KYW Newsradio's Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Ulcerative colitis is a condition which affects about 1 million people in the United States. It's a disease of the colon that has no cure.
There are treatments that can help control its symptoms. A study at Stanford University School of Medicine has tied the condition to — at least in part — a missing microbe.
The researchers compared two groups of patients: one group with ulcerative colitis, the other group with a rare noninflammatory condition. They discovered that a particular family of bacteria was depleted in patients with ulcerative colitis.
The discoveries raise the prospect of supplementing ulcerative colitis patients with those missing metabolites.
