Genetics and Crohns?

The only one in my family with crohns is a great aunt and drs were doubtful of that connection. Also, I have 3 kids who do not have crohns as of yet. I still worry though because it didn't really hit me until about 20 yrs old. But so far they are fine.

On the other end a woman I work with has crohns and her mother has very severe RA. I think there is some genetic connection there . . .

I dont know any family that has crohn's. Just me.

It seems so strange, how it sometimes skips generations and sometimes doesn't...hmmm. I am 21, and was diagnosed at 20. My twin sister and I started having symptoms right around the same time.
How old were you and your family member when diagnosed?

I do not know if this makes a difference or not, I am just curious as to how the disease looks in families.

I believe there is a genetic link.. my mom was dxed the same age as iI was.. also, we were dx'd with breast cancer at the same age... freaky.. NO  genetic!!!

Prof

It seems strange once you start to link the connections. So is this genetic trait responsible for most auto-immune diseases? So even if my children, or their children for that matter, do not get Crohn's, are they at a higher risk for another disorder?

My doctor said while she would not immediately expect twins to both have the disease, she is not surprised either. My sister and I have always been creepily similar, up to losing teeth on the same day as children, and having our appendix out only weeks apart, which the doctors did find very strange.

I guess there is no real "rhyme or reason" to Crohn's, but it is interesting to speculate.

If you have one auto-immune disease, then your much more likely to get another auto-immune disease, I don't remember the percentage but for some reason I want to say 50% more likely to get another, I have 3, asthma, Crohns disease, and fibromayalgia.

So I would assume if you have an auto-immune disease then your children are going to be more prone to it automatically, it just might not be the SAME auto-immune disease.

I am the only one in my family that has Crohns. And I just found out my sister has RA. So while we don't have the same disease we both do have autoimmune diseases, and that could be the same in your family. Hugs!

Wow, lots of genetic history here. What sort of environmental triggers have you guys heard about? The only thing I could think of for me (and my twin) is when we were 18 months old, we were hospitalized for a serious gastro flu. Is this a possible trigger? We were in pretty bad shape, until one nurse got the idea to let us sleep in the same crib instead of separating us, off topic but weird twin fact.

I am almost positive no one in my family has any history of auto-immune disease, and I am close with pretty much everyone so I am sure I would know. There is of course the possibility that is was recessive and never brought out but any environmental triggers..... I hope that maybe my sister and I just had a weird genetic quark that will end with us.


I am happy to hear about people with children who (so far, and hopefully never!) have not been diagnosed with the disease. RA and Crohn's seems like to the most common link, and both disease's seem to follow similar patterns, and both even react to some of the same meds. I am actually one of the only patients at my Remicade infusions with Crohn's, the rest have RA.

Thanks everyone for opening up about your family history, it is nice to have some more insight into this disease.

Well, I'm not sure exactly what my trigger was, but I was under huge stress at the time - some good, some bad. In 1980 I got a job, got a promotion, got engaged, got married, bought a house, went on a homeymoon to Cancun, and moved into our new (to us) house.

Unfortunately the bad stress was a huge fight/disagreement between the 2 mothers about the weddiing and after parties. Hindsight is 20/20 - we should have taken the money and eloped - lol!

So... by the time January rolled around I started with some kind of illness, don't even remember what it was. My GP prescribed ampecillin and I had 2 weeks of severe diarrhea. Then I hemorrhaged and ended up in the ER, then ICU for 7 weeks, reg. hospital room for another 7 weeks. LOOONNNG story but I did end up being diagnosed with CD.

So what does everyone think my trigger was? LOL.

Sudsmom

I hope we all live to see the cure :)

My one brother has RA...my other brother has had psoriasis since he was a teen...I am 36 and was diagnosed 5 years ago with being symptomatic for 7.... I think autoimmune runs in the family...its like russion roulette on wich disorder your going to get...

No environmental allergies here, no stomach problems as a child or teenager (except if I had a big test), no stomach bugs or flus .. well maybe one or two but they weren't memorable..also the usual revenge in Cozumel .. smoked on and off but never huge amounts of cigarettes

I wasn't Dxed until I was 55 (last year) I hadn't eaten meat, fish, poultry or eggs since I was 14.. so I never was exposed to a big mac or a whopper.
I did play near a chemical dump when I was a kid, and I have traveled a lot to strange places.. and have eaten dairy and cheeses from everywhere.
I did have mono really bad when I was 18 and had to be hospitalized for it but there are no traces of epstein-barr left in me..

My GI is convinced that I've had Crohn's for a long time just from the severity and length of my stricture..and because I have had very bad joint pain since I was a kid.

I have mentioned before that all my docs said that I would have had a much worse case had I not been a vegetarian for so long. SO all the docs are leaning on this fact.. so there must be indirect links to perhaps the huge amounts of meat western societies eat? I know that Crohn's is now showing up in countries like Japan that used to hardly eat beef but now eat it much more often. I'm sure there must be a study on this somewhere.
NY VEGGIE