Ulcerative Colitis Causes & Rish Factors

Conditions & Diseases: Digestive System

Ulcerative Colitis

Causes & Risk Factors

The exact causes for ulcerative colitis are not known and thus it is called as idiopathic disease (arising from an unknown cause). Some of the probable causes could be as follows:

1. Chronic Inflammation: There are two types of inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Some features of these diseases suggest several contributing factors such as:

a. Family connection: First-degree relatives such as a mother, father, sister or brother contribute as one of the causes.

b. Genetics: Similarity of symptoms is common in identical twins, particularly in Crohn’s disease.

c. Immune system: Various changes in the immune system are identified to be contributing to inflammatory bowel disease but not specific to Ulcerative colitis.

d. Smoking: Smokers are at an increased risk of developing Ulcerative colitis.

2. Infectious Colitis: A variety of other factors such as Bacteria (species of Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter jejuni and Clostridium), Viruses (Rotavirus and Norwalk) and Protozoans (E. histolytica) could cause infectious colitis.

3. Radiation affected colitis: Colitis may occur following localized treatment of the pelvic region with radiotherapy.

4. Ischemic Colitis: This is caused due to depleting blood supplies to the intestinal lining and often affects elderly people.

5. Antibiotic associated colitis: Patients who are given antibiotics are at risk of developing this type of antibiotic associated colitis (1).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com