Picture of Health: Ulcerative colitis and 'American Idol' - Health care, wellness, food nutrition, exercise, medical research news from reporters who know the halls of the world's top hospital

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March 11, 2011

Ulcerative colitis and 'American Idol'

"American Idol" contestant Casey Abrams missed the show last night because he was in the hospital. Several media outlets are reporting he is suffering from ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease.

Last September, we did an article on how the disease is striking more children. Read about it here.

The story said "the number of children afflicted by colitis and another inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, has increased 50 percent in the past decade, according to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. About 1.5 million Americans suffer from colitis and Crohn's, about 10 percent of them under the age of 18."

Abrams, age 20, is by no means a child, but if you're curious about what people go through with the disease, the article will give you a good idea.

(Photo by Reuters)

Posted by Kim Walker at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: General Health

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About Picture of Health

Meredith Cohn has been a reporter since 1991, covering everything from politics and airlines to the environment and medicine. A runner since junior high and a particular eater for almost as long, she tries to keep up on health and fitness trends. Her aim is to bring you the latest news and information from the local and national medical and wellness communities.

Andrea K. Walker knows it’s weird to some people, but she has a fascination with fitness, diseases, medicine and other health-related topics. She subscribes to a variety of health and fitness magazines and becomes easily engrossed in the latest research in health and science. An exercise fanatic, she’s probably tried just about every fitness activity there is. Her favorites are running, yoga and kickboxing. So it is probably fitting that she has been assigned to cover the business of healthcare and to become a regular contributor to this blog. Andrea has been at The Sun for nearly 10 years, covering manufacturing, retail , airlines and small and minority business. She looks forward to telling readers about the latest health news.

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