Removal of the colon and rectum generally cures the condition.Together with Crohns disease, about 11.2 million people were affected as of 2015. Each year it newly occurs in 1 to 20 per 100,000 people, and 5 to 500 per 100,000 individuals are affected. The disease is more common in North America and Europe than other regions. Often it begins in people aged 15 to 30 years, or among those over 60. Males and females appear to be affected in equal proportions. It has also become more common since the 1950s. Together, ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease affect about a million people in the United States. With appropriate treatment the risk of death appears the same as that of the general population. The first description of ulcerative colitis occurred around the 1850s. Signs and symptoms
Gastrointestinal
People with ulcerative colitis usually present with diarrhea mixed with blood, of gradual onset that persists for an extended period of time (weeks). Additional symptoms may include fecal incontinence, increased frequency of bowel movements, mucus discharge, and nocturnal defecations. With proctitis (inflammation of the rectum), people with UC may experience urgency or rectal tenesmus, which is the urgent desire to evacuate the bowels but with the passage of little stool. Tenesmus may be misinterpreted as constipation, due to the urge to defecate despite small volume of stool passage. Bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain may be more prominent features in severe disease. The severity of abdominal pain with UC varies from mild discomfort to very painful bowel movements and abdominal cramping.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom 10 per 100,000 people newly develop the condition a year while the number of people affected is 243 per 100,000. Approximately 146,000 people in the United Kingdom have been diagnosed with UC. History
The first description of ulcerative colitis occurred around the 1850s. Research
Helminthic therapy using the whipworm Trichuris suis has been shown in a randomized control trial from Iowa to show benefit in people with ulcerative colitis. The therapy tests the hygiene hypothesis which argues that the absence of helminths in the colons of people in the developed world may lead to inflammation. Both helminthic therapy and fecal microbiota transplant induce a characteristic Th2 white cell response in the diseased areas, which was unexpected given that ulcerative colitis was thought to involve Th2 overproduction.Alicaforsen is a first generation antisense oligodeoxynucleotide designed to bind specifically to the human ICAM-1 messenger RNA through Watson-Crick base pair interactions in order to subdue expression of ICAM-1. ICAM-1 propagates an inflammatory response promoting the extravasation and activation of leukocytes (white blood cells) into inflamed tissue. Increased expression of ICAM-1 has been observed within the inflamed intestinal mucosa of ulcerative colitis patients, where ICAM-1 over production correlated with disease activity.