What do you believe caused your UC

Interesting thread. I have every factor going apart from the Accutane

Askenazy Jewish heritage on both sides. Maternal side an autoimmune walking nightmare. Mother - MS, Uncle - UV-itis, vascilitis, G'father - Parkinsons.

Premature baby in incubator so not fully breast fed

Stress factors - difficult childhood, neglect

Diet - brought up (or brought self up) on truly appalling diet of processed foods, even any fruit covered in sugar. Diet age 16 - 18 before first flare consisted of sugar daily

Continual pinworm infections age 10 - 17. First flare after finally clearing them

Told by friends I stayed the night with in teens that I farted a lot in my sleep.

Realise now that I was mostly constipated through childhood and teens.

Many headaches (presumably due to above) in teens for which took lots of aspirin and paracetomol

On pill young

Antibiotics completely unnecessarily age 16/17 for what docs thought might be cystitis but never actually tested for and turned out I'm sure to be thrush

Smoked early, age 10 and as a teen. Gave up age 17 - the nail in the coffin I believe...

Bam! age just 18, flare of ulcerative proctitis, this was 1984. Given old fashioned pred enemas by GIs who told me nothing about illness, I presumed it was an infection (had no adult I trusted to tell so no one to guide me). Cleared up in a month. No particular ill effects afterwards other than sensitive to things like coffee and high fibre. I forgot about it although always checked paper for blood afterwards.

1988 5 months studying behind old Iron Curtain. Insanitary conditions. Continual diarrhoea. Then several months studying in France. continual constipation. Begin bleeding and mucous from rectum. Fobbed off by Drs who did not read notes from previous treatment, told had to wait 3 months for GI appointment (NHS). No internet, found a book, "diets to help colitis", followed it and lived on brown rice, stewed apple and boiled egg. Not a good move. 2 months later colon completely given up, passing out bile direct and unhelpful doctor told me to go to A&E (emergency room) at hospital. Hospital horrified, nearly lost colon, IV steroids worked wonders. Left hospital pretty well, except not warned about roid rage etc and fell out with all housemates due to sudden bolshy ness. (yes I do remain resentful to many of the medics who half treated me!)

Since then nearly 30 yrs of relapse and remission of colitis. Only ever treated with steroids and 5ASAs as back in the day when I was really bad, the other stuff was not really used in the NHS.

These days. Helped greatly by probiotics and vitamin B complex and Mezavant XL. Pretty sure I have something going wrong with sulphur functioning - thiol foods kill me. No wrinkles (family trait), as if all the sulphur gets tipped out into my skin.

Wow, that was a novel.

Somedude said...

quincy said...
beatUC...I'm puzzled at your obsession with me...could it be something I said?

q

he's got a crush on you....


....me too

lol

On topic... No idea what may have led to it. A lot of possibilities, but who knows.

Roaccutane, quit smoking and had food poisoning! Also tons of anxiety and panic attacks from the death of my mother. All within a year of diagnosis

Took some antibiotics for getting my wisdom teeth out. It started giving me diarrhea. I got a little better after the antibiotics. A couple months later I started to notice changes. Then I got to college, coupled with the stress of beginning college, boom first flare-up. Everyone just thought it was the crappy food at first, lol.

So many people wondered here what caused their UC?
For me I think about this a lot, what did I do that caused or triggered my UC in the first place?
Some things come to my mind:
1) I was on the Zoloft, which caused me to be chronically constipated, hence my bad intestinal flora. My doctor could have reduced my intake of these stupid medicine I swe*r I would not take any anti-depressant or so called SSRI ever in my life, it is so bad for you.
2) I was not eating properly, skipping meals. My internal clock was out, and not on a clock to get up in early and sleep at night.
(internal clock imbalance)
3) I was eating lots of junk food, like chips and processed food a lot more than I ever was instead of proper meals
4) I felt fearful of certain life events (earthquakes and nuclear incidents) and under stress causing ANS to go out of balance.
5) I was threatened about my work by one of the people.
I still do recall when I read the threatening e-mail something in my gut broke.
Next day I was getting fever, I saw mucus in my stool...

All added together, it was the perfect storm. I just wish things were different. I wish I could have turn back my clock and do things differently, I only wish I could turn back my clock because there is no cure to this stupid disease. It really is a terrible disease.
I also think there would not be a cure to this disease even 50 yrs later, just because doctors dont listen to patients. If doctors listen to patients and if US health care was not in business to make money off of sick people, I am sure that there would be cure for diabetes, cancer and even for UC by now. After all, FMT was done 50 yrs ago, and no one was interested in hearing about the result, instead Doctors just interested in treating human with drugs. Did you know for C-Diff related colitis, there was no known bacteria that cased the specific colitis, but recently someone found out the psudomembrance colitis is caused by C-Difficile bacteria. UC is just a colitis with unknown bacteria. I am so tired now with this disease that I am getting surgery to remove my colon.

Hormonal changes due to pregnancy and delivery-- the cause

Hormonal changes during periods--- flares

Post Edited (Lamoshka) : 2/19/2013 12:30:22 PM (GMT-7)

Because they don't have the effed up genes. ;)

Well, I am the first in my family to have IBD, but I still believe that I am genetically predisposed. I could be the first to have these messed up genes (mutations happen all the time -- luckily it often happens in the "junk" DNA and has no effect) or maybe I'm just the first person in which is was triggered. Who knows!

Or, if you get into all of the other stuff they're discovering now with epistasis and the like, it gets even more confusing.

Bad luck.
Bad genes.
I don't think it has anything to do with anything I ate or stress or any virus or bug that I may have had. I think my guts just happen to be plotting against me.

Father had UC. He quit smoking and UC. I quit smoking and developed UC. I remember when I smoked I use to occasionally wake up in during the night with extreme stomach cramps and need to be in the bathroom. Looking back, it was probably the UC, but my smoking had it in check - this is my thought anyway.

Perfectly healthy with no issues with my digestive system right up to the age of 40.

Got U.C. after:

- High stress move from Canada to the U.S.
- Took Biaxin (antibiotic) for stubborn case of bronchitis
- Drank c r a p tasting well water from a farm a few weeks before getting UC symptoms
- Moved into a duplex where the owner (who lived next door) had U.C. just before getting sick

Symptoms started within a week of beginning a course of Biaxin.

No family history of U.C., although my uncle died from M.S. in his forties so may have some wonky immune system genetics. Also my dad was an old school doc who gave us antibiotics like candy while growing up. Quit smoking at the age of 25, 15 years before getting U.C.

I think my U.C. probably has more of a bad gut flora cause and less of a autoimmune genetic factor, but who knows.

Milk.

It started out as lactose intolerance and then progressed in to bloody diarrhea over a few months time.

I suspect my body developed antibodies to the hormones in milk and started attacking my intestines.

If I was smarter, I'd have avoided all dairy products.