On November 14, 2011, the U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 199 (SR 199): “A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week, December 1-7.” 
This week is all about spreading awareness for inflammatory bowel disease, and while that’s really what I hope to do every day of year, this week is an important one to recognize. So in honor of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Awareness Week, I thought I’d provide some information on these disease that some may not know.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) usually refers to either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. As the name would indicate, these diseases are marked by inflammation in the digestive tract. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are auto-immune diseases, meaning that the white blood cells that usually attack foreign invaders, like bacteria and viruses, mistakenly start attacking healthy body tissue.
Crohn’s disease was first recognized in 1932 when Dr. Burrill Crohn and his colleagues  published a paper titled “Terminal Ileitis: A new clinical entity.” Today, it is estimated that 1.4 million Americans are living with IBD.
The cause of IBD is not known, but heredity, genetics and environmental factors are thought to play a role. IBD tends to run in families, so those with an immediate family member with it are more likely to develop IBD. Studies show that 5-20% of diagnosed individuals have an immediate family member with IBD. (Personally, I have a 2nd-degree family member who had Crohn’s: my grandfather.) The risk is greater with Crohn’s than with ulcerative colitis. They are more common in developed countries rather than undeveloped countries, in urban rather than rural areas, and in northern rather than southern climates.
Symptoms of IBD include persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, urgent need to move bowels, abdominal cramps and pain, sensation of incomplete evacuation and constipation, which can lead to bowel obstruction.  (Many of these symptoms also present in irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, but those with IBS do not have inflammation.) Other symptoms that can stem from IBD are fever, chills and night sweats, loss of appetite and significant weight loss and fatigue. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can both cause symptoms outside of the digestive tract, including liver problems, arthritis, skin manifestations and eye problems.
IBD is generally diagnosed by a combination of symptoms, lab results (blood, stool, urine, biopsy samples) and colonoscopy/endoscopy.
Below is a comparison of a healthy colon and an inflamed colon. You can see how raw the lining looks.

Crohn’s vs ulcerative colitis
Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth all the way to the anus. Crohn’s most commonly affects the end of the small bowel (the ileum) and the beginning of the colon. It can affect the entire thickness of the bowel wall and it can cause patches of inflammation, leaving healthy areas in between.
Ulcerative colitis is specific to the large intestine. It only involves the innermost lining of the colon and does not occur in patches, as Crohn’s disease can.
This post is merely a conglomeration of information from CCFA, UNC School of Medicine, and Wikipedia. Since this is not an academic paper, some of the information I took straight from these sources without worrying about putting it into my own words. I am in no way trying to plagiarize and pass this off as my own work.