Crohn's disease

• Fact: You can be sick for years with Crohn’s disease, a painful digestive condition, before doctors figure out the true cause.
• Proportion of risk that's in your genes: 80 percent.
• What you can do: Getting a correct diagnosis is important for prompt treatment and to avoid needless surgery and complications. If our genetic test indicates you're at risk, the diagnostic process can be accelerated.
• Did you know? If you smoke, your risk of Crohn's disease doubles.

Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, is known as the Great Masquerader, because its symptoms can fool patient and doctor for years. The first signs may be abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, fever or mouth sores, so it’s no wonder that several more-common conditions are suspected first. There is no single simple test for Crohn's disease.

Today, about 300,000 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Most of them discovered it when they were in their 20s.

Your genes play a particularly strong role in this condition. If you have a brother or sister with Crohn’s, your own risk is 30 or 40 times normal. It seems that the health condition may be triggered by an abnormal immune response — controlled by our genes — after an environmental exposure such as a bacterial infection in the digestive tract.

Knowing through genetic testing whether your genetic inheritance increases your chance of developing Crohn's can help you watch for symptoms you might otherwise dismiss. It can also allow your doctor to detect the disease early, if it strikes, and treat it promptly.

There is no known cure, but treatment can keep the symptoms of Crohn's disease under control and help you lead a normal life.