Preview of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Podcast

[00:00:00] I went downhill incredibly quickly.

[00:00:02] I lost a ton of weight, which I did not have to lose and was essentially consigned to my

[00:00:09] bed, not eating, nothing was helping.

[00:00:13] This was frankly an emergency.

[00:00:17] Thanks for listening to this preview of the IBD podcast, part of the Health Unmuted Audio

[00:00:21] Library by Mission Base Media.

[00:00:24] IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease isn't very common, but can be fatal if left undiagnosed

[00:00:30] and untreated.

[00:00:31] So in the IBD podcast, we hear from medical experts and people with lived experience to

[00:00:36] engage, educate and empower listeners.

[00:00:39] We need your help getting this show out to the people and their families affected by

[00:00:42] inflammatory bowel disease.

[00:00:44] To learn more about how you can be involved, visit HealthUnmuted.com or drop us a line

[00:00:49] at info at HealthUnmuted.com.

[00:00:54] Use IBD gets confused with IBS, but they are very, very different conditions.

[00:00:59] Where IBS is a disorder of gut-brain interaction.

[00:01:02] IBD refers to inflammatory bowel disease and that's really an umbrella term for conditions

[00:01:09] that feature a significant amount of inflammation within the GI tract.

[00:01:16] In general, it's divided into two main types of diseases.

[00:01:20] The first is ulcerative colitis.

[00:01:23] It tends to affect the rectum and other parts of the colon or the large intestine.

[00:01:29] And the second is Crohn's disease.

[00:01:31] This is inflammation that can affect anywhere in the GI tract from the mouth all the way

[00:01:36] to the anus.

[00:01:38] In episode one, we learn about these diseases and what causes them.

[00:01:42] We think that there's a genetic predisposition and then an environmental trigger that

[00:01:48] leads to the immune system being on hyperalerts causing rip-roaring inflammation throughout

[00:01:54] the GI tract.

[00:01:56] I was under a tremendous amount of stress at work at the time and it aggravated the

[00:02:00] problem.

[00:02:01] Plus, I was also taking an NSAID, an analgesic like a pain medication, people who have

[00:02:06] IBD.

[00:02:07] You're really not supposed to take that because it increases inflammation.

[00:02:10] We also discuss the various symptoms of IBD.

[00:02:14] Anal pain, diarrhea, blood in the stool.

[00:02:18] You can have weight loss, nutrient deficiencies, profound fatigue.

[00:02:23] Since it's inflammatory, you can have fevers and chills.

[00:02:27] Amber experienced several of these classic symptoms prior to her diagnosis.

[00:02:32] I was having diarrhea pretty uncontrollable at times and it was bloody.

[00:02:39] I did have pain but it was really the blood in my stool that told me that something

[00:02:44] was off.

[00:02:45] And it's really important to diagnose IBD early because it can have severe health impacts.

[00:02:50] We have a high risk of bowel cancer from people who have IBD.

[00:02:55] I was terrified when I was lying there on the table and the scope was still in me.

[00:03:01] I just thought, my gosh, what does this mean?

[00:03:04] Over the past few years, treatments for IBD have gotten better and more targeted and

[00:03:08] we talk about them in episodes two and three.

[00:03:11] The IBD medication space is exploding right now, which is exciting.

[00:03:16] The lowest level treatment is anti-inflammatory medications like five ASAs.

[00:03:23] There are also immunomodulators and then there are newer classes of medications including

[00:03:29] biologics like infliximab, wisticinumab, vettelizumab.

[00:03:34] Surgery can also be an option for some people with IBD.

[00:03:37] I had J-Pouch surgery in 1999.

[00:03:41] I was only 26 at the time.

[00:03:43] Throughout this series, we bust a few IBD myths.

[00:03:46] There is this myth that people with IBD either cannot or should not have children.

[00:03:53] It's a 90% chance that you will not pass a form of IBD onto your children.

[00:03:59] IBD is very heterogeneous and even the umbrella terms that we call ulcerative colitis

[00:04:06] and crone disease are probably many different disease processes that we're lumping under one name.

[00:04:12] And so they can present very differently.

[00:04:16] And we learn how a diagnosis of IBD doesn't mean the end of your life as you know it.

[00:04:21] Once you understand what you're dealing with and what's possible,

[00:04:26] that is going to make the journey with IBD so much more tolerable.