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Digestive Diseases

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease

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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a common condition affecting more than one million people in the United States.

There are two components of inflammatory bowel disease:

• Ulcerative colitis: the inflammation of the innermost lining of the large intestine and/or rectum.
• Crohn's disease: the inflammation of the lining and walls of the large and/or small intestine. It may also affect other parts of the digestive system and can spread deep into the tissue.

Comparing Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease

Traditionally, these two conditions were thought to be distinct types of IBD. However, IBD researchers are beginning to think of IBD as a spectrum (or range) of diseases that affect the intestines.

Thus, some people may only have symptoms of ulcerative colitis or symptoms of Crohn's disease, while others may have symptoms of both conditions (known as "indeterminate colitis").

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis share many similar symptoms of IBD. Symptoms may:

• Come and go (relapse and remit)
• Be worsened by stress

In fact, about 15-30 percent of people with IBD have a family member with the condition. Typically, people are first diagnosed with IBD in their late teens to early twenties, but people may develop the condition at any age.