What is Crohn's disease?

There are lot's of discriptions of what Crohn's disease is, you have:
- The medical point of view
- The patients point of view
- And the point of view of people who may have heard of it.

Since this is my blog I'm just gonna write it from my point of view;)

But first my point of view about the Crohn's disease before I was diagnosed: I thought that it's probably something that has to do with your bowel, that it hurts, that you frequently have to go to the toilet, that you become very skinny and have to be on a diet. Oh and that it was Chronic eventhough I couldn't really understand what that would be like for someone.

Many people would first disribe Crohn's as a chronic disease in which (parts of) your colon and/ or small intestine is/are inflamed. Yes, that's partially true. That's also my short version.

The longer version is that Crohn's is something you were born with, it's already in your genetics. It's a autoimmune disease and sooner or later you will start having the symptoms of this disease. There's something going wrong with the defence mechanism of your cells. You have this army in your body who's only purpose is to protect you from intruders, for instance bacteria that make you sick. When you have Crohn's, your army is not the smartest one on the planet. They fight with each other and are making antibodies against your own tissue. With Crohn's this will cause an inflamation of the gastrointestinal tract. That means from mouth to where you poop. The symptoms are numerous but the most damaged part is usually the bowel.