What do you believe caused your UC

Trying to figure out if there is anything in common.

Quite smoking 1977,UC proctitis 1980 ate SAD.

Other possibles causes,Korea 1971 in the Army got a 2 week case of the runs,felt something tare burned for 3 days then stopped.  Many shots in the army,for every disease they had a vaccine for.

Came back to usa 1972 emergency surgery for rectal abscess,healed then turned into fistula's had for years.

Dated girl with Crohn's arouind same time.

Shook hands with Eisenhower when I was two, he had Crohn's.

Grandparents on one side eastern europe,other side english,irish,welsh mix.

Oh yea almost forgot,my father was a house painter,I cleaned his brushes and rollers from about 12-18,years old.

I was soaked in paint thinner,and back then probably a lot of lead based paint.

Plus I was a lubricant chemist,so handled mineral oils for the past 35 years.

My son 2000, lost colon to UC rescue meds,no effect. He was 21 SAD with a lot of meat.

When he was 16 my other son had strep,son who lost colon came down with a case of Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) right then I thought his immune

sys might be a problem.  To bad I was right.

http://www.medicinenet.com/henoch-schonlein_purpura/article.htm

Just prior to his UC for acne,he was on tetracycline and isotrentonin cream.

This is also of course a link.

You guys probably have not much in common with what I have said but would be interesing to see

if others have anything in common. 

Old Mike

 

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 2/20/2013 5:34:06 AM (GMT-7)

wodin: I know quitting smoking is quite connected to UC.
I have even tried shewing tobbaco to get extra. Did not put me into remission.
Starting smoking in 1982 put me into remission until 1986 when I only quit for two weeks,
still in the same flare since 1986.
Old Mike

Antibiotic abuse. Severe tonsillitis forced me to be on antibiotics for more than a year (two weeks on, two weeks off,) since I was about 2-years-old.
I always had problems with getting ill. And I was always put on antibiotics.

Very interesting Old Mike, sounds like a lot of environmental factors in your case.

I would attribute my UC to stress (since I was 13 or so) and the SAD.

Also smoking marijuana repetitively for 1 year and a half, supressing my immune system and allowing pathogens/bacteria in, then trying a party drug which caused alot of anxiety/stress in college, followed by UC symptoms.

Stereo you think smoking pot caused your UC? Most people think it helps symptoms.

Quit smoking in 2010. First flare in late 2011.
I was on a LOT of antibiotics and took a drug for my migraines.
Took a LOT of NSAIDS.
Had a root canal in 2010 and again last year on the same tooth.
Started raw vegan a year ago.

Always ate mostly vegetarian and very healthy, exercised, etc.

Grandfather died of colon cancer. Grandparents Eastern European . Read somewhere that being of the Jewish heritage and Eastern European decent increased your percentage OF getting some type of IBD. Especially UC. I got screwed somewhere in that mix!

My UC started while I was in the hospital for what was later diagnosed as Mono. There is a lot of info connecting Epstein Barr infections to UC and other autoimmune diseases, although this is probably not the cause in most people. While in the hospital they did not know what was wrong with me but were leaning toward a really bad sinus infection so they gave me lots of antibiotics so that is a small possibility, although from what I understand, if antibiotics are the cause of Colitis it is usually because they allow you to catch nasty bacterial infections such as C-Diff. Since I was checked for all of those and all of the tests came back negative, I'm about 100% sure the cause of mine is the EBV infection. There is evidence that the EBV has been found in the colons of several UC patients. Unfortunately, there is no known way to irradicate the EBV from your body so, if I am correct, I have a long road to hoe.

Quit smoking in '07 after 35 years then BANG! pancolitis in 2011. Also took alot of Motrin like 600mg around the clock for at least 5 years for arthritis pain which I believe had something to do with my gastrointestinal disturbance.

Mom and maternal grandmother both had/have diverticulitis.

I had antibiotics for ear infections as a child, don't know how many times.

Grew up on the SAD. Ate a lot of processed foods when I moved out on my own.

Have lived in a cool, damp climate for the last 10 years, constantly losing the mildew battle in our books and anything that sits still for too long in our house.

I believe all of this could have predisposed me to UC.

I strongly believe that my trigger was 7.5 years ago, getting a Rhogam shot during my first pregnancy. I was healthy before the shot and after the shot I started getting the pencil shaped stool with blood. My OB assured me this was just from internal hemrrhoids. Not having a diagnosis of UC (and not really feeling sick) I was also given antibiotics during the labor and was told to take ibuprofen (which i did for maybe 4 days and felt really strange each time.... Weak, short of breath and then I would have D and feel better) for pain after the birth, even though my OB knew I was still bleeding rectally. Things just continued to get much worse until I finally got a diagnosis and got on some meds.

Edited to add:
The rhogam shot is given to Rh- mothers routinely in the US in case baby is Rh+ and to prevent mom's body from attacking baby's blood. The shot directly affects the mother's immune system. Now that I know better, I refuse the shot and test my blood for antibodies after birth as well as baby's blood type.

UC has been in our family for four generations. My triggers were stress and hormone changes from pregnancy and menopause. The other family members were men and they believed quitting smoking was their trigger.

The truth is no one really knows why some people get it and others don't. It can be environmental, hereditary, antibiotic abuse or just plain ole bad luck. I've seen a lot stories over the years and there are some people that have had none of the above issues and yet they still get UC.

For myself, I was just doomed to get it...it was just a matter of time. I'm an AI mess. So for me my history is:

-Mother had Crohn's (she died of complications when I was 10), Great grandmother had some type of colon issues (unknown at the time)
-Contracted Mono at the age of 17
-Major antibiotic usage from various infections
-Abuse of Nsaids
-Food poisoning
-Quit smoking due to pregnancy

It was after the birth of my son that I went downhill - fast! And now I am dealing with the aftermath of it all.

- Was not breastfed for more than a few weeks
- SAD with a lot of hydrogenated junk such as margarine when I was a kid; extreme sweet tooth - lots of sugary stuff and cereals
- lifelong non-smoker
- antibiotics used for strep in year both before initial attack and in year before a later ten year med free remission ended, and also from dental surgery just prior to a severe attack around 5 years ago
- foolishly started taking baby aspirin for a period of time in year before ten year med free remissiom ended, when my Dad had bypass surgery and upon discovering familial heart disease issue (believed that my earlier UC dx was a misdiagnosis due to ten years med-free UC free period)
- college exam stress prior to first attack and marital, financial and moving coast to coast stress prior to end of ten year remission

Quit smoking when I was 48 or 49, don't really remember. A year later I got Proctitis/Colitis.

I do believe I got this from stress and bullcrap.