Yesterday I blogged about Darren Fletcher, the Manchester United and Scotland footballer who has been diagnosed with colitis yet had in fact been suffering from the disease for about one year. It appears he had a first attack, fell into remission then the symptoms have reared their ugly head again. So why the colitis relapse?

I read a quote from him and he makes a very, very important point about this relapse. He admits that after the first attack had calmed down through the use of medication and rest “I was lying in my bed for two weeks” (well done) he got back on his feet and came back to train and play professional football (soccer).

He pushed himself mentally and physically as any top football player has to and played very high level games, even when he was starting to feel the beginning of a relapse.

Ulecrative colitis just loves those that think they can (or are advised that they can) just carry on with their lives once the first attack has been brought under control and then disappears. The symptoms may have disappeared but the disease has not. If you do not give yourself enough time to rest and very slowly bring yourself back into everyday life (yet still be very cautious about the degree of physical and mental stress you place yourself under) then trouble could well be just around the corner.

Darren admits his devotion to his club and country and love of the game pushed him to make sacrifices that he now knows were wrong.

So please do not make the same mistake. Take your time in recovering from a colitis relapse. I made the same mistake in going back to work too soon (the consultant said “yes get back to work it will do you good”…what shockingly bad advice) as within a few months I was back sitting on the toilet in real pain.

To find out exactly how I managed my years of ulcerative colitis, all the info is included in “The 27 Most Wanted Colitis Answers” the reference I wrote detailing everything you need to know for how to live with colitis. For more info go now to how to live with colitis

So what happened to the ultra fit, ultra healthy professional footballer? If it can happen to him…

About one year ago he started to feel unwell and thought that he had caught some virus. This was confirmed by his club. He missed part of the season through being laid low by this “virus” but returned towards the end of last season. He undertook a preseason training programme and started to play again this season.

We even was playing for Scotland only four weeks ago. After that he was not picked for Man Utd.

It all fits into a classic colitis scenario. His introduction to the disease may well have been mild, feeling tired, some discomfort in the bowel, some diarrhoea but took some rest and managed to get over it and back on his feet.

Colitis, though, often has other thoughts and can hit hard when it is not respected. Not knowing what he was actually suffering from (it wasn’t a virus) or whether he thought he could try and get over it and back into normal life, the disease has caught up with him now.

He has been officially diagnosed and will be out of the team for sometime. If it is a full blown relapse then it could well be towards the end of the season when he returns. But being a professional footballer with the fitness level required, it may not be until next season.

So what should anyone do when they think they have a “virus” but a few or all of the following symptoms are showing:slight burning sensation in the bowel including some discomfort, tiredness, excessive diarrhoea, passing even a little blood, little appetite, walking or movement brings on uncomfortable feeling in bowel and need to go to the toilet?

Get to your doctor fast, get a blood test and get a diagnosis. It could be inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS) but again it could very well be the start of ulcerative colitis.

For more in depth info about how to live with ulcerative colitis then get my FREE package “The Colitis Toolbox” which will give you the starter info you need to enusre you know what to do if you are diagnosed” Click on living with ulcerative colitis

And did they have ulcerative colitis in the first place rather than irritible bowel syndrome or disease? Be wary of those that appraoch bearing what is thought of as helpful advice.

The diagnosis of colitis must be definitely determined first of all. Whilst the advice may be of interest there is a lot of information that is probably still lurking in the dark never to be brought out into the public domain. Was the large colon only affected by inflammation towards the end of it, namely proctitis, or is there more extensive evidence of inflammation.

Thier guess as to the extent is certainly not a worthwhile guide to treatment. Neither a good guess nor anything short of divine intuition will take the place of a thorough physical examination and a carefully thought out diagnosis by your doctor or hospital consultant.

Here is a little advice…Avoid these people at all costs. If you can’t, just smile and thank them for their “invaluable” advice.

If it was all as simple as some think, it would be easy to find the all singing, all dancing definitive guide to a colitis rememdy that will eliminate pain and discomfort or avoiding the surgeon’s knife for those diagnosed with colitis.

So, no-one has the all singing, all dancing colitis symptoms remedy. If we go one stage further a hear of a cure being proclaimed from a seemingly innocent sole, it is most probably relating to the relief attained from eliminating certain foodstuffs from the diet, which results in a reduction of a colitis symptom. Don’t get this confused with a cure for colitis. By all means seek relief from symptoms, yet the underlying problem of having being diagnosed with colitis remains.

For more information about living with colitis and attaining remedies for symptoms that work for you, then go now to living with ulcerative colitis

So is there anything in the beliefs that if you are diagnosed with colitis at a later stage of life your expereince will be less severe compared to a diagnosis say in late teens or early twenties?

There was some research undertaken that found various age groups had similar disease extent and severity of symptoms at diagnosis. A year after the diagnosis, those in the late-onset group were more likely to have steroid-free clinical remission (64 versus 49 percent). Of those who needed systemic steroid therapy, the late-onset patients were also more likely to have steroid-free remission by one year (50 versus 32 percent). Former smoking status was a more common risk factor among those in the late-onset group, though positive family history was more common in the early-onset group.

An interesting thought to emerge from this is to bring some aspect of diet/lifestyle into the equation. As there is a much greater preponderance of colitis in the Western world in comparison to the East and Africa, there is scientific theories that some aspect or aspects of Western lifestyle could be a contributory factor. Also, as people in the East, and in particular the younger generation, embrace a western lifestyle including diet are they leaving themselves open to a higher risk of being diagnosed with colitis.

So…can this thought follow and be used to suggest that those of an older age are not so embracing of the younger western lifestyle and therefore, when diagnosed with colitis, are able to respond better to treatment and enjoy a better chance of getting back into remission and staying there, steriod free than the younger generation?

It is a thought that perhaps requires more looking into.

For more information on your colitis diagnosis and how to adapt to living with colitis, the free Colitis Toolkit is full of help for you to use. Go now to ===>colitis diagnosis

I can’t underline that fact of the importance of keeping stress under control for better colitis management. So how can you go about trying to ensure that the stress you inflict on yourslef, both physically and mentall is kept to a minimum? Read on for a few powerful tips.

•Practice deep breathing exercises and use deep breathing whenever you feel stress or anxiety.
•Exercise regularly. Aerobic exercise can help diminish stress.
•Meditation and yoga are both tremendously helpful for minimizing stress.
•Spend time outside. Not only does being out in the sunshine help defeat stress, but it also helps your body produce much-needed Vitamin D, which also contributes to better stress management.
•When you feel stressed out, stand up, stretch, walk around, and massage your hands

I would recommend the resource How To Reduce Stress and Anxiety that is part of the colitis package your receive with “The 27 Most Wanted Colitis Answers” colitis package as it has very effective methods or both recognising and reducing the levels of stress that everyone can face during daily life plus how to ensure major life stress scenarios are dealt with to mitigate their effect on colitis.

Go to reducing stress for colitis now

“The majority of sufferers tend to fall into the pattern of first attack then a period of remission (this can last for a period of months to years) before another attack. A few unfortunately have continuous symptoms that can be controlled to an extent with medication and lifestyle choices. During periods of remission your health will most likely be back to normal so don’t alarm yourself that you will never gain a degree of good health again.

At the beginning of the first attack, the first and only aspect on your mind, once you have consulted your doctor, should be your own wellbeing. Everything else in life now comes secondary. It may well be hard to accept, even appreciate at the beginning of your first attack, but you will need all your strength and determination to enable you to get through the worst period that is coming and ensure your rehabilitation back to health is as soon as possible.

If you are to have anything like an average to a full attack, you simply won’t be physically able to conduct your usual daily activities. This means that if you work, you are going to have to inform your place of work that you will not be able to attend for a period of time. Your social life outside your home will stop and even daily life in your home will have to change. Your family or other house members will have to do the jobs that you did. In fact, you should do absolutely nothing apart from concentrating on steering yourself through this illness.

There are differing experiences of this and everyone is different, but for a normal attack of colitis, you should probably be accepting to the fact that you will be off work for perhaps one month. This can differ depending on severity of the attack. Your condition will worsen for a period, then the medication that your doctor provides will slowly take its effect on the colitis and you will then benefit from a slow improvement.

Once you feel you are getting better, you will not be able to jump into your daily activities again because you will be tired and possibly rather weak. It will take time to start building yourself up because you will not have been eating as normal for a period of weeks. Even once you are back to work, it is not like that a switch can be flicked and you are back into the routine, full of vigour. It takes time, you must be realistic of what you are capable of doing and in no way should you be pushing yourself. You must take time to understand this rehab process or you could be heading straight back into trouble.

For more information of how to approach a coliti relapse go now and get my free Colitis Toolkit at having a colitis relapse

Now, the medical profession are undertaking research on the effects of many different aspects of diet and ulcerative colitis and at the present time there is no conculsive proof pertaining to olive oil and how it can mitigate against colitis. I have had a few members comment to me about the use of olive oil and whilst I have written about it before here is some latest info.

Here is a statement from the University of East Anglia’s School of Medicine. “Oleic acid (which is present in olive oil), seems to help prevent the development of colitis by blocking chemicals in the bowel that aggreviate the inflammation found in the illness. We estimate that around half the cases of UC could be prevented if larger amounts of oleic acid were consumed. Two to three tablespoons of olive oil per day would have a protective effects.”

That is quite a statement and would probably find a knowledgeable nod of the head from an older generation that would remeber beinging force fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day “to keep the bugs away”.

Commenting on such findings, a medical editor of a health newsletter stated that “…to suggest that supplementing the diet with olive oil might prevent half of colitis cases is contoversial. If this were true, it might be expected that rates of colitis in countries with a diet rich in olive oil would be much lower than other countries. With all studies such as these, finding an association between two things does not mean that one is responsible for the other. In addition, if real, the protective effect of oleic acid against developing the disease is not the same as using oleic acid to treat the disease. This needs to be backed up by further studies.”

So to sum up, ask yourself whether olive oil plays a detrimental role in your diet by way of a reaction. If not, then the health benefits certainly indicate that you should have it as a mainstay and as a bonus if it does benefit reducing the causes of inflammation in the bowel then that is something to acknowledge and be grateful for.

Don’t miss out on further help with your ulcerative colitis diet with the Colitis Toolbox which is fileld with valuable help about living with colitis. Go now to diet for ulcerative colitis

Only a small percentage of all those diagnosed with the disease have to ultimately undergo the surgical processes and they can be grouped into different categories depending on the extent of their colitis and how it affects their life.

The standard surgical procedure for colitis will involve the removal of the entire large colon and this will also include the complete removal of the rectum as well. It has to be understood and acknowledged that such an operation is the only permanent cure available for colitis. Whilst the sufferer may have come across many so called cures, whilst some may reduce the symptoms they will never actually cure the disease.

So which people who have been diagnosed with colitis are most at risk of having to consider surgery? The first group will be those who suffer from fulminant colitis, where the extent of the inflammation affects over half of the entire large colon.

Whilst remission is possible with such extensive coverage, when a relapse happens the symptoms are severe and there are cases when they do not respond sufficiently to medications. At this point, the colitis can appear out of control and the only solution is surgery as there can be a further danger of perforation of the bowel occurring.

A second grouping of colitis sufferers who could face the prospect of surgery is those with long standing pancolitis or left-sided colitis, which describes the area of the bowel leading down to the rectum. Again, the symptoms may not be able to be brought under control or the sufferer has over a period of time be unable to attain a satisfactory amount of time in remission.

Someone diagnosed with this extent of colitis will also face an increased risk of developing colon cancers. The removal of the entire large colon is important when precancerous changes are detected in the colon lining.

There is a third group that can also face the prospect of surgery for colitis. These are people who have not been able to gain much respite from colitis symptoms. Whilst the extent of the inflammation can be quite small, there are some who just cannot bring symptoms under control and live in such a state for several years.

Lifestyle, diet and medications have all been trialled and tested but to no avail. In order to achieve a quality of life that resembles the norm, many chose the surgery option to rid themselves of colitis for good. Life does change when surgery happens, but at least these patients can look forward to a less painful and more normal and active life ahead.

It can either be a considered decision to opt to have surgery for colitis to bring some kind of normality back to a life for those that have moderate yet continuous symptoms or the decision to have surgery can be forced upon the patient due to symptoms being out of control and unresponsive to the treatment.

Whatever the reason for surgery for colitis, it is a life changing event that, whilst bringing its own challenges in the immediate aftermath and requiring the need to alter daily habits for the remaining lifetime, it can offer welcome respite from the painful grip that colitis has over so many sufferers.

To find out more about surgery for colitis go now to The 27 Most Wanted Colitis Answers where you will find out how to live with colitis and how to face up to having surgery. It’s at surgery for colitis

Foods that cause inflammation include what most people think of as fun food or comfort foods, such as sugar-laden treats, refined white foods and fried foods. They are the ones that break down quickly into sugar.

Sugar is inflammatory so it needs to be avoided completely. Limit your bread and cracker intake, and when you do eat these foods, make sure they are pure whole grain. Eat brown rice, not white rice. Corn and potatoes have a high glycemic index, meaning they break down into sugar quickly, so they should be eaten in moderation.

Healthy snacks should be the order of the day such as fruit. For drinks, unsweetened iced tea with lemon is a great alternative to fizzy or sugar-laden drinks. Sparkling water is another option but don’t overdo the bubbles. Still water should also be the more prefferd option. Yes you can have fruit juice but watch the amounts you drink due to the natural sugare and the amount of acid. option.

If chronic inflammation is a problem, I encourage you to eat like this for two to three months. After that, you can evaluate how much sugar and refined food you want to add back in. I believe that you will notice enough of a difference that will help you to curb those poor eating habits in the future.”

As always, it is a chance for trial and error, test and refine and find what works best for you. And when really strong symptoms are being experienced, it is often better to virtually not eat solids at all and rely on medicated drinks.

To find out more about a diet for ulcerative colitis, sign up now and get your free Colitis Toolbox which includes lots of free references for you to start taking control of living with colitis. Go now to diet for ulcerative coltiis

While we can have genetic predispositions to most diseases, how we live and what we put in our bodies can cause the scales to tip and determine whether we then suffer from illness and disease.

It is a fact, a miracle in fact but your body fights to be well. It works hard every day at balancing the damage that takes place from internal and external factors. But if it doesn’t have enough tools to work with or if processes such as inflammation run amok, then it has trouble staying in balance. That’s when symptoms and problems arise.

Where does inflammation come from? As newborns, we come into this world with relatively few inflammatory factors. As we age, our bodies naturally create inflammatory factors within the immune system. They are part of the body’s natural defence system.

The downfall comes when the creation of these naturally produced chemicals runs rampant. The creation of one can lead to the creation of another, and another until the system gets overwhelmed. If a body has an excessive amount of these chemicals and it reaches the threshold where it can’t keep up, the effect can be damaging. The remedies of good nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, antioxidants from food and supplements can help keep inflammation at bay.

Foods we need to include in our diet are fresh vegetables and fruits. This isn’t anything you haven’t heard before. These foods are full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which are the tools the body needs. Antioxidants in particular are the components needed to keep inflammation down plus anti-inflammatory oils. That includes omega-3 fatty acids found in fish such as fresh salmon. Taking a quality fish-oil supplement can ensure that you are getting enough.

Arachidonic acid is a type of fat that is very important but is inflammatory, so too much is not a good thing. It’s found in animal products such as egg yolks and chicken. For the basic amino acids the body needs to function well, be sure to get adequate amounts of protein. Beans, nuts, fish and turkey breast are good sources.

For more info about your summer diet for colitis, go now and get my free Colitis Toolbox where you will find lots of additional colitis diet help plus other info to help you live with colitis. Go now to ulcerative colitis diet