A very, very, very good friend of mine has crohn's disease. And to be perfectly honest, it just about killed her. Here is her story. Sarah was in her early twenties and had low blood pressure. She was also very underweight. Not deathly underweight, mind you, but it wouldn't have hurt her to put on a few pounds. She started having stomach pains. They became so severe that she went to the doctor. They didn't know what was wrong with her. Shortly thereafter, she was having a problem not with keeping food down, but with keeping food in her system long enough to digest it. As she describes it, it was leaving her body looking the same way as it came into her body.

Sarah went to the hospital several time throughout the course of several months. During this time, she dropped nearly 20 pounds. For most of us, that wouldn't seem like a lot. But for her (she weighed 105 pounds before crohn's), 20 pounds less made her look like a concentration camp victim.

The reason why the doctors didn't catch it were simple.  Because Crohn's is a relatively rare disorder, it is difficult to diagnose.  Couple this with the similarities with other intestinal disorders like ulcerative colitis, and you have a recipe for doctors not catching the symptoms.  And another problem is that crohn's tends to be intermittent at best, occurring every few months for some people.

...and then there was her intestines. After the doctor's finally diagnosed her with Crohn's, they had to surgically remove nearly a foot of her large intestines.

Sarah is okay now, but before her diagnosis, she was staring death at the age of 22 straight in the eye. Just thought I would share that with you.

Crohn's is especially hard to diagnose because it mimics other intestinal disorders.  That said, here are some common symptoms associated with crohns.

• Abdominal Pain
• Chronic Diarrhea
• Gas
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Weight Loss
• Fatigue
• Malaise
• Mouth and anal sores
• Low-grade fever
• Headaches

Additionally if you are anemic, then this could be a symptoms of crohns.  As you can see, this is very vague and if you have these symptoms, you could have a variety of other illnesses. 

There are some root causes of Crohn's as well.

• Diet High in Fatty and refined foods and low in fiber (for a perfect diet that I believe is the most sensible diet plan out there, you can check out my other hub)
• Food Allergies
• Free Radicals
• Nutritional Deficiencies
• Intestinal infection (usually onset)
• Stress
• Could be genetic.
  

While there is no consistent cover all diet that will apply to everyone with Crohn's disease, people with this disease are encouraged to eat as healthy a diet as they can.  Because Crohn's is an autoimmune disease that affect digestive absorption, you will want to make sure you are replacing all lost nutrients.

• A diet that is mainly nonacidic is recommended.  This includes, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, garlic, kale, spinach, turnips, ect.
• Papaya will help with digestion.
• If you are suffering from an attack, you should eat like a baby would.  Organic baby foods and steamed vegetables won't tax the digestive system.
• If you are suffering from diarrha, drink pedialyte or something like it to replenish trace minerals and electrolytes.  Also, diarrhea sufferers require much more protein than normal.
• Antioxident rich fruits like blueberries will help decrease the risk of developing crohn's.