Back toUpdated on October 22, 2024
Crohn’s disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease of the digestive tract. Join your host, Kimberly, to explore the pain and suffering brought on by CD.
Transcript
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Within the confines of the body, shielded by layers of skin, bones, and muscles is the digestive system.
An estimated 30-foot long pathway that for more than half a million Americans is a site of chaos and disorder in the form of Crohn's disease,
a type of inflammatory bowel disease out to disrupt the unified orchestration of our digestive organs from the mouth to the intestines.
Hi, I'm Kimberly, your virtual anatomy host. And in this segment, we will explore the fascinating world
of the digestive tract. To show it working in perfect harmony, how that harmony can
be knocked out of tune by Crohn's disease, and ways to restore the balance before it's too late, let's
dive deeper. The symphonious cascade of digestion begins in the mouth,
down the esophagus, and into the stomach, where our journey unfolds. Waves of contractions rumble past
the delicate mucus-coated lining of a healthy stomach. Streams of gastric juices corrosive
enough to dissolve metal trickle down the cavernous inner walls while dune-like ripples snake their way across the crests
and troughs of this hollow reservoir. All part of a synchronized composition of the human gut. Beyond the panorama of the digestive
tract is a microscopic alien-like world too small to be seen with the naked eye. Troops of soldier cells programmed
to seek out and destroy germs and other unwelcomed intruders are patrolling the body. In Crohn's disease, some of these cells
become angry and misguided and mistakenly wage war against the digestive tract. Healthy tissue is attacked, the lining eroded
and deeper layers invaded. As we reemerge to the surface of the stomach, we find ourselves in the midst of a Crohn's flare-up.
Unevenly distributed patches of small, shallow lesions have formed on the bottom of the stomach.
Shy in number, yet strong enough to infiltrate the seemingly impenetrable defenses of the mucus barrier,
and overpower current treatments. Further down the tract in the small intestine, things have taken a turn for the worse.
Islands of raw infected sores surrounded by a dwindling sea of normal tissue have fused into clusters of large pus-filled ulcers
both deep and wide. The velvety intestinal terrain now stripped and devoured by erosion.
Moving ahead in the digestive tract, we arrive at the finale, the colon. The healthy ridge-like folds, its smooth walled interior
and rich supply of blood vessels all completely ravaged by Crohn's. A treatment once strong enough to keep flare-ups
at bay no longer as effective. The barely surviving tissue destroyed by cycles of damage and repair has narrowed and scarred
the tunnel-shaped organ. The ulcers, their linear footprints and cobblestone-like remnants etched
into eroded walls of the colon unwilling to fully heal. Painful proof of medication not working as well as it should.
Fortunately, newer treatments can calm down misguided cells and stop them from rebelling against the body,
help heal the damaged ulcerated digestive tract and put agony inducing symptoms of Crohn's disease
into remission. Ask your doctor about newer and more effective treatment options and let's put Crohn's disease to rest.
