It is the nirvana that anyone that has been diagnosed with colitis seeks. Imagining the familiar pattern of relapses and remissions disappearing along with the pain and discomfort that the disease brings. The weight loss, the feeling of great tiredness, even exhaustion could all be a memory if only there appeared a vision offering the great hope of an ulcerative colitis cure.



Today, with greater numbers of media outlets, there are bold claims emerging that this one formula or secret plan contains the elixir that the medical profession have been investigating for decades and decades and still not found. The large amounts of money that is invested each year into research by charities, universities and drug companies, undertaking complex experiments and trials has still not found the elixir.

There have been some breakthroughs in recent years as to better understanding of colitis, including some interesting findings within genetics, yet the work continues and the hope is there that one day there will be a definitive reason why the disease occurs and how it can be cured. Until that day, sufferers will have to continue taking the prescribed medications and trying to control their own disease to live life as normally as possible.

These bold "cure" claims are often argued and "evidenced" on the use of diet or natural herbal or vitamin cures. Diet is a very important factor during both periods of relapse and remission in providing the sufferer with the nutrients and vitamins in fighting the disease. It is important to understand how the likes of diet plays a part in reducing the chances of instigating colitis symptoms such as diarrhoea both when in periods of remission and relapse. Yet to make the claim that colitis can be cured by just eliminating a certain food or food group may not be the entire story.

When in remission, there are still times that colitis symptoms may appear. This could in fact be a one time occurrence where diarrhoea and perhaps some blood appear then the bowel returns to normal function. This may or may not be able to be traced to something that was eaten. But was this just a reaction to the food that manifested itself as diarrhoea and some blood because the sufferer has colitis and they are now more susceptible to irritation caused by certain foods? Colitis may have caused the reaction rather than the food causing the colitis. If these foods are avoided, is colitis cured?

It is important to recognise that diet can play a part in trying to manage the symptoms of colitis and avoiding certain food or food groups can be the answer to reduce provoking a reaction in the sufferer's bowel. Yet by eliminating such won't in itself be an ulcerative colitis cure but a means of avoiding certain symptoms that colitis brings. It is an important aspect for the sufferer to understand in managing their daily life with colitis and it is invaluable to seek the experience of others who have endured the challenge in order to ease their undoubted anxieties.