Presidential Concern: Crohn’s Disease
One of the most difficult gastrointestinal conditions to live with is Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. Those with the ailment may deal with abdominal pain, blood in the stool, diarrhea and other symptoms when the disease flares up. Unfortunately, often those with the disease aren’t diagnosed and treated properly because they don’t talk about their symptoms.
But sometimes a well-known celebrity chooses to make his or her illness public, and that often helps boost awareness of the problem. And when that person is the president of the United States, the public-information blitz that follows can save literally thousands of lives.
Consider President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had Crohn’s disease. He was one of the first presidents to make his illness public, and even though it was the 1950s, he still did much to promote the necessity of proper diet and seeing a physician when gastrointestinal problems occur.
Much has changed since Eisenhower’s time, including the availability and effectiveness of treatments for Crohn’s and many other digestive ailments and issues. Remember, if the president of the United States can go public with a medical problem, it’s high time you stopped suffering and saw your physician to do the same.
