Ulcerative Colitis: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Runn1ing Head: Health Variation 1
Health Variation
Student Name
28 Mar 2019

Ulcerative Colitis 2
1. The patient Eleanor, is suffering from ulcerative colitis, which is a chronic inflammatory
disease. The affected region includes lower colon and rectum, where ulceration is lining in the
colonic mucosa layer. This results in the formation of the lesion which leads to inflammation at
the basal portion of the mucosal layer, the crypts of lieberkuhn (Pravda, 2016). This reason is
also known as retrosigmoid area of the bowel, however, in the present case, the patient is
suffering from total colitis. The inflammation in the submucosal and mucosal layer is responsible
for pain. Furthermore, this complication also leads to disturbance in the gastrointestinal tract
after ingestion of food. All these factors were responsible for reduced appetite and absorption of
nutrients. As a consequence of this, significant weight loss (9 kg loss in two weeks) was
observed in this case. Other possible factors responsible for weight loss include (Thompson et
al., 2016):
 Poor absorption of nutrients, YouTube inflammation, irritation, and pseudopolyps
formation in the colonial mucosal layer.
 Narrowing of colon diameter, due to ulcerative condition, which causes difficulty in GI
tract and food passage.
 Loss of calories due to the internal mechanism of the body to cope up with ulcerative
colitis. This also accompanies internal bleeding issues.
 Loss of nutrients due to inflammation and diarrhea.
 Section of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is responsible for suppressing the
appetite.

Ulcerative Colitis 3
 Changes in the level of hormone, especially leptin and ghrelin that are associated with
reduced signaling for hunger or appetite. This further results in the reduced intake of
food.
Other possible factors that also account for weight loss include poor health management of
Eleanor. Brief, these includes:
 No specific measures where are considered to control diarrhea and dehydration condition.
 Lack of dietary measures which must include intake of small and frequent meals,
avoiding fiber and fat foods. Also, there are no instructions for intake of energy-rich
foods, which can compensate for the caloric requirement of the body.
 No specific intake of vitamins and minerals, to compensate for the nutrient loss. These
factors are also responsible for the increased basal metabolic index, which in turn is
responsible for the significant weight loss.
 Increased level of stress, as well as frustration in Eleanor, is also responsible for the
significant reduction in weight.
 In addition to this, other routes of food administration should also be prescribed to
Eleanor, which can compensate for the caloric loss.
2. Pain is a continuous perception of stimulus that is transmitted via the nervous system. In the
present case, the inflammation and flares in the colon region is detected as a stimulus in the
cerebral cortex and are perceived as conscious pain. The type of sensation is known as visceral
pain and is mediated via nociceptors. Since this is the case in which internal mucosal damage
happens, high-intensity stimuli are transmitted in the form of chemical stimulus to the