You may have witnessed it either on tv or in reality; an emotionally labile woman, frantically scrounging for a tub of ice-cream or chocolate, snapping at any provoking comment regarding her behaviour around “that time of the month”.

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. It is one of two conditions classified as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the other condition being ulcerative colitis (UC). UC is limited to the colon, while CD can involve any segment of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or GERD can be defined as a condition of mucosal damage produced by the abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus. According to the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, 5 million Canadians experience heartburn and/or acid regurgitation at least once each week.

According to Statistics Canada, results from the 2009 to 2011 Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) indicate that 1 in 5 Canadian adults aged 18 to 79 had metabolic syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome, also known as Syndrome X, Insulin Resistance Syndrome, or Mets refers to a cluster of conditions that occur together. These conditions include high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, excess body fat around the waist or mid-central obesity, and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Do you ever feel like the hardest part of your day is getting out of bed in the morning, no matter how much sleep you have had? Ever catch yourself dozing off at work and gaze up at the clock to realize that you still have a few more hours of your workday to go?

And so it begins. You find few strands of hair on your pillow and more than the usual amount on your hair brush. As you are cleaning your house, you begin to notice hair on the floor, in the shower, on your clothes, and then it dawns on you that you are not only leaving behind a trail of hair in every area of the house, but a hairless patch possibly somewhere on your scalp.