What is inflammatory bowel disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease refers to two chronic inflammatory disease of the bowel: Ulcerative Colitis and Chron’s disease.

Chron’s disease is the more severe of the two. It involves inflammation affecting any area of the digestive tract from mouth to anus, causing inflammation of the entire bowel wall.

Ulcerative Colitis is only found to cause inflammation of the large bowel and rectum. Inflammation only occurs in one layer of the bowel lining.

The symptoms for both Ulcerative Colitis and Chron’s disease can include:

• abdominal pain.
• blood in the stool.
• diarrhoea.
• nausea.
• loss of appetite.
• fever.
• unintended weight loss.
• malnutrition.

How can PPN dietitians help manage inflammatory bowel disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease is best managed by a range of treatments, one of these being dietary modification. Certain foods can irritate the bowel and exacerbate symptoms; hence, they should be avoided where possible. The dietitians at PPN can educate you on the best type of diet to follow to best manage your condition, either when the condition is asymptomatic or when you might be experiencing a flare up. Our dietitians can also assess your overall intake to help prevent nutritional deficiencies that may arise due to poor food choice or malabsorption issues.