Poster Hichick is from Israel, has a J pouch and has done fairly well with it although I believe he is treating pouchitis with antibiotics. Not sure of what his exact medical regimen is at this time.
I have had a J Pouch 20 years and although I have to take quite a few meds to control chronic "simmering" pouchitis, I am doing well. Flagyl is in my reigmen, along with cipro which I rotate with xifaxin and augmentin. I also take entocort (Budesonide) and pentasa and I get scoped annually per my Doctor's orders.
There does seems to be a notion or theory that UC/Crohn's is more prevalent in the western hemisphere due to the prevalence of processed foods in our diets and there is an increasing body of medical literature and studies that support that notion............but there also seems to be some genetic predisposition that is coupled with those potentially causative factors.