Collagenous colitis facts

Colitis isa condition affecting the colon and one of the main problems with it is that itoften takes more than a couple of months to detect it. There are the many differentkinds of colitis, and what happens in collagenous colitis is that a particular layerof the lining of the large intestine, or the so-called collagen, becomesinflamed and swollen.

How doescollagenous colitis manifest itself?

First ofall, the person starts experiencing the discomfort in the stomach in the formof bloating and cramps. Next comes feeling nauseous all the time and losingweight significantly. One other symptom of collagenous colitis is the so-calledfecal incontinence and what it means is that the affected person is not able tohold their feces in the rectum for a long time. It comes suddenly, and it isextremely unpleasant, starting with gases and culminating in the untimelypassage of feces. And not only that, the person starts experiencing diarrheawhich tends to be quite liquid, however, at least it doesn’t contain blood. Thediarrhea is so repetitive that one might reach the need to go to the bathroomup to even twenty times a day.

What cancause collagenous colitis?

Most of thetime, particular viruses and bacteria are responsible for the irritation andthe inflammation of the colon. However, what sometimes happens is that theimmune system starts being too active and begins damaging even the healthycells in the body. Aside from these, there are also particular disorders thatcan lead to collagenous colitis.

One of suchdisorders is the so-called diabetes mellitus, where the body is unable toprovide sufficient levels of the sugar in the blood because of some kind of aproblem in the functioning of pancreas.

Anotherthing that can lead to collagenous colitis is a condition affecting thedigestive system, called celiac disease. This disease manifests itself when theperson absorbs the protein gluten and the time comes for the body to digest it.

Aside fromthese conditions, which are the most likely ones to cause collagenous colitis,issues with the thyroid gland, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and aparticular kind of anemia can all result in it. The way it happens is that thethings that affect the body, causing these diseases weaken the immune systemconsiderably, and it becomes much more liable and exposed to all kinds ofviruses, one of which resulting in collagenous colitis.