Please verify your email address to receive email notifications.

Enter your email address

We have sent you a verification email. Please check your inbox and spam folder.

Unable to send verification, please refresh and try again later.

  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    How does Inflammatory Bowel Disease affect bones and bone health?

  • Find a professional to answer your question

  • Yes. There are many interactions between the bones and the gut in IBD, especially Crohn disease. Firstly ongoing inflammation can influence the balance between new bone formation and bone breakdown in IBD. Diet restrictions, or poor absorption can limit key nutrients (e.g. calcium) that are important in bone health. Another important micronutrient in Vitamin D: levels of this are commonly low in IBD. Reduced exercise ability, for various reasons can chnage bone strength also. Furthermore, some of the drugs used for IBD (e.g. prednisone) can adversely affect the bones also. For all these reasons, a number of people with IBD have thinning of the bones (osteoporosis/osteopaemia) or are at increased risk of fractures. Bone health is an important aspect of managing and monitoring IBD

answer this question

You must be a Health Professional to answer this question. Log in or Sign up .

You may also like these related questions

Empowering Australians to make better health choices