Lorraine: Amy Dowden discusses living with Crohn's disease
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Crohn’s disease is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed. Inflammation caused by Crohn’s disease can involve different areas of the digestive tract in different people. This inflammation often spreads into the deeper layers of the bowel and can affect a variety of different body parts.
According to WebMD, the disease can also have symptoms that affect your overall health, including:
- Fatigue
- Fever (less common with Crohn’s, so consider calling your doctor)
- Mouth sores
- Night sweats
- Unusual menstrual cycle.
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Mouth ulcers
Crohn’s disease can cause a wide array of complications due to the digestive tract’s extensive size and systemic nature.
Crohn’s disease can lead to redness, swelling, or sores anywhere in the digestive system, including your mouth.
Inflammation can increase your chances of developing ulcers in your mouth.
There is no cure for Crohn’s disease or mouth ulcers, however, following a healthy lifestyle including a well-balanced diet, required amount of exercise and managing your stress levels, you can help reduce your symptoms.
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Night sweats
Night sweats are common with active Crohn’s disease.
“Regardless of the temperature, if you have Crohn’s disease, you may wake up one or more times a night sweating,” said Dr Maxwell Chait, a gastroenterologist with Columbia Doctors Medical Group.
To help combat night sweats, experts advise wearing lighter sleepwear and consider taking a shower or bath before bedtime to help make you drowsy and drop your temperature.
Fatigue
When a person suffers from Crohn’s disease, they may have intestinal bleeding.
The disease is also known to disrupt iron intake from nutrients.
The result is anaemia which means one has less blood to carry oxygen to the rest of the body causing fatigue symptoms.
More common symptoms of Crohn’s disease include:
- Diarrhoea
- Abdominal pain and cramping
- Blood in your stool
- Reduced appetite and weight loss
- Pain or drainage near or around the anus due to inflammation from a tunnel into the skin (fistula).
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