How likely is UC passed on to children?

Hi everyone, still fighting to get out of this flare, starting Humira injections in 10 days.

My wife is pregnant and I can't help but worry that there's a possibility of passing UC or IBD in general to children. What is the current data on this? Have any of you had children and can relate to this?

Thanks!
1wish

Wow..didn’t know it was that of a sure thing.
My parents or my grandparents don’t have it though. Only my grandma’s sisters son and me..

I too pray that I don’t pass it on.

My oldest son had a colectomy,at 22. Younger son had a severe bout about 5 years ago at
about age 38. Oldest child daughter ok so far.
Grandkids, I worry.
Oldmike

I found this statistic:

"Having a family history of IBD and having certain genes can predispose a person to developing IBD. The risk is less than 10% if one parent has IBD, and about 20-30% if both parents have IBD."

https://pregnancy.ibdclinic.ca/information/will-my-child-have-ibd/

My uncle and my great grand father (?) had it. I got sterilized

Because UC is caused by excessive hydrogen peroxide production within in the cell, and the inability to produce the enzymes required to reduce hydrogen peroxide is genetic, yes it can be passed on. It runs in families.

For example, I have homozygous recessive for GSTP1 and SOD2. This means I got one malfunctioning gene from my mother and one from my father. If just one of my parents was homozygous dominant, then I would have received one functional gene, and I would have been able to produce more SOD and GSTP to combat hydrogen peroxide, and I would have had a reduced chance of developing UC. Or at least, my UC would not be as severe.

Instead, I got both malfunctioning genes from my parents and my UC is severe.

So, it really depends on which genes you and your wife pass on to your kids.

Worry like that is common when one is expecting. I didn’t have UC until later in life but when I was pregnant I worried about passing on type 1 diabetes to my children, as that is prevalent on my fathers side.

It’s normal to have these fears. Truth is there are many diseases or conditions in our dna and all we can do is trust that we (and our children) will have the strength to deal with whatever comes our — or their —way.

Congratulations!

Post Edited (FlowersGal) : 3/8/2022 9:02:59 AM (GMT-7)

My son (24 yrs old) is severely autistic (with constipation) and has the same Chromosome 5 deletion as me. His uncle is high functioning autistic but my autoimmune problems with UC definitely exacerbated his learning difficulties. I suspect neuro inflammation when he was in womb and that has affected the glial cells in his brain. My mother had autoimmune problems (some bowel issues) and so did her father. Fascinating but a pain in the a***!

Currently on Humira, Balasalazide and Mercaptopurine. On Humira since August 2021 and it's worked wonders!

As mentioned above, treatment of UC for our children will be a lot different than our own experiences. Scientists are working on methods to test which drugs will be effective in a patient before they start taking them, so that you are started on the right drug immediately rather than go through trial and error with 5 different ones. Also a lot of work is being done on the microbiome. In short, don't beat yourself up because the odds are your kids will not have to suffer from this disease the way you have.
I don't blame my parents for my UC although there is clearly a genetic component. Who knows what else i have a genetic predisposition for. It takes genes plus environment to trigger UC.
I asked my first GI what I'd done wrong to get UC, she shrugged and said "It's just bad luck".

Good thought 1Wish...

IBS, if not UC, runs in my family.

DNA and genome testing indicates we pass most everything, good and bad, along, BUT no guarantees what will show up, so worrying about it is wasted energy, IMHO.

Congrats, and best of luck, on your coming child.

The reason why some people with UC are the only ones in their family is because their relatives all have at least one functioning copy of genes that reduce hydrogen peroxide. If you're unlucky enough to get two damaged copy of those genes, then you'll develop UC or another disease related to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Another thing to remember is that for many people with UC, the disease started during a major traumatic event, like infection, bowel injury (like from severe anal fissure), a major emotional stressor, life stress, etc. Once UC is triggered, the colon lining never fully heals because the oxidative damage from ROS causes cyclical damage and localized immune response. Some who make it into remission for a long time are lucky because they were able to break the cycle, or their body's antioxidant systems were strong enough in the first place to recover from disease after initial treatment. Most of us were not so lucky.

High ROS is also implicated in diseases like lupus, advanced sepsis, MS, early heart disease, type II diabetes (insulin resistance), and other so-called "auto-immune" diseases. I recently read a paper linking ROS to Alzheimer's and the deposition of beta amyloid plaques. ROS damage brain tissue and the plaques develop as a sort of quasi-scar tissue in the damaged areas. You may not have other family members with UC, but you likely have other family members who have conditions related to high ROS. Which disease develops depends on environmental factors and which part of the body becomes the "weakest link".

For example, my father has the same terrible antioxidant genetics that I do... but in his case, he has type II diabetes and reactive arthritis in his entire body. His whole side of the family has had cancers by the time they're 65. My grandmother died of colon cancer, but didn't have UC. Colon cancer is the other ROS-related pathway that develops in people with poor antioxidant genetics, if not UC. It's because ROS like hydrogen peroxide in the bowel damage cellular DNA.

My sister has the same bad antioxidant genetics I do, but her problems have manifested as skin cancer and liver inflammation. Conversely, my mother has one good copy (and one bad copy) of the antioxidant genes, so she has none of these problems. My father has two bad copies of everything. My sister and I therefore received a bad copy from my mother, and a bad copy from my father. Bad luck, as my mother had one good copy, but we didn't receive it. My sister could have received one good copy, and would therefore have no disease. That's why some people have inflammatory disorders yet their siblings are just A-OK. Similarly, both parents and all your siblings could be OK, because your parents are heterozygous (one good copy, one bad copy), so they are fine. And they each donated a good copy to all your siblings, making them homozygous (all good copies). You were the one that didn't luck out... you got two bad copies, one from each parent, making you homozygous (all bad copies).

Looking for other family members with UC is not a good way to confirm or rule out genetic causes. First you have to look at UC as a cellular metabolic disorder related to redox malfunction. Then you have to look at the major diseases caused by that same malfunction, and see if anyone in your family has those diseases. Then you will know if it's a familial pattern. The same bad genes can cause many different diseases, not just UC.

Post Edited (VanJordan) : 3/28/2022 10:12:24 PM (GMT-6)

1Wish said...
Hi VanJordan,
I've seen a few members on here suddenly start talking about this hydrogen peroxide lately. Has some groundbreaking research come out lately that has basically found a cause not only for UC, but by the sounds of it, for a lot more illnesses? Or is this simply potentially a theory?

How does one get tested for this?

What you are describing is similar to how people have their hair color.. a child's hair color will be dependent on what genes are passed on and is also pretty random.

Why does an emotional trigger activate this issue?

Most importantly, is there a solution to this problem?

Thanks,
1Wish

I suggest you head on over to this thread and read it top to bottom:
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=4285467

I'm a health sciences major who will be going into either med school or medical research in my graduate studies, and I have extremely severe UC. After almost a decade of researching everything I could get my hands on, talking to many doctors and researchers around the world, and experimenting myself, I am 95% certain that the reductive theory of disease is the root cause of UC. Although I don't know the exact antioxidant I am missing in my body to combat the excess hydrogen peroxide, I have applied this theory to my disease and within less than 2 months I am nearing remission from a flare that has lasted 2.5 years... just from increasing key antioxidants in my daily regimen. The only medication I was on was prednisone which I am about to stop (down to 1mg now).

Besides all of my research and experiments, I have thought deeply about this theory, and used it to explain why a lot of things I tried didn't work, while a lot of things helped. They all line up with the reductive theory of disease.

Dr. Pravda who is a huge advocate of this theory will be publishing another major paper soon, which promises to be groundbreaking.

I highly recommend anyone with UC keep their eyes on this person. (By the way, I have no personal connection to him or a financial stake or anything, I am just extremely impressed by his work.)

To answer your other questions... emotional stress triggers it because it triggers increased reactive oxygen species in the body, which generates more hydrogen peroxide. Any stress will do that, but emotional stress is particular because sometimes we can't let go of a feeling, so it eats at us... unlike external stressors which come and go.

As far as I know, there is no commercial test that looks for hydrogen peroxide in the colon, but bowel biopsies can easily be tested for oxygen radicals and reactive oxygen species like hydrogen peroxide. And if you get you genetics done with 23andme, you can download the raw data and plug it into something like genetic genie to get a free readout of your detox genetics. Anyone with SOD or GSTP double mutations (-/-) is likely over-producing hydrogen peroxide. There are likely other genetic factors involved that these online generators won't be able to tell you.

Post Edited (VanJordan) : 3/30/2022 5:27:13 PM (GMT-6)

Hmmisme said...
Hey VanJordan, congrats on getting close to remission after > 2 years flaring. What are you currently taking to combat reactive O2? I’ve experimented with a few different supplements but haven’t really noticed a difference.

Phytosomal curcumin 500mg 2x daily
Butyrate in the form of Tesseract's Probutryate 300mg 2x daily
Sulforaphane (any brand) 20mg 2x daily
Grapeseed extract (NOT grapeFRUIT seed extract) 400mg 2x daily

And then any other antioxidants I can get my hands on. I take rosehip powder, acerola cherry powder, camu powder... blueberries, cherries, raspberries. It varies. However, the list above is key. All of these also promote healthy bacteria in the gut.

My recently bloodwork is completely normal, even my hemoglobin. I still need iron IVs but I think it's because my gut is healing from severe UC.