Ulcerative colitis

For a lay person:

Ulcerative colitis is a long-term inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the large bowel. It causes flares of bloody diarrhoea and urgency.

For a trained medical person:

Continuous mucosal inflammation from the rectum upwards, diagnosed by colonoscopy and histology. Treatment: 5-ASA, corticosteroids for flares, thiopurines, biologics and small molecules, and colectomy for refractory disease.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Liver effulgence-spleen deficiency with damp obstruction; Damp-Heat in the Large Intestine; Spleen-stomach deficiency weakness; Spleen-kidney deficiency; Stomach and intestines phlegm rheum; Qi and yin deficiency; Blood Stasis. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Get urgent care for more than six bloody stools a day, fever, a fast heartbeat or severe abdominal pain.