You hardly want to discuss symptoms emanating from that part of your body with anyone besides your family or your doctor. And it isn't caused by emotional stress or by eating certain foods. At this point doctors know that if you have IBD you have abnormalities of your immune system. Whether these abnormalities are a cause or a result of IBD is another question. One popular theory is that your body's immune system reacts to a virus or a bacterium by causing a perpetual inflammation in the tissues of your intestines.
Research shows that heredity is also a factor.
As many as 20 percent of people with IBD have a close relative affected. Whatever the cause, if you have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, you want relief and you want it now. That's likely to take time, effort and patience, since each person reacts differently to these diseases and to their remedies. Hitting below the belt IBD is an inflammatory disease, and it's this inflammation that results in pain and diarrhea. You may also experience weight loss, fatigue, rectal bleeding and anemia.