What springs to mind when you hear the words inflammatory bowel disease or IBD? Dodgy bellies, toilet troubles?
The two most common forms of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Yes, both are digestive conditions, but there's a lot more to them than that.
About 300,000 people in the UK are known to be living with IBD, though the actual figure is believed to be much higher; it can take years to get a proper diagnosis for these types of conditions because symptoms can be vague and similar to more common problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome, and lots of people could be suffering in silence.
Lifestyle and dietary changes, along with medication, can help manage the disease and reduce inflammation, but sometimes surgery's required.
Jenna Farmer was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2012 and is now a nutritional therapist who writes about gut health on her blog, A Balanced Belly (www.abalancedbelly.co.uk).
She recently published her first book, Managing IBD: A Balanced Guide To Inflammatory Bowel Disease, in which she points out that symptoms of these conditions can extend far beyond the bowels.
Here, she shares nine symptoms you might not be aware can be linked to IBD...
1. Eye inflammation. IBD can affect all parts of the body, even our eyes. Episcleritis is the most common eye condition for those with IBD. It affects the layer of tissue that covers the white outer coating of our eyes and causes it to become inflamed and sore.
2. Erythema nodosum. This is a sore and painful skin condition that causes painful lumps on the arms and legs. It's estimated up to 10% of those with ulcerative colitis and up to 15% of those with Crohn's disease may experience this.
3. Loss of menstrual cycle. Women with IBD may suffer from irregular cycles or the absence of periods altogether. This is thought to be due to various factors, such as nutritional deficiencies, disease activity or weight loss.
4. Night sweats. This is often worse during flare-ups and can also be the side effect of several medications prescribed for IBD.
5. Constipation. We always associated diarrhoea as a classic IBD symptom, but many patients can suffer from constipation, too. This is usually due to inflammation or an obstruction.
6. Fatigue. Crohn's and Colitis UK estimate that up to 75% of IBD patients struggle with fatigue and many complain about constantly low energy levels. Fatigue often improves when patients are in remission, but some find it never goes away completely.
7. Vitamin D deficiency. It's well known that those with IBD may be low in iron and B12, but it's likely they'll suffer with low vitamin D levels, too. Recent research suggests about 30% of people with IBD are also deficient in the sunshine vitamin.
8. Joint pain. Inflammation of the joints is a common complication of IBD. It's estimated one in three patients experience it and symptoms are often worse during a flare-up.
9. Mouth ulcers. These are another common symptom and the first obvious sign of IBD in some individuals.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here