Judging by the answers of more than 400 Crohn's patients in Oldlace web survey (http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/4778/surveys/results.html), the thing that makes them feel better (other than usual: sleep, rest, friends, family, cry, prayer, shopping) in more than 10% of cases is a hot bath or a heating pad. In the old days (prior to Tylenol), people knew that tying a scarf across the forehead alleviates a headache, and a rubber or animal bladder filled with hot water and placed on the abdomen lessens tummy ache. Crohn's patients (at least 10% of them) know that the same works in their case. Probable reason is that the heat dilates blood and lymph vessels and abates the pressure that is created because of the inflammation. Platelet aggregation and adhesion to blood vessel walls that is enhanced in the active phase of the disease (flare-up) creates micro infractions preventing supply of blood to inflamed areas making the situations worse and creating a vicious cycle. Lymph stasis has been also documented, and this does not help either. Warming the inflamed areas, blood and lymph stasis is alleviated and your body stands a better chance of fighting off a flare-up. Some minor flare ups can be averted if promptly reacted upon either by applying heat or antibiotics instead of steroids (Prednisone). One way or the other, a hot bath or a heating pad can not hurt, one is going to feel better for sure!
Warmth works for arthritic aches often encountered by Crohn's patients - try wearing a thick sock on your aching knee for couple of nights and days, and you'll notice the improvement.
Here is the same rational used/confirmed in another disorder:
NEW YORK, Sep 15, 1999 (Reuters Health) -- Sitting in a hot tub helped improve blood sugar readings, sleep, and general well being in a group of patients with type 2 diabetes, reports a Colorado researcher. The new study, in a letter published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine (1999;341:924-925.), looked at a group of 8 people with type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. Such patients are often told to engage in regular exercise to control their condition, but not all are able to exercise. The researchers conducted the study to see if sitting in a hot tub offered an effect similar to the beneficial effects of exercise for these patients.
The research team, led by Dr. Philip L. Hooper from the McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Colorado, found that sitting in a hot tub for 30 minutes a day, 6days a week for 3 weeks improved the patients’ condition, helping them lose weight and lower their blood sugar or glucose levels. “As the study progressed, they reported improved sleep and an increased general sense of well-being,” Hooper writes. After 10 days of such hot-tub therapy, one study participant reduced his daily dose of insulin by 18%, the researchers report.
“Our results suggest that hot-tub therapy should be further evaluated as a therapy for patients with type 2 diabetes,” Hooper concludes, suggesting that the benefits “could result from increased blood flow to skeletal muscles.”