Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Lifestyle changes can help manage IBD symptoms and support your overall health. While they can’t cure IBD on their own, combining them with medical treatments can make a big difference.

Here are some lifestyle adjustments that may help:

• Monitor your diet: While no specific foods cause IBD, certain foods may trigger or worsen symptoms. You might feel better by avoiding high-fiber foods during flare-ups, eating smaller meals and keeping track of foods that bother you.
• Stay hydrated: Drinking plenty of water helps keep your digestive system working smoothly and prevents dehydration caused by diarrhea.
• Take supplements if needed: IBD can affect how your body absorbs nutrients. Your doctor may recommend vitamin or mineral supplements to prevent or treat deficiencies.
• Quit smoking: Smoking can worsen Crohn’s disease and make symptoms harder to control so quitting can improve your outlook.
• Manage stress: Stress doesn’t cause IBD but can make symptoms worse. Relaxation techniques, exercise and counseling may help you cope.

Medications for IBD aim to reduce inflammation and relieve symptoms. They can also help you reach remission, which is a period when you no longer experience symptoms of the disease.

• Antibiotics: Bacterial overgrowth in the intestines can worsen IBD. Antibiotics can target this overgrowth to provide relief.
• Biologic medications: These medications use living organisms to help stop the immune system from mistakenly attacking healthy tissues.
• Immune-modulating medications: Also known as immunomodulators, these medications help balance your immune system, whether it's overactive, as is the case with IBD, or underactive.
• Steroids: If you have a flareup, an episode where your IBD symptoms are more severe, steroids can provide temporary relief. You may receive a steroid injection or take a pill.

Surgery is usually recommended when symptoms are severe and medicines aren’t working, complications like bleeding, blockages or infections happen, or there is a higher risk of colon cancer.

For Crohn’s disease, surgery may remove sections of the small or large intestine that are badly inflamed or narrowed. Crohn’s can come back in other areas, so you might need additional treatment after surgery. Surgery helps manage problems like blockages, infections or tunnels called fistulas, but it doesn’t cure Crohn’s.

For ulcerative colitis, surgery often means removing the entire colon and rectum. This can actually cure ulcerative colitis since it affects only the large intestine. After surgery, your doctor may create a new way for waste to leave your body, either with an internal pouch or an external bag.

Your care team will explain the surgery process, what to expect during recovery and how they will support you afterward.