Chronic colitis

　　Chronic enteritis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines, which is prone to lead to other diseases, specifically as follows:

　　1. Primary Small Intestine Malabsorption Syndrome:The typical symptom of this disease is fatty diarrhea. Stools are pale, abundant, and have a greasy or foamy appearance, often floating on the surface with a foul smell. It is often accompanied by abdominal distension, abdominal pain, fatigue, weight loss, and signs of malnutrition such as bleeding. The course of the disease is long, with intermittent mild and severe symptoms. Barium meal X-ray examination is beneficial for diagnosis.

　　2. Intestinal Tuberculosis:It has a slow onset, often located in the lower right abdomen, with intermittent severe pain, increased bowel sounds, and changes in bowel habits, alternating between dry and loose stools. Mild cases may only have loose stools, while severe cases may have mucous and bloody stools. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, and decreased appetite may occur. Physical examination may only show tenderness in the lower right abdomen. Auxiliary examinations include an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, positive colon bacillus test, and the possibility of finding acid-fast bacilli in stool culture. Fiberoptic colonoscopy is given to confirm the disease.

　　3. Crohn's Disease:It is a chronic intestinal inflammatory disease of unknown etiology, with a slow onset, and symptoms include weight loss, poor appetite, and fatigue. Abdominal pain is located around the umbilicus or in the lower right abdomen. Diarrhea initially presents intermittently and then gradually becomes persistent, with 3 to 6 bowel movements per day, soft stools or semi-liquid. There is tenderness in the lower right abdomen, and masses can be palpated. In the late stage, symptoms include weight loss, anemia, malabsorption of the intestines, and electrolyte disorder. Angiography of the mesenteric artery, endoscopy, and biopsy can be used to make a definitive diagnosis.

　　4. Idiopathic Ulcerative Colitis:The cause of this disease is unknown, and it is a chronic disease related to immunity, mainly characterized by ulcers, affecting the conjunctival mucosa, and more common in the young and middle-aged. Abdominal pain is often prominent in the lower left abdomen or the entire abdomen, accompanied by increased bowel sounds. Symptoms include decreased appetite, weight loss, and malnutrition. Sigmoidoscopy and biopsy can be performed for diagnosis.

　　5. Gastrointestinal Neurosis:This disease is caused by gastrointestinal dysfunction due to a disorder of the advanced nervous system. It has a slow onset, and its clinical manifestations are mainly gastrointestinal symptoms, including nervous belching, anorexia, vomiting, spiritual diarrhea, colonic irritability, splenic flexure syndrome, and so on.

　　6. Ankylosing Spondylitis:Diseases such as chronic colitis, recurrent urinary tract infections, psoriasis, etc., are considered by some patients to be diseases that do not easily harm human life, but these diseases can cause inflammatory changes in the sacroiliac joints, leading to the occurrence of ankylosing spondylitis.

　　The clinical manifestations of chronic colitis are mainly long-term chronic or recurrent abdominal pain, diarrhea, and dyspepsia, etc., with specific manifestations as follows:

　　1. Gastrointestinal symptoms:The main manifestations of the disease are intermittent abdominal pain, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea. These symptoms are more pronounced after exposure to cold, eating greasy foods, emotional fluctuations, or after exertion. The frequency of bowel movements increases, with several to dozens of bowel movements a day, a feeling of rectal prolapse, and stool that is not smooth.

　　2. In terms of signs:Long-term abdominal discomfort or occasional pain in the lower abdomen, physical examination shows abdominal, umbilical, or lower abdominal pain, with mild tenderness, increased bowel sounds, and rectal prolapse.

　　3. General symptoms:Presenting chronic consumptive symptoms, pale complexion, lack of vitality, less talkative, weak limbs, preferring warmth and fearing cold. During the acute inflammatory period, in addition to fever, symptoms such as dehydration, acidosis, or shock hemorrhage may be observed.

　　Chronic colitis usually develops from acute colitis, with the main characteristics being a long duration of onset and a tendency to recur. Therefore, the main prevention of chronic colitis is to actively treat acute colitis and to pay attention to avoid recurrence.

　　9. Pay attention to the combination of work and rest, and avoid overexertion; patients with acute onset, acute exacerbation, and severe chronic type should rest in bed.

　　8. Maintain a pleasant mood in daily life, avoid mental stress, and relieve various mental pressures. It is also important to pay attention to clothing, keeping the body warm or cool as appropriate; and to engage in moderate physical exercise to enhance physical fitness.

　　7. Generally, soft, easily digestible, nutritious, and sufficient calorie foods should be consumed. It is advisable to eat small and frequent meals to supplement various vitamins. Avoid eating raw, cold, greasy, and high-fiber foods; patients with chronic colitis should avoid gas-producing foods. Due to the recurrent nature of the disease, ulcers and scar tissue alternate in the colonic mucosa, resulting in reduced elasticity of the colonic wall. If too much of gas-producing foods such as soybeans, soy products, fried broad beans, sweet potatoes, etc. are consumed, it may lead to intestinal gas accumulation and complications such as acute intestinal dilation or ulcer perforation.

　　6. Pay attention to food hygiene, avoid intestinal infections that may trigger or worsen the disease. Abstain from smoking, alcohol, spicy foods, milk, and dairy products. Due to the long course of chronic colitis and frequent recurrence, high-protein and high-calorie diets should be provided to improve nutritional status and intestinal environment. It is also recommended to supply foods rich in vitamins, inorganic salts, and trace elements, especially those containing vitamin C, vitamin B, and iron, to supplement energy and nourish the body.

　　Chronic colitis patients generally need to undergo the following examinations:

　　1. Peripheral blood examination: The blood routine shows an increase in white blood cells and red blood cells, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is accelerated.

　　2. Routine fecal examination or culture: Abnormalities are common, with a small number of white blood cells, red blood cells, or a small amount of pus cells visible. If there is bacterial infection, the pathogenic bacteria can be detected.

　　3. Physical examination during an attack may show abdominal tenderness.

　　4. X-ray barium enema examination and colonoscopy can exclude other specific intestinal inflammatory diseases.

　　Chronic colitis, due to recurrent attacks, can cause significant consumption in patients, leading to malnutrition, so patients with chronic colitis should arrange their diet properly.

　　1. Low-fat, low-fiber diet. Foods with too much fat are not easy to digest and often cause diarrhea symptoms to worsen, so patients should not eat fried, fried, cold, and high-fiber foods. They can choose easily digestible thin noodles, fried noodles, wontons, tender green leaves, fish, shrimp, eggs, and soybean products, so that the intestines can rest.

　　2. When patients with chronic colitis have dehydration, they can drink some dilute salt water, vegetable soup, congee, fruit juice, and porridge to supplement water, salt, and sugar.

　　3. When flatulence and intestinal rumbling are strong, eat less sucrose and easily gassy and fermentable foods, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, white radish, pumpkin, milk, soybeans, etc.

　　4. Most patients with chronic colitis are physically weak and have poor resistance, so they should pay more attention to dietary hygiene, avoid eating raw and cold, stimulating, hard, and deteriorated food, and not drinking alcohol.

　　5. Apples contain tannic acid and fruit acid components, which have astringent and antidiarrheal effects. Patients with chronic colitis can eat them regularly.

　　Patients with chronic colitis may experience various discomfort symptoms and need to be treated early. The specific treatment is as follows.

　　1. Take adequate rest, eat easily digestible food, and avoid fried and刺激性 food.

　　2. Use antidiarrheal agents appropriately, such as 1-2g of bismuth subcarbonate three times a day; 4ml of Compound Camphor Tincture three times a day.

　　3. Antispasmodics, such as 0.3-0.6mg atropine three times a day; 15mg of Probenecid three times a day.

　　4. Choose antibiotics according to bacterial culture and drug sensitivity test, but the disease may last longer. You can also use 3% coptis liquid or 200ml of 5-10g garlic infusion, enema once a day, 10-20 days as a course of treatment. Other treatments are the same as acute enteritis.

　　5. For patients with spiritual diarrhea, 10mg of Librium can be taken three times a day; 15-30mg of phenobarbital three times a day.