I don't get how this is autoimmune +

There was an article posted on another thread that showed that UC was communicable to some degree in lab rats.
Not a smoking gun but still...

It could be multi-faceted: bacteria, antibiotics allowing UC more easily, food sources, you name it.

Alba, I'll check out those articles later.... but I read in an article a few months ago that our gut bacteria (if healthy) are acclimated to where we live, and when we move around the planet, new exposures (food, pathogens, etc) can upset the balance in some individuals. That's an oversimplification, but... I'll try to find it; I may have put it in the sticky thread at the top, where articles can be posted.

Kazbern brings up a point in his last sentence that I'm always wondering about. How underreported is IBD in developing nations? It can be hard enough to diagnose in developed nations. Is it possible that the IBD population is simply masked, at least partially, by the larger portion of the population that suffers similar symptoms due to factors such as a lack of potable drinking water? I've never actually seen the research that shows IBD is less prevalent in developing countries so I don't know how they came up with their numbers. Still, I agree that it seems there are a lot more factors affecting pathogenesis of IBD than the medical community currently understands.

edit for typo

Post Edited (Slight) : 1/20/2011 11:20:36 AM (GMT-7)

Part of the problem could be all of the processed food that is eaten in developed countries. I know many UC sufferers claim that cutting down on processed foods has helped keep their flares in check.

i have a hard time with the "food doesn't cause it" things. When noone knows the cause of something, its hard to say for sure that something DOESN'T cause it. And i know when i was sick, the wrong food could send me into some serious trouble, and a course of antibiotics and i was in the hosptial.
As for the developing countries thing, i think, in some aspects people are much healthier in those countries. They tend to eat fresher foods and they get more exercise. And they don't have all the "germ killers" we have, so their bodies get used to it.
Like how children from poorer families and ethnic groups are less likely to get food allergies, because they are fed many different foods at one time, often just smashed up table food. Their bodies get used to the food faster.

Years ago i read this study of some asian women, who were studied in their home country, and were wonderfully healthy, they moved here and within a few years had blood pressure problems, had gained weight, had less energy, just more general health problems.

no reason to "mock" anyone's thought's! I think the point you were making summer is valid.
LESS IS MORE IN MOST OF THOSE PLACES. I really think people like us, living in developed
countries have created most of the disease's which are killing us. WE are the reason our food chain
has become so screwed up, thanks to how much we have allowed it to be altered. Forgive me
in advance for saying this but how many people in "developed" countries would have been lost
if not for processing (foods, veggies, water etc.) BUT it's worth a thought to wonder how many could
have lived had they not been exposed to processed. Everyday we hear more & more about how what
a person eats has a direct effect on their overall health. Now, why did it take a chronic disease to teach
me that!!!!!!!

yes fresher food, the kill their own chickens, gather the eggs themselves, milk their own cows or goats. Grow their own fruits and vegetables, without the chemicals. So yeah thats fresher.

I think overpopulation and greed has caused the degredation of the food supply. Feed lots need to exist or we wouldn't be able to feed all of these people for a reasonable price. Until people step up and stop buying the low cost chicken/eggs/beef/milk, the quality will continue to decrease. The population will continue to grow - the quality of food will continue to go down. Less people have money, that means more people are looking for the lowest cost possible which means lower quality foods. Means restaurants serve us sick animals, fed food they shouldn't eat, pumped with hormones and antibiotics, fattened up to the point of being unable to walk before being slaughtered. Pretty disturbing but how can we stop overpopulation in a world where we are taught that family is the only thing that we should strive for?

I think the food supply in this country is generally "sick" but I doubt it has much to do with my developing UC. I guess it is possible it did but I still seem to attribute it to an unidentified bug that I somehow acquired. Hopefully someday they know more.

Maybe my head is twisted because I have seen feed lots first hand. It's not pretty.

Quincy has been totally misunderstood by some posters.

MOST of the poor in developing countries, actually DO have to eat scraps of what we would call garbage, and have virtually NO sanitation. Their life span is so short because of the myriad of diseases they suffer, much worse that UC with very little medical help.

Forget this fanciful notion that they all own livestock and live simple lives eating fresh meat and vegetables.

People who think this are ignorant, and I suspect that denying reality somehow makes them feel better.

Quincy was telling it like it is. Get over it.

quincy said...
fresher food? I guess some shopping at the local garbage dump classifies as fresh. Oh, maybe it's the feces and urine in the local water supply or outside the front door?

I traveled throughout China in late 1979, early 1980. I lived in Hong Kong and Taiwan from 1990 to 2000.

The original poster stated Hispanic and Asian people. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China are in Asia and therefore qualify.

I find Quincy's comment extremely offensive. People in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are so sanitary that they will even wear masks outside when they have a cold so as not to expose others to their germs. They wear gloves when handling food. They boil their water before drinking it, even though it looks and smells perfectly safe. They don't shake hands when greeting people (unless greeting people from the US). They have clean bathrooms. They certainly don't shop at a garbage dump. In fact, they have so little trash compared to people in the US that they don't even have much of a garbage dump.

And guess what, Asia is becoming more industrialized, and "ulcerative colitis is increasing in many parts of Asia with gender distribution and age of diagnosis similar to the West."

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=22549937

Oh. Yes. And I never had to worry about where my meat was coming from in Asia. Of course, this was in the 1990s. I don't know how much of their food processing has become "modernized" since then.

Post Edited (subdued) : 1/22/2011 10:00:01 PM (GMT-7)

I'm not suggesting that all people in third world countries live wonderful lives, nor that UC is purely a food based problem.
What people in third world countries DON'T eat is McDonald's or meat stuffed with steroids, or processed food and high fructose corn syrup.
They also don't have, antibiotics which gives their bodies a chance to develop it's own antibodies against things, the natural way.

If something we are eating causes UC, wouldn't someone have been able to figure that out? I personally have never met anyone or heard of anyone who cured their own colitis without having their colon removed.
My husband and I have the same lifestyle and eat the same food. Why is he perfectly healthy and I have UC?? I just don't think there is a food connection to this disease.

Also, my cousin and I both have colitis. We were both diagnosed with UC after we quit smoking cigarettes. We do something to help the health of our bodies and we get colitis! What is up with that!?