Finding an Effective Treatment to STOP the Pain of Abdominal Cramping Associated with Crohn's Disease

It's 8:00 p.m. on a Friday night. Most of my friends are out for dinner, going to movies, or finding some place to listen to music. I'm at home, hunched on my toilet, with my arms wrapped around my cramping abdomen while my bowels - well, you get the picture. I have Crohn's disease.

Treatments for Crohn's disease range from steroids to surgeries, from anti-diarrheals to immuno-suppressants to antibiotics, and even a new generation of drugs that blocks the inflammation process in the body. One would think there's something for every problem by now, in looking at the treatment literature. I, along with thousands of other Crohn's patients, have tried most of these at one time or another, with varying degrees of success.

Whether or not a treatment is even temporarily effective, there are still problems with most of the drugs. Long-term use of steroids can cause serious side-effects. Drugs that suppress the immune system open the door to infections. Excessive use of antibiotics has led to more resistant bacteria. Suppressing diarrhea and treating with fluids is a "band-aid" solution at best. The newest anti-inflammatory drugs, useful in other diseases like rheumatoid arthritis too, haven't been on the market long enough to know what the long-term effects might be. And of course while surgery may be necessary at times, it isn't anyone's first choice of treatment, and carries its own load of risks, from anesthesia to post-operative complications.

The main problem with all these treatments is that none of them is a cure. There is no cure because the cause of Crohn's isn't known. Both bacteria and viruses have been considered, but none have been proven to be the cause. Researchers have been able to exclude diet and allergies as causes. Some things believed to play a role in the disease include immunological, environmental, and even genetic factors, but their exact role is unknown.