Digestive and Metabolic Diseases

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic inflammatory disorders characterized by chronic relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that affect 0.1% of Western populations, comprising two major forms, Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Adjuvants to the traditional therapy of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have been studied to enhance the efficacy of the treatment and improve patients’ quality of life. Approximately 1.6 million Americans currently have IBD, a growth of about 200,000 since the last time CCFA reported in 2011. As many as 70,000 new cases of IBD are diagnosed in the United States each year. There may be as many as 80,000 children in the United States with IBD.