Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a description of several diseases, including Crohn's Disease and colitis.
These affect the small intestines and colon. In IBD the body mistakenly attacks the rejects its own bowel tissue, perhaps misidentifying the bowel lining as a foreign bacteria or virus. The body's auto-immune system sends out white blood cells to repeatedly attack the colon small bowel or even the linings of the stomach and the mouth. Symptoms of IBD include weakness and fever, abdominal pain and bloating, diarrhea and gas. Eventually, the inflammatory process causes bleeding scaring and eventual obstruction of the effected bowel. Surgery is often required to move these obstructions but they often recur with further flare-ups of inflammation. A repeated surgery is quite common. More recently, monoclonal anti-body therapy has been attempted. These are chemicals that block the activity's sights of an inflammation on the effected bowel.
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