Crohn's disease

• Crohn's is inflammation in the digestive track. one reason for this could be due to an autoimmune reaction ( when your immune system attacks healthy cell) is  due to a bacteria in your digestive tract being mistaken as harmful which triggers your immune system and a symptom of that is inflammation.
• Symptoms

  •Diarrhea- during a flare the colon becomes inflamed meaning it cannot properly absorb water. This causes the stool to come out water as the colon has not been able to absorb the water.
• symptom

  •Stomach aches and cramps- due to the GI track being inflamed when eating food and your intestines need to contract it will become very painful 
• Symptoms

  Weight loss- many patients might eat less due to the previous symptoms causing them to lose weight more rapidly. However, inflammation can also cause the body to need more energy and the breakdown of tissue both contribute to weight loss
• Symptoms

  Fissures- this is when your anal fissures is stretching beyond its normal capacity. This is mainly due to damage in the anus this is often cause by bowl movement especially from constipation or diarrhea which are other symptoms of Crohn's disease 
• One way to test for Crohn's disease is with Full blood count test which will look for white blood cell levels (if there is a higher white blood count it can indicate that there is inflammation or an infection in the body e.g., bacteria) , platelet  levels (as they can also show if there is inflammation in the body) and red blood cell levels (if you have few red blood cells it means you have less hemoglobin meaning less oxygen is carried around the body causing you to become anemic which is a symptom of IBD)
• You would also test for C-reactive protein (CRP) this is a protein that is made in the liver and found in the blood. If there is an increase of CRP it indicated there is inflammation in the body and is a sign of a flare up. As it is one of the proteins produced in acute phases response.
• They will also have lower vitamin D due to the inflammation it becomes harder from the body to absorb vitamin D from sunlight/ food. They might also have other defiance's as they might not be eating as much due stomach cramps.
• They will also do fecal calprotectin test. This is when they test calprotectin (protein in white blood cells ) in a stool sample and can indicate if there is any inflammation in the gut 
• They might also do an endoscopy or colonoscopy where they can take a biopsy(where a small section of the gut is taken and be test to conform if it is Crohn's), look for polyps(this is a small piece of fleshy growth and could become cancerous) and look for strictures (this is a sign of long-term inflammation and is a narrow section in the bowl )
• Another form of treatment can be immunosuppressants which also reduces activity in the immune system some forms of them are azathioprine, mercaptopurine and methotrexate. They reduce activity in the immune system my blocking T-cells which are a type of white blood cell and are the ones that attack healthy cells. They also most given by tables but can sometimes be given as injections and normally need to be taken every day. However, they can cause you to have higher risk of being infected meaning you will become immune compromised and can also cause problems with your liver problems .