Cramps and groans? Consider Crohn’s

Crohn’s disease isn’t something that usually comes up in cocktail party conversations.  It isn’t featured prominently in television shows or radio spots. Ask your average person what Crohn’s is, and they likely will be hard-pressed to give you the right answer.

But this chronic inflammatory bowel disease is featured on the Web site of the New York Times, putting a face – or faces, in this case – to this rarely discussed disorder. In this interactive feature, seven people ranging in age from 19 to 61 share their experiences with the condition that has been diagnosed in more than 300,000 Americans.

“It takes forever to get diagnosed with Crohn’s,” recounts Ryan Walsh Horowitz, 19, of Brooklyn. “They thought I was anemic. They thought I had leukemia – and a bunch of other things.”

That is not surprising, nor an isolated problem.

Crohn’s has long been overlooked or misdiagnosed in the general public. The most common symptoms are, well, common: diarrhea, constipation, gas, abdominal pain, bloating and loss of weight. So it’s easy to see why many other health conditions are often suspected first.

It is quite sobering to read in the Times’ “Voices of Crohn’s Disease” vignettes that many of the people profiled said they experienced symptoms of the disease for years before getting an accurate diagnosis.

That is why it’s especially important to be aware of the symptoms – and whether you have a genetic predisposition for the disease. Although there is no simple diagnostic test for Crohn’s, the Navigenics genetic test can help you determine whether you have an above-average genetic risk.

Unlike some of the health conditions in the Navigenics genetic test, genes play a disproportionate role in the development of Crohn’s disease. Research indicates that 80 percent of a person’s risk is due to genetics.

Currently, there is no cure for Crohn’s, but treatment can help keep the symptoms under control, enabling people with the disease to lead a more normal life. But you can’t be treated effectively unless you’ve gotten a correct diagnosis.

Underscoring the importance of early detection, a study released earlier this month suggests that a vitamin D deficiency can make the disease even worse, resulting in what researchers said was greater disease activity.

The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Alex Ulitsky, said that all Crohn’s disease patients should have their vitamin D levels checked regularly and “corrected aggressively” when an insufficiency is found. That’s yet another reason for an early and accurate diagnosis.

With Crohn’s disease now beginning to appear in the news, my hope is that the public will have a greater awareness of this health condition. And with the availability of genetic risk assessment, the probability of early diagnosis and treatment should hopefully increase.