What Causes Crohns Disease?What causes Crohns disease. Crohns disease research. The most common possible causes of this IBD. So, what causes Crohns? Do we know exact causes?
I wanted to know what causes Crohns disease the moment I got diagnosed. It's a normal human reaction to ask "why, and what did I do to get this?" But the exact cause of Crohns disease is still unknown. The reason this condition is considered an autoimmune disease is because the immune system attacks its own gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
The autoimmune reaction can cause inflammation in the GI tract. That is why Crohns disease is considered an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Possible cause of Crohn's disease: viral or bacterial infection.
When the body is exposed to harmful invaders, like harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc, a normally functioning immune system would get activated. But in IBD the immune system is overreacting even without the invaders. During this process, the white blood cells get together in the intestinal tissues to cause chronic inflammation, and sometimes ulcerations as a result.
Smokers are three times more likely to develop Crohns disease. Smoking is another possible Crohns disease cause. Smoking increases the risk of the flare ups, too. Trying to quit smoking would be a good idea now! Genetics People of Jewish heritage have an increased risk of getting Crohns disease. Crohns disease affects men and women equally and it seems to be hereditary (runs in the family). Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are genetically inherited. First degree relatives (brothers, sisters, children and parents) of patients with IBD are about 20% more likely to get these diseases. Recently a gene called NOD2 was identified, and is associated with Crohns disease. Patients with mutation in this gene are at more risk to get Crohns disease. Some abnormalities in the XBP1 gene were also identified as a risk factor for developing Crohns disease. The most recent gene found in connection to Crohns disease was ATG16L1. Some studies suggest that diet doesn’t seem to be the cause…Don't know if I would agree…Not sure! The reason for my uncertainty is another very serious retrospective study suggested that diets high in sugar, fat or refined foods usually will cause symptoms of Crohns disease. So there’s a connection! A retrospective Japanese study suggested similar results comparing Crohns patients to controls. Patients with Crohns disease had higher intakes of sugar, fat, fish and shellfish. A similar study from Israel also suggested a possibility of a dietary cause. Patients with Crohns were eating more fatty foods, especially chemically modified fats and sugar. They also ate less fruits and had a lesser intake of fructose, potassium, magnesium and vitamin C. Three large European studies suggested that, again, sugar was the enemy. Sugar intake was significantly higher in Crohns patients as compared to control groups. So sugar intake could also be associated with what causes Crohns disease.
Scientists are not sure if the reaction of our immune system in Crohns disease is the cause, or the result of the inflammation. Some scientists think that TNF (it’s a protein made by the immune system, called anti-tumor necrosis factor) could possibly be a cause for the inflammatory component of Crohns disease. There are a few factors associated with this disorder: genetics, the immune system and …the environment. Antigens (foreign substances) are found in our environment. There is a possibility that our immune system overreacts to these foreign substances causing inflammation.
Until very recently, European Jews and caucasions were the majority of the Crohns cases in the US and in most industrialized countries. That’s still true…But the European Commission observed that if and when the Asian population moved to urban–industrial societies of the West, their chances of getting Crohns disease increased and were almost equal to the chances of people that already lived there. This suggests another interesting point of environmental factors being a possibility of what causes Crohns disease. I was researching causes of Crohns disease and got to my first article about
Mycobacterium.
When I first learned that this bad bacteria is being associated as one of the possible causes of Crohns disease, I was thrilled! Don’t be surprised. I was happy because, if that was the case, it would be so simple to eradicate Mycobacterium with a strong antimicrobial (antibiotic) and finally cure Crohns disease. But it was not so simple....and still not proven.
Another possible connection to what causes Crohns disease is being researched. Since the hormonal contraceptives were introduced to the market in the 1960’s the numbers of newly reported Crohns patients increased. Now, what is the
connection between Accutane and Crohns Disease?
There were some scientific studies suggesting that Accutane (generically called isotretinoin) is possibly the cause for IBDs, including Crohns disease and Ulcerative colitis.
There was a multi-million dollar trial that ruled Accutane as being a probable cause. If you are a patient that took Accutane and have
symptoms related to Crohns disease
please contact your doctor as soon as possible!
Mercury poisoning was also on my list of what causes Crohns disease. There were documentations which suggested that mercury fillings could poison the digestive system by slowly leaching out and accumulating in the cells, tissues, joints,etc. Mercury as a heavy metal can potentiailly become extremely toxic to our system. All this was not scientifically supported by medical studies. Nevertheless, I got all of my mercury amalgams out and did mercury detoxification with natural products.
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