4 Important Questions To Ask Your Doctor About Crohns Disease
Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract. If you’ve recently been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, you likely have many questions for your doctor. It can be overwhelming to deal with chronic illness, but don’t despair; there are many tips and treatments to be able to live and thrive with Crohn's Disease. Asking your doctor questions can help you develop a specific treatment plan that will allow you to address your symptoms. Here are some ideas of questions you can ask.
Are You Sure I Have Crohn’s Disease?
Often times, symptoms of diseases overlap. Crohn’s symptoms may be similar to Celiac disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and ulcerative colitis. Symptoms of Crohn’s Disease are blood in your stool, mouth sores, diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pain and cramping, fever, reduced appetite and weight loss, and pain around the anus. Crohn's Disease can be accompanied by other gut, stomach, or intestinal diseases. Your doctor will be able to determine the correct diagnosis by symptoms and testing.
How is Gut Health Linked to Crohn’s?
Gut health greatly affects Crohn’s Disease. By addressing proper gut health, many symptoms of Crohn’s can be eliminated. Antibiotics, toxins, and genetically modified foods can negatively impact gut health. Don’t despair; many treatments are very successful in obtaining better gut health. Proper diet, probiotics, and medications can help restore and improve your intestinal health. Many autoimmune diseases originate in the gut, so by improving gut health, many health issues may resolve on their own.
What is the Best Diet for Crohn’s Disease?
Many people that deal with Crohn’s Disease have success with anti-inflammatory diets. Eliminating gluten is often huge in helping to reduce inflammation. The first step of a healthy diet for Crohn’s would be to eliminate gluten and possibly dairy as well. A Paleo diet full of meat, vegetables, and fruits, can help calm the stomach and gut lining. If symptoms are reduced with the paleo diet, the Autoimmune Protocol may help take it a step further and eliminate even more inflammation.
What are Future Treatments for Crohn’s?
Most of the time, adapting a low inflammation diet and other lifestyle changes can help rein in Crohn’s symptoms. Often the removal of inflammation is the most important step in helping manage the disease. Steroids and other medications can be helpful in managing symptoms. Sometimes, surgery is necessary to make the disease go into remission. Surgery removes the diseased parts of the colon, leaving only a small scar. With extreme cases of Crohn’s, the entire colon must be removed, leaving the patient with a colostomy bag.
Living and Thriving with Crohn’s
Being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be a life sentence. Many patients have found great success by focusing on improving gut health and adapting lifestyle and diet changes. Crohn’s Disease doesn’t have to be a sentence. Meet with your doctor today, ask questions, and come up with a treatment plan to help you live and thrive with Crohn’s Disease. It is possible!
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