Crohns/UC affect 1.4 million Americans...

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More fall ill to Crohn's

Diagnoses for it and ulcerative colitis have soared, and are now

estimated to affect 1.4 million Americans

BY DELTHIA RICKS

delthia.ricks@...

June 14, 2007

Crohn's and a related bowel disorder have grown tenfold

globally since World War II, affecting so broad a range of ethnic

groups that many people who are now developing the diseases were

previously thought not to be at risk, experts said yesterday.

Because of the growing prevalence, experts now are calling for

greater public awareness of the two conditions, which together affect

1.4 million people in the United States, an estimate nearly three

times higher than just a few years ago.

Crohn's and ulcerative colitis are collectively known as inflammatory

bowel disease, or IBD. Crohn's can range anywhere from the mouth to

the anus, characterized by inflammation that can be so severe in some

cases that people resort to a diet of pureed foods. For many the

condition is typified by abdominal cramps, diarrhea and excessive

weight loss. Ulcerative colitis is typified by ulcers in the colon's

lining.

" IBD is increasing all over the world, mostly in developed

countries, " said Edda Ramsdell, executive director of Long Island's

division of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. The

organization, which has chapters nationwide, has launched a new

information resource center, which can be accessed through a toll-

free telephone number, 888-MY-GUT-PAIN. The idea is to help people

recognize symptoms and to obtain disease-specific information.

Once thought to be confined to whites, IBD increasingly is being

diagnosed in blacks and Asians.

Some theories suggest that sugar-laden diets that became common in

the 20th century helped fuel the growing number of cases. These

theories suggest that refined sugars helped change the type of

bacterial flora that normally inhabit the gut, which some people's

immune systems could not effectively fight.

Lucille Music of Wantagh, who was diagnosed with Crohn's in 1972 and

is active in a Crohn's and Colitis Foundation support group, said she

has experienced bouts of inflammation that were so overwhelming she

couldn't consume more than a few sips of liquids for months. After

surgery a year-and-a-half ago to relieve scarring in her intestine,

Music has resumed a healthier diet - and her usual routines,

especially helping newly diagnosed Crohn's patients.

" When you're talking about a bathroom disease, people don't want to

talk about it, " she said. " Some people [with Crohn's] have stopped

working. Some people become the disease and let it overtake their

lives. We try to teach them in the support group not to let this

disease control them. "

IBD occurs in people who have a genetic predisposition, said Dr.

Corey Siegel, an assistant professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical

School and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

" The leading theory is that an environmental trigger is tied to these

diseases. Once you have genetically predisposed people with an

abnormality in the immune system, then some environmental trigger

turns it on. "