Inflammatory bowel disease questions and answers
1.What is inflammatory bowel disease?
Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic non-specific inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, mainly including two diseases: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, clinical manifestations are mainly abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stools and other discomfort, the pathogenesis of the disease is unclear.
2, inflammatory bowel disease in what group of people are most likely to disease?
Although Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can affect people of all ages, they mainly affect young people, generally aged 15-35.
3. What are the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis?
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have some similar symptoms, such as chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, blood in the stool, fever, and weight loss. Both diseases are associated with extra-intestinal manifestations such as: rash, mouth ulcers, joint pain and swelling, and even liver damage can occur.
4.Is inflammatory bowel disease hereditary?
Inflammatory bowel disease has a certain family aggregation phenomenon. According to research data, about 15-20% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease have other people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease among their close relatives. However, it is not certain that inflammatory bowel disease has obvious family heritability.
5.What is the cause of inflammatory bowel disease?
The cause of inflammatory bowel disease is still unclear, hereditary qualities that cause the body to produce an unregulated intestinal immune response to the external environment, diet, and infectious factors may be related to the cause of the disease. Inflammatory bowel disease is not contagious.
6.How to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease?
The diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease depends mainly on clinical symptoms and colonoscopic manifestations.
7.How to treat inflammatory bowel disease?
General treatment: emphasize dietary modification and nutritional supplementation, give high nutrition and low residue diet. Give folic acid, vitamin B12 and other multivitamins and trace elements as appropriate. If necessary, anticholinergics or antidiarrheal drugs can be given for abdominal pain and diarrhea, and broad-spectrum antibiotics can be given by intravenous route for combined infections.
Therapeutic drugs include the following.
(1) Aminosalicylic acid preparations are effective in controlling the activity of mild and medium-sized patients, mainly for those whose lesions are confined to the colon.
(2) Glucocorticosteroids are the most effective drugs to control the activity of the disease and are suitable for the active stage of the disease. Aminosalicylic acid preparations or immunosuppressants can be added for active patients.
(3) Immunosuppressants Chronic active cases in which glucocorticoid therapy is ineffective or glucocorticoid-dependent. The addition of such drugs can reduce the dosage of glucocorticoids or even discontinue them.
(4) Complications such as complete intestinal obstruction, fistula, abscess, acute perforation or hemorrhage may require surgical treatment.
8.Can patients with inflammatory bowel disease participate in sports?
Yes. In the case of better disease control, young patients should exercise as much as possible. However, some intense and strenuous exercises may lead to fatigue, aggravation of abdominal pain and arthritis, etc. These exercises should be appropriately limited. On the other hand, long-term treatment with glucocorticoids can lead to osteoporosis, which can easily lead to fractures in some contact sports (soccer, wrestling), and these sports should be controlled appropriately.
9.Can patients with inflammatory bowel disease live a normal life?
Although inflammatory bowel disease is a more serious chronic disease, it is generally not life-threatening. Although many patients need long-term medication or even hospitalization from time to time, the majority of patients can live a normal life. Although there is no cure for inflammatory bowel disease, patients can improve their quality of life and live a normal life as long as they follow the advice of their doctors.
10.Can people with inflammatory bowel disease smoke?
This depends on whether you have ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. Although “smoking is bad for your health,” for people with ulcerative colitis, the opposite is true: smoking may be beneficial in controlling the disease. Foreign studies have found that smokers have a significantly lower risk of developing ulcerative colitis than nonsmokers, and even when they do have ulcerative colitis, patients who smoke tend to have milder disease and much lower rates of recurrence and hospitalization than nonsmokers. But Crohn’s disease is different, smoking can aggravate the condition of Crohn’s disease, especially in patients who have undergone bowel resection, smoking will greatly increase the chances of recurrence after surgery.
11.Do patients with inflammatory bowel disease need to take long-term medication?
The treatment of inflammatory bowel disease advocates individualized treatment, patients should adhere to treatment under the guidance of doctors, many patients need long-term or even lifelong medication maintenance treatment. Some patients stop or reduce their medication because their symptoms are basically controlled or they are worried about the adverse effects of medication, which often leads to recurrence or aggravation of the disease.
12, inflammatory bowel disease will affect the fertility of male patients?
Most patients have normal fertility, but certain drugs used to treat inflammatory bowel disease may have some effect on male fertility. Animal tests and clinical studies have shown that fertility is significantly reduced in male animals or male patients treated with salazosulfapyridine, and that the sulfonamide group in this drug is the main cause of this adverse effect, and that fertility can return to normal after 3 months of discontinuing the drug or switching to mesalazine without the sulfonamide group.
13. Can pregnancy aggravate inflammatory bowel disease (or cause relapse)?
Pregnancy itself does not necessarily aggravate the disease, but it may be aggravated by the fact that patients often choose to stop medication during pregnancy. In addition, the timing of pregnancy is an important issue. If a patient becomes pregnant during remission, her chances of disease recurrence during pregnancy are 20-25% (comparable to non-pregnancy), but if she becomes pregnant during active disease, her probability of inflammatory bowel disease recurrence will be significantly higher, with more than half of patients experiencing a recurrence. Therefore, female patients should avoid pregnancy during the active period of the disease.
14.How can patients with inflammatory bowel disease make their own medical records?
Most patients with inflammatory bowel disease need lifelong consultation and treatment. A complete medical record can help the doctor to have a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s condition and is very helpful for consultation and treatment. Therefore, patients themselves should try to do the following: 1. Properly keep the original information of each outpatient clinic, and those with photos or pathological color charts should be kept neat and clear; 2. Each hospitalization should keep the discharge summary, examination results, imaging data, and surgical records, etc.