Does Stress Cause Colitis

[Jim Gonsler]

Hi Folk,

Just yesterday as I was driving into work and listening to a popular talk show WJR 760 in the Detroit area, the announcer said something that caught my attention.
The topic of this particular morning happened to be Colitis. The reason Colitis happend to be in the forefront of attention was because our mayer, Dave Bing was in the hospital being treated for it. Naturally the radio announcer had selected an area physician to interview to get information out to the listeners about the disease, what it was, the symptoms and some possible causes of the disease. One of the first questions out of the announcers mouth, was that possibly the cause of the majors Colitis may because of the intense stress he has been under to solve the huge debt problem the city has been experiencing. The doctor quickly dismissed this as a probable cause, suggesting instead, that it more than likely could have been caused by the use of antibiotics. Anyone have an idea about this?

 

[mickey]

Stress is a trigger for many diseases and can accelerate or exacerbate its growth. Antibiotics can also trigger problems with the stomach.

 

[handle]

Stress does not cause Colitis. Stress is best avoided, where possible, once the body is weakened or diseased as it causes the body to prepare for a perceived threat (the heart rate increases, digestion slows etc.) This relegates healing to a lower priority.

Antibiotics are a much more likely issue with Colitis, as they disrupt the bacterial balance in the intestines which seems to be involved with the disease.

 

[maria]

I believe this to be very true! I say yes!

 

[Swirl]

I did develop colitis during a very stressful situation i had to deal with every single day for a few months........
I haven't read stress was the cause of someone's colitis.
But like Like mickey said.

 

[nitty]

Yes to the stress link.
There are a whole host of consequences that arise from the body's response to stress. It's what I consider to have triggered my own condition.

I have never had any issues with my gut, and the first time I noticed any symptoms was just after my husband had to have an invasive cardiac procedure a year ago. They were not really significant and I put it down to haemorrhoids. Six months later he had to have the same procedure again, and sure enough, just after that I had the same symptoms (bleeding) again, only worse, and then deteriorated from there as I panicked over what it might be and whether I had bowel cancer. I'm now diagnosed with Crohn's colitis and on treatment, but not completely sorted yet, and the only link I can find between fluctuations in symptoms (keeping a detailed food diary etc) is my anxiety/stress over other things going on in my life.

I've not had a course of antibiotics for years, although when I did go to see a GI one of his first questions was whether I'd had antibiotics recently.

 

[PVail]

Having just been diagnosed with Colitis I could tell that stress does not cause Colitis but it will definetly make the symptoms worse. I also believe that being treated with incorrect medication for long periods of time probably causes conditions in the body where Colitis symptoms may occur. I was being treated for a few years with pain meds for a pain in my back incorrectly and it turned out to be a bowel problem . The meds in question Neurontin have been discussed as a med that can trigger Colitis. I have read this several times in diferent articles.
So does stress cause Colitis ?
If you are undiagnosed, this can be very stressfull and cause many bowel issues. Partly as you feel you are not being listened to and are not getting the right treatment. So if you are already suffering this can become much worse.
Only proper testing by GI can tell you , unfortunatley these can be difficult to get. Well I think you can see where Im going with this.
What causes Colitis .
For me maybe Nicotine withdrawl . Maybe I already had it before I stopped smoking. Who knows.
Thats my rant .

 

[Niffer]

Cause? No...make it flare up? You bet!

There has been a lot of research done on stress and how it effects your body. It's not good. My own experience is even though the onset of the disease was antibiotic driven, every flare up since then (20 years ago) can be linked directly to a very stressful period in my life. Even while on maintenance meds, if a lengthy stressful period is occuring, I can almost count on a flare up. This one was brought on during a work project that had me traveling a LOT and things were not going well and 3 weeks into being gone from home, I had to return to go see the doc.

 

[Jim Gonsler]

Yeah, a hear a lot of people saying the same thing, that stress does really exacerbate the Crohn's problem. Now, I guess we just need to find ways to lesson stress. I work out when I can, and find that it does a lot to reduce stress. I'd like to know how other folks handle it? Thanks,
Jim