For years, the theories have varied greatly on what causes IBD. Everything from the modern diet of overly processed foods to taking too many antibiotics as a kid, just to name a few.

While the claim is that neither disease is hereditary, it probably is genetic. Meaning, you may not pass IBD on to your child, but because you have it, your child’s chances of developing it are greater than children in families without histories of IBD in their family tree. However, heredity is nearly two times greater in Crohn’s than in Colitis.

In Colitis, only the large intestine down to the rectum is affected. Because of this, Colitis is curable. It’s not a pretty cure but it’s a cure nonetheless. And that cure is a complete removal of the colon and rectum.

Crohn’s Disease affects both small and large intestines. So there is no long-term cure for Crohn’s.

Both are characterized by ulcerations along the intestinal walls.

Taken from BioInfoBank Library

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are related disorders that probably share susceptibility genes and have similar nonspecific inflammatory mediator profiles. These diseases, however, almost certainly have different causes and respond to different antigenic stimuli. It is probable that both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease represent heterogenic groups of diseases that share similar mechanisms of tissue damage but have different initiating events and immunoregulatory abnormalities.

IBD is caused by a genetically determined defective down-regulation of inflammation driven by ubiquitous antigens. Luminal anaerobic bacterial antigens are the stimuli in Crohn’s disease, but ulcerative colitis may be caused by functionally abnormal aerobic bacteria or primary defects in epithelial cell physiology.

Now, in looking at the causes, it stems from the host body’s genetically predisposed inability to suppress the immune reaction, driven by ubiquitous antigens, or in other words, substances capable of inducing a specific immune response.

These antigens are what differ between the two diseases, as do the bacterial triggers. Additionally, in Colitis there may be some sort of defect within the intestinal lining itself.

In conclusion, I’m going to break this down into very layman terms. Bad bacteria enter the intestines and the alarm goes off for the immune system to fight. However, the immune system doesn’t know when enough is enough, so the fighting good bacteria keep going and going and going like the energizer bunny. Even after the bad bacteria are destroyed, the good bacteria continue to attack the intestinal lining and therefore cause ulcerations along the intestinal mucosa.