Ulcerative Colitis – What is it? To answer the question we have to look at a group of diseases called IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). All these have a similar group of symptoms and are often difficult to differentiate them. That is “Do I have Ulcerative Colitis or do I have Chrohn’s disease.” Chrohn’s disease is further broken into 5 different types. We also have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) thrown into the mix.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a long-term condition that results in inflammation and ulcers of the colon and rectum according to Wikipedia.

The important takeaways from this are that it is long-lasting inflammation that causes ulcers (sores) in your large intestine. Generally, the symptoms appear gradually over time. They are not sudden. This is a bit of a problem as we ignore the problem for a long time as it gradually gets worse. A lot of damage is done before we are aware there is a problem.

The inflammation usually starts in the rectum, the last part of your colon, and then moves back into the rest of the colon.

Diarrhoea is caused by inflammation and the diarrhoea can be uncontrollable. The inflammation kills the cells lining the colon, the dead cells leave an open sore, an ulcer, resulting in bleeding. The ulcer can become infected causing pus and mucus.

Ulcerative colitis usually starts in the range of about 15 to 30 years of age. It doesn’t seem to have any sexist tendencies and affects both female and male equally. There has been a discussion that it’s hereditary because it runs in families. There have been no DNA studies demonstrating any link. The problem with automatically linking hereditary, as genetic hereditary, just because it runs in the family, is that the environment that the family lives in is generally the same for the entire family.

There are so many shared experiences that are a family it is impossible to link genetic hereditary with a condition that “runs in the family.”

For me, this points to lifestyle. The entire family have the same lifestyle, they eat the same food, they have the parents (mother’s influence) regarding cleanliness and the list goes on.

Recommended reading

1. Ulcerative colitis – Symptoms
2. Ulcerative colitis – Diagnosis
3. Ulcerative colitis – Conventional Treatment
4. Ulcerative colitis – Safe Long Term Treatment