Posts Tagged ‘Crohn’s Disease’
Intestinal Dysbiosis
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
DESCRIPTION
Intestinal dysbiosis, the growth of unfriendly organisms or overgrowth of normally harmless organisms in the gastrointestinal tract, is a widespread but frequently unrecognized cause of chronic disorders throughout the body. Normally, more than 500 different species of friendly or neutral microflora live in the digestive tract; in fact, there are nine times as many bacteria in the digestive tract as there are cells in the human body! We couldn’t live without the help of our friendly microflora, which are called probiotics (pro-life). Probiotics perform numerous functions essential for our health including metabolizing nutrients, vitamins, drugs, hormones, and carcinogens; synthesizing food for intestinal cells; preventing unfriendly organisms from attaching to and colonizing the mucosal lining of the digestive tract; and stimulating normal immune responses.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
DESCRIPTION
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a general term for a group of chronic inflammatory disorders of the intestines characterized by recurrent inflammation in specific parts of the intestines. The two main types of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
In Crohn’s disease, the ileum (the final part of the small intestine) is the primary area affected, although the inflammatory reaction may also involve the mucosa of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), jejunum (the middle portion of the small intestine), colon (the large intestine), the mesentery (outside covering of the intestines), or the lymph nodes in the abdominal region. In ulcerative colitis, the lining of the colon is the area affected.