Crohn's Disease Symptoms - Do you have these eight?

Do you find yourself running to the bathroom often? Do you have extensive abdominal pain? Do you experience diarrhea frequently? If so then you suffer from a form of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. All of these can be classified as Crohn’s disease symptoms as well. It is important to know that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a general term that covers a variety of health conditions. All of these health conditions affect the digestive tract. Basically, something is out of whack with your digestive tract and needs to be relieved.

What is Crohn’s disease?

Crohn’s disease is an inflammation in your digestive tract. Your digestive tract involves your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bowel, anus, and a few other bodily processes along the way. Normally, your digestive tract easily breaks down food, absorbs the nutrients in your body, and then allows you to eliminate the waste. However, with Crohn’s disease there is inflammation present that impedes this process.

How does this inflammation affect your body?

The inflammation causes Crohn’s disease symptoms which include: diarrhea, constipation, anemia, the urgency to go the bathroom, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, malabsorption, fevers, and chills. Let’s look at each symptom in further detail.

Crohn’s symptom #1: Diarrhea. This is a very common symptom of Crohn’s disease and Irritable Bowel syndrome in general. The inflammation causes the colon to produce too much fluid in you stool.

Crohn’s symptom #2: Constipation. While most Crohn’s disease sufferers deal with diarrhea, some deal with constipation. Constipation is commonly the result of having inflammation in your anus. This inflammation makes it difficult to eliminate waste.

Crohn’s symptom #3: Anemia. Anemia occurs when the cells of your body do not get enough oxygen. This is usually the result of having a decreased number of red blood cells in your bloodstream. One cause of the anemia is the persistent inflammation. Anemia can also be caused by a bleeding bowel.

Crohn’s symptom #4: The urgency to go to the bathroom. This is a very common symptom in Crohn’s disease and can be embarrassing and debilitating in public situations.

Crohn’s symptom #5: Abdominal pain. Crohn’s disease commonly involves two types of pain. You can experience cramps and spasms. And/or you can experience persistent extremely sharp and excruciating pain. Some Crohn’s disease sufferers have compared the pain as similar to a labor pain that never ends.

Crohn’s symptom #6: Nausea and vomiting. This usually occurs when the inflammation and blockages are present in the small intestine. This inflammation causes the contents in your bowel to go back toward your stomach instead of farther down the digest tract process.

Crohn’s symptom #7: Malabsorption. If you have inflammation in your small intestine then your body will have trouble absorbing nutrients. This can lead to malnutrition.

Crohn’s symptom #8: Fever, chills, and weight loss. These can be side effects of the other symptoms. And they can result from inflammation chemicals that pour into your blood stream.

If you suffer from these symptoms then set up an appointment with your doctor to get an accurate diagnosis.