Prevention

There is no way to prevent Crohn's disease, but you can keep the condition from taking a heavy toll on your body by maintaining a well-balanced, nutritious diet. By storing up vitamins and nutrients between episodes or flare-ups, you can decrease complications from poor nutrition, such as weight loss or anemia. Your doctor will monitor your blood for complications of poor nutrient absorption.

Crohn's disease can cause a higher risk of colon cancer, particularly if it affects a large portion of the colon or rectum. It is important to have your colon checked regularly for early signs of cancer or for changes that can precede a new cancer. If you have had Crohn's disease affecting the colon or rectum for eight years or more, it is time for you to start getting regular testing to look for cancer. One good strategy is to have a colonoscopy exam every one to two years once you start regular testing.

Treatment

Medications are very effective at improving the symptoms of Crohn's disease. Most of the drugs work by preventing inflammation in the intestines.

The medication commonly used first is a group of anti-inflammatory drugs called aminosalicylates. They are chemically related to aspirin and suppress inflammation in the intestine and joints. They are given either by mouth (pills) or by rectum, as an enema. Some drugs in this group include sulfasalazine (Azulfidine), mesalamine (Asacol, Pentasa, Canasa, Rowasa) and olsalazine (Dipentum).

Certain antibiotic drugs, particularly metronidazole (Flagyl) and ciprofloxacin (Cipro), help by decreasing the bacterial growth in irritated areas of the bowel. They may have a side benefit of decreasing inflammation, too. If you still have diarrhea, but there is no infection, antidiarrheal medications, such as loperamide (Lomotil) may be helpful.

Other more powerful anti-inflammatory drugs may be helpful, but they can also suppress your immune system so that you have an increased risk of infections. For this reason, they are not often used on a long-term basis. These drugs include prednisone (Deltasone, Prednisolone, Orasone) and methylprednisolone (Medrol, Solu-Medrol), budesonide (Entocort), azathioprine (Imuran), 6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol), cyclosporine (Neoral, Sandimmune) and methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Folex).