What is a flare up?

I remember when I was first diagnosed with Crohn's that I was also really confused by the term "flare up." I think different people define it differently. My concept is that Crohn's goes in and out of remission, meaning there are times of active inflammation and disease, and times that things quiet down and there is no active disease present and you are in remission. When I am in remission, my labs are completely normal. I have IBS in addition to Crohn's, so I will still have periods of difficulty with either constipation or Diarrhea, but I do not have pain, or anemia, or obstructions, etc. So for me a "flare up" is when my disease goes out of remission and becomes active. A flare up will last until the disease goes into remission, either because medication helps get you there, or because it goes into remission on its own, (or from diet or luck or who knows how). Some unlucky people have trouble ever going into remission, so I guess they would always be in a "flare up." So, it is different for everyone. I go into remission for long periods of time, (last time I stayed in remission for over two years.) I was sick for 8 months before we got things under control this last time around, but I am in remission again. Drugs like Prednisone often help patients get into remission, and then they use maintenance drugs like the 5-ASA drugs (ex, Asacol, Pentasa) or immunosuppressives to stay in remission. I hope this helps. Go to ccfa.org, the Crohn's website, and you can learn more about the disease process. I hope this helps.