Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Colitis Symptoms - The Worst and How to Reduce It


The first period of the colitis attack after you have been diagnosed by your doctor will bring more frequent trips to the toilet; that is guaranteed. Now don't get alarmed, but be prepared to have well over a dozen trips to the toilet over a twenty four hour period. It could even be every hour! This will include being woken up during the night with the urge to go. Accept that you will have broken nights sleep for the next few weeks.

As colitis is a debilitating disease, you are going to feel really tired. Therefore, during the day it is essential that you catch up on lost sleep, that being either sleeping in to late in the morning or taking a sleep in the afternoon. Sleep assists the body in fighting disease and aids recuperation and this is going to be a vital component in your fight to become healthy again.

The amount of pain that you will have to bear will unfortunately get worse. This will steadily increase as the inflammation of the bowel becomes more pronounced to the point where the medication that you're prescribed starts to have an effect. One of the most effective ways of reducing the pain is to try and eliminate movement. The effect of movement on the bowel is to antagonise the inflammation which of course means a surge of bloodied stool to be emptied in the toilet. The more movement means more surges which, in turn, means more irritation due to stools passing over the inflamed part of the bowel which creates pain.

Often the most comfortable positions, or least painful, is when lying still in bed or on a sofa. By laying flat on your back, it is the most comfortable position and won't put undue pressure on your inflamed bowel as laying on your side will. This can result in visiting the toilet fewer times from adopting this position.

By trying to eliminate movement, you should forsake venturing outside. Remember, you have to accept that life is put on hold. It won't be you who decides this, it will be the colitis attack making you adhere to this if you wish the speediest possible recovery. You will have plenty of time to join the outside world when you are feeling better. In the meantime, if you are up to it, have the outside world visit you, reminding them that colitis is not infectious in any way.

It is essential to seek out and understand the proven methods of dealing with colitis symptoms in order that the period of a relapse can be endured without unnecessary suffering. The disease can be extremely debilitating and any advice of how to deal with it should be sought and used.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ulcerative Colitis - A Common American Disease?


Balanced diet with abundant fiber and protein is really helpful in reducing inflammation in the colon caused by ulcerative colitis.

The inflammatory diseases like ulcerative colitis occur in the large intestine lining. Ulcerative colitis can turn out to be a chronic and an acute membrane inflammation. Persons who have been suffering from ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease can suffer from symptoms like diarrhea, stomach pains and several other abdominal disturbances. But to understand irritable bowel syndrome, or colitis one must be aware about what is a colon. The colon is an integral part of the large intestine which spreads from cecum to rectum. The main function of the colon is to maintain water balance in the large intestine. Another important function of the colon is to absorb vitamins like vitamin K. When you have a healthy colon, stools are soft and pass through the intestines' because it has enough liquidity. But on the contrary, when the liquidity level in the stool becomes high there is a high possibility for dehydration to occur. Any injury in the colon or the intestine that necessitates the removal of the colon would imply that stools will be extremely watery or have high liquidity.

Under colonoscopy, if an individual is suffering from ulcerative colitis, the colon will appear swollen or red. There will be stomach pain because of the frequent ejection of stool or diarrhea because colon will fail to absorb water. The malfunctioning of the colon caused by ulcerative colitis will result in damages caused on the large intestine wall or lining. With damages like this, the surface cell of the large intestine discharge mucus and blood along with stools. The white blood cells those are present in the lining of the intestine cause inflammation in the intestine itself. If you examine the stool, you will be able to find out the presence of white blood cells. The presence of white blood cells in the stool is substantial evidence that indicates infection in part of the intestine.

There are various remedies that helps in the reduction of ulcerative colitis inflammation such as colloidal silver, omega 3 fatty acids, etc, that can be found in flaxseed and fish oil and it is available in the form of pills or as enemas.

Why I Prescribe Antibiotics


I am often asked why I prescribe antibiotics to my patients with rheumatoid or reactive arthritis, late-onset asthma, Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia and other so-called "autoimmune diseases". Before I prescribe any medication, I ask myself whether it will help or hurt. All of the "auto-immune" diseases cause severe disability. Conventional medications neither cure these diseases nor stop the progressive destruction that they cause. Doctors prescribe immune suppressives that sometimes have deadly effects. Antibiotics are far safer than the drugs conventionally used to treat these diseases. So, if antibiotics can be shown to help control these diseases, they should be used long before a doctor thinks of using the conventional immune suppressives.

When a germ gets into your body, you are supposed to produce cells and proteins called antibodies that attach to and kill that germ. These diseases are felt by many doctors to be caused by your own immunity. Instead of doing its job of killing germs, your immunity attacks your own tissue. If it attacks your joints, it is called reactive arthritis; if it attacks your intestines, it's called Crohn's disease; your colon, it's called ulcerative colitis; and if it fills your lungs with mucous, it's called late-onset asthma. I do not believe that your immunity is that stupid. Accumulating data show that all of these conditions can be caused by infection. Many diseases that were thought to be autoimmune turn out to be infections: stomach ulcers are caused by bacterium, helicobacter pylori and others; multiple sclerosis may be caused by HHS-6 virus; rheumatic fever is caused by the bacterium, beta streptococcus, group A; Gillian-Barre syndrome may be caused by the bacterium, campylobacter; Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis by E. Coli, Klebsiella, Bacteroides or Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis; and so forth.

Shouldn't We Be Concerned About Resistant Bacteria?
The argument that giving antibiotics causes bacteria to be resistant to that antibiotic is reasonable, but it has no place in discouraging people with these diseases from taking them. First, these people have serious diseases that cause permanent damage and death. Second, the treatments that are available are toxic, shorten life, cause cancer, and have to be followed with frequent blood tests. On the other hand, I prescribe derivatives of tetracycline and erythromycin. These drugs are extraordinarily safe and do not require drawing frequent blood tests. If you were to become infected subsequently with bacteria that are resistant to these antibiotics, you would have lost nothing. No reasonable doctor would prescribe erythromycin or tetracycline for acute serious diseases, such as meningitis, pneumonia or an abscess, because tetracyclines and erythromycins do not kill germs, they only stop them from multiplying. Instead, doctors prescribe far more bacteriocidal antibiotics that kill bacteria.

Many doctors criticize my use of antibiotics, but antibiotics are far safer than conventional treatment, cost less, can be administered by a general practitioner, and often cure the condition, rather than just suppressing symptoms. I know that the most physicians who develop these conditions will treat themselves with antibiotics because they know that conventional treatments with prednisone, chloroquine, azathioprine and methotrexate are toxic, and treatment with erythromycins and tetracyclines is safe. However, treatment of many conditions with long term antibiotics is controversial and not accepted by most doctors; discuss your particular condition with your doctor.

How you can help to prevent antibiotic-resistant bacteria:
Suffer through short-term illnesses. Don't ask your doctor for antibiotics when you have a cold, flu or other self-limiting illness. You may feel miserable, but antibiotics are useless against viruses.

Finish your prescription. If you stop taking a prescribed antibiotic as soon as you feel better, you encourage the development of resistant organisms.

Become a vegetarian. The bulk of antibiotics are given to animals raised for food. As long as humans demand huge amounts of meat, farmers will use whatever means they have to deliver their product economically.

Definitions:
Bacteriocidal Antibiotics, such as penicillins and cephalosporins, kill bacteria. They are used to combat most bacterial infections, particularly acute, serious diseases such as meningitis, pneumonia, a ruptured intestine or an abcess. However, most bacteriocidal antibiotics are not effective against chlamydia, mycoplasma or ureaplasma, bacteria that have no cell walls.
Bacteriostatic Antibiotics such as tetracyclines (including doxycycline and minocycline) and erythromycins (including Biaxin and Azithromycin) keep bacteria from multiplying. Your own immunity is then able to kill the bacteria and remove them from circulation.

Cause of Depression - Ulcerative Colitis


Ulcerative colitis can be considered as maddening illness. So it advised to know more about this as so far not much of the proper reports had been generated of it and the individuals who are bothered about this must know it. If a person is victim of Ulcerative colitis then processes like investigations, talking about the indicators or regarding the making of the decisions can be a feeling of discomfort for them. But Ulcerative colitis support collection is ready to help those people with their proper knowledge.

Concern and symptom of Ulcerative colitis: -

The main symptom can be the constant illness which further leads to the depression and causing nervousness. So for the help of such patients there are many doctors who are working for the counseling of the patients along with the help of UC support group. There are many ways getting the information regarding the Ulcerative colitis. If some information is not available with the doctors then it can be easily searched on internet. So the counseling from the UC support group can be very much helpful for the patients. If the illness is prolonged then there could be the facility of referring the person who had recently suffered from this problem. So some of the programs are mentioned below which are very much cooperative and attractive for the people: -

i. CCFA known as The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America which is non-profit association which provides the full knowledge and learning about the care of the Ulcerative colitis by providing the financial help and giving support to the patients and their respective families by having the sponsorships for the active members of the association. The CCFA is a big organization and currently as more than 50000 members with around 40 centers all over the world.

Proper knowledge and learning can be taken from the website and people can know how to deal with Ulcerative colitis by their support and make full investigation relating to that topic.

ii. There is a program running known as the UC Support Group Australia and Crohn's illness which helps in providing all the surgical treatments to the patients. So besides the need of the family it necessary to have the support of such groups for the chronic patients.

How to Use Chlorella To Support Your Health


What Are The Major Chlorella Health Benefits?

Chlorella is more than 3.6 billion years old. In nature it is found in stagnant waters rich in organic matter and even in terrestrial soil that is moist enough. However, many algae are grown in controlled freshwater pools.

Even though, chlorella benefits are very well known, there is a digestibility problem due to its cell wall structure. Fortunately, with using different methods it is achieved 80% digestibility of algae. Therefore, a mechanical milling process is of great value, because the procedure does not change the quantity and quality of nutrients that contain chlorine. So, you can enjoy in all chlorella health benefits.

Chlorella health influence is high due to the presence of vitamins such as beta carotene, the whole group B-vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E.

Furthermore it is also rich in mineral matter such as phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, calcium, manganese, copper, zinc and cobalt.

Chlorella contains the maximum of chlorophyll maximum in comparison to all other species of green algae. Thus, it is not difficult to see from where its name comes from. So-called "green blood" is also well known for a number of beneficial effects such as detoxifying the body, cleansing the gastrointestinal tract and improving the composition of blood. However, chlorella health benefits can be seen in various pathological conditions, such as asthma, hemophilia, stomach ulcers...

Scientific studies showed that regular consumption of chlorine increases the body's resistance and improve overall health. One of the layers of cell walls binds heavy metals and synthetic toxins, allowing their removal from the body. Its function of cleaning is strengthened by the fact that it also promotes the activity of the liver.

Many studies have shown other chlorella health roles:

• Regulates digestion
• Strengthens the immune system
• Promotes cell regeneration due to its ability to be divided into 4-8 equal parts every 20 hours.
• Reduces inflammation as inflammation of the stomach lining
• Inhibits the development of chronic degenerative diseases, especially in blood vessels and joints (e.g. arteriosclerosis, arthritis)
• Has beneficial effect on blood pressure
• Reduces levels of bad cholesterol in the blood
• Acts as strong antioxidant
• Has positive impact on many chronic diseases, such as fibromyalgia, hypertension, ulcerative colitis,...
• Maintains the proper pH in our body
• Maintain appropriate blood sugar levels

Consumption of chlorella has very few side effects, but in allergic people could come to the occurrence of allergic symptoms such as rashes or eczema. It is recommended to start with consumption gradually and in small quantities. Results of increased peristalsis lead to slight nausea or unpleasant sensations in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, gradually increase your daily dose to a level where you will feel the desired effects.

Before you buy any chlorella, make sure you know where it comes from, as there are always supplements available by those just looking to take your money.

Symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis


The symptoms of ulcerative colitis may be mild, moderate or severe. Mild ulcerative colitis symptoms may be treated at home, while moderate symptoms typically require prescription medications to put the disease into remission. Severe symptoms of ulcerative colitis will require medications and possibly surgery to remove the affected portion/s of the colon.

The symptoms of ulcerative colitis typically present before the age of 30 and may include diarrhea, with blood or mucus present in the stool. Rectal bleeding is sometimes one of the ulcerative colitis symptoms, but without the presence of diarrhea, rectal bleeding may indicate another condition. A gastrointestinal physician can perform tests to determine the cause of rectal bleeding.

Symptoms of ulcerative colitis vary depending on the amount of the colon (large intestine) that is inflamed and the intensity of the inflammation. There are different types of ulcerative colitis and they are classified according to the portion of the colon that is inflamed. For example, it is referred to by physicians as ulcerative proctitis when only the rectum is inflamed and the only symptom in this case may be rectal bleeding. In more severe cases the symptoms of ulcerative colitis that is confined to the rectum may include rectal pain and bleeding, sudden need to empty the bowels or a painful urge to move the bowels without result.

When other portions of the colon are affected, ulcerative colitis symptoms typically include bloody diarrhea and cramps, as well as the symptoms experienced by those who only have inflammation in the rectum. If the left side of the colon is inflamed, the symptoms of ulcerative colitis may include weight loss and pain on the left side of the abdomen as well. If the inflammation affects the entire colon, it is referred to by physicians as pancolitis or universal ulcerative colitis; symptoms in this case are the same as in the other types of colitis but may include the additional symptoms of fatigue, fever and night sweats. In the most severe form of ulcerative colitis, symptoms may include dehydration, severe abdominal pain, continuous diarrhea, bleeding and even shock.

In children the symptoms of ulcerative colitis may include growth failure due to the lack of nutrients and fluids caused by persistent diarrhea. This lack of nutrients and fluids also causes problems for adults and may lead to dehydration and anemia if bleeding is present. Joint pain and skin rashes have also been experienced by people with other ulcerative colitis symptoms.

Ulcerative colitis is considered a chronic disease, meaning that the symptoms of ulcerative colitis may come and go and vary in intensity throughout a person's life. Diet may worsen ulcerative colitis symptoms, but no foods are specifically known to aggravate or cause the condition. In fact the cause is not known. Vitamin supplements and botanical remedies like aloe are sometimes recommended to reduce ulcerative colitis symptoms. A recent study using fish oil for omega 3 supplementation showed promise, but there is no plan to market the supplement that was used in the study. Treatment is important, even when the symptoms of ulcerative colitis are mild. For more information about treatment and diet, visit www.digestive-disorders-guide.com

Monday, July 1, 2013

I Have Mucus on My Stool - What is Happening to Me?


Excessive or unusual amount of mucus in our bowel may be a sign of Chron's disease or Ulcerative colitis. Mucus is a jelly like body substance that lies on the intestinal walls. It has a whitish or yellowish color and it is produced by the mucus membrane of the epithelium. Our organs such as lungs and nasal cavity also produced mucus.

In most cases there is equilibrium between the secretions of enzyme and mucus in our body. A slight trouble in this equilibrium will lead to inconsistent behavior of our organs. It is also the same when mucus is present in the stool. There are several reasons interrelated to the abnormal amount of mucus on stool. As I have said earlier it may be a sign of Ulcerative colitis or Chron's disease or it can be a bacterial infection. Mucoid or mucus is very normal to bacterial infection. It can also be an anal fissure. In anal fissure, because of its open skin is prone to infection or it can also be a bowel obstruction. Let's dig further why those diseases accumulate mucus.

First, the Ulcerative Colitis. In UC the mucus membrane of our intestine or the epithelial lining of our intestine become swollen, that eventually leads to ulceration of the epithelial lining of our intestine (large intestine). When this ulcer starts to bleed, production of mucus takes place and pus is developed. This mucus passes on to the rectum through the aid of the bowels.

Second, the Bacterial Infection. It is just natural in our intestine to have bacteria, or let's say good bacteria. This bacterium helps in the digestion process. Bacteria such as E. Coli, Salmonella and the likes causes fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. When this happen, an increase in muccocal secretion is manifested and is visible in your bowel.

Third, Bowel Obstruction. You may not believe it but bowel obstruction is common reason for excessive mucoid production, and mucus is more visible to stools. Bowel obstruction is accompanied by abdominal pain, constipation nausea and vomiting. There are various reasons for bowel obstruction. It can be hormonal imbalance, too little water intake and increase in yeast formation. When there is an increase in yeast formation, excessive muccocal infection eventually follows.

Fourth, the Irritable Bowel Movement. In IBS, excessive production of mucus is greatly noted. This is because diarrhea is very is ordinary symptom to patient who suffer IBS.

Fifth, the Chron's disease. Though in CD the production of mucus is too little or barely nothing at all, but because anal fissure is a common symptom of CD, then a mucus in your stool is also visible..

A whitish color mucus indicates inflammation of the intestine. A yellowish color mucus indicates a presence of bacteria. Basically the most common reason for the occurrence of white colored mucus is food allergy and diarrhea. If the production of mucus is due to bacteria overgrowth, the symptom is worsened by the eating sugary foods and lactose. Drinking a lot of water will soothe the epithelial lining of the intestine which can result to speedy recovery. Drinking hot water with a teaspoon of flaxseed oil is also a good relief in this kind of situation.