Age or College/University?

Maybe it's just me, but I've been noticing a lot of people posting that are around my age (22) in the last few days. I know the disease is known the have a peak in incidence around the 20s, but I wonder if it is always the early 20s.

Anyway, one thing that may fit into your theory, gary, is that most mental disorders start to manifest around college age. I developed an eating disorder at 19. I had been going through hardcore OCD since I entered college in 2010. I didn't get UC until I was 21 though.

I was talking to someone I know who is recovered from OCD, and he mentioned that he hears a lot about people who have anxiety disorders also develop autoimmune diseases when I told him that I was just diagnosed w/ UC.

I feel like I might be able to pin down things that contributed to UC, but I also wonder if I was just bound to get it at this age because it seems like so many 20 and 21 year olds are diagnosed at this age whereas I seem to hardly see any 24, 25, or 26 year olds post about just getting diagnosed. This is just casual observation though, not hard data.

I have always been told that I put too much pressure on myself when it comes to school work. I also suffered serious mental disorders (partially school related) pre-UC. It wouldn't surprise me if college stress turns out to be a large contributor to incidence.

I don't know if it is school or age, but this year I have two students tell me they have IBD. It makes me so sad to see them struggle with the stress of school, pred crazies and the disease. I was 38 when I developed the disease.

When I was in college, I was a smoker. Every time in my life that I decided to cut back, I would get weird gut problems. Was even tested for C diff once several years before diagnosis.

I thought I had a paper saved (can't find it now) that pointed to a polymorphism location/genotype suggesting the correlation of quitting smoking/development of UC. According to my 23 and Me data, I fit the profile.

Maybe I should just try to find my minimum effective dose of cigs. I HATE it so much! Surely it's not any worse than sitting for a Remicade infusion and prednisone. Also considering MMJ, but that's not even something I did in my youth.

Gary, do you think stress could be a major determinate in a flare coming on or not?

I was diagnosed the spring I was graduating high school, and dealt with a tough go of things UC-wise that year and into University... where I ended up dropping out due to UC.

Stress does not cause UC or Crohn's, but it certainly can help trigger a flare or trigger symptoms to manifest for the first time. I first showed symptoms of Crohn's when I was between 10 and 12 years old. We moved, I started a new school, my grandmother died, and I started preparing for my Bar Mitzvah. A lot of stress for a kid.

Guardian7 - Interesting comment about October. Often a bad month for me. I've watched multiple World Series from a hospital bed. This October's been good though.

Stress is unquestionably a very major factor in bringing on a flare if you already have UC. Whether it is part of the beginning cause of UC or not is debatable. I know in my case my UC started when I was under the most stress of my life and, in addition to that, taking broad spectrum antibiotics for what later turned out to be mono. Somehow the histamine angle fits into all this as well because stress can raise histamine levels in the body. There was a time when the medical profession believed 100% that stress was a major factor in UC but over the last several years they have softened their stance on that considerably to the point where many doctors will say that stress has nothing to do with it. I disagree.

Now I'm really interested in whether most people who are affected in their 20s are affected more often in their early 20's, around the time you're in college, thinking about graduation, the job market, not being a kid anymore, entering the boring "real world", where your friends will go, where your life is gonna go, etc.

Though I'm sure it happens, it seems like not too many people have posted that they are 25 and they were just diagnosed with UC. It seems to disproportionately happen to us in our early 20s if our board posts are any indication.

I was diagnosed when I had just turned 24 - although, I has symptoms for 1.5-2 years before that.
I don't remember my BMs for all of my undergrad, so I assume they were fine! It was when I started PhD studies that I got symptoms. I was told I had IBS initially and given antispasmodics, which I took for a while (even though they did nothing) and just dealt with the mild enough symptoms, and continued my work & having a normal life. Although, looking back, I was popping Imodium like they were sweets!
It was mid-2013 that symptoms got a bit worse and I had a colonoscopy. For the rest of the year, I experimented with diets & took Asacolon. "Proper" flare started December 2013, after quite a stressful few months at work and haven't got it under control since...
I had a lot of antibiotics in my teens for tonsillitis (had a tonsillectomy when I was 18) and I suffered with headaches semi-regularly and very bad period pains, and the only things that would help them were Nurofen Plus (containing ibuprofen) - I hear of these being a contributing factor, so it may be the case with me too. Though I definitely was the healthiest I've been in the couple of years before diagnosis & when I flared - diet & fitness-wise.