Crohn's and Reactive Arthritis? Coincidence?

[calligator]

A few years ago I had reactive arthritis - what an ordeal! It too the doctors ages to figure out why my legs had swollen up and every inch of me ached but it was good to find out.

Now I've been diagnosed with Crohn's and today it just sort of clicked in my head - both are related to the immune system, both can be genetic and both can be triggered by food poisoning (which is what happened in both instances for me).

Is this just a coincidence or are they related? Can one set of the other?

 

[ce1210]

Crohn's and arthritis often go hand in hand from what I understand...haha that sounded like the start of a terrible poem. I have had achy joints that are ocassionally swollen since I was a teen. When I was younger they always said I had growing pains and/or bumps and bruises from playing sports. The issues continued into my 20's and docs just told me to take NSAIDS and do yoga lol, then I have my 1st flare, get diagnosed with crohn's, and every doc I see wants to talk to me about my arthritis and what I am going to take for it.
From my understanding, Crohn's related arthritis can be caused by different things one being nutrient deficiencies from malabsorption, another can be related to a malfunctioning immune system, and thats about all I really know. But they are def related in some way...haha hope I put something in my uneducated response that benefits you in some way...

 

[calligator]

What is it with doctors and yoga?!

My reactive arthritis/Crohn's had a gap of about 2 years and luckily haven't had the swelling I had with the reactive arthritis (my feet and ankles looked like they belonged to elephants!) and luckily I don't seem to have any achy joints or swelling with Crohn's. It just makes me wonder that even though I felt fine and was "regular" after the reactive arthritis whether the Crohn's was just kind of dormant and brewing in my system!

 

[grt73]

Hi, I think the two are definitely connected, I always used to suffer with severe wrist pains to the point it hurt even to move them. My doc said it was a strain injury but then again that idiot said I had an irritable bowel.
I used to find the wrist pain would last a week or so and then around a week later the stomach cramps would start.
Reading about it now its obvious there is a connection, I just wish someone would find out why and how to fix it
Strangely though as my crohns obviously progressed and my symptoms changed into fevers, insomnia, yoyo weight loss, My wrist pains seemed to go away and I can say I Haven't suffered such pain since I had emergency surgery a year ago.
I would love to know what that was about too.
It's all very weird, crohns just doesn't seem to have any rules. For this I hate it with a passion