Teens and UC

Have a young friend who was so close to having her colon removed for two or three years, now she is free of all symptoms and has been off meds for two years. Why a complete freedom from symptoms? She says it's God's intervention. Has anyone heard of this or is she playing with fire. Can you grow out of UC if you are young and as such have a virulently active immune system.

god's intervention? We all know that's not the case. Hopefully her body has changed hormonally or she had a bug that has been eliminated and it doesn't return. I don't think someone with UC can have it go away but I believe PLENTY of people are misdiagnosed with UC when they probably have some kind of unidentifiable bug or who knows... Pathology never says UC, it says consistent with UC. Seems like it's not that accurate and it's a blanket diagnosis when your condition can't be explained by anything else.

"god's intervention? We all know that's not the case"


please don't count me among your "all" !

notsosicklygirl said...
Pathology never says UC, it says consistent with UC.

Yup. Moreover, it usually says "consistent with UC if infectious etiologies are ruled out." So pathology doesn't rule out infectious colitis, only stool tests (which we know can be notoriously unreliable).

The virulently active immune system of the young doesn't start to wear off (to the degree of improving IBD) until ones 30s, typically.

Med free and spontaneous remissions happen all the time, though. Those people don't tend to post here for long. My mom was diagnosed with CD at my age then spent 20 years in a med free remission (with a terrible diet and no supplements or anything else you might attribute remission to). It happens, but I wouldn't be at all surprised when she flares again.

God doesn't fix people, doctors and medical science does.

I don't have anything against God but it is kind of amusing how someone can be on a big gun med like Remicade, go into remission, and then basically say that Remicade didn't do anything but the almighty put her into remission. If she flares again in the future and has to go on Remicade again and enters remission one more time I'm sure that her faith will be renewed. I can't help but read between the lines on this particular situation and think that because there is a lack of money or an insurance issue that this person has revised the definition of remission and is not really doing quite as well as they would lead you to believe. I readily admit that I really am reading between the lines on this one and could possibly be way off base.

Yeah, especially in the US we are very gung ho on the idea of staying on Remicade forever once you achieve remission to avoid building up antibodies, but in other parts of the world (particularly the UK) Remicade is often only given to achieve remission and then discontinued (similar to the way we use prednisone here). So it's not so crazy for her to be in remission after using Remicade and it would be silly to say it's not because of the Remicade.

garylouisville said...
Once again, I am not against God or religion and believe in miracles, to a certain extent, but the placebo effect is a well accepted phenomenon and this could easily help explain how close connections to churches and communities strengthen health and reduce the risk of illnesses, as well as the belief in whatever it is you are doing from meds themselves to Yoga or meditation. In other words, the mind itself can do wonderful things on some occasions while actually giving the credit to whatever it was that you had the "faith" that it would heal you.

Except there are numerous studies out there detailing the adverse effects of isolation on organisms. From animal to human populations, there are biological processes that occur when an organism is closed off from its ecosystem. This is pretty well documented in prison populations, and especially those who spend time in solitary confinement. This also happens to be one of the best forms of torture, as some of the documented physiological effects end up being worse than physical torture. If I had a choice, I'd probably prefer physical torture.

You also bring up meditation, which is interesting because there are well controlled studies from Harvard showing stronger gray matter regions in those who meditate vs those who don't. Subsequently, there is strengthening of the connections between the prefrontal cortex (the "focus" region) and the rest of the brain.

I think it's time to stop using the placebo effect as the answer to every issue that medicine doesn't "solve", and start inspecting other processes more carefully.

Post Edited (StealthGuardian) : 12/8/2013 10:48:38 AM (GMT-7)

God's poos must be the most awesome thing ever. Using them for FMTs probably gives you super powers too.

If your friend really has UC, shes just in remission (possibly a several decades long remission). But UC symptoms can mimic many other gut diseases. Our gut bacteria is changing every day, so quite possible her gut bacteria changed for the better. Who knows... now, what were we saying about God's s###?