DEATH BY ULCERATIVE COLITIS.

Extra-intestinal complications are the biggest concern when talking about uc and actual mortality. As you're not going to see ulcerative colitis listed on individual death certificates, but you might see sepsis, pancreatitis, blood clots, an infection, colorectal cancer or something like those listed instead.

Have people died of uc itself? Yes, a few but their extreme outliers and it's nothing you or I need to worry about. As the leading reason is usually the sort of thing where treatment was refused or delayed unnecessarily by the patient despite obvious signs something is very wrong with themselves.

"Fulminant", meaning occurring suddenly with great intensity or severity, is the key word when talking about the bigger risks with ulcerative colitis as a small percentage of us get hit with such attacks/flare ups. Fulminant flares happen and we're in need of urgent hospitalization. An ER will treat us and get us admitted to the hospital regardless of our ability to pay.

I don't think any of us plans to become a hermit (stranded on a desert island, or live in a post apocalyptic world, etc) in the middle of nowhere without access to any medications, treatments or hospitals, but should we then the 1900's mortality rate would still apply. So, *snap* I cannot be a first wave Mars colonist, or survive indefinitely after the inevitable zombie uprising...

NCOT said...
Since the only link you gave was to an article by Dr Mark Hyman, I googled his name. It didn't take long to discover that he was a crank doctor touting crank solutions to every modern ailment under the sun.

This has nothing to do with Dr Hyman's work. He is merely the messenger citing the rigorous research published in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association.

I saw the original article in JAMA but I thought Dr Hyman's presentation was more easily read by us laymen.

Post Edited (IamCurious) : 9/22/2016 9:35:00 AM (GMT-6)

Also, restricting wheat may be more helpful for Chrons than for UC, although (IMO) it is worth an elimination trial if other treatments are not preforming well.

In the research below, it is very important to note that SR-NCGS, was used. This is "self repored" and not clinically confirmed NCSG, so some people with extra symptoms may have concluded they had NCGS, and that could be driving the elevated associations between SR-NCGS and increases symptoms.

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Minerva Gastroenterol Dietol. 2015 Dec;61(4):267-71. Epub 2015 May 26.
Celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and inflammatory bowel disease.
Casella G1, Di Bella C, Salemme M, Villanacci V, Antonelli E, Baldini V, Bassotti G.
Author information
Abstract

Celiac disease (CD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's disease (CrD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic inflammatory condition of the gastro-intestinal tract. The prevalence of IBD in celiac patients has been reported as 5-10 times higher than in the general population. The possibility of the presence of CD in IBD should be considered in IBD patients with long-term iron deficiency anemia (IDA) not responsive to iron supplementation. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is characterized by intestinal and extra intestinal symptoms due to the ingestion of gluten-containing food in subject without CD and/or wheat allergy. Patients with Crohn's disease and SR-NCGS were more significantly affected by joint pains compared to UC patients (50% versus 11.1%). In Crohn's patients, a higher percentage of fatigue (50% versus 38.9%) and headache (27.3% versus 22.2%) was evident. For the association between NCGS and IBD new studies are warranted and, at this moment, a gluten free diet (GFD) may be useful more in CrD than in UC.

PMID:
26006779

Post Edited (DBwithUC) : 9/22/2016 9:54:50 AM (GMT-6)

IamCurious said...
This has nothing to do with Dr Hyman's work. He is merely the messenger citing the rigorous research published in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association.

I saw the original article in JAMA but I thought Dr Hyman's presentation was more easily read by us laymen.

It does, though, because he misinterprets scientific findings for his own purposes. He's got a ton of books to sell, and an UltraWellness website to promote, so it's in his business interests to make gluten seem as dramatic and scary as possible - this man is not a neutral operator. He is purposely conflating gluten sensitivity with coeliac disease, when the two are not interchangeable. Coeliac disease is like IBD in that the immune system attacks the gut lining and causes physical damage. Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity is more like IBS in that there is no evidence of physical damage to the gut.

Well, apart from this study, I suppose. But that was only published this year, long before Hyman wrote that article. I think it will be a while before gluten sensitivity stops being a controversial subject.

"Death" is inevitable, generally IBD is a life-long chronic illness with a fairly low death rate, causes of "death" due to complications related to IBD as many have already mentioned. Medicated or not the chances of death via IBD are still very low (I went 25 yrs mostly unmedicated with my crohn's colitis and had anemia and a smoker, still no colon cancer and no "death") IBD is more likely to kill you emotionally/mentally than it is physically and if you ask me, that's not living (mediation can greatly help, mind, body and soul though so everyone should research the benefits and start the practice because it certainly won't hurt and chances of benefits are much higher than death from IBD is). Of course medications and how you take care of the rest of your physical and mental/emotional self is just as important (use all the positive tools you can find to make your life, IBD or not) the best you can for yourself and others around you too.

Besides the fact...."death" is viewed in most cultures/beliefs globally in a very negative way....it's actually NOT a negative. For one, it's inevitable as I mentioned, 2) learn about death, it will help you learn about life too (research NDE's and the scientific research with it) "death" isn't anything to fear, it's simply another transition, the same as being born into this world. It's sad that "death" is viewed for the most part as a negative or sad transition (it's certainly not for the one going through it, it is for the ones left behind but when we transition we can still be around those we've left behind, they (most of them not all) just aren't aware of our presence when we've passed on. When you look at our world, our global and social issues, those things are quite depressing, just as poor health is, but eventually when our time comes, all that fades and we will experience it in a very different perspective (outside the box type theory) but we can choose our perspective here (in this life) the way we want to as well....you can have whatever experience you allow yourself to have...meditation is a great tool for this.

Our conscious never "dies", just the body...."birth in the physical is death in the spiritual. Death in the physical is BIRTH in the the spiritual." by Edgar Cacey. Our lives here are nothing more than a lesson (good, bad, ugly, whatever) every thought, word and action is a vibration we put out, the more positive you put out, the more positive comes back, Karma (good or bad).

"Death" is only the end of this particular experience for the physical body and it has and will always be just that, it's a fact and nothing will change that because that's how it's meant to be, otherwise we would "live" in our bodies forever and honestly, healthy or not I wouldn't want that and I don't think anyone in their right mind would either, especially when you understand that being born back into the spiritual (regardless if you practice/believe any religion or spirituality) we will all pass into the spirit "world" and will consciously become enlightened and nothing will stop that from happening. So even if you "don't get it" or don't believe it now, you will find out regardless when your time comes. No sense in fearing it because there's nothing to fear and based on the majority of experiencer's, there are no words we know to describe the incredible journey that we will all experience eventually.

You don't know Frey's exact cause of death unless his family released his medical records. I read he had an intestinal disorder (diverticulitis) long before getting RA. We don't know when he developed UC but drugs for RA and UC are immune suppressors and it is likely he died from opportunistic infection either before or after surgery. The surgery may have been a last-ditch lifesaving attempt. We just don't know so saying Frey got UC from his RA meds is unsupported by fact.

We all face choices for our UC RX treatment. No one chooses immunosuppressants without a lot of thought.

from blog.arthritis.org/news/did-rheumatoid-arthritis-or-its-treatment-really-kill-the-eagles-glenn-frey/

While it is impossible to know, without consulting Frey’s doctors, what was the actual cause of his death – or which disease came first – Frey reportedly had had RA for 15 years and his intestinal problems date back at least 30 years to 1986, when, The Washington Post reports, he missed a benefit concert in California because of “an intestinal disorder.” Eight years later, the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over” reunion tour was interrupted by Frey’s “bout with diverticulitis.” In October 1994, People magazine reported that Frey was recuperating at his home in Los Angeles following surgery earlier that month for diverticulitis, “an inflammation of the colon.”

Arthritis experts not involved in Frey’s care say it is unlikely that RA directly caused his death, or that the medications he took for RA somehow caused ulcerative colitis, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes ulcers and inflammation in the inner lining of the colon and rectum. However, some forms of inflammatory arthritis are accompanied by bowel disease, and the treatments for RA and ulcerative colitis overlap, says David Pisetsky, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. A number of drugs, including TNF inhibitors, sulfasalazine, azathioprine, methotrexate and corticosteroids, are used in the treatment of both RA and ulcerative colitis. These drugs work largely by suppressing the immune response that causes damage in the two diseases.