HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Climate and Colitis

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/1/2014 5:16 PM (GMT 0)
Has anyone moved to a warmer climate and noticed that it had a positive affect on their colitis/health? I am seriously considering moving to warmer and sunnier location and was wondering what positive affects it may have on me.
Posted 3/1/2014 5:19 PM (GMT 0)
no, I live in a place that has 4 seasons, we've had a very cold and snowy winter, I'm under tons of distress emotionally. I'm not flaring, interestingly.

I hate summer the most. So, wouldn't be a positive effect for me on other levels.

btw...I don't flare more in summer or in winter or in any other season.

q
Posted 3/1/2014 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
I live in the sub tropics. I still seem to get flare symptoms every fall. The only difference I've seen is that stomach virus are much rarer here than when I lived in the northeast. My teens have had maybe two their whole lives here.
Posted 3/1/2014 5:40 PM (GMT 0)
There is a higher rate of IBD in more cold, northern countries, but I don't know if that's related to the weather. Might just be to do with the fact that most heavily industrialized countries are to the north rather than south.

Moving to sunnier climes might help your colitis, but I wouldn't move for solely that reason: it's a gamble which could easily backfire.
Posted 3/1/2014 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
Very interesting question.

My first flare started in January, my 2nd and 3rd flares started in August/Sept. So far, I seem to have worse symptoms in the fall-winter months. (that said, with spring approaching, I am hoping to pull outta this one soon!!! It has been a very long cold feeling winter here in sunny NC)
Posted 3/1/2014 7:25 PM (GMT 0)
I moved from cold to warm and my UC hasn't improved.
Posted 3/1/2014 7:51 PM (GMT 0)
I've lived northeast US for 5 years with UC, then part-time back and forth from Florida to northeast, then full-time Florida for the past 6 years. Climate has no impact on my UC. Food does.

I believe more UC is found in northern countries because of genetics than climate. That is northern Europeans have the proclivity towards IBD and as they spread to Canada and US they brought their genes with them :-).

But IBD is now becoming more frequent in other populations now and countries now that rarely had it. So either the genes are becoming intermixed or something else is causing UC frequency to show up in other races and ethnic populations.

Month back I posted an article suggesting that Round-up, an herbicide, was possibly a factor. And today someone else posted a similar scientific paper making the same projection (maybe the same one as earlier).
Posted 3/1/2014 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
If there really is some kind of connection it might be a chicken or the egg question.
Posted 3/1/2014 8:29 PM (GMT 0)
I live near New Orleans, La . It doesn't get much warmer than here but I still flare every year. In fact, I always feel better when I visit family in the NW so go figure ...
Posted 3/2/2014 1:05 AM (GMT 0)
Some cases may be allergy related, including seasonal allergies.
Posted 3/2/2014 1:20 AM (GMT 0)
Garylouiseville, I completely agree with you. I sure wish we knew for sure. I would be willing to wear a self contained breathing apparatus for those months to avoid all this pain and misery every year although my major problem this year is the c-diff.
Posted 3/2/2014 3:08 AM (GMT 0)
I moved from Hawaii to a southern state, and as soon as winter hit (Nov to be exact), I began to suffer from the worst flare of my life. I can't definitively identify cause-and-effect, but I have always preferred warm weather, coupled with some humidity. There are so many other factors in play, but I too wonder about climate. Went to FL recently and started to get better. Also started Colazal at the same time. Which was the real key? :-)
Posted 3/2/2014 3:25 AM (GMT 0)
A HOT summer turned into a freezing (record coldest since I've been alive) winter and I've been flaring the whole time.

Maybe Spring is my season? :D
Posted 3/2/2014 3:52 AM (GMT 0)
Moved from NewYork to sunny Florida, I think my UC got worse!
Posted 3/2/2014 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
This is interesting. My doctors office recently made an online patient portal available. As I was looking through my records, I noticed that for the last 5 years, I've gone to see her January-April every year because that's when I happen to flare.
Posted 3/3/2014 3:21 AM (GMT 0)
There has been some connection proposed between UC (and other AI diseases) and vitamin D...which is hard to get enough of in northern climates (for Northern Hemisphere) even in the summer. I forget the latitude that is the "cutoff".
Posted 3/3/2014 10:47 AM (GMT 0)
I would also be looking at what kind of foods/drinks people have in cold vs hot.. more coffee and hot drinks? Heavier foods? I know I go for salads and more fruit/veg in summer than Winter. I'm not sure climate has much to do with it though, I know of people in warm countries, such as India, who also have it.
Posted 3/3/2014 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
Now that is an interesting hypothesis. The food thing has been brought up before but in colder climates theoretically more people would drink coffee or other hot drinks.
Posted 3/3/2014 2:15 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure of the cause...climate, food, whatever, but every year mid-January I'm sure to flair. I'm in the middle of a doozy right now.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply