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Crohn's disease, ileitis or enteritis is a medical condition that is known to cause inflammation of the digestive system also known as gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This condition affects any part of the gastrointestinal tract, starting from the mouth to the anus, but it mostly affecting the ileum (USFDA,2008). The inflammation may penetrate deep into the lining of the organs affected thereby causing pain making the intestines occasionally empty, resulting in diarrhoea.
Similarity in symptoms with other intestinal disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis, makes Crohn's disease difficult to diagnose. Ulcerative colitis results in inflamed ulcers on the top lining of the large intestine while in Crohn's disease all the layers of the intestines are involved, and healthy bowel may be occur in between parts of the affected bowel. Other symptoms include, fever, unintentional weight loss, fatigue, tenesmus, and persistent, watery diarrhoea.
The disease is known to affect both genders in equal measures though it may be genetic thus 20% of people with Crohn's disease inherits it from blood relations with inflammatory bowel condition mostly a sibling or the parents It affects people of all age groups but is more pronounced in people of ages 20-30 and those of Jewish background in while it is less diagnosed in the African-American population (NDDIC, 2006).
Causes
Several hypotheses have been forwarded in an attempt to explain the causes of Crohn's disease. One such theory states that the immune system of people with this condition reacts exceptionally with food, bacteria, and other substance recognizing them as antigens therefore responding by attacking them. The white blood cells accumulate intestinal layers Another Theory states that either the body's reaction to the foreign substances or the substances themselves may be the root cause of inflammation and that the genes, the environment, the immune system and other factors may be responsible.
Environmental factors
It has been suggested that Crohn's disease's incidence in the industrialized world can be attributed to certain environmental causes. This is because it has for sometime been associated with an increased uptake of food containing animal protein as well as milk protein .The individuals who consumer foodstuffs containing vegetable proteins appear to have lowered incidences of the Crohn's disease
Immune system
The opinion that Crohn's...
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