Family, Microscopic Colitis and Intestinal Diseases

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Is there any family history of GI diseases?

Mother's side of the family only
8
42%
Father's side of the family only
3
16%
Both Mother and Father Families
2
11%
Neither Mother and Father Families
3
16%
Siblings only
2
11%
Unknown
1
5%
 
Total votes: 19

mle_ii
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Family, Microscopic Colitis and Intestinal Diseases

Post by mle_ii »

I'm curious as to the family history of bowel/intestinal/GI diseases. So my main question is where does this history come from?

For example if you have a known history of GI diseases on your mom's side check the first box. On your mom's side would include your mother (duh) or any of her siblings or parents. GI diseases could include pretty much any of the common ones, but mostly I'm interested in MC/LC/CC, Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, or Unspecifid Colitis, Celiac Disease, Ulcer's, Gall Bladder disease, gall stones, B12 or Vitamin K deficiency, malabsorption diseases, food intollerances, bacterial overgrowth to name a few.

Thanks,
Mike
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tex
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Post by tex »

Hi Mike,

There's another complicating factor that could possibly affect the outcome of this poll, and that's the possibility that one's own gender might possibly have a significant influence on which parent might be most likely to transmit genes that affect this issue for any given individual.

The reason I mention this is because I noticed that when I voted, there were already three selections for the "Mother's side", but I was the first one to select the "Father's side" in the poll, and, of course, my gender is in the minority on this board. This may or may not be significant, but it caused me to have a "Hmmmmmm" reaction.

For example, did you know that in many wild animal species, the dam has a greater effect on genes that transmit "desirable" secondary sexual characteristics of male offspring, than the sire, (such as antler development in deer, plumage in birds, etc.). Conversely, the sire has greater influence on many "desirable" sexual characteristics of female offspring than the dam, (mothering abilities, etc.). I'm not sure how widespread this characteristic is , (and I'm not suggesting that it is certain to skew the outcome of this poll), but it is definitely present in nature, in many species.

Tex
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It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Post by starfire »

I checked Father's side because my Father had ulcers most of his life.

My Mom has had a couple bouts of diverticulitus but nothing at all severe. Doesn't most people have some diverticuli (sp?).

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Post by JJ »

I only know that I have 2 second cousins with Crohn's...one passed away and the other is waiting for a transplant. Not good...JJ
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Post by Polly »

Hi Mike,

My dad died from colon cancer, but it doesn't look like you are including cancer.

No actual GI disease on mom's side but lots of autoimmune stuff - Hashimoto's thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis.

Also, I will include my mom for the "unspecified colitis" category - I believe she had some kind of problem but she would never talk about it - always denied it. But I recall being with her on a number of occasions as a child when she would have to make immediate dashes to the bathroom (that old "bathroom boogie"). And there were periods of time when she was housebound for long periods.

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Post by kate_ce1995 »

I picked Mother's side only but like Polly, there was probably some colon cancer history on my Dad's side. My great uncle had it, and my grandfather was probably developing it but a heart attack got him first.

My maternal grandfather always complained of stomach issues and ate few veggies because of it. Claimed a milk intolerance, but ate cottage cheese on toast for breakfast????

Katy
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Post by mle_ii »

Heh, you'll notice that I try not to add too many comments in my polls to begin with so as to not taint my results. :) The results thus far lean towards my theory on one of the causes, but you point out a valid cause as well that might apply. But I'm not even thinking genetics at this point. In fact I'm betting I could throw in all autoimmune diseases and see a trend.

I'm thinking that the biology of your mother's gut has the most to do with all of this. So if you're mom is missing certain bacteria then the more likely you are too. You get this bacteria both from going through the birth canal and through breast feeding. There are other mechanisms at place here, but I'd say this is a huge contributor to the gut biota. But trends have been found in IBD and other diseases in those children who are not breast fed or who were born cecarian section.

So what I would guess is that for us with this disease I would think that we would find more cousins (your mom's sisters (by birth) children) than cousins from your mom's brothers (by birth) children, or the cousins on your dad's side of the family. Though we still have the influence of those mothers not related by birth amoung other environmental reasons.

Though I can still see reason why other mechanisms can cause this particular disease we have I would think that they'd be the minority. In fact I would bet that those with autoimmune diseases and other gut diseases and allergies would also fall into this trend. And I don't think that it is all genetics either.

Though I have seen research I've seen thus far in IBD and Celiac, I wonder why the gut biota hasn't been analyzed for those with MC, GI disease or other autoimmune diseases.

One other complaint I have on the majority of studies with regards to probiotics is that the orginal gut biota isn't examined. They give some probiotic to all subjects in the study and expect certain results, what if that bacteria is missing in some and not others. This in my eye's would mess up the results.

Say for example that those with MC aren't only missing say bifidobacterium, but there is a range. Some are missing bifido, some lactobacilus others some other unnamed bacteria. Ok, so the study has only lactobacilus in the probiotic. Well, without knowing the orginal biota of our subjects we might make some get worse (ones who already have lots of lactobacilus but missing something else), some better (ones with only lactobacilus missing) or nothing happens in others (for many possible reasons). The conclusion might be that lactobacilus isn't the answer and so we move on to something else, ignoring what data might be there.

It'd be like we have a house and something is wrong with it. Instead of accessing the problem we just add more doors. Still something wrong with some houses but others are fixed. If we would have looked to see that some were indeed missing doors but others were missing windows we would be more able to fix the problem.

Well, enough rambling. :)

Thanks,
Mike
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Post by mle_ii »

Ok, on related note. I was reading a review of Microscopic colitis and came across a study that showed that the rectal tissue in celiacs reacted to gluten. Inflamation, Nitric Oxide, Immune reaction, etc. So I went to pubmed and entered the following in a search "rectal mucosa gluten". Wow, I thought I heard mention of this before, but this sure was an eye opener as well.

So why might the damage occur more for us in the colon than say the intestine? How about the same thing mentioned before playing a roll, dysbiosis (bacteria of the colon, etc, not being stable). But remember that bacteria also live in the intestine though in smaller amounts. So let's say you get some bad bacteria or a virus or fungi, and it causes damage, well that damage may occur more in one area than another. So if that damage occurs in the colon then one ends up with MC if it's in the intestine it is CD. Not quite that simple but you get the idea.

The bacteria that lives in our GI plays many roles. It provides energy, vitamins, protection (via barrier and modulated immune system, and other ways as well), helps with recycling of bile acids, perhaps even more as of yet unknown.

Again enough rambling... for now. :)

Mike
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Post by tex »

Mile,

Normally, bacterial populations are very low in the small intestine, (except for a somewhat increased population in the distal ileum). Also, the types of bacteria that populate the small intestine are quite different from those normally found in the colon. They are aerobic types, whereas those found in the colon are anaerobic, (the ileum acts as a transition zone between the two regions). You might find this reference to be of interest:

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pa ... _bugs.html

Tex
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It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Post by Tessa »

I had to vote for "unknown" because we do not know if they have any GI disease (they do not want to know) :???:

Love,
Tessa
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