Living With Crohns Disease

If you came to this page hoping that someone had actually found out what causes Crohn’s disease - I’m sorry to disappoint you, because I haven’t. Theories abound as to the source of the disease, but currently there is no single cause that can be pinpointed by medical studies. Some of the more common theories and explanations of each are below.

Crohn’s Is An Immune System Disorder

It is widely held that there is a deficiency in the immune system that causes the symptoms of Crohn’s. It is classified in the autoimmune category of pathology, meaning that it has something to do with how the immune system works or handles certain conditions of the body.

In the case of Crohn’s, the immune system is believed to be attacking the digestive tract because it believes there’s something wrong when there isn’t.

Crohn’s Is A Bacterial Parasite

Due to the similarity of Crohn’s with a condition called Johnnes Disease that occurs in cows, some believe that a parasite is passed to humans who drink cow’s milk.

Only some people exposed to the bacteria are said to fall victim to it, whether it be because they are exposed to large quantities of the bacteria (ie., they drink lots of milk) or because their bodies are particularly susceptible to it.

Crohn’s Is A Virus

Certain links between the CMV, or cytomegalovirus, have been theorized to cause Crohn’s disease. CMV is a type of herpes virus, and most people are exposed to it by the time they become adults. Again, the theories behind CMV’s association with Crohn’s involve a weakness or susceptibility, which is said to be present in only some people and not in others.

Crohn’s Is Genetic

Since studies have shown a link between those who suffer from Crohn’s and relatives who have other inflammatory bowel diseases, genetics are thought to have a distinct role in the development of the disease. Around 1 in 5 people with Crohn’s have a close blood relative with some other form of inflammatory digestive condition.

Crohn’s Is Caused By Environmental Factors

Whether it’s something in the water, living too close to power lines, or growing up next to a nuclear test facility, almost every disease and condition has its ambiguous milieu of ‘environmental’ causes. What a human is exposed to throughout his or her life can have a profound impact on the body’s health, but as of this writing the possible environmental causes of Crohn’s are as wide-ranging as the world itself.

Crohn’s Is An Evolutionary Malfunction

Prehistoric man is believed to have subsisted on a diet of mostly nuts, berries, meats, fish, and eggs. With the introduction of breads and processed sugars, the diet of modern man is made up of larger quantities of complex carbohydrates, which are somewhat intensive to digest.

One theory is that certain people do not have the ability to digest these complex nutrients as quickly or efficiently as others, and so they remain in the gut for longer periods of time. The bacteria that naturally exist there then feed off of the materials and cause the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s Is Exacerbated Or Caused By Stress

Psychosomatic conditions are those which are believed to be caused by a person’s mental state.

Within this line of thinking is a spectrum of theories, ranging from the probable guess that stress makes the disease worse, all the way to the belief that the disease is merely a state of mind that a person can just “snap out of.”

Many chronic conditions and even infectious diseases can be affected by stress because of the close link between body and mind; an unhealthy amount of mental stress can have a greater subconscious affect on the health of the body than many realize.