Welcome to Crohn's Zone, the support community for people with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Crohn's Zone is a friendly interactive community for people with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Membership to Crohn's Zone is free, and will enable you to post on our Crohn's and colitis support message boards, add your favourite Crohn's and colitis weblinks, contribute your personal Crohn's and colitis stories and make comments on articles posted by other members. We also have regular Crohn's, colitis and ostomy chats in our webcam chatrooms where you can meet others and chat about life with IBD or an ostomy.

Crohn's Zone contains a mixture of factual IBD information and personal IBD stories contributed by our members. Our emphasis is on sharing mutual support and affirming that life with Crohn's or colitis can be positive.

Learning to live positively with IBD

Crohn's and colitis are two similar, but separate, conditions of the bowelthat are commonly referred to as inflammatory bowel diseases [IBD].

Both conditions cause painful inflammation and ulceration of the digestive tract. Crohn's inflammation can occur anywhere from the mouth to the anus, and colitis is confined to the large bowel (colon)and rectum.

The symptoms can be very isolating and debiliatating for an IBD sufferer, and include painful abdominal cramping, weight loss, malnutrition, chronic diarrhoea, nausea and fatigue. Treatment can include long-term, strong medications and in some cases surgery. Sufferers can find that IBD and its associated symptoms has a great impact on their confidence and emotional outlook.