Settle something for me?

[Erin1192]

You know how they say a Crohn's flare up can be caused by stress? Well it just doesn't seem to make sense to me so could someone explain it? Stress causes the immune system to be repressed so since Crohn's is an autoimmune disorder shouldn't stress make a flare up less likely? I mean they even prescribe immunosuppresants as a treatment. Has anyone had a flare up caused by stress?

 

[Txarmywife]

I'm not really sure of the physical aspects of it so I'll let someone with more knowledge answer that. But yes my two most recent flares have been caused by my body's physical stress. Both my current flare and the one last August began less than a week after I had undergone multiple surgeries for my kidney stones, was in the hospital, etc. both my Urologist and GI agree that the physical stress my body was under put me in a flare.

 

[Misty-Eyed]

Well when I was first diagnosed, I was told that stress had no relation on flares, although I'm pretty sure that stressed caused my crohn's in the first place, but there we go.

Chronic stress is very bad for the body. It very basically stoped your body from functioning properly. This includes how it deals with inflammation. Simply put, stress can make inflammation worse.

 

[Cross-stitch gal]

Mine started by stress too. But, the thing with mine is that it wasn't nipped in the bud before it could spiral out of control. Had a hard time for awhile trying to get hold of doctors to help me out. It did get a little better for a bit, but then got worse again. My meds stopped working and now we're finally trying to figure out how to get/keep me better and find some meds that I can stay on for maintenance. Good luck finding the answers to all your questions. Take care.

 

[gypsy_dyke]

I feel it when I stress out. The other day I got stress and after could barley function. That is what confirmed it for me.

 

[nikimazur]

When you're stressed, Crohns or no Crohns, your body's Normal digestive process changes. In short, It secrets more acid, and actually empties more slowly. This can effective Crohns substantially. The longer food in in stomach/bowels the longer the exposure time, trigger a worse autoimmune reaction. It can also cause muscle tension, and abnormal reflexes in intestines..which both make crohns worse.

So while crohns may not "cause" crohns, it has the potential to make the symptoms a million times worse. Many of us have had major flare ups in response to stress, some of which have led to in fact our diagnosis. It depends from person to person, but should be definitely kept in mind.

 

[rygon]

This is what I found off a website

Peptic Ulcers
In a stressful situation your digestive system slows down, freeing your body�s energy for fight or flight. The stomach however continues to excrete acid, and ulcers may develop. �Using relaxation techniques goes a long way to preventing the onset of stress related illnesses� says Dr van der Merwe.

Tendency to get sick easily
High levels of stress hormones dampen the functioning of the autoimmune system, leaving you more likely to catch whatever is floating around. Floating decreases the levels of stress hormones in the body, thereby leaving your autoimmune system better able to fight off illness.

Digestion Problems

Blood moves from the intestines, when the body turns its focus to survival instead of healthy day to day functioning. This often results in digestive problems for stressed individuals.

http://www.floatation.co.za/Stress.htm

 

[tots]

Stress does not cause Chrons- it "triggers" a flare.

I have had quiet a few VERY stressfull situations and after each one my Chrons flares. Its like my body says, ok I held you up now I have to fall apart!


Lauren

 

[crohnsux]

Every hospitalization I have had from a crohn's flare was immediatly preceded by an extremely stressful event in my life (death, loosing daughter, on and on). I'm not a dr but I know stress makes me ill!

 

[kiny]

Crohn's is an autoimmune disorder

This is a hypothesis that is old, never proven, and at the very least very misleading.

Crohn is now recently seen an immune deficiency state, a pathogen takes advantage of that moment where our body is in a deficiency state (stress might be a factor, NOD2 might be a factor, overhygene might be a factor, consumption of milk) , the body can't kill the pathogen on it's own, and our body overreacts, TNF-Alpha increases as a response, and you get inflammation. (many pathogens can hide inside macrophages so they're very hard to kill, this is also the reason why many think Infliximab "works", since it's killing the cells where the pathogen is hiding, but many pathogens reproduce slowly, so it keeps happening over and over until we might get to a point where we can correctly identify the pathogen, find the right antibiotics and eradicate it completely from the body)

There have been a number of studies where they "inject" crohn patients with a harmless bacteria, they do the same with a person without crohn, and they can see the patient who has crohn reacts much slower, indicating an immune deficiency.


http://www.springerlink.com/content/c313853j75872167/


"Importantly, in a recent study, Marks et al. [1] has
compared the inflammatory responses in healthy controls
with those in Crohn’s disease patients by subjecting monocyte-
derived macrophages to pro-inflammatory signals and
by quantifying neutrophil recruitment and cytokine production.
These authors employed a highly innovative
model of acute intestinal trauma (two sequential endoscopic
intestinal biopsies at the same place taken six hours
apart). Importantly, in the second biopsies, a lower cytokine
production and an abnormally low neutrophil accumulation
was observed in patients with Crohn’s disease
compared with healthy controls. It is difficult to interpret
these data in any other way than with the hypothesis that
patients who suffer from Crohn’s disease have an impaired
acute immunity."

--> this indicates immune deficiency, not at all autoimmune

There have been a number of tests like those, and they all indicate crohn patients reacts differently when a pahtogen invades their body. The crohn patients are in an immune deficiency state (innate or not, they don't know).

http://hera.ugr.es/doi/16656428.pdf



On topic: I personally think stress can contribute to the onset of crohn, I was in a very very stressful situation when I got crohn. If all of the above makes sense, then it makes sense a pathogen could exploit the moment a body is in stress.