elemental diet is not yet clear. Probably is a success of this treatment, depending on whether or not removal of nutritional factors that cause inflammatory bowel disease.
In the majority of studies being done to it, omega-3 fatty acids prove favorable to work out on inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. An imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids certainly plays a role in these disorders.