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costochondritis anyone??

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Posted 4/22/2010 5:41 AM (GMT 0)
Hi all,

I was just diagnosed with Costochondritis tonight at the ER. It is an inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs and the sternum. I was totally floored when I found out it can be caused by underlying inflammatary conditions such as Crohn's...

Symptoms are severe chest pain such as can be mistaken for heart attack

pain when breathing in and out

pain with/or without redness or heat over the area where the ribs meat the sternum (left or right sided)

pain can be brought on when the area is palpitated manually (touched, pressed or moved)

I just came off Entocort at the end of January, so they are giving me anti-inflammatories for now, but are going to give me steroid shots if it isn't better in a few days. I also have a minor flare up of the Crohn's going on and the rash back on my legs, so I guess it is conceivable it is part of the Crohn's, just never heard of this before.

Have any of you ever had had Costochondritis???

Or inflammation in areas of the body other than the intestine? This is my 3rd odd place for inflammation...Kidney is now chronic inflammation (nephritis), skin on my legs and now Costochondritis... starting to wonder about this inflammation stuff!

Thanks!  confused

Posted 4/22/2010 8:00 AM (GMT 0)
Absolutely. I have a family history of GI disease, and had mild symptoms for years before the infections that triggered my Reactive Arthritis.

The two often go together....whether it's Reactive or some other form.

Costochondritis is one of my worst symptoms -- it blends in and comingles with my other back problems -- after my Sacroiliitis. It's awful.

The best advice I can give is lots of stretching....yoga....and anti-inflammatory supplements such as turmeric and ginger. NSAIDs may help a little, steroids moreso, but they are usually not worth the downsides in the long run. Turmeric alone, in adequate doses (the sky is more or less the limit; it's quite good for you and is about as close to free of side effects as anything gets), particularly combined with piperine (black pepper) to aid in absorption, works far better for me than NSAIDs ever did.
Posted 4/22/2010 1:28 PM (GMT 0)
I have had this for years... it tends to flare for me.. never put it together with the crohn's. I agree with the Tumeric and ginger... it will help..
good luck with everything!!
Posted 4/22/2010 1:55 PM (GMT 0)
Oh yeah I too suffer with it and I agree it is no fun at all. I will say that I do not agree with exitwound on the NSAID instruction, as we Crohnies are not allowed NSAIDS at all. Just Tylenol is allowed for us as the NSAID's can cause bleeding in us Crohnies.

I thought at first the pain was just from adhesions and later learned what it really was. I hope you get some relief soon. Hugs!
Posted 4/22/2010 2:05 PM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed with this in high school. They mistook it for pericarditis (long story about x-ray mixups), and I was looking at surgery, so I'm glad they got everything straightened out. Steroids didn't do anything for it, and I never associated it with Crohn's before, but it does seem to come and go in waves with it.

Heating pads are the only form of relief that works for me.
Posted 4/22/2010 2:48 PM (GMT 0)
yes!! i have this too!! it was actually my first symptom along with anaemia that lead to my crohn's diagnosis!! (yeah i was diagnosed with crohn's before i developed any real GI symptoms... how things have changed!!) i get a flare up of costochondritis that starts a day or two before my crohn's symptoms usually start! it's kindof like a warning foe me that a flare is coming! hope it gets better soon! :)
Posted 4/22/2010 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
you guys are great, I LOVE this site!

I thought I was going crazy! LOL the emerg doctor said I'm like an 89 year old with my medical history. Not what a 36 year old wants to hear, especially one who thinks she is still 20!

I am so glad to hear this isn't so much a NEW issue as just part of the JOY of being a Crohnie! :P

Sorry to hear you all go through this too, it sucks! They gave me Voltaren which is an NSAID and can upset tummies, but the doc said it is less likely to. I am experiencing bleeding already tho so maybe I'll rethink that one... I am going to try the heat and ginger tho thanks!

Thank you all for repsonding and sharing your experiences and info...really helps to know I am not alone and this is something others with Crohn's have experienced.turn

Posted 4/23/2010 6:30 AM (GMT 0)

Nanners said...
Oh yeah I too suffer with it and I agree it is no fun at all. I will say that I do not agree with exitwound on the NSAID instruction, as we Crohnies are not allowed NSAIDS at all. Just Tylenol is allowed for us as the NSAID's can cause bleeding in us Crohnies.

I thought at first the pain was just from adhesions and later learned what it really was. I hope you get some relief soon. Hugs!

A fair point. I didn't mean to say that oral NSAIDs were a good idea for anyone -- no less GI sufferers. Quite the opposite. But many docs will prescribe them anyway, judging that their benefit may be greater than the downsides. I have doubts, but don't mean to suggest that I "know better than (a/your) doctor."

One option might be Voltaren Gel, which is a topical NSAID. This should have far fewer GI side effects, and is generally less likely to be harmful in any way (such as cardiovascular issues seen with some oral NSAIDs).

Turmeric has all of the benefits of an NSAID, it fights inflammation via some of the same pathways, but has none of those side effects. It's been used as a treatment for GI diseases for thousands of years and is often quite beneficial in that area.

Obviously, anyone with serious GI disease and any concerns about the use of turmeric should consult a doctor or other professional who is expert on that issue. But for me, it's never caused the slightest aggravation of my GI problems, quite the opposite!

That's why I advocate it so much.

In any case, thanks for clarifying that point, Nanners. I often feel like I'm babbling too much as it is, so sometimes I don't get into the fine-grained details like that....but this is an important one.
Posted 4/23/2010 6:37 AM (GMT 0)

Lili_Enigma said...
you guys are great, I LOVE this site!

I thought I was going crazy! LOL the emerg doctor said I'm like an 89 year old with my medical history. Not what a 36 year old wants to hear, especially one who thinks she is still 20!

I am so glad to hear this isn't so much a NEW issue as just part of the JOY of being a Crohnie! :P

Sorry to hear you all go through this too, it sucks! They gave me Voltaren which is an NSAID and can upset tummies, but the doc said it is less likely to. I am experiencing bleeding already tho so maybe I'll rethink that one... I am going to try the heat and ginger tho thanks!

Thank you all for repsonding and sharing your experiences and info...really helps to know I am not alone and this is something others with Crohn's have experienced. turn

As I mentioned above, you may want to ask about Voltaren Gel. It bypasses your GI tract entirely, reducing the side effects there (possibly even eliminating them, but I don't want to say for certain since I haven't tried it yet....I'm asking my doc about it this morning in fact), and may work even better than oral Voltaren for your costochondritis.

Vitamin D3 in large doses (35 IU per pound of body weight is one of the new guidelines) can help your intercostal muscles relax and may help somewhat with your underlying auto-immune disease.

Some might suggest magnesium for the muscular element of costochondritis, but it always makes my stomach hurt.

I continue to rave about turmeric. The best part is that I've yet to discover, over years of use and countless hundreds of hours of research, any downside to taking it. I'm sure that some more extreme GI disease states might possibly make it undesirable somehow, but I've yet to hear of anyone with a GI condition that couldn't take it. If anything, it seems to help quite consistently in a surprisingly wide range of cases. By all means do your own due diligence and talk about it with your doctor(s), but IMHO it's one of the first things I always suggest to anyone with these -itises.
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