Crohn's Disease Basics

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. It causes inflammation of the digestive tract. Crohn's disease usually occurs in the small intestine (the ileum) and/or the large intestine (the colon), but it can happen anywhere in the digestive tract.

Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disorder. When you have Crohn's, your immune system produces too much of a protein called TNF-alpha (tumor necrosis factor-alpha). TNF-alpha attacks healthy cells in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This triggers the inflammation that leads to the painful symptoms of Crohn's disease.

It is unknown why this happens. Different factors, or a combination of several factors, may cause Crohn's disease.

Environment and behavior

Where you live—and how you live—may be related to whether you develop Crohn's disease.

One factor is that improved hygiene may prevent bacteria in the GI tract from developing properly.

Other factors may include smoking, vaccination at the age at which people are first exposed to bacteria, and eating sterile and nonfermented foods.

Of these factors, smoking is strongly linked with Crohn's disease. It may not necessarily cause the disease, but it likely makes Crohn's disease worse. In fact, smokers seem to have more severe cases of Crohn's with worse flare-ups than nonsmokers.

The emotional impact of Crohn's disease

Researchers have studied how Crohn's disease affects a person's emotions and quality of life. In 2005, results of an important study called the Voices of Crohn's survey were published. This study confirmed what you may already know—that Crohn's disease has a significant impact on a person's quality of life. In fact, 9 out of 10 people surveyed said that the disease affected their overall emotional well-being.

People with chronic illnesses like Crohn's often find it very difficult to cope with the symptoms that affect their entire quality of life—their physical and emotional well-being, social functioning, and sense of self-esteem. Families, friends and physicians of Crohn's sufferers should be understanding and ready to give emotional support.