USA Today: Crohn’s Disease Is a Lifelong Condition, But Proper Treatment Makes All the Difference
USA Today recently interviewed Gil Melmed, MD, director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Research at Cedars-Sinai, about Crohn’s disease, including common complications of the condition and its available treatments.
Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is a chronic autoimmune condition that inflames and damages the gastrointestinal tract. There is no cure for Crohn’s disease, and experts are not entirely sure what causes it. But there are ways to treat the disease and manage symptoms.
Melmed told USA Today that if Crohn’s disease is not treated, it can lead to major complications in the small intestine, such as bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue, or a fistula—an abnormal passageway inside the body. A fistula can lead to an abscess, “which is an infection inside the abdomen that can lead people to get very sick,” he said.
Melmed told USA Today that patients are benefiting from improved medications that help them manage symptoms and reduce their risk of developing complications.
“There’s been a number of new treatments that have evolved over just the last decade or so,” he said. “We’re seeing much lower rates of the need for surgery than we used to.”
Melmed added that among the available medications are those that target the immune system.
“Because IBD involves the immune system being overactive, we use medications that dampen that immune response,” he told USA Today.
He said that investigators also are researching the role that diet may play in treating Crohn’s disease.
Click here to read the complete article from USA Today.