(Reuters Health) - Weekly yoga sessions may be associated with a better quality of life for patients with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that can be exacerbated by stress, a small study suggests. People with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the lining of the large intestine that can lead to symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal pain. When symptoms are severe, patients may have sudden loose or bloody stools so often that it impairs their ability to navigate normal daily activities like going to school or work. Researchers studied 77 ulcerative colitis patients who reported a reduced quality of life due to the disease even though their symptoms were clinically in remission. They randomly assigned participants to receive either 12 weekly yoga sessions or written self-care advice and found the yoga group had greater improvements in quality of life. It seems to be safe and effective, so it is surely worth trying yoga as an add-on to other evidence-based interventions at least for maintenance of remission, said lead study author Dr. Holger Cramer, a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. It definitely should not be used as a replacement but rather as an ancillary intervention, Cramer said … Continue reading →

A single transplant of microbes contained in the stool of a healthy donor is a safe and effective way to increase diversity of good bacteria in the guts of patients with ulcerative colitis, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The findings suggest that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) might be an effective treatment for the disease, which causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. Fecal microbiota transplantation is a procedure in which fecal matter -- which is full of bacteria from the gut -- is collected from a healthy donor, strained and placed in the colon of a patient with inflammatory bowel disease. "The idea is that you can change someone's microbiome, the organisms that colonize the gut," said Dr. Randy Longman, an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "We introduce good bacteria into the intestines of someone with the disease and hope that it encourages healing." FMT has been proven effective for patients with Clostridium difficile, a serious bacterial infection of the intestines, but questions remain about its effectiveness as a treatment for other diseases. In a study published April 26 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, … Continue reading →

Weekly yoga sessions may be associated with a better quality of life for patients with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that can be exacerbated by stress, a small study suggests. People with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the lining of the large intestine that can lead to symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal pain. When symptoms are severe, patients may have sudden loose or bloody stools so often that it impairs their ability to navigate normal daily activities like going to school or work. Researchers studied 77 ulcerative colitis patients who reported a reduced quality of life due to the disease even though their symptoms were clinically in remission. They randomly assigned participants to receive either 12 weekly yoga sessions or written self-care advice and found the yoga group had greater improvements in quality of life. It seems to be safe and effective, so it is surely worth trying yoga as an add-on to other evidence-based interventions at least for maintenance of remission, said lead study author Dr. Holger Cramer, a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. It definitely should not be used as a replacement but rather as an ancillary intervention, Cramer said by email. Thats … Continue reading →

CME Outfitters to offer livestream broadcast on ulcerative colitis from a live symposium taking place at a national medical meeting Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) April 29, 2017 CME Outfitters (CMEO) is set to host a live symposium on entitled Deep Remission, Top-Down Treatment Strategies and Real-World Data in Patients with UC: An Interactive and Innovative Case Series, at 5:30 7:00PM CT (6:30-8:00PM ET) on Sunday, May 7th, 2017 at a national medical meeting being held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago in Chicago, IL. CMEO is excited to be able to offer a free livestream broadcast of this symposium for those who wish to participate, but are unable to attend the live meeting. Commonly known as UC, ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by exacerbations and remissions and, traditionally, goals of treatment have entailed resolution of clinical symptoms. Unfortunately, conventional therapies have not been overall effective and can carry adverse risk that often require discontinuation. In recent years, treatment goals have evolved to a treat-to-target strategy with target such as deep-remission (i.e, clinical, biochemical, and endoscopic remission) with the end goal of preventing long-term structural damage and disability. Pursuits of better targeted therapy to optimize IBD clinical outcomes have … Continue reading →