Like AIDS and many different types of cancer, autoimmune diseases are also tarnished since they are hard to diagnose, have very expensive treatment and ironically the treatment only works on suppressing the symptoms rather than curing the disease hence there is very low success rate even after taking expensive pills and painful procedures.

In a nutshell, autoimmune diseases are then one in which for an unknown reason the body’s immune system becomes hostile against the body itself and starts harming it.

There are different autoimmune diseases that can affect different parts of the body, like muscles nerves, vessels and many more. The one we will discuss here is called Crohn’s Disease. This is a type of autoimmune disease which affects gastrointestinal tract. Gastrointestinal tract is the complete passage through which food passes for digestion and absorption hence it starts from the mouth and ends at the anus.

Crohn’s disease can affect any part of gastrointestinal tract or even two at a time. Usually the clinical cases have presented with more probability of specific sights affected by this disease. 30% were with affected ileum, 20% were affected in the colon and 50% were diagnosed with ileocolic Crohn’s disease which involves both affected ileum and colon.

It is always a good step to diagnose a disease as quickly as possible and start the specific treatment as there are more chances of survival with an early treatment rather than being late. One should always know the symptoms of a disease so it may point towards a specific direction. The symptoms of a disease are classified into different categories.


Crohn Disease Symptoms

The general symptoms of Crohn’s disease are vomiting, diarrhea which can be bloody if inflammation is worst, weight loss and abdominal pain. Beside gastrointestinal diseases, one may also notice other symptoms such as skin rashes, inflammation in the eye, lack of concentration, tiredness, joint pain, flare-ups and remission.

Crohn’s disease being a gastrointestinal disorder creates a lot of destruction in its specific sight hence results in a number of symptoms which point towards a specific gastrointestinal disorder. Abdominal pain is one of the initial symptoms of Crohn’s disease which is usually accompanied by diarrhea.

The nature of diarrhea varies depending upon the part of gastrointestinal tract dealing with the disease as it may be bloody or the patient may have to defecate in short episodes throughout the day, one of the specific symptoms of this disease is that the patient feels the need to defecate during night while he is asleep. This disease can also cause intestinal stenosis. Stenosis is narrowing of a vessel or tube that may result in blockage.

Therefore one can also experience different symptoms due to intestinal Stenosis which may result in constant vomiting and constipation. Perineum can be in high discomfort due to inflammation of hip joint and the surrounding areas. There can be increased itching around anus due to inflammation. On the other end of the tract, mouth can have non-healing sores and if this disease has affected esophagus or upper part of the gut, then swallowing can be painful that may be followed by vomiting.

An important point that has to be kept in mind is that since Crohn’s disease is a disorder of gastrointestinal tract, we can get to notice many symptoms of malnutrition as there is no efficient absorption of minerals and vitamins which may result in weight loss, retarded growth in young patients and slow healing of wounds. Crohn’s disease affects a wide range of systems which results in even wider range of symptoms.

High fever can also be a symptom. Crohn’s disease can also affect many other organs as it can cause inflammation in the eye, can cause arthritis of large joints like shoulders and knees, and may also affect small joints, like those of hands. Skin diseases are also a symptom of this disease and there are 15% cases that have shown neurological disorders as well like, seizures, headaches and depression.