Ulcerative Colitis Symptoms

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects the large intestine. The symptoms are all due to the inflammation of the colon. It goes without saying the worse the inflammation the worse the symptoms.

As there are many conditions that can cause similar symptoms it is often misdiagnosed in the beginning. 

The main symptoms are

• diarrhoea, often with blood and or pus present.
• bowel movement urgency, the need to go to the toilet in a hurry
• pain and cramping
• fever
• nausea and vomiting
• dehydration due to the diarrhoea
• anaemia due to the blood loss

Ulcerative Colitis Causes

The inflammation in the lining of the colon and rectum leads to all the symptoms of diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fatigue, and weight loss.

If we know what causes the inflammation we can treat the inflammation or prevent the inflammation from occurring in the first place.

The way to find what is causing the inflammation is to first decide if it is diet related or some other trigger.

Diet Trigger

To determine what dietary trigger is causing the inflammation we have to do selective isolation. 

We remove one item at a time and see if it makes a difference. If it does seem to cause a change we reintroduce it to prove the point.

Obviously, you can’t determine much when you have an episode so you have to wait until you are clear and then introduce a small helping of the offending substance. 

Some of the more common foods to avoid.

• Beans
• Coffee and tea
• Dairy
• Broccoli
• Seeds
• Corn and mushroom
• Fatty meats
• Whole spies
• Creamy foods
• Chocolate
• Alcohol
• Nuts
• Carbonated beverages
• Onions

Apart from removing items from your diet, you should add the following

• Banana is easy to digest, low-fibre and highly nutritious.
• Salmon and tuna are high in Omega 3 which has anti-inflammatory properties.
• Hard cheese such as Cheddar and Parmesan. They are low in lactose and high in calcium and other minerals.
• Yoghurt and other fermented foods.

If it is not diet related because you have eliminated everything from your diet then look at your stress levels. Stress causes inflammation which aggregates your ulcerative colitis.

To improve your stress levels try some of these:

• yoga
• exercise such as running or walking, not the gym. This release endorphins reducing inflammation
• meditation

Ulcerative Colitis Development or Progression

The cause of ulcerative colitis is debated. Some say there is no known cause while others say it’s an autoimmune disease.

Either way, there are several factors that contribute to its development.

The biggest single factor is the inflammation and what causes or aggravates the inflammation as we have discussed earlier.

The disease has 5 general stages that seem to progress from the rectum up along the colon.

5 Main Types of Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative Proctitis

This is the mildest form and is located in the rectum. Usually, bleeding is the only symptom. It is often mistaken for other causes such as piles.

Proctosigmoiditis

This has now moved up into the lower end of the sigmoid colon as well as the rectum. The symptoms are diarrhoea with blood, plenty of cramping and something called tenesmus (A distressing but ineffectual urge to evacuate the rectum or bladder.)

Left-side Colitis

The transverse colon has been added to the list. So it is the rectum, sigmoid colon and transverse colon. Again there is bloody diarrhoea, cramping and weight loss.

Pancolitis

This is pretty severe and the entire colon is involved, from the rectum to the beginning of the ascending colon. Something called backwash ileitis (“backwash” of cecal contents) has been mentioned at this stage, but this has been discounted in a number of studies.

Acute Severe Ulcerative Colitis or Fulminated Colitis

This rare. It involves the entire colon. The symptoms are terrible including

• more than 10 bowel movements a day
• rectal bleeding
• fever
• anorexia and weight loss
• plenty of pain

These can result in toxic megacolon and bowel perforation.

Ulcerative Colitis Treatment and Cure

Conventional

In this line of treatment, there has to be a decision as to the cause. Some treatments are purely anti-inflammatory while others suppress the immune response.

This includes plenty of drugs such as cortisone, to reduce inflammation.

Aminocyclates are used to treat inflammation of the gut to treat and prevent flare-ups of ulcerative colitis.

Azathioprine is another one but it suppresses the immune system to prevent inflammation. This obviously has some serious side effects and dangers to the patient, especially at a time of a global pandemic.

Antibiotics are used to treat secondary infections but tend to make the overall situation far worse by killing all the guts probiotics.

The final conventional treatment is surgery. This is a little drastic and permanent.

Non-Conventional

This treatment sees the cause as an autoimmune disease and as such treats the problem at its base, the imbalance of the inflammatory response and the regulatory response.

A very brief explanation.

Our immune system has basically 2 parts

• an inflammatory response. The body initiates this due to some irritation eg food, virus etc. This inflammation is used to “mop up” the irritant. A good thing to start but a problem if it continues so there is a second response
• a regulatory response. This shuts down the inflammation and the body goes back to normal. This response is controlled by the probiotics in your gut, especially those in the colon.

For less serious cases the use of oral probiotics, such as our Noster ProBiotic, provides in the long term a very effective and side effect-free treatment.

In very severe cases, a faecal transplant is carried out first and then long-term oral probiotics are used to continue treatment.

Oral probiotics are generally used continuously as a preventative treatment. They provide plenty of other beneficial effects. Have a look at the article Conditions treated by Noster Probiotics-Summary and these articles on the Noster ProBiotics ingredients