Hi Trish,

Collagenous Colitis is something of a sub-category of Ulcerative colitis (UC), but it's not Crohn's disease.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease used to be comprised only of UC and Crohn's, but today there is also Microscopic colitis and Crohn's colitis. Collagenous colitis (CC) is a type of microscopic colitis - meaning that the colon looks okay during a colonoscopy but the find colitis in the biopsy tissues that are taken during the scope, and the colitis can be seen in the tissue with a microscope.

Here are some sites that have info. on MC:

www.ccfa.org/about/news/microscopiccolitis

www.mayoclinic.org/microscopic-colitis

www.finerhealth.com/Educational_Info/Microscopic_Colitis   

 -- this last site is one of Dr. Ken Fine's web sites and he is one of the pioneer's in researching the causes and treatments of MC. I think you'll find it helpful and useful.

www.microscopiccolitis.org/index.html

 -- this site is a support group for people with MC and they can be helpful.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Cheers,

Elizabeth