Colitis is a swelling or inflammation of the large intestine, which is of course also known as the colon. Common symptoms include abdominal bloating and excessive gas, dehydration, bloody stool and abdominal pain. The term colitis is actually a collective one and encompasses a number of different conditions including CMV, which is a viral infection, Crohn’s Disease and both ischemic and ulcerative colitis. Treatment is specific to each type of the condition.

Colitis in its various forms can be cause by a number of different factors, or in some cases the onset cannot be explained at all. Common causes however include acute and chronic infections, a lack of blood flow to the colon (ischemic colitis) and certain genetic factors. Crohn’s disease, for instance is found more commonly in individuals of Jewish descent more frequently than others.

You may often hear of infants and young children being diagnosed with colitis. This is most commonly allergic colitis and is caused by allergic reaction to the ingredients in both cow’s milk and soy based infant formulas and to milk itself. There are those who claim there is a condition called breast milk allergy but this only occurs if the breast feeding mother is ingesting a significant amount of dairy products that then are passed on to the child via the breast milk. Babies are not allergic to breast milk itself.

Colitis can be a painful and often debilitating condition but there are a number of different treatments available to alleviate the suffering that it can cause. Colitis is usually diagnosed by flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy, which involves the insertion of a tube into rectum and evaluating specific areas of the colon. Biopsies are also often taken at the same time to be evaluated at a later date for changes caused by the inflammation. Other diagnostic tools include abdominal catscan, abdominal MRI and in some cases a barium enema.

As colitis actually encompasses several different diseases of the colon any preventative measures that are able to be taken depend upon the specific condition that is being referred to. For instance, in patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, for which there is not yet any known cure, dietary modification is often quite successful for keeping symptoms at a minimum. A colon specialist will usually help their patients formulate an optimum diet by figuring out what their personal “trigger” foods are.

Many forms of colitis are relatively mild and will usually dissipate on their own; with the exception of Crohn’s Disease which as previously mentioned is a lifelong and incurable condition.  This does not mean that the condition does not warrant medical treatment and any symptoms such as persistent abdominal pain and frequent excessive intestinal gasses, as well as blood in the stool merit a doctor’s appointment as soon as possible.