Chrones Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are they different?

The simple answer is, yes. Chrones disease is different to ulcerative colitis although in many ways they are quite similar and it is quite common for an incorrect diagnosis to be given.

In which ways do Chrones Disease and ulcerative colitis differ?

Ulcerative colitis causes an inflammation only in the colon (which is called the colitis) and or the rectum. On the other hand Crohn's disease can cause inflammation in your rectum, colon, small intestine and sometimes even in your stomach, mouth and oesophagus.

The actual inflammation in Chrones disease is also different from ulcerative colitis because except in the very worst cases, the inflammation of ulcerative colitis only seems to affect the superficial layers of the inner lining of the bowel, whilst that of Chrones can be much worse. The inflammation of Chrones disease tends to be concentrated in some areas more than others and affects layers of the bowel that are deeper than the superficial inner layers. Therefore, the affected areas of the bowel in Chrons disease often has deeper ulcers with normal lining between these ulcers.

So as you can see whilst the two diseases are similar in many respects, they are also different.

Newish Drug Could Help Chrones Disease Patients

Naltrexone in the past has been used to treat people who abuse drugs and alcohol, but now it could also be helping people with Chrones Disease. That is according to some recent research.

the research was conducted by Doctors in the USA and involved a small number of chrones patients, their findings found that some peoples symptoms of Chrons Disease actually went into remission when they took the drug (Naltrexone).

So what is Naltrexone?
Naltrexone is an opioid or narcotic antagonist and what it does is it blocks narcotics. The good news is that the drug Naltrexone has approval from the FDA to ease drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and so because of this it could also be used to help people suffering with Chrones disease.

Dr. Smith who was working on the research commented: "We don't understand the mechanism of how it works in Crohn's disease, but there are opioid proteins on inflammatory cells, so by using Naltrexone it does reverse the inflammation and it also causes healing of the ulcers in the intestine"

The patients took one low-dose pill at bedtime and showed minimal side effects. There was about About 89 percent of patients showed some sort of improvement with Naltrexone and 67 percent had total remission of their symptoms. With these positive findings, the ideas is conduct larger scale studies which can only be good news for people suffering with Chrones Disease.

Amazon.com for the USA
Crohn's & Colitis Diet Guide: Includes 150 Recipes

Amazon.co.uk for the UK
Crohn's & Colitis Diet Guide: Includes 150 Recipes

What to expect if you are diagnosed with Chrones Disease

I feel that with anything in life and especially an illness like chrones disease, it is important to get all the facts, some of them may not be pretty, but for me at least if I have an idea of what to expect, I can then prepare myself for it. So here is what to expect if you are diagnosed with Chrones disease, warts and all!

When I was first told that I had Chrones disease the idea was very frightening, especially as there were so many unknowns. Even the doctors could not be totally sure of everything that was going to happen to me! So what can you expect? Well here are a few of the facts:

People with Chrones disease often go through periods of improvement which are then followed by deterioration and the experience increased symptoms again sometimes these periods of remission can go on for years. If you have chrones, you have an increased risk of small bowel or colorectal carcinoma.

Complications associated with Chrones Disease

You can get fistulas in the following areas:

• Bladder
• Vagina
• Skin

• Bowel obstructions
• Abscess
• Nutritional deficiencies (commonly vitamin B12 deficiency)
• Complications of corticosteroid therapy
• Erythema nodosum
• Pyoderma gangrenosum
• Inflammation of the joints
• Lesions in the eye
• Impaired growth and sexual development in children

Many of the words above are rather big and frightening, don't worry we will go through them over time in this blog. remember with chrones, knowledge is power!

Obviously if you have chrones, like me this list can be very frightening. Just remember: I don't think anyone has had ALL these complications with Chrones. This is almost the total worst case scenario. But as i said earlier I feel that it is important to know the facts about Chrones, but it is also important to know that there is also a whole life to live EVEN if you have Crohn's Disease. That is what this blog is all about, passing on the facts about chrones disease, the new treatments for chrones disease and as well showing you that there is also a whole life for you to live out there, so go and enjoy it.

I have had chrones for almost 6 years now and sure there have been pretty bad times, but I have also had many great times to that I wouldn't swap for anything.

Books on Chrones Disease
For more information why not try some books on chrones disease, there are people out there that are way better writers than I am!:

For people form the USA (Amazon.com)
Books on Chrones disease


For people form the UK (Amazon.co.uk)
Books on Chrones disease

Treatments for Chrones Disease

One of the first thing that you may be wondering if you are diagnosed with chrones disease, is what kind of treatments are available ad what to expect. I am sure that your doctor will go through most of this with you, but here is what I found from a little research for both you and myself:


If you have Chrones disease you could be given medications like 5-aminosalicylate this will be to control the inflammatory process.

If the treatment of 5-aminosalicylate is not effective or if your case of crohn's is very severe, you may require corticosteroids and immunomodulators such as azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine.

If you have any fistulas or abscesses you may be given antibiotics to fight against it. Infliximab which is an antibody to an immune chemical called TNF-alpha, which promotes inflammation. This treatment can work for people with fistulous disease.

If medical treatment and the drugs above have no effect, or do not work, you may need surgery where the segment of your bowel which has the Chrones disease will be removed. Unfortunately though, unlike ulcerative colitis the removal of a diseased portion of the intestine does not cure Chrones disease.

Up to this point in time, there has been no concrete evidence that a specific diet has been shown to either worsen or improve someones Crohn's disease. But as with everyone and probably more so with people suffering with Chrones disease, it is very important that you maintain a good intake of calories, vitamins, and protein is important. The foods that make your diarrhoea worse should be avoided and specific food problems may vary from person to person.

For people form the USA (Amazon.com)
Books on Chrones disease


For people form the UK (Amazon.co.uk)
Books on Chrones disease