This is a speech written to explain Crohn's Disease to a high school speech class. It runs about six minutes in length.
It usually begins with minor, yet noticeable stomach pain.
As time goes on, the pain gets worse and you can no longer keep
food down. Eventually, you sleep most of the day, eat very little,
and become dehydrated. The doctors run tests on you and you
wind up in the hospital hooked up to IV tubes. Then, your
physician enters the room. He sits down, and you ask what is
wrong with you. Then, the doctor announces: the diagnosis is
Crohn's Disease.
Your next question is "What is Crohn's Disease". Crohn's
Disease is when your body mistakenly identifies your intestines as
foreign material, and sets out to eliminate them. The attacked
regions become increasingly irritated and stop digesting food. As
you fill your system with food, the affected regions become
inflamed and eventually swollen. The swelling continues until
nothing can pass through. During this period, stomach pain
increases and hospitalization is required. Crohn's Disease is not
contagious. Symptoms will usually appear between the ages of 10
and 20 or after the age of 50. While Crohn's Disease has no cure at
this time, there are several available treatments.
One of the quickest ways to reduce the inflammation of the
intestines is with steroids. These are not the same steroids used by
athletes to increase muscle mass, but they share several traits. The
steroid (commonly called Deltazone or Prednisone) is a miracle
drug in treating Crohn's Disease because within a few weeks can
reduce intestinal swelling. The steroid treatment does have many
nasty side effects, including increased appetite, extreme
depression, severe mood swings and quick personality changes.
Patients can only stay on steroids for a few months at a time before
damage is done to the system. In addition, once it's time to end
steroid treatments, patients must be weaned off of the drug slowly,
dropping dosages about 5 milligrams every thirty days. Otherwise,
the withdrawal symptoms can cause more problems.
Other drugs used in the treatments of Crohn's Disease are
from a group called the anti-inflammatories. These drugs decrease
the inflammation of the intestines and must be taken daily. Some
medicines in this group include Asacol, Pentasa, and Immuran.
Patients can stay on these drugs for years if necessary.
One of the biggest parts of having Crohn's Disease is the
change in diet. Most people with Crohn's must eliminate all
lactose products from their menu. Lactose is the major part of all
milk products, such as cheese, milk, yogurt and ice-cream.
However, lactose is present in more food than you may realize. It
is found in hot dogs, pudding, caramel, in many prepackage cake
mixes, biscuits, muffins, and even chocolate. In addition to
lactose, most Crohn's Disease patients can not digest vegetables,
seeds, fried foods, fatty meats, MSG, burnt food, and whole grains.
Eating any of these foods can result in an inflammation and
irritation of the disease. Patients do not lose all foods that they
used to love upon diagnosis. Soy products such as soymilk, soy
cheese, and soy ice-cream and all totally digestible, and just as
delicious. Carob makes a great substitute for chocolate.
Nobody knows what the cause of Crohn's Disease is, but
there are several working theories at this time. One of these is that
the condition is hereditary. In fact, scientists have isolated the
"Crohn's gene". The next step is turning the gene off. Other
beliefs include that the disease is random and that stress can cause
the illness.
People with Crohn's are never alone. Thousands of
individuals around the world have it, especially teenagers. I have
found a site on the Internet geared towards teens. Most of my
research for this speech was done off of this website. For anyone
who wants to know more about Crohn's Disease, check out
http://pages.prodigy.com/teencron/. There is a vast amount of
information there.
Even when Crohn's Disease is under control, there will still
be times when the intestines stage a revolution, and you have
severe pain. The best way to fight this is to take a day off and eat
soft, easy-to-digest foods. One drink that will help is Ensure.
Ensure is a nutritional supplement and does not need digestion and
breaking down, therefore the intestines do not have to work when
you drink this. In many cases, Ensure can be a substitute for a
meal.
A Crohn's patient's stamina can be unusually low because the
body is always attacking the intestines. As a result of this, many
patients do not participate in extremely active sports because of
the extra strain. They should exercise frequently, however, to stay
in shape. Although the special diet can help to keep weight gain
to a minimum, the body should still be kept in good condition.
Light exercise such as walking is recommended.
While Crohn's Disease may sound negative, there are several
positive aspects. In many cases, Crohn's can inspire you to do
something beneficial. The webmaster of the Teens With Crohn's
webpage created the site last November when he noticed that there
was no place on the Internet for teens to seek information about
the disease. Most sites are aimed at an older audience. I also
asked several Crohn's patients about their thoughts on the disease.
Jenni from Michigan says that Crohn's has inspired her to live her
life to the fullest and not worry about all the troubles of life. She
says, "You can't just sit and worry about things. That won't get you
anywhere, have fun and enjoy!" Kara from Maryland says, "There
was a time when I was upset about the inevitabilities that come
with Crohn's Disease: the pain, the embarrassment, the obstacles.
But through dealing with those problems I feel that I have become
a stronger person; I am able to deal with other difficult situations
with a more experienced outlook and I have come to know myself
in a more positive light."
While I have outlined some of the negatives and positives
here, I do not have enough time to truly explain all of the facets of
Crohn's Disease. If you wish to know more, I strongly suggest that
you visit the Teens With Crohn's Disease webpage at the address
mentioned before. Someday, there will be a cure for Crohn's
Disease. The research continues everyday. It's only a matter of
time.
Special thanks to Kara and Jenni for the quotes!
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