Below are all the questions and responses listed as a percent (%) from the 832 people who took part in the survey.
MAKE SURE to check out the pictures that about 60 people sent in below as well…just to make sure you know what some photo taking colitis people look like:)
AND, a special thanks to my own Gastro doctor (Dr. Neil Stollman) who was super cool to once again take part in a iHaveUC project and share his own answers. You can see his answers along with his comments (when he added them) next to his picture below each question from the survey.
Is salad bad for someone with colitis?
- 45% – No
- 29% – Yes
- 26% – Not Sure
Not Sure: “different patients with colitis have different dietary sensitivities; there’s certainly no worry that salad (or Chinese food, or dried fruit etc) is ‘harmful’ to their disease process, and won’t cause a flare, but many people have worse symptoms, and the simplest and most accurate ‘answer’, in my opinion, is that there’s really NO obligate dietary restrictions in colitis, but patients need to be mindful of how their body reacts to salad (Chinese, dried fruit etc) and if a certain kind / type of food reliably causes increased symptoms, then of course avoid, but if not, go for it!”
Can someone with colitis eat Chinese food?
- 61% – Yes
- 21% – Not Sure
- 18% – No
Not Sure: “see Q1”
Can someone with colitis eat dried fruit?
- 57% – Yes
- 23% – Not sure
- 20% – No
Not Sure: “see Q1. recognize that dried fruit can cause increased BMs”
Can someone with colitis visit India?
- 60% – Yes
- 32% – Not sure
- 8% – No
Yes
Is drinking alcohol bad for someone with colitis?
- 63% – Yes
- 20% – Not sure
- 17% – No
Not Sure: “see Q1”
Does someone with colitis need to take medicine forever?
- 46% – No
- 32% – Yes
- 22% – Not sure
Not Sure: “most do, based on fact that most will relapse (eventually, although there are rare exceptions) and many meds, particularly 5-ASA / mesalamine, has good evidence that it lowers frequency and severity of relapse.”
Can someone live without a colon?
- 86% – Yes
- 12% – Not sure
- 2% – No
Yes
Can someone get pregnant and have ulcerative colitis?
- 93% – Yes
- 7% – Not sure
Yes
Can someone with uc live a normal life?
- 79% – Yes
- 11% – Not sure
- 10% – No
Yes
Can changing my diet get me off meds for uc?
- 43% – Not sure
- 39% – Yes
- 17% – No
Not Sure: “not usually, but occasionally”
Can colitis affect my joints?
- 87% – Yes
- 12% – Not sure
- 2% – No
Yes
Can i have a colonoscopy while on steroids?
- 57% – Yes
- 40% – Not sure
- 3% – No
Yes
Can my son have colitis if his dad has it?
- 71% – Yes
- 23% – Not sure
- 6% – No
Yes: “there is familial clustering”
Can people with colitis work in law enforcement?
- 73% – Yes
- 24% – Not sure
- 3% – No
Yes
Can prednisone make you do irrational things?
- 63% – Yes
- 27% – Not sure
- 10% – No
Yes
Can the colon be healed?
- 64% – Yes
- 25% – Not sure
- 12% – No
Yes
Can ulcerative colitis cause night sweats?
- 58% – Yes
- 35% – Not sure
- 7% – No
Yes
Can you get addicted to prednisone?
- 45% – Not sure
- 34% – Yes
- 21% – No
Not Sure: “not in the most strict sense, like opiates, where the body craves and has withdrawal, but patients frequently get to really like their steroids, because they feel more ‘up’ and energetic and of course, if can improve their colitis, all of which is highly positively reinforcing, so then yes, they ‘want’ their steroids. Its their docs job to help them understand the long-term negative trade-offs that accompany this short term benefit, and plan accordingly.”
Below are the pictures that were submitted by some of the participants of the survey.(Thanks to everyone who upload your photos, we’ve got some super cool looking folks here with UC!)
**If you have any comments you’d like to add regarding any of the questions above, please feel free to do so in the comment section below**
Thank you to ALL of the participants who participated in the Q&A Survey. There was not only a record number of participants, but also a record number of countries represented in the answers below. (45 countries, pretty incredible, viva Puerto Rico!!, Puerto Rico es un pais?)
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Australia
- Ireland
- South Africa
- India
- New Zealand
- Puerto Rico
- Iran, Islamic Republic of
- Sweden
- Japan
- Portugal
- Italy
- Ghana
- Philippines
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Norway
- Cayman Islands
- Latvia
- Poland
- Russia
- Turkey
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Korea, Republic of
- Saudi Arabia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Estonia
- Germany
- Denmark
- Czech Republic
- Colombia
- Belgium
- Bahamas
- Spain
- Ethiopia
- Israel
- Iceland
- Indonesia
- Hong Kong
- Fiji
- Kenya
There will be more surveys to come in the future, and everyone who has joined the free newsletter will most definitely get notifications when they take place.
Thank you again for your participation, like so much of this website and life in general, there are no right or wrong answers. My hopes and goals with this survey was to allow everyone to gain a better idea of what a large groups feels/thinks about some basic colitis related questions that common UC’ers have. All of these questions have been asked from people and family members living with UC.
Lastly, if you are part of the newsletter group and want to see more of these types of surveys in the future, please let me know below in the comment section. This particular type of colitis survey is much easier for me to manage on a large scale with hundreds of participants compared to the surveys in the past where everyone is able to write personalized comments. That said, if you would much rather have the ability to leave your own comments for each question, that’s fine too, just let me know.
Best regards,
Adam Scheuer
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
Leave a comment, ask a question, take advantage of our past experiences here, use the search boxes, they are your friends to0:)
I’ve written 2 different ulcerative colitis ebooks, you can check them out here.
And, the Free eNewsletter, which has important updates can be joined here.
