Contents:
- Medical Video: Crohn's Disease: 10 Interesting Facts
- What is Crohn's disease?
- People with Crohn's disease are depressed
- How to control depression when suffering from Crohn's disease?
Medical Video: Crohn's Disease: 10 Interesting Facts
Basically mental and physical health are very related. For example, when you feel nervous you often feel nauseous and even have a stomach ache. Well, so does inflammatory bowel disease caused by an autoimmune disorder or what is called Crohn's disease. Quoted from WebMD, research proves Crohn's disease is closely related to depression. Is it true that prolonged depression can cause inflammatory bowel disease?
What is Crohn's disease?
Crohn's disease is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the intestine that occurs along the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. However, this condition most often occurs in the small intestine (ileum) or large intestine (colon). The cause is most likely due to immune system reactions and heredity.
Symptoms that are usually felt when you suffer from Crohn's disease include:
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Abdominal pain and cramps
- Bloated
- Mouth sores
- Bloody stool
- Fatigue
- Loss of appetite
People with Crohn's disease are depressed
As mentioned earlier, physical and mental health is closely related, including in people with Crohn's disease. Poor mental health has a negative effect on the health of Crohn's sufferers.
It is known that around 60-80 percent of people who suffer from Crohn experience depression. If you have Crohn's disease, you will be more likely to experience depression when the disease is active and cause severe symptoms.
This chronic autoimmune disease can also make you depressed because it is quite debilitating and painful so that it decreases the quality of life. Conversely, Crohn's symptoms often get worse when you don't control depression.
Reporting from Healthgrades, in the intestine there are trillions of good and bad bacteria that affect the immune system and help regulate mental health. Good bacteria will help the immune system to function properly. In addition, good bacteria also produce serotonin, known as the hormone that gives comfort and pleasure.
While bad bacteria can kill good bacteria to cause the immune system to be disrupted and encourage inflammation which is one of the main causes of Crohn's disease and depression.
Some studies also show the amount of harmful bacteria in the intestine can increase inflammation so that makes people more nervous, stressed, and depressed. Inflammation can also cause Crohn's symptoms to worsen.
How to control depression when suffering from Crohn's disease?
Maintaining mental health by controlling depression can help relieve symptoms. A feeling of happiness without stress helps maintain your physical health. For this reason, you need to make several attempts to control depression such as:
- Looking for friends to talk to like family, spouse, or friends to listen to your complaints.
- Join a group of Crohn sufferers to be able to exchange stories and experiences and ensure that you are not alone.
- Take antidepressants that doctors prescribe to help stabilize moods.
- Do things that you like as an antidote when you feel stressed about your condition.
- Consume foods that contain good bacteria (probiotics) to reduce inflammation that can relieve symptoms.
- Ask for expert help to get suitable therapy in an effort to reduce depression.
