What causes Crohn's...what do YOU tell people?

I know there isn't yet a known CAUSE for Crohn's...but if someone asks you what causes it do you just say, "researchers don't know what causes it" or do any of you throw out some of the theories like MAP, genetics, toxins, food, etc.???

Just curious what everyone else says. 

I say that "there is no known cause, but there are alot of theories from infection, enviromental, to genetics. I personally lean towards an infection, but that is just my gut instinct."

orngie said...
I just say that it is an autoimmune disease that causes problems in the intestinal tract. I'm happy to elaborate if asked, but that seems to be enough to satisfy most people who are just casually curious.

I agree with Orngie however i do throw in my thoughts i live near a large plant that is pumping out dangerous chemicals daily i think that has alot to do with cause in rate of people with crohns disease in pictou county is huge and we are all centered around this plant breathing in all that waste and we dont know what it will do to us no body will ever tell us that,thats for sure its a paper mill and you can smell it for miles you cant even hang your clothes out cause they stink you cant barby or anything the doctors will tell you differant,my story my mom and dad were going through a divorvce at the time my illness began at first i thought it was the flu but it never went away i think the stess brought it out after my mom and me moved out of my family home i got worse had my first bowel resection and started living with this disease,the doctors will tell you that stress isnt the problem i am not saying it is but it doesnt help that is for sure every crohns patient i know had a dramatic experence in there lives and than crohns showed its face.There is alot of people that are curious about how we got this is there a cure and why not we all want to know but there is a reason for everything i believe we were given this disease cause something in our bodies just wasnt right its autoimmune for sure that we do know what we dont is why us did we do something wrong not eat well enough take the right vitiams,minerals e.t.c someday we will get our answers i hope we are still here to hear that doctor tell us this why you got this and this is what we are going to do to cure this god i hope i am still here for that answer and i bet all of you are.Your Bowel Buddy Jenn.

Pretty much everyone in my neck of the woods knows (or thinks they do) what Crohn's Disease is. If pressed I will say that it is a gut disorder that is probably caused by a bacterium but you need to be genetically predisposed to get it; if pushed further (I never have been) then I would explain about MAP and Johne's Disease and Koch's Postulates etc, and further mention DNA damage caused by viruses, pesticides etc as a possible reason for rising incidences of disease, not to mention lack of herd immunity and increasing quantities of MAP in water, in aerosol form, in the food chain etc.
Funny... for some reason my friends never ever ask me what causes it !

I tell them it is an auto-immune problem. 

That for some reason, my immune system was triggered and it has gone hay-wire and decided it needs to attack itself.  Doctor's don't know what causes it, and while there are many different ways to treat it, every person is an individual in the way their body attacks itself, the degree of severity of their symptoms, how they react to the various meds and how the disease responds to the various meds.  Treatment is very much like a guessing-game until the patient and specialist have found the med or combination of meds to help keep it under control.  Currently there is no cure, but many cases can manage their symptoms for long periods of time.

I'm just one of the lucky "difficult cases" and we haven't found what works best for me.  Yet.

LOL on MAG's comment! :)

Aliens have changed our DNA to make us ready for transport to their planet!

I always say bad genetics and blame my parents hehehe....

Hi, guys!  I usually go with autoimmune, and it fits in well with my autoimmune hepatitis, highgrade colon dysplasia and sarcoidosis.  (It is fun to give a history to a new doctor...they sometimes run out of patience, like a clerk with a big deli order: "ok, a pound of salami, two pounds of roast beef, american cheese,..... anything else?)

Just as long as the person then doesn't start in with the "****" diet view--It is because I've eaten SOMETHING WRONG, and if I ate "right" I'd be ok...  Agrrrr....

Pix

I tell people that it is an auto-immune disease, they don't know what causes it, but there are theories!

When they ask me what exactly Crohn's is I tell them, "When not in remission I poo lots of blood, sometimes 15-20 times a day, and sometimes poo myself."

It may take them by surprise, but it gets the point across!!

Well, I've got to be living proof of what you say, Kittikat. I basically manage my illness just by what I eat, or just as often don't eat, plus carefully monitored amounts of exercise so that I don't get too tired. I'm not on any meidcations at all. And still there are days that my guts go wrong, and there is nothing I can see that triggers it, I don't know when it will happen and I never know just when it will stop again, it is down to my body to fight it off. Drives me bananas with frustration.
Saying the wrong food causes Crohn's is like saying the burning barn being wooden caused the fire. Yes, it might not help, but...!

 Sniper said...
I just say my guardian angel turned out to be a slacker. When he was suppose to be protecting me he was off having a cup of coffee and a cigarette or flirting with the lady angels. When I croak I'm going to kick his halo off.

Hi Sniper great name for starters and your thoughts on the cause of Crohns is priceless really i love that,i think we are only dished what we can handle and i think all the trash that crohns throws at us we are pretty stong after all don't you? Do you really believe in guardian angels? I so do i also am a huge collector of the sarahs angels and when ever one of my loved ones gets sick that is the gift i always give them an angel. My dad had a brain anurzum and it ruptured he almost died i sat by his beside for a month and ahalf he never woke i brought him an angel and placed it on his pillow beside his head when he finally woke he didn't know me or who he was were he was or even his own wife,it took a long time for him to recover and he was finally well enough to be placed in a step down unit he was out of ICU i was so happy finally one day he was eatting lunch one day and grabbed a glass of milk and i said dad you hate milk and he looked at me confused and said do i Jenn that was the first time he said my name or even knew me in 2 months it was the happest day of my life i know it sounds crazy but i know that the angels were watching over my dad and they brought him back to me,sure the doctors did there thing but in the end dads life was up to god from there and the angels and they gave me back my dad. He has come a long way since than it was 6 years ago now he lost all of his long term memory and some of his short term memory but i got him back and that is all that matters it hurts a bite when we talk about when we were kids and i look at my dad and its like he is learning this for the first time in his life it breaks my heart but the doctor said to tell him things about his past happy things and see if he can remember them when asked in 5 minutes he has no idea,so i don't follow the doctors orders anymore now cause i know how much it hurts him. So Snipper thanks for that you reallly made my day today your a good person. Your Friend Jenn

This isn't what I tell people but I just thought it would be some good info regarding the possible cause according to an IBD researcher/GI....

Dr. Richard N. Fedorak, MD
Professor and Director, Division of Gastroenterology

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Inflammatory bowel disease is a result of an unchecked intestinal inflammatory response. While the exact etiology and pathogenesis of IBD remains unclear, initiation of the inflammatory response is likely caused by luminal factors, very likely bacteria or bacterial products, serving as an activating antigen. By sieving through a permeable epithelial barrier this initiating factor in turn leads to an increased exposure of the mucosal immune system to luminal antigens and toxins. In the genetically susceptible individual, this process results in an inappropriate and perpetuating mucosal immune response with ensuing microscopic injury. My laboratory is examining the role of bacteria and bacterial products as the activating antigen in a number of experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease. Furthermore, we are characterizing the mucosal immune response to these antigens and identifying those antigens for which there is loss of tolerance. Finally, in conjunction with the basic laboratory investigations I have a large clinical investigative section examining novel therapeutic agents in the treatment of human inflammatory bowel disease.


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