Causal Factors Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

When patients are told that they have inflammatory bowel disease, the first question they will likely ask is "What is this disease?" The next question that is foremost in most people's minds concerns their pressing symptoms and their prognosis. Once the diagnosis of IBD is confirmed and the prognosis understood, they begin to question, "How did I get this disease?" Logically, understanding the causes of the disease should lead to developing a 'cure'. However, the causes of inflammatory bowel disease have not been determined conclusively. There appear to be a number of causal factors — and a number of corresponding treatments.

 

Although there have been major advances in our understanding of what happens when the bowel becomes inflamed in inflammatory bowel disease, we still do not know exactly what causes this condition. We also do not know what triggers the process of intestinal inflammation or why one person may develop it whereas a neighbor, brother, sister, or child may not. This apparent lack of research progress can be frustrating for patients and their families.

 

However, there has been no lack of effort to crack the mysteries of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. From these research studies, we have come to recognize that there may not be a single cause that explains every manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease in every individual; instead, the disease may have many causes that interact to produce IBD in a previously healthy individual.