It just occurred to me (while responding to another thread) that I learned something new from the kidney stone events that I had a couple of months back. I've long suspected this, but I never could find any research data to substantiate it. The fact of the matter is, the excessively loud gurgling noises that most of us are embarrassed about during MC reactions apparently originate in the small intestine, not the colon.
I had that symptom a couple of months ago, as a result of a short MC flare that apparently was triggered by the passage of 2 kidney stones. Apparently the first stone caused a lot of inflammation, and when the second one came along (3 weeks later), the accumulated inflammation exceeded my personal threshold at which an MC reaction is triggered. This was the first true MC reaction that I've had since my colon was removed almost 5 years ago. The reaction only lasted for about a day (thank goodness), but it included the classic watery D and the loud gurgling gut noises. Obviously, the noise did not originate in my colon (since said organ has presumably been resting peacefully in some landfill for almost 5 years now.
). That leaves the small intestine as the prime suspect, by default.So this is pretty strong epidemiological evidence that MC may be at least as much a small intestinal syndrome as it is colon event. This is also something that I have long maintained, but mainstream medicine continues to ignore it. I'm beginning to wonder if MC might actually be primarily a small intestinal syndrome, and what happens in the colon is only a minor part of it.
There are a number of references cited in the book, that verify that inflammation exists concurrently in both the colon and the small intestine in many/most MC patients. And likewise (since IMO, celiac disease and MC are not actually diseases — they are both simply symptoms of the same disease — namely, gluten sensitivity), celiac disease is also marked by inflammation in the colon in many/most cases. So clearly the evidence is there. But no one has been willing to admit that the original description (and even the name) of microscopic colitis is incorrect. Colitis means inflammation of the colon. But that's not even half the story, because it totally overlooks the inflammation in the small intestine, and often in the stomach, and even the esophagus.
Clearly, the proper name for microscopic colitis would be "microscopic enterocolitis" (or "microscopic bowelitis"), which means inflammation of the mucous membrane of both the small and large intestines, visible only under a microscope. Another candidate for a proper name would be "microscopic coloenteritis".
What are your thoughts on this? And remember, you read it here first.
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I can't think of any reason offhand why we would need to change our treatment approach. After all, what we're doing works for celiac disease also.
