Why We Can't Find the Right Treatment for Ulcerative Colitis

While Ulcerative Colitis is a rather common condition, it seems that doctors still don't know very much about it. When I was diagnosed four years ago, the doctor I was working with said that my symptoms sounded exactly like those of UC, and that he would verify that he was correct with a colonoscopy. My inflamed intestine confirmed his suspicions, he said. He then promptly put me on steroids.

I wasn't satisfied. Why? What did I do that caused this? His response boiled down to a non-committal "I don't know." He said that it is unknown what causes the condition, and that it was most likely nothing that I did. I asked him, "well, what should I eat now that my lower intestine seems motivated to make my life hell?" His response was that it did not matter what I ate. I'm going to go ahead and repeat that. The doctor told me that a problem with my digestive system had nothing to do with the food that I ate! Even at the age of seventeen I knew that there was something wrong with that particular line of logic. What essentially happened in my case is that the second the doctor could categorize what I had, he went right ahead and pigeon-holed me and my condition, prescribing the drugs that went along with it and not having any interest in who I was or what I was going through.

It is professional blunders such as this one that make it so hard to find good treatment for ulcerative colitis. Because our medical industry is geared more toward making money that truly making a difference in people's lives, I have not found true treatment from any allopath. As it turns out, my particular condition was caused by the fact that I began eating meat again after having been vegetarian for over a year. My body was trying to tell me "For the love of all that is holy, stop giving me dead animals to eat!" And as soon as I did some brainstorming with those closest to me, we figured it out. It would have taken no more than two seconds for the doctor to make that connection. If instead of telling me there was no cure and handing me a bottles of pills on autopilot, he had simply asked "Did you have any major changes in diet before the condition started?" I would have been able to begin the true healing process then and there. As it happened, I struggled for about a year, believing what he had said, before I was able to connect the dots.

It comes down to the fact that we as a society are more concerned about after-the-fact attempts at cures than we are about prevention. We don't care how it happened or why, but simply that it did. And if the medical industry put a bit more energy into learning about the patients that frequent it, we might have more effective treatments for things like ulcerative colitis.