The Colitis Experience

When someone gets diagnosed with any medical condition or disease, they will naturally want to know what caused it, why it has happened and if it was something that they had no control over or whether it maybe attributable to perhaps their lifestyle. Unfortunately, the causes of colitis do not fit neatly into any specific category for the simple reason that the medical profession does not have an exact answer.

There are many theories as to the causes and some proclaim to offer a miracle cure by undertaken “easy steps” but the truth of the matter is that there is no know reason why the disease occurs and subsequently, there is no medically acknowledged cure for it. Medications are available to manage the condition for sufferers whether the condition is mild or fierce and such issues as diet can be used to try and reduce the symptoms yet often such actions are seen by some as proven cures.

Take the use of a specially devised colitis diet for example. Some people have been drawn to attractive claims to follow a specific diet by eating such foods and eliminating others and very soon their colitis is “cured”. Yet there is a requirement to ask if the “sufferer” had in fact colitis in the first place. It could well be that they had instead the condition of inflammatory bowel syndrome which can produce symptoms not unlike colitis but in a much milder form and can be controlled by diet. Others who do have colitis and are maybe suffering a mild form, can use a diet involving the avoidance of specific foods that do have a profound effect on bowel activity. The symptoms may reduce or disappear but that does not mean the person is cured of colitis. It merely suggests that the person was intolerant to such specific foods.

Another common misconception is that high levels of stress perhaps over a period of time can be one of the so called causes of colitis. This again jumps to conclusions that are not supported by medical evidence. A period of stress can have many effects on the body and there are many different reactions. Often, a person’s bowel can be a weak point, evidenced by a healthy person having to go to the toilet when in an exceedingly nervous and stressful situation. An attack of colitis can appear during or after a period of high stress but that does not mean stress is the cause. The conditions for colitis may already have developed and a period of stress maybe the trigger for it to appear. 

Whatever the cause or causes of colitis are, and there has been some encouraging medical research undertaken recently, when it does occur it is a very worrying time for the sufferer. The secret to managing the condition is to understand the changes in the bowel and the resultant outcome. One of the great fears of being diagnosed with colitis is the unknown, the thought of what change to life will occur, how one will cope daily and whether the disease will be able to be controlled or whether the person will be at the mercy of it. It is only by using the experience of others that the newly diagnosed patient will be able to live their life without many of these anxieties.