No one knows the exact cause of Crohn’s disease. What is known is that it’s an overreaction of your immune system.
Even though it affects your digestive system, Crohn’s can lead to joint pain. Crohn’s causes either arthritis (joint pain with inflammation) or arthralgia (joint pain without inflammation).
When you have Crohn’s, your immune system mistakes food, beneficial bacteria, and your intestinal tissue as threats. As a result, it attacks and causes the pain and inflammation you experience. Part of this mistaken response can include Crohn’s attacking your joints and causing arthritis.
Crohn’s actually causes several types of arthritis. The type that affects your knee, ankle, wrist, elbow, and hip joints is called peripheral arthritis.
With normal arthritis pain that’s not caused by Crohn’s, doctors recommend NSAIDs for pain relief. That means you just frequently take aspirin or ibuprofen.
However, NSAIDs can actually irritate your intestinal lining even more than Crohn’s already does on its own. So, NSAIDs won’t be recommended for you.
For minor arthritic pain caused by Crohn’s, you may be able to simply take acetaminophen. More intense pain can be relieved with a combination of prescription medications, resting the joints which experience pain, or doing exercises to reduce stiffness and strengthen muscles.
Strength training, along with low-impact exercise like swimming, stationary biking, or yoga can be quite beneficial.
You’ll also need to get a solution for the causes of your Crohn’s disease. Usually, this involves medication and dietary changes.
Typically, with the right treatment combination based on the solutions above, you can experience substantial relief from arthritic pain caused by Crohn’s.
We have experienced and talented doctors who’ve seen arthritic pain caused by Crohn’s many times. They understand how to evaluate your symptoms and help you create a custom treatment approach that relieves your pain and helps you get your life back.
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