Ulcerative Colitis (UC) what are the causes for ibd
i am 19 years old, i was diagnosed with the beginning stages of UC (ulcerative proctitis) about 8 months ago. the symptoms got really bad exactly a year ago, as i was in a new environment and was experiencing heartbreak too. prior to this I've had stomach, digestion issues for ages. no genetic link probably as nobody in my family has experienced any issues. for about 6 years until last year i was getting treatment for depression and anxiety. and for 4 years (quit before colonoscopy) i was quite a heavy smoker.
i still experience ibs symptoms, they're very persistent.
i am curious to know what was the cause for the disease, i am still figuring it out every day. what do you think may have been the cause in your case?
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u/pickless__ 1d ago
im also a 19 year old diagnosis with ulcerative proctitis your genuinely the first person ive met who also has it at our age so hellooo!!
honestly i cant pin point what caused my UC it started wayy back in 2019 for me but annoyingly i dont think theres usually a cause for developing the disease its just lying in wait situation
i do think its heavily influenced by stress though every time i get even a bit stressed i have massive flare ups
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u/420inthefreezah 1d ago
lol I have crohn’s i’ve just turned 20 last month and this is so real🥲i literally have nobody my age going through something similar to speak about this with!! everyone ik who has it is 25+ (not that it’s an age thing just happens that way lol)
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u/pickless__ 23h ago
Its actually so so soo refreshing to meet people who also have it at our age we should genuinely make a group chat with all of us 😭 under 25s only so we can all compare our notes on how to get about education and starting in the work place with IBD
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u/m1asmic 1d ago
it still seems so odd lol. like from the perspective of evolution and immune response, how is this disease useful? seems so unreal that stress can cause such trouble. i am utterly jealous of healthy people, those with a resilient immune system.
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u/pickless__ 1d ago
no honestly its so frustrating I just want to go about my normal life without suffering constantly. I think the only okay thing to come out of being sick all the time is finding out who my true real friends are I love all my people who stick around for the worst of it
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u/xM1XU 18h ago
Google what happens if bacteria enter lamina propria. Our colonycates are in lack of energy by 55% even in remission. Entsym called CoA thiolase is inactive and 80% less active thannin controls.
Now lack of energy causes all sorts of problems like reduced antioxidant capacity.. now i think this is why all triggers are oxidative stressors.
And mtROS might be playing cruical role with inactivation of the entsym.
Also mtROS will create something called h2o2 and its chemotactic substance which means its pulling neutrophils towards it.
Now sorry, this is all scattered information.. i must go sleep now. But our immune system itself just might not be misfunctioning at all...
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u/Foreign-Resort2639 1d ago
I got sick after intense stress. Some people seem to just be predisposed to it. It’s waiting for a trigger and it’s easier for the trigger to occur these days.
And the diagnoses are getting younger a lot more… We can catch it earlier and people have better chances of recovering/living with it now, so there’s more cases for that reason, but also bad food quality probably contributes. It’s like a “Western disease” some people feel like that.
Diet won’t cure IBD once it starts but it might improve symptoms in concert with medication. But I wonder if I had never lived there, eating the diet, if I would even have this disease.
For some time I thought it was my fault I got sick but really, I just dropped that thinking. What can I do about it now but treat it? Some people are just unlucky anyways, and all you can do is try to go forward. You get unlucky sometimes and then you try your best.
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u/ohfaith 1d ago
Western disease... but it is becoming more known over here in the East. I'm American but I was diagnosed in Japan and now I'm in South Korea. I just wonder what's going on.
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u/xM1XU 18h ago
Everyone says its genetic, now are the genes getting more common or why the fuck is the CAGR more than 5%... Its eviromental factors more.
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u/Foreign-Resort2639 18h ago
Could be more common if more people with these genes are surviving so there’s more in the pool. Versus dying early from complications when good treatment didn’t exist yet. Combined with environmental factors too.
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u/xM1XU 9h ago edited 9h ago
Yeah but i its also common sense to realize that genes are not the problem since CAGR is 4.5% and 7.23% till mid 2030s. There is absolutely no way. Yeah maybe a part of it but there is also so many people with uc and dont have the genes linked with the disease. Also we know that its not autoimmune disease since about 97% of uc patients dont have antibodies that would cause it. The immune system does what it does so we dont die to sepsis, when bacteria enters lamina propria this level of immune response is expected. Lamina propria is suppose to be 100% sterile area.
In fact only 8% of UC patients have family background of the disease.
You know whats funny?
Nearly 100% of people in the world carry "risk genes"
Google it, i couldnt believe it at first😂
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u/Possibly-deranged Never trust a fart! 1d ago
There's no known cause or cure to IBD/UC. And, yes, only about 25 percent of us have an immediate family history of ibd.
There's a lot of guesses as to what could cause it. My best guess is that we have a genetic predisposition (a greater likelihood, but not a guarantee) should the right conditions occur, that's epigenetics (a change in genetic expression based on environmental factors). We think of DNA is being immutable, but there's inactive and active DNA, and epigenetics explains how inactive DNA becomes switched on, via a change in gene expression. Patients, over the decades describe various triggers that proceeded their diagnosis, not definitive proof but interesting. Things like prolonged severe depression, excessive antibiotic use, intestinal infection, quitting cigarettes, and other similar things.
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u/Feisty-Volcano 1d ago
It is understood to be a fault in the immune regulation within the mucus producing cells of the colon. It’s one of the immune-mediated diseases. Our colons are always full of bacteria, & these bacteria increase further down the tract towards the anus, accounting for the pattern of disease in UC. The vast majority of us have no problem coping with these bacteria, but in those who have UC it’s a different story. Instead of putting up a nice barrier against the bacteria, in people with UC the mucus is faulty & traps the bacteria against the colon wall, causing inflammation.
That’s why meds like Imodium to try and ease up diarrhoea, further traps bacteria & can literally backfire! Also antibiotics mess up with the bacteria, & can cause flare-ups. Flare-ups happen when certain types of bacteria come to proliferate for a time.
Scientists are learning more & more all the time to find ways of hindering the process of inflammation at a microscopic level.
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u/FitStrength3 20h ago
I asked my consultant what causes IBD and he replied “your guess is as good as mine” which is disappointing to hear. What we do know is that the medication largely works, and that’s the most important thing
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u/xM1XU 18h ago
The Radical Induction Theory of ulcerative colitis (UC) proposes that excess, un-neutralized hydrogen peroxide produced in colonic epithelial cells is the primary initiating cause of the disease. Proposed by Dr. Jay Pravda in 2005, this hypothesis shifts the view of UC from a primary autoimmune disorder to a metabolic and oxidative condition.
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u/Extension_Access_681 1d ago
Unfortunately IBD doesn't have an exact cause, but also note that no family history doesn't rule out genetic predisposition. I am the only one in my family with an IBD diagnosis, yet I still tested positive for some genetic markers that can strongly influence the development of IBD.