Colitis is inflammation of the colon. Your colon is part of your large intestine. If you have colitis, it may also affect other parts of your intestines. You’ll feel discomfort and pain in your abdomen that may be mild and reoccurring over a long period of time, or severe and appearing suddenly.
Causes
Causes of colitis include:
Infections, including those caused by a virus, parasite, and food poisoning due to bacteria
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease
Lack of blood flow (ischemic colitis)
Past radiation to the large bowel
Necrotizing enterocolitis in newborns
Pseudomembranous colitis
Types
There are many types of colitis. They are usually classified by the cause.
Autoimmune
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – a group of chronic colitides.
Main article: Inflammatory bowel disease
Ulcerative colitis – a chronic colitis that affects the large intestine.
Main article: Ulcerative colitis
Crohn’s disease – a type of IBD that often leads to colitis.
Main article: Crohn’s disease
Idiopathic
Microscopic colitis – a colitis is diagnosed by microscopic examination of colonic tissue; macroscopically it is normal appearing.
Main article: Microscopic colitis
Lymphocytic colitis
Main article: Lymphocytic colitis
Collagenous colitis
Main article: Collagenous colitis
Iatrogenic
Diversion colitis
Main article: Diversion colitis
Chemical colitis
Main article: Chemical colitis
Vascular disease
Ischemic colitis
Main article: Ischemic colitis
Infectious
Infectious colitis
A well-known subtype of infectious colitis is Clostridium difficile colitis,[2]which is informally abbreviated as “c diff colitis”. It classically forms pseudomembranes and is often referred to as pseudomembranous colitis, which is its (non-specific) histomorphologic description.
Enterohemorrhagic colitis may be caused by Shiga toxin in Shigella dysenteriae or Shigatoxigenic group of Escherichia coli (STEC), which includes serotype O157:H7 and other enterohemorrhagic E. coli.
Parasitic infections, like those caused by Entamoeba histolytica, can also cause colitis.
Unclassifiable colitides
Indeterminate colitis is the classification for colitis that has features of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Indeterminate colitis’ behaviour is usually closer to ulcerative colitis than Crohn’s disease.
Atypical colitis is a phrase that is occasionally used by physicians for a colitis that does not conform to criteria for accepted types of colitis. It is not an accepted diagnosis per se and, as such, a colitis that cannot be definitively classified.
Symptoms
Depending on your condition, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
abdominal pain or cramping
bloating in the abdomen
weight loss
diarrhea
blood in your stool
urgent need to move your bowels
chills and/or fever
vomiting
the diagnosis made by colonoscopy, stool culture.
Homoeopathic approach
Homeopathy is one of the most popular holistic systems of medicine. The selection of remedy is based upon the theory of individualization and symptoms similarity by using holistic approach. This is the only way through which a state of complete health can be regained by removing all the sign and symptoms from which the patient is suffering. The aim of homeopathy is not only to treat ulcerative colitis but to address its underlying cause and individual susceptibility. As far as therapeutic medication is concerned, several well-proved medicines are available for ulcerative colitis treatment that can be selected on the basis of cause, condition, sensation and modalities of the complaints.