Dr. Esteban Kosak 
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition in which the immune system attacks the good germs in the human gut. It divides into ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, each of them with its own characteristics.
Overall, in an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), there is swelling of the gut’s lining. If the swelling persists, there could be bleeding or gastrointestinal tract injuries. It entails two types of manifestations; there could be either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
What are the main differences between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease? The former affects solely the large intestine, specifically the rectum and its nearby portion of the colon. Besides, in ulcerative colitis, the disease affects continually without leaving spots.
On the other hand, Crohn’s disease can affect any portion of the gastrointestinal tract, that is to say, from the mouth to the anus. It also affects the tract intermittently, leaving patches (so-called skip areas), healthy spaces between the others with swelling and injuries.
This disease appears to have a genetic source. People with certain genetic patterns that influence how their immune system function are more at risk of developing the disease. Besides, people with inflammatory bowel disease are at a higher risk of developing gut cancer. Patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are more likely to develop small and large bowel cancer, respectively.
The inflammatory bowel disease’s symptoms have their location mainly in the gastrointestinal tract—for example, persistent diarrhea with abdominal pain, or more severe ones as bloody stools. However, patients with IBD can also manifest symptoms outside the gastrointestinal tract, more commonly with Crohn’s.
Several complications could appear because of IBD or its treatment, and many of them are life-threatening as bowel obstruction. That is why it is important to diagnose this disease and further on having a close medical follow-up. This disease tends to cause bothering symptoms that, with the right treatment, is possible to control.
This tool is an IBD symptoms checker. It gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease.
Keep in mind that for diagnosing this disease, several laboratory tests and imaging studies are necessary. Besides, of course, an adequate assessment by a gastroenterologist that, more specifically, should specialize in IBD. This is because several other diseases, including infections, can mimic the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. Hence, it is necessary to discard those possibilities and then confirm IBD through special exams.
Still, this tool has questions about the most important risk factors and symptoms of IBD. Therefore, the tool will tell anybody who uses it the likelihood of their symptoms because of inflammatory bowel disease. Although it does not replace a doctor’s assessment or tests, it will address this condition’s likelihood. Using the tool is free and would only take a few minutes.
- Question of
Do you have between eighteen and forty years?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do any of your parents, siblings, or children have been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you are a former smoker or never smoker? (Former smoker: you smoked cigarettes and stopped it for whatever reason)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been diagnosed with celiac disease?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you travel overseas in the last six months?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you finish high school?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Are you currently employed?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you were born in the United States?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have diarrhea or loose stools? (You can also click yes if you have changes in other spheres of your bowel habit as a higher frequency of bowel movements, which is more than you are used to doing every day)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Are those loose stools also occurring at night?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have mucus in your stool?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have bloody diarrhea? (Loose stools with blood that could also have mucus)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you feel that you cannot restrain yourself from pooping when you are about to go? (It feels as you cannot overcome the bowel movement urge)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have abdominal pain or cramping anywhere in your abdomen within or below your belly button? (it does not matter if it is in the center, left, or right portion)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you have before the loose or bloody stools episodes, moments in which you had trouble to defecate? [(Issues defecating would manifest as not having as frequent bowel movements as you used to, or having narrower and harder stools, or a need to strain to evacuate) (You can also click yes if you have these symptoms right now)]
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you feel pain in your anal opening while defecating?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
When you evacuate, do you feel still wanting to evacuate, so you keep straining although you are not evacuating anymore?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have nausea (feeling of throwing-up) or vomits?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have been losing weight unintentionally?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have malaise?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have a fever? (preferably use a thermometer which needs to shows more than 101,3 °F or touch your forehead and determine if the temperature is increased)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have at least three days with these symptoms? (It includes loose or bloody stools, abdominals cramps, malaise, nausea, and vomiting, or the others presented)
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you have these symptoms in the past, and did you not go to the doctor? [(It includes loose or bloody stools, abdominals cramps, malaise, nausea, and vomiting, or the others presented)(Only click yes if at that moment those symptoms did not have an apparent cause. If there was a cause, like an infection, click no)
- Yes
- No
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