Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Crohns Joint Pain

Question:
I'm 32 y.o. female and have had Crohn's for about 2 years.  Recently, in the last month or so I have developed arthritis which has progressed rapidly from knee involvement to most of my joints (wrists, ankles, elbows, etc). Does anyone know how crohn's affects joints and what the prognosis is? My grandmother developed arthritis when she was 14.  I don't know if this is ordinary arthritis or symptoms of crohn's.

Answer:
I was diagnosed about a year ago with CD.  Went off Prednisone in February and immediately had joint pains that were the same as those I had during my worst symptoms of CD.  They put me back on 60 mg of Pred and have been tapering off since July at a much slower rate.  Am also on 12 400 mg of Asacol a day and 200 mg of Imuran.  Two weeks ago I had shoulder pain and itching  and when I called my GI (he's new to me as my other moved away), he said I would experience pain while tapering and had me stay at 7.5 mg of Pred until he sees me later this week.  In the meantime, the pain became worse and I noticed small blisters in a line on my back.  I knew I had shingles and went to my regular internist who gave me a medication to halt the shingles since my immune system is compromised.  I guess my message here is that we are going to have aches and pains but we have to pay attention to what's happening.  I wish now that I had not gone back on such a high dosage of Prednisone in February.  It's been a long haul and I'm anxious to see what I feel like again without it. Rheumatoid-like symptoms are common in Crohns.  Mine get better when the gut symptoms get better, inevitably at 30mg pred.  Tylenol at regular intervals takes care of the pain, but is masking it, not curing the underlying inflammation.  I find that ice is a little help, but who can lie around every evening with ice on your knees? Some experts think that Crohn's is actually a food allergy caused when an individual can not digest some proteins and they enter the bloodstream whole (i.e., not broken down in component amino acids). The immune system considers these proteins invaders and generates an antigenic response. This causes the fever, joint pain, and other allergic-type reactions that are characteristic of Crohn's. I tend to believe this theory; I feel absolutely great then I fast for a couple of days and have no proteins in my system. If I eat something, particularly meat or milk, I can feel the pain in my joints worsen within hours of eating.