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Ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease causing inflammation and ulcers in digestive tract. It affects innermost lining of large intestine and rectum. The inflammation usually starts in the rectum and spreads upward to the entire colon. 

Signs and symptoms-

Ulcerative colitis symptoms can vary, depending on the severity of inflammation and where it occurs. Signs and symptoms may include: Diarrhea, often with blood or pus, Abdominal pain and cramping, Rectal pain, Rectal bleeding — passing small/large amount of blood with stool, Urgency to defecate, Inability to defecate despite urgency, Weight loss, Fatigue, Fever, and in children, failure to grow. Most people with ulcerative colitis have mild to moderate symptoms. The course of ulcerative colitis may vary, with some people having long periods of remission.

Types- Doctors often classify ulcerative colitis according to its location. Types of ulcerative colitis include:

• Ulcerative proctitis- Inflammation is confined to the area closest to the anus (rectum), and rectal bleeding may be the only sign of the disease. This form of ulcerative colitis tends to be the mildest.
• Proctosigmoiditis- Inflammation involves the rectum and sigmoid colon (lower end of the colon). Signs and symptoms include bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and pain, and an inability to move the bowels in spite of the urge to do so (tenesmus).
• Left-sided colitis- Inflammation extends from the rectum up through the sigmoid and descending colon. Signs and symptoms include bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and pain on the left side, and unintended weight loss.
• Pancolitis- Pancolitis often affects the entire colon and causes bouts of bloody diarrhea that may be severe, abdominal cramps and pain, fatigue, and significant weight loss.
• Acute severe ulcerative colitis- This rare form of colitis affects the entire colon and causes severe pain, profuse diarrhea, bleeding, fever and inability to eat.

 

 

Treatment- Ulcerative colitis can be debilitating and can sometimes lead to life-threatening complications. It has no known cure in modern medicine treatments are targeted only to reduce symptoms. Normally steroids are used in high dosage along with immunomodulators. All the drugs used in modern medicine for UC have varying side effects with not much of satisfactory relief.

Ulcerative colitis of modern era can be correlated with Pittaja Grahani described in Ayurvedic system of medicine. Due to vitiation of Vata Dosha and Agni (digestive fore), proper digestion of food does not happen and undigested food is expelled out of the body. The undigested food material can cause pain in abdomen, cramping, rectal pain, rectal bleeding and urgency to defecate.

Ayurvedic Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis:

The aim of the treatment is to restore Agni, support healing of the ulcers and restoring the normal function of digestive system. For Shamana Chikitsa (internal medicines) drugs having Deepana (improving digestive fire), Amapachana (improvement in digestion), Grahi (drugs that cause retention of food materials in the intestine for digestion), Stambhana (drugs that reduce frequency of passing stools) and Vrana Ropaka (ulcer healing) properties are used. Panchakarma therapy plays a vital role as it detoxifies and rejuvenates the digestive system, controls the inflammation, rectal bleeding and heals the ulcers.

Ulcerative colitis is one of the challenging diseases that Dr. Kohli has been treating successfully since more than 3 decades. He has been instrumental in coining the customized Ayurvedic treatments for patients suffering from ulcerative colitis. The treatments include Panchakarma therapy, use of gold preparations and combination of medicinal herbs. After treatment with Ayurvedic medications, significant improvement in symptoms of ulcerative colitis was observed; reduction in size and number of ulcers was seen in majority of patients. Appetite and digestive capacity of patients were improved which resulted in increased in weight and improvement in quality of life. After having Ayurvedic treatments, patients are able to do away with use of corticosteroids completely. One of the major features of this treatment on UC is that weight immediately in a few weeks starts increasing, bleeding stops in around a week and other symptoms also disappears fast. The treatments have to be continued for a long term running in several months. Lot of dietary advice is also given to UC patients.

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