Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week: Are you #IBDAware?

Image courtesy of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America

This week (12/1 through 12/7) is Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week. The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) wants to know what awareness means to you, asking, “Are you #IBDAware?” Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), affect 1.6 million Americans.[1] Though both are types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are not one and the same. Symptoms are similar, but the areas affected in the gastrointestinal tract differ.[2] To learn more about the two conditions, the CCFA website has several resources to help make you #IBDAware. During Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week, there are a number of ways you can help the CCFA and the patient community raise awareness for both conditions:

• Join the CCFA Thunderclap on social media, tomorrow at 12pm ET.
• Using the hashtag “#IBDAware,” share what awareness means to you on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter
• Tomorrow, join CCFA’s National Call-In Day and urge your legislator to join the Congressional Crohn’s & Colitis Caucus

For the CCFA and the IBD community, raising awareness for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis is a year-round effort. Learn how you can get involved! Don’t forget – you can connect with more than 3,400 PatientsLikeMe members living with Crohn’s disease, and more than 1,100 PatientsLikeMe members living with ulcerative colitis. Let’s be #IBDAware, together.