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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 12/8/2013 12:02 AM (GMT 0)
Have a young friend who was so close to having her colon removed for two or three years, now she is free of all symptoms and has been off meds for two years. Why a complete freedom from symptoms? She says it's God's intervention. Has anyone heard of this or is she playing with fire. Can you grow out of UC if you are young and as such have a virulently active immune system.
Posted 12/8/2013 12:16 AM (GMT 0)
A UC diagnosis rarely disappears unless the gut biome is significantly altered. Did she have a fecal transplant where God was the donor?
Posted 12/8/2013 1:05 AM (GMT 0)
god's intervention? We all know that's not the case. Hopefully her body has changed hormonally or she had a bug that has been eliminated and it doesn't return. I don't think someone with UC can have it go away but I believe PLENTY of people are misdiagnosed with UC when they probably have some kind of unidentifiable bug or who knows... Pathology never says UC, it says consistent with UC. Seems like it's not that accurate and it's a blanket diagnosis when your condition can't be explained by anything else.
Posted 12/8/2013 1:43 AM (GMT 0)
SG, you're funny haha

i'd say she is just randomly in remission or she was misdiagnosed and just had colitis.
Posted 12/8/2013 2:25 AM (GMT 0)
"god's intervention? We all know that's not the case"


please don't count me among your "all" !
Posted 12/8/2013 2:52 AM (GMT 0)
I'm another one who believes that maybe she was misdiagnosed in the first place or went into a temporary remission. Just about every source you read says UC is a chronic lifelong disease with periods of flares and periods of remissions.
Posted 12/8/2013 3:36 AM (GMT 0)

notsosicklygirl said...
Pathology never says UC, it says consistent with UC.

Yup. Moreover, it usually says "consistent with UC if infectious etiologies are ruled out." So pathology doesn't rule out infectious colitis, only stool tests (which we know can be notoriously unreliable).

The virulently active immune system of the young doesn't start to wear off (to the degree of improving IBD) until ones 30s, typically.

Med free and spontaneous remissions happen all the time, though. Those people don't tend to post here for long. My mom was diagnosed with CD at my age then spent 20 years in a med free remission (with a terrible diet and no supplements or anything else you might attribute remission to). It happens, but I wouldn't be at all surprised when she flares again.
Posted 12/8/2013 5:36 AM (GMT 0)
She really did (does) have (has) UC. Hospitalized so many times she had to drop out of high school for awhile. It's now been three years, no meds for her, after lots of remicaid infusions. I know health insurance coverage is an issue. I wish her well.
Posted 12/8/2013 3:33 PM (GMT 0)
God doesn't fix people, doctors and medical science does.
Posted 12/8/2013 4:17 PM (GMT 0)
Absolutely, some UCers can go into remission for long periods of time. She was on big-gun meds.

She deals with it her way....remission or no remission.  She'll have an "awakening" when she eventually starts having symptoms once again. ..although she may not admit it until things are much more advanced and impossible to ignore.  One doesn't grow out of UC, but there is misdiagnosis for sure as we've seen on here.  Eventually...things return, sometimes worse, sometimes not as bad.

Until then, I wish her well...life goes on regardless.

q
Posted 12/8/2013 4:37 PM (GMT 0)
I don't have anything against God but it is kind of amusing how someone can be on a big gun med like Remicade, go into remission, and then basically say that Remicade didn't do anything but the almighty put her into remission. If she flares again in the future and has to go on Remicade again and enters remission one more time I'm sure that her faith will be renewed. I can't help but read between the lines on this particular situation and think that because there is a lack of money or an insurance issue that this person has revised the definition of remission and is not really doing quite as well as they would lead you to believe. I readily admit that I really am reading between the lines on this one and could possibly be way off base.
Posted 12/8/2013 5:04 PM (GMT 0)
I love how people readily make assumptions about her situation and pretend to know what they are taking about when it comes to medical treatments. We have so little to go on that I find it hilarious that speculation is being passed off as fact.

She's out there enjoying her life, and here we have the audacity to question her non-pharmaceutical interventions to getting well. Do you think she cares as long as she is doing well? If God helped her, so be it. It is in the realm of possibility, albeit very rare. It is, nevertheless, very conceivable that her relationship with god and others helped her recover from illness. I suggest looking up the nun study and seeing how close connections to churches and communities strengthen health and reduce the risk of illnesses.
Posted 12/8/2013 5:05 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah, especially in the US we are very gung ho on the idea of staying on Remicade forever once you achieve remission to avoid building up antibodies, but in other parts of the world (particularly the UK) Remicade is often only given to achieve remission and then discontinued (similar to the way we use prednisone here). So it's not so crazy for her to be in remission after using Remicade and it would be silly to say it's not because of the Remicade.
Posted 12/8/2013 5:11 PM (GMT 0)
Once again, I am not against God or religion and believe in miracles, to a certain extent, but the placebo effect is a well accepted phenomenon and this could easily help explain how close connections to churches and communities strengthen health and reduce the risk of illnesses, as well as the belief in whatever it is you are doing from meds themselves to Yoga or meditation. In other words, the mind itself can do wonderful things on some occasions while actually giving the credit to whatever it was that you had the "faith" that it would heal you.
Posted 12/8/2013 5:44 PM (GMT 0)

garylouisville said...
Once again, I am not against God or religion and believe in miracles, to a certain extent, but the placebo effect is a well accepted phenomenon and this could easily help explain how close connections to churches and communities strengthen health and reduce the risk of illnesses, as well as the belief in whatever it is you are doing from meds themselves to Yoga or meditation. In other words, the mind itself can do wonderful things on some occasions while actually giving the credit to whatever it was that you had the "faith" that it would heal you.

Except there are numerous studies out there detailing the adverse effects of isolation on organisms. From animal to human populations, there are biological processes that occur when an organism is closed off from its ecosystem. This is pretty well documented in prison populations, and especially those who spend time in solitary confinement. This also happens to be one of the best forms of torture, as some of the documented physiological effects end up being worse than physical torture. If I had a choice, I'd probably prefer physical torture.

You also bring up meditation, which is interesting because there are well controlled studies from Harvard showing stronger gray matter regions in those who meditate vs those who don't. Subsequently, there is strengthening of the connections between the prefrontal cortex (the "focus" region) and the rest of the brain.

I think it's time to stop using the placebo effect as the answer to every issue that medicine doesn't "solve", and start inspecting other processes more carefully.

Post Edited (StealthGuardian) : 12/8/2013 10:48:38 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/8/2013 6:54 PM (GMT 0)
I'd like to hear more about FT with Divine Donation. The success rate on that must rival LDN.
Posted 12/9/2013 5:13 AM (GMT 0)
God's poos must be the most awesome thing ever. Using them for FMTs probably gives you super powers too.

If your friend really has UC, shes just in remission (possibly a several decades long remission). But UC symptoms can mimic many other gut diseases. Our gut bacteria is changing every day, so quite possible her gut bacteria changed for the better. Who knows... now, what were we saying about God's s###?
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