The Association Of Joint Pain And Crohn's Disease

Joint pain and Crohn’s disease almost always go hand in hand. You will find many Crohn’s patients complaining of pain in most of their joints like elbows, knees, wrists and ankles. Though Crohn’s disease mainly affects parts of the digestive tract, it can manifest itself into different types of arthritis as well. So if you have Crohn’s, you may face the discomfort of pain and swelling in your intestines as well as your joints.

Crohn’s disease primarily causes a lot of pain and swelling in the gastrointestinal tract. This in turn leads too loss in appetite, fever, diarrhea and also arthritis. There are many ways to treat the disease including medication, surgery and herbal treatment. Most people prefer to take nutritional supplements to treat the disorder. These include supplements containing vitamins, minerals and fish oil.

 

Crohn’s disease unfortunately not only causes discomfort in your intestines but also manifests itself into many other problems. It can affect your liver and your skin. It can lead to malnutrition and anemia. It can also cause pain in your joints.

The incidence of joint pain in Crohn’s disease is rather high, especially if the disease affects the colon. The pain usually comes and goes in different joints of your body. It is thus known as migratory arthritis. The pain can affect your elbows, wrists, knees and ankles at different times.

 

Along with the inflammation and pain in your intestines, you experience a great deal of pain and stiffness in your joints. You will notice that the larger joints like the knees and elbows are affected the most. The arthritis migrates from one joint to another and lasts for days and sometimes weeks. The course of arthritis usually follows that of the digestive tract disease. When the symptoms of the disease flare up, the joint pains flare up too. The arthritis subsides with the recession of the intestinal pain.

 

Some of you may suffer from pain in your lower back as well. Sacroileitis, which is a swelling of the lower back, can affect you. You could also suffer from ankylosing spondylitis which is a more severe form of inflammation. You will notice that when you successfully treat Crohn’s disease, most of your joint pain and back pain will disappear as well.

Migratory arthritis can cause a lot of discomfort in addition to the pain in the digestive tract. When you treat the symptoms of Crohn’s, you will see a noticeable reduction in the arthritic pain as well. In the case of joint pain and Crohn’s disease, a few types of drugs can help to relieve the pain and swelling. Some drugs like Budesonide which is a locally acting glucocorticosteroid are effectively used to control the symptoms of Crohn’s. It has also been found that administration of the drug can also reduce the joint pain that come with the disease.

 

As a patient of Crohn’s disease, the above information may be of great help to you. It is good to be knowledgeable about the connection of joint pain and Crohn’s disease to help you deal with it better.