Very interesting on Biofilms

For those of you who have researched and understand biofilms, what is your personal opinion on the theory that biofilms are the root cause (or at least one possible cause if there are many different possible causes) of ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease in general? Biofilms are essential a colony of tiny nanobacteria that use special slimy shells to protect themselves from the immune system and from general detection. There are two specific hypothesis I'd like to hear what you think of:

(1) It is known that certain emulsifiers aggravate ulcerative colitis such as carrageenan and xanathan gum, polysacharrides. It is also known that biofilm shells are made of several elements including calcium and polysaccharides. Could consumption of carrageenan and xanathn gum be simply strengthening the protective shell of the biofilm and thus making the nanobacteria stronger and thus aggravating symptoms?

(2) Many chrons colitis patients have granulomas in the colon. Thus far, granuloma is considered a chrons sign but not an ulcerative colitis sign. Could the granuloma be an immune response to the biofilm? Granuloma is essentially a cluster of immune systems that surround nothing. However, maybe they aren't just surrounding nothing but instead a biofilm that is simply undetectable to modern science and imaging?

thanks for those links! Hopefully some more people can respond including Old Mike, I'd love to hear his thoughts on the two questions I have posed.

Most likely all diseases branded "Ulcerative Colitis" do not share the same root cause. The commonality is the inflammation in the colon but the causation most likely consists of different subgroups. So, for example and just using random statistics for explanation, 25% could be caused by microbiome imbalance, 25% caused by true immune system malfunction, 25% caused by undetectable nanobacteria infection, 25% caused by very poor diet creating a breakdown of lining integrity.

iPoop said...
One can convince his/herself that's the cause. Doesn't mean you are right though. Science doesn't have a definite answer on it, yet. So it's more of an opinion than anything else.

There's a lot of smart bugs, MAP is an example, that are very immune resistant. Everybody is exposed to them, but only a tiny fraction of us have an issue with them.

It's possible these smart bugs cause it, or are at least an opportunistic, secondary infection (I believe the later rather than the former). When the whole intestinal ecosystem is out of whack, it allows a lot of other baddies to gain a foothold and cause damage of their own.

Certainly, fascinating stuff from an intellectual level. I want answers too on causation. Hope they solve this within my lifetime, but am very pessimistic about that prospect.