Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning.
What does it mean if someone is diagnosed with allergic colitis?
Sommer said, “It usually happens in babies. The protein found in cow’s milk, can make them irritable, gassy, and even have blood in their stools. If not recognized it can cause anemia, malnutrition. It usually resolves in early childhood and in adolescents and adults.”
What is microscopic colitis?
Sommer said, “That’s diagnosed through a colonoscopy, somebody that’s having symptoms, we talked about, like a diagnostic colonoscopy, when they’re having, like, a lot of episodes of diarrhea, and they don’t know why. When a biopsy of the stool sample is taken, we see this diagnosis a lot, microscopic colitis, and it can be two different types of colitis, known as one that has lymphocytes and one that has excessive collagen. So lymphocytic colitis is a higher number of lymphocytes and the tissues in the lining of the colon are of normal thickness. In collagenous colitis, the layer of the collagen under the lining of the colon is thicker than normal. This causes of this could be autoimmune disease, certain medications, infections, and it just could be genetic. The symptoms can often come and go. A lot of times people have like this, acute colitis, and it goes away on its own.”
There is also drug induced colitis.
Sommer said, “Certain things like non steroidal anti inflammatories have been linked to inflame the colon in certain people, older people with a long term history use of NSAIDs. What an NSAID is naproxen, ibuprofen, Motrin, Alieve. People that take those every day as you get older, you can have what is called a drug induced colitis. Aspirin is also one.”
There are also bacteria that can affect the colon.
Campylobacter is one.
Sommer said, “It is one in four of the key global causes of diarrhea disease. You have a 24 hour bug and then people call and they’re like, it doesn’t go away. It keeps coming back. It’s more common than you think.”
Up to 24% of poultry can contain campylobacter.
Sommer said, “It’s usually contracted from undercooked food and a lot of times it happens out, like if you’re out dining, it’s not usually in the home. Usually in the home, you prepare the food the right way. You make sure your food is cooked to the temperature and it’s done and it’s not under cooked. But a lot of times when you go out to eat, if it’s a busy restaurant, they’re turning the food over constantly. So that’s usually where you end up contracting Campylobacter. A single drop of the juice from a raw chicken can contain enough bacteria to infect someone, so that’s why you’ve got to make sure you wash your counters, everything that we were told to do. But again, that’s why most likely when people end up with this bacteria, it’s from eating out, not really eating in your home.”
How is campylobacter diagnosed?
Sommer said, “A lot of times a laboratory test. So bacteria, not the most pleasant thing in the world, but you can do a poop sample, or a lot of times, because it causes diarrhea, it is diagnosed during a colonoscopy. The treatment is antibiotics and it’s gone, which is good to know, because it’s not long term antibiotics. It’s antibiotics for a week. Sometimes it could be a little resistant and you need to take an extra dose, but most of the time, it’s gone with one round of antibiotics.”
Salmonella is another bacteria that can make people sick.
Sommer said, “Everybody, I think, is familiar with salmonella. A lot of times growing up, I don’t know about you, if you were sick, was like, oh, maybe you have salmonella poisoning. Campylobacter was on the back burner. Never even heard of them. So most people with salmonella infection do have diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps. It usually begins six hours to six days after you’re infected. Some people can not develop symptoms for several weeks, so it can cause infection in urine, blood, bones, joints or the nervous system, in the spinal fluid, which is really serious. I’ve seen it a lot in urine and as culture results come back.”
What is the treatment for salmonella?
Sommer said, “Usually you don’t need antibiotics. It’ll resolve in four to seven days. People who have it should just drink a lot of fluid as long as they’re having diarrhea. Antibiotics, they’ll give it to people who have weakened immune systems, with severe illness, like dehydration, they can’t keep up with their fluid intake. Somebody who is immune compromised like HIV, or is undergoing chemotherapy, or like adults over the age of 50 that have a lot of medical problems, such as heart disease, diabetes. And then infants, children younger than 12 months, they’re more susceptible to dehydration, so they will treat them with antibiotics.”
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