For anyone reading this that doesn't have, or isn't aware of what ulcerative colitis is, I would like to give a short description of my experience of it. Anyone wanting more scientific information please google it. There is a wealth of information online about it.
Basically ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease. There seem to be a lot of them around these days - such as asthma and Crohn's, not to mention the increasing amount of allergies and intolerances. For some reason, which noone seems to know, the body's immune system decides to turn on itself, or react to substances which are harmless - mistaking them for enemies.
Now there are a few theories why this happens - but I will get to those at a later blog.
For sufferers of ulcerative colitis this reaction takes place in the lower intestine. From what I understand the body feels like it's under attack - as it would if a dirty nail infected with tetanus had punctured the skin - and the blood produces a substance not dissimilar to kitchen bleach and pours it on to the offending substance. But alas! There is no substance there... so the foolishly mistaken blood pours it onto the healthy tissue. As you can imagine, this has catastrophic results on the tissue and produces the ulceration and bleeding of the gut associated with this disease.
What I found most fascinating about this disease (and it is a chronic disease i.e. a life long friend) is that because the gut has no nerve endings in it, the sufferer is - at least at first - unaware of the amount of devastation occurring within their body. Yes, there are gut cramps, and the blood and worst of all mucus... and the 20 toilet visits a day ( I will avoid talking too much about this for my own modesty! - I am British after all), but none of this prepares the sufferer for what they see on the first flexible siegmoidoscopy...
I remember thinking, 'if my arm was damaged like that i.e. skinless, I would be in absolute agony!' How can an organ of the body be in that much distress and not making itself known more violently. That's not to say it goes unnoticed. Far from it! But considering the damage that is being done, invisibly, away from easy investigation, the sufferer can be relatively unaware.
I feel that I should again state that this is my experience and I am aware people have had a worse ride with disease than me. I am only two years on from diagnosis and only on my third flare. I have noticed more pain with this one so I realise that this stubborn and characterful disease may have more in store for me yet!
So, that is an introduction to the basics of the disease. I would like to spend another couple of blogs talking about the effects of ulcerative colitis and the prospects for it's sufferers before moving on to possible ways to treat it of which the specific carbohydrate diet will be the focus.
