Ulcerative Colitis

What is Ulcerative Colitis?

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disorder where severe inflammation occurs in the colon and rectum and causes severe pain or discomfort for sufferers. Inflammation is triggered as part of the body’s natural digestive process with the immune system thinking that food particles or even nutrients are foreign intruders in the body. White blood cells are activated, and the lining of the colon becomes irritated as the cells attack tissue.

There are different types of ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative proctitis is the mildest version of this disorder and only involves inflammation in the rectum. Proctosigmoiditis is worse for most people and the inflammation will be in the lower colon too and causing more in the way of undesirable symptoms.

Left-sided colitis is cramps that only occur on the left side of the belly. Both pancolitis and acute severe colitis affect the entire colon and will cause severe gastrointestinal maladies. Ulcerative colitis usually affects either young people between the ages of 15 and 30, or older people over 60 and people of certain ethnicities have a higher chance of it.

What Causes Ulcerative Colitis?

Many people who develop ulcerative colitis will do so because they have a genetic predisposition for it, meaning that it runs in their family and predecessors will also have had the disorder. People who are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent are also known to be more at risk of ulcerative colitis. The inflammatory response that is at the root of it is the same as it for other conditions in the body caused by inflammation, but with ulcerative colitis it can be made worse when certain types of food are present in the tract and being digested.

Ulcerative Colitis Symptoms

There is no shortage of symptoms that a person may be suffering with if they have ulcerative colitis, and lower belly pain, losing control of the bowel, and pain or bleeding from the rectum are among the worst of them. Other ulcerative colitis symptoms may include:

           
• Tiredness
           
• Dehydration
           
• Fever
           
• Joint pain or soreness
           
• Canker sores
           
• Bright light sensitivity
           
• Anemia (low red blood cell count)
           
• Skin sores
           
• Inability to empty colon
           
• More urges to defecate during overnight hours
       

Some symptoms may disappear for long stretches of time before sufferers suddenly start to experience them again when they have ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative Colitis Treatment

The most conventional approach to ulcerative colitis treatment is have the person on 5-ASA (amino salicylic acid derivative) medications like Colazal or Lialda that will suppress the inflammatory response so that the lining of the colon is not affected to nearly the same extent. For some patients using a suppository or an enema can be a good supplementary approach to treatment.

Corticosteroids may be prescribed if 5-ASA medications do not provide sufficient relief, and the same may be true for immunomodulator medications that can reorient the body’s immune system response, so it is not as focused on attacking normal cell tissue in the digestive tract. JAK (janus kinase inhibitors) may be suggested too to maintain a remission in ulcerative colitis.

In rarer instances surgery for ulcerative colitis may be required, including colectomy (removal of the colon) or proctocolectomy (removal of the rectum). Fortunately, these types of major surgeries are not required for the vast majority of colitis treatment cases and medication use and diet restrictions are all that’s required to manage ulcerative colitis effectively.