IBUPROFEN

I have a question for you fellow UC sufferers. Recently had my colonoscopy. I have had some change in my condition (dysplasia) yet I am feeling about the same.

I was diagnosed with UC in about 1990. I am 43 now. At the time I was diagnosed, I was in a stressful job and was taking ibuprofen regularly for neck and shoulder muscle discomfort. Stupid me, i was not taking it with food "as directed".

Every medical person I ask says that could not have brought it on, but prior to that period in my life, I was completely "normal" in regards to my "poop".

so here's my questions, any of you out there have any question about the use of ibuprofen and causing/bringing on your UC?

Also, do you hear of any research happening in an attempt to find some type of a cure?

You don't have to have a genetic predisposition. Some people have UC, because they took Accutane. Others, like me, have it because they abused antibiotics. And even others have it because they are predisposed. There are many reasons one can get UC. That's why the cause is unknown. I do believe you can get colitis from abusing ibuprofen even if you aren't genetically predisposed.

Here are some definitions of UC:

A relatively common disease that causes inflammation of the large intestine (the colon). The cause is unknown.

A disease that causes ulcers and inflammation in the inner lining of the colon and rectum.

An inflammatory bowel disease that affects the large intestine, or colon, and is characterized by ulcerations in some portion (right, left, segments or entirety) usually leading to bloody diarrhea and often with complications in other parts of the body.

This is how I feel about the whole predisposition and trigger debate:

You get pregnant and your colon starts inflaming. It good be the case that you are predisposed to getting colon inflammations and that getting pregnant (or a hormonal change) was your trigger.

You take medication that kills the bacteria in your colon and now your colon keeps getting inflamed. Are you predisposed to getting colon inflammations? Was taking medications your trigger? After all, you are human; so you do have genes that can produce inflammation in the body when something is wrong. Somehow, I don't buy into this theory.

There are so many unknown variables about this disease that it's hard to say what causes it and what doesn't. All we can do is speculate at this time.

For me however, I do believe I have a genetic disposition to it considering my mother had Crohn's and my great grand mother had some sort of IBD (it was too long ago and I don't think they had a name for it yet). When I first got diagnosed, I was constantly sick and was on antibiotics a lot. Along with the antibiotics I was taking Advil because most of the time, my illnesses involved pain (strep, ear infections etc). I was also under a lot of stress at work and then not to mention, I got pregnant. So a year after I had my son, all heck broke loose. UC here I come! :(

Its possible it is related. What I see here is the stress that you were through. In old literature, UC is called as Stress disease and still it is. Its just we don't understand how body handles stress i.e. what are chemical ramifications of stress, that trigger UC. Ibuprofen contributed to the inflammation as side effect.

In my case, I started getting migraines after a year of UC diagnosis. Until yesterday, I was taking naproxen for my migraine. I had a very clear pattern, when I taken naproxen, I get blood in the poop exactly after 30 hours of naproxen intake. Now, I am on Meaprolol for migraine. Lets see if migraines continue.
Long story short, Ibuprofen didn't cause UC, it exacerbated the symptoms.

I just seem to think that my stomach disease was caused from Ibuprofen.
I had NO problems from my stomach until I had been taking Ibuprofen all the time for migraines.
Just assuming but it is quite alarming.