Chron's Disease - What Is It and What Causes It?

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What Is Chron's Disease?

Chron's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease in your intestines. It's primarily known to cause ulcerations, or breaks in the lining of your large and small intestines, but can have an affect on your digestive system anywhere from your mouth to your anus. It was named after the physician who explained what the disease was, in 1932. It's also called granulomatous enteritis or colitis, regional enteritis, ileitis, or terminal ileitis.

Chron's disease is closely related to another chronic inflammatory condition that involves just your colon, which is called ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis and Chron's disease, when together, are often referred to as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. Medical doctors claim that Chron's disease and Ulcerative colitis have no medical cure. They would have you believe that once you have these diseases, you should expect it to fluctuate between periods of inactivity (remission) and activity (relapse). This affects approximately 500,000 to two million people in the United States alone. Both women and men are affected equally. IBD most commonly starts during adolescence and early adulthood, but it could also begin during childhood as well as later in life.

Chron's disease seems to be more common in relatives of people with Chron's disease. It also is more common among people related to a person with ulcerative colitis.

What Causes Chron's Disease?

Medical doctors claim the cause of Chron's disease is unknown. But some scientists think that it's an infection by certain bacteria, such as strains of mycobacterium, that may be the cause of Chron's disease. But those scientists, to date, have not provided any convincing evidence that Chron's disease is indeed caused by infection. Chron's disease isn't a contagious disease. Although your diet may affect your symptoms if you have Chron's disease, it's not to say that diet is totally responsible for Chron's disease.

Activation of your immune system in you intestines seems to be important if you are experiencing IBD. Your immune system is composed of immune cells and the proteins that these immune cells produce. Under normal immune fuctions, these cells and proteins defend the body against harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other foreign invaders. Activation of your immune system causes inflammation within the tissues where the activation is occurring. (Inflammation is an important mechanism of defense used by your immune system.)

Under normal conditions, your immune system is activated only when your body is exposed to harmful invaders. But in a person with IBD, the immune system is abnormally and chronically activated in the absence of any known invader. This continued abnormal activation of your immune system results in chronic inflammation and ulceration. The susceptibility to abnormal activation of your immune system is genetically inherited.

That means that relatives (brothers, sisters, children, and parents) of people with IBD are more likely to develop these diseases also. In fact, recently a gene called NOD2 was identified as being associated with Chron's disease. This gene is very important in determining how your body responds to some bacterial products. People with mutations in this gene are more likely to developing Chron's disease.

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