Something in the water?

So, I'm new here. Hi everyone.

Anyway, over the years I've formed some theories, questions, the like. I was a healthy, robust kid. Energetic. I got sick when I was 12, and didn't get better (there was stress involved in the onset of the Crohn's, but that's a different part of the theory). After I was diagnosed and set on the road to remission, my parents suggested that I go to a CD/UC support group for kids/teens. I'm not a huge fan of support groups like that, but what the heck. So during this group we get up and introduce ourselves, names, ages, what school we go to...and one of the boys a few seats down from me goes to the rival junior high. We live in the same town. Interesting, but I didn't think much of it. As a high school freshman I flare again, and I'm roomed with a girl a year younger than me. How convenient. It turns out she's from the next town over, and she'll be going to the same high school when she graduates from 8th grade...Ok. So I find out in school that along with my roommate and the boy from the support (who now went to the same high school), that there are 4 other teens at the SAME school all with CD (one case of UC). The school is fairly big - 2000 students total, but not a huge school. As a junior in high school my family moved - 20 miles west of where we had been living. And not a soul at my new school had heard of CD, let alone seen anyone with it.

So my question to all of you: Are you the only one in your area with CD, or do you know numerous people with it?

Along with all the other possibilities for people having CD, is it possible that there's an environmental factor - something in the water, so to speak?

There is actually another lady I work with that has Colitis so she can totally relate to me and my CD. Back in school I don't know anyone who had CD. If they did, they didn't share. I didn't know I had it back then anyway. It was later after I started the work force that I came down with it.

Here is a link to a thread that is close to what you are talking about.

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=1235422

It is in the UC forum, but I believe there is a similar thread with a different discussion to it here on the Crohn's forum.

One of the more interesting things I've done is to do a google search of Crohn's and UC, and the number of articles that come up is amazing. Everything from straight up descriptions of the disease, to the so-called diet 'cures', to research articles, to articles that describe possible causes. It is important to remember when reading some of this stuff, that a lot of the articles are trying to persuade to you buy into their philosophy. Just because someone can quote a research study doesn't mean that that study is real, or they aren't misrepresenting findings.
Have some fun researching, and let us know what kind of conclusion you come to.

Interesting theories are all over.......It really makes you wonder. We are originally from a very small town in NY. I know of at least a dozen people with colitis or crohn's from there. We moved to the south 12 yrs ago to a very populated area. I don't know as many people here as in my hometown so maybe there are more here and I'm just not aware. I've been reading all kinds of things and most seem to say that it really needs to be a perfect storm so to speak to contract either?!

Kimberlayn, I think you are correct about the condition being diagnosed more now than before. But it is still mainly an industrialized country phenomena. People in third-world countries are either not getting diagnosed, or their bodies are so used to fighting off bacteria that they aren't as affected by things as we are. There is a theory floating around that because of our germ-free, anti-bacterial, clean freak lifestyle in the US (among other countries) it actually contributes to our getting sick! Years ago, when people weren't as concerned about regular household germs, I don't remember kids getting sick all the time. Think all the stuff that got put into your mouth when you were a baby, and then think about the reaction you'd have if you saw one of your own children putting it in their mouth. We've become so paranoid about germs and disinfecting stuff that our bodies are not as well adapted to fight off pathogens as they once were. I'm not against cleanliness or keeping things relatively germ free, but when someone feels they have to wipe their shopping cart down with an anti-bacterial wipe, making sure every inch of surface material is sterile before they will let their kids sit in it, that is taking things a little too far to me.

And I'd like to repeat: the majority of public water systems that treat water, and disinfect it prior to it being distributed to consumers are not the cause of epidemics, except in very rare cases. Most community health problems due to the water come from places that are using well water that is not required to be disinfected or ran through a treatment system. Lots of people will disagree with me on this, but it is the truth...99% of our countries tap water that uses surface water as a source is safe, and free of contaminants and pathogens.

What I've lived has completely contradicted Brandon's post, not that I'm saying it's wrong, it's just not what I've seen - for CD at least. My husband was one of those who was made to wash his hands non-stop, lived in a very clean environment, now every winter he's sick the majority of the time. I've lost count of how many boxes of tissues we go through each season. But I was one who played in the dirt, rarely washed my hands (unless they obviously needed it), stuff like that. I was healthy, I still am - aside from the CD. I can count on my hands the times that I've been sick with something that wasn't CD related in the last 13 years. Also, I grew up in a populated place, with city water. This is where all the kids were sick. When we moved, it was out to (what I felt at the time) the middle of nowhere, with a corn field in our back yard. And well water. And no one out here has even heard of CD. Bizarre, right? Goes against anything that you would expect to see.

Persephone - Actually, you validated what I was saying. Your husband, who was constantly keeping his body from getting infected somehow lowered his immune response and now he gets ill easier. You, who played in the dirt and was constantly exposing yourself to bacteria have been able to build up a tolerance and defense and therefore don't sick as easily.

I think that my previous statement about community water systems was open to misinterpretation. You stating that kids were always getting sick in the city doesn't prove it was the water. When I was talking about "epidemics" I meant big things that can be directly linked to water such as giardia, typhoid, cryptosporidium, etc. Other ailments like CD, UC, common colds, flu, etc aren't waterborne. CD and UC might be by-products of a bacterial infection, but that in no way proves it was a water-borne bacteria. Colds and flu and such are airborne, or passed from one to another through personal contact, again, not the water.

The reason I say that well water is more prone to bad things is that underground aquifers are assumed to be good, pure sources of water. The monitoring of well water for pathogens is not nearly as stringent as the monitoring requirements for surface water. Plus, many people use personal wells, which are less monitored than a community system. When a public utility is responsible for providing safe water for the community, they are under restrictions and testing guidelines. Someone with a well in their backyard is required to do no testing unless they want to. Whole communities with well water aren't necessarily being provided by a utility...everyone could be using personally monitored wells. And while unlikely, the common aquifer for everyone could be contaminated with something that isn't routinely tested for. It is impossible to test for everything, and many tests are extremely expensive, so if no one thinks there is a reason to test for a particular substance, it won't be tested for.

pb4 said that she thinks a person is genetically predisposed to getting UC or Crohn's after a bacterial infection, and I agree with her completely. But that initial bacterial infection could be from anywhere. My case of UC was diagnosed after a c diff infection (I was exposed to the c diff at a nursing home that I was volunteering at), but I began to show symptoms of the UC years before after I had a giardia infection (that I acquired after a rafting trip where I ended up unintentionally drinking some untreated water). There are other members of my family that have GI problems, my father having been dxed with proci***, other members with IBS like symptoms. The difference is they haven't been exposed to the bad bacteria I have been, or they did not get ill enough from their exposures to require the use of antibiotics.

I wasn't validating it, really. You were saying that because we live in an industrialized country we live in cleaner conditions, some cleaner than others, and because of that the cleaner people are more pre-disposed to getting diseases - including CD. I agree that it doesn't give our immune systems the workout they need, and therefore people are more likely to get sick, but I don't think that that includes diseases like CD. The reason that more people in industrialized countries have these diseases (things like CD, not colds) is because we have the healthcare to save people who in the third-world countries would be dead - which includes me. And then these people who have genetic diseases (knowingly or not) have children who either are carriers or have the disease themselves...and it carries on from there.

stress and the over-processed/unhealthy diet that is eaten...true for triggers (in my opinion) but still one must be predisposed to getting IBD in the first place.

:)