Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disorder where a person's body attacks itself. It is not generally known what happens to make this occur, but in people with ulcerative colitis, the hyperactivity of the immune system is centered on the colon, causing inflammation and pain. The disease is usually diagnosed in teenagers and young adults, but children and older adults may be diagnosed, too. Ulcerative colitis treatment helps sufferers deal with their disease.

The symptoms of ulcerative colitis are cramps and abdominal pain, diarrhea and rectal bleeding. They can become quite severe in some people before they are diagnosed, and lead to weight loss and dehydration. Most people are diagnosed only after treatments for other ailments have failed.

Treatment for ulcerative colitis is aimed at managing the symptoms, because there is no cure for the disorder. Most people with ulcerative colitis have bouts of remission and relapses, usually brought on by medications, but sometimes occurring spontaneously. Surgery is a last-resort treatment for the disease, but its use is generally limited to severe cases with complications.

Two large classes of medications make up the main drugs used to induce remission in ulcerative colitis sufferers. These are the anti-inflammatories, which are aimed at reducing inflammation in the colon, and the immunosuppressants, which lower the overall activity of the hyperactive immune system in UC patients. They both can have serious side effects.

Creams and enemas are available for treatment of patients with only disease of the lower colon, but for those with symptoms in the upper colon, oral medications are necessary. In the past, orally medicating the colon has been difficult, because drugs taken by mouth are mostly absorbed by the time they reach the area they're supposed to be treating. But recent advances in the technology of time-release drugs has made it easier to treat ulcerative colitis with oral medications.

A while ago, doctors noticed that people who smoked were less likely to be diagnosed with ulcerative colitis than people who didn't. Nicotine (in a non-cigarette form) was provided to a few patients, and found to be effective in treating some of them.

Surgical ulcerative colitis treatment is kept as a last resort, because it can have permanent and potentially dangerous consequences. If a patient is experiencing long-term, non-responsive symptoms of ulcerative colitis and has exhausted the possible medication options, they might be considered for surgery.

Removal of the colon and rectum are the surgical treatment for ulcerative colitis. Previously, the only option for people who had undergone this treatment was to wear an ileostomy, a bag where the stool drains through an opening in the wall of the abdomen that the intestine was connected to after removal of the colon. But new surgical techniques have allowed some patients to defecate normally by reattaching the intestine to the anus.

Ulcerative colitis is a difficult disease for sufferers to deal with. It is not generally well known, and the symptoms can be embarrassing and hard to talk about. The disease is chronic, meaning that people who are diagnosed with it must learn to live with the fact that they will likely be dealing with it their whole lives. Ulcerative colitis treatment aims to make those lives more comfortable, but it can be a problematic disease to treat, as well.