Chronic fatigue has been linked to multiple illnesses or disorders so it can be hard to know which one to be concerned about when you’re tired all the time.
While health professionals often suggest issues such as anemia, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease, have you considered that the source of the problem could be in your stomach? Crohn’s disease usually has fatigue as one of its symptoms.
What’s Crohn’s Disease?
Crohn’s is characterized as a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and it includes inflammation throughout the digestive tract. While the specific area of the digestive tract that is affected may vary from one person to another, the disease often causes inflammation in the deeper parts of the bowel.
Though almost 800,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, doctors still have not identified definitive causes.
However, if you have a family history of IBD or abnormal immune system responses, those could be a factor. Other areas that could influence Crohn’s disease include being younger than 30, smoking regularly, and the consistent use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Ethnicity has also be pinpointed as a factor of interest, though that data is still be assessed. Caucasians are considered to be most at risk but there are rising cases of Crohn’s disease in the African American community.
Typical Symptoms Of The Disease
It’s not always to identify Crohn’s disease because the symptoms can be mild sometimes. There are also times when the disease may fall into remission then flare up again. The symptoms that you should look out for are:
- Bouts of or persistent diarrhea
- Persistent fever
- Chronic fatigue
- Abdominal pain and cramping
- Blood in the stool
- Mouth sores
- Reduced appetite and weight loss
- Pain or drainage near or around the anus due to inflammation from a fistula
- Inflammation of skin, eyes, and joints
- Inflammation of the liver or bile ducts
- Kidney stones
- Anemia