interesting facts about your body and UC

billo

Veteran Member

Joined : Mar 2006

Posts : 577

Posted 11/12/2007 10:21 PM (GMT 0)

ever have one of those moments when a light bulb goes on in your head, that moment for me was yesterday...
i was thinking about my uc, and when I'm going bad, i notice alot of mucous in my stools, and then came upon this fact...

" Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself"

my thinking is that in UC patients, the stomach THINKS it hasnt produced enough mucus and is afraid of digesting itself so it overcompensates and everything goes haywire.

quincy

Elite Member

Joined : May 2003

Posts : 33769

Posted 11/13/2007 1:50 AM (GMT 0)

There's a slight flaw in that ulcerative colitis isn't in the stomach at all...it starts at the rectum and continues upward to either a limited state or throughout the colon. But I can understand your lightbulb moment.

There is a lot of mucus production with UC flaring...especially when there's a smaller amount of inflammation compared to a lot. Any amount of extra activity in the colon...and that includes stool formation....causes more mucus. The digestive tract is actually very efficient in protection mode....and it's messages can go haywire...hence the autoimmune response.

quincy

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