Effie Siamalekas is only just beginning to come to terms with her fairly recent diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. She’s still figuring out how to manage the disease, but she made this vlog hoping it would help others who have just been diagnosed understand a little more about the disease and how it’ll affect them.

Find out more about Effie’s journey with ulcerative colitis.

Effie explains how the digestive system works, and what goes wrong in people who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She explains that Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are autoimmune diseases where the immune system attacks the digestive system causing inflammation of the intestines. Effie talks briefly about some of the medications prescribed to IBD patients and what they do to help control flares.

Seven things to do before your gastroenterologist appointment. 

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