E-Cig and Ulcerative Colitis Update

Wodin or anyone who can answer this for me.

I am seriously considering trying the nicotine lozenges. I priced it today and saw just how pricey it is but I also saw there are diferent strengths. I would have no idea how to start? The lowest strength? How often?

Thanks

BelleyAche said...
Wodin or anyone who can answer this for me.

I am seriously considering trying the nicotine lozenges. I priced it today and saw just how pricey it is but I also saw there are diferent strengths. I would have no idea how to start? The lowest strength? How often?

Thanks

Belley,

They come in 2 mg and 4 mg strength for the same price. Naturally, 4 mg has twice the nicotine of 2 mg. If you only want to take 2 mg, break a 4 mg tab in half, and you get two for the price of one.

The studies I read in UK and Mayo used patches that delivered the equivelan of about 15 mg/day. One cigarette provides about 2 mg, so the tests delivered the equivalent of about a hlf a pack of cigaretts or four 4 mg lozenges or eight 2 mg lozenges per day.

Personally, as it's difficult to measure how much nicotine I get from e-cigs, I have no idea how much I use, but I sure it's considerably more than that.

what brand do you all use...i just ordered V2...i was using Blu and was smoking a pack worth a day and it really seems to be working...bathroom visits really cut down!

So who here has seen success with nicotine, in whatever form, who was NOT a nicotine user in the past?

I've had great success with nicotine (using an e-cig, the V3 from puresmoker.com). It got me out of a flare when, in the past, prednisone was the only thing to get me out of flares.

I continue to use it because when I tried weaning off of it, my symptoms started becoming not fun.

So I use the 24mg/mL strength until about 1pm and then the 12mg/mL strength the rest of the day. I use 3-4 drops per fill and fill about 15 times per day.

I am not a former smoker or nicotine user.

The nicotine, along with eating no processed foods and the other stuff in my signature has me feeling really great these days. I've been going 1-2 times in the morning and that's it for the day. Everything is well formed and healthy looking.

I know that feeling so well, for me, is a combination of all the things I'm taking, foods I avoid and sticking with the stuff that works for me. So if I were taking the nicotine and meds but still eating junk food, I know I wouldn't be feeling as good.

UlcerativeKaleidoscope said...
I am in the same boat as 'runaway', and am curious if anyone has experienced the "urgency" with the e-cig, that can be felt with regular cigs... I am interested, and want to try this out!

Thanks!

I've experienced urgency when smoking a regular cigarette, but haven't when using an e-cig.

If you start using nicotine regularly, you'll get addicted to it. But you can always try to taper down, using lower dose liquids.

I don't have a need to poo when I use the e-cig (except in the morning, which is just the normal time I have my BMs).

Hi everyone! I've been collecting forum posts, articles and clinical papers that deal with smoking/uc. I thought I'd post a little bit of what I've found so far and perhaps some of you find some benefit from it! Over on another website - www.ihaveuc.com there have been a few users who have claimed that their doctor - Dr. Hanauer at the University of Chicago - has recommended they start smoking 3-5 cigs a day to get into remission. Intially I thought this had to be BS. But I did some digging on Dr. Hanauer and found it it probably wasn't BS. Dr. Hanauer has written extensively on the link between smoking and UC. And his credentials speak for themselves

http://www.uchospitals.edu/physicians/stephen-hanauer.html

"He is the past chair of the Immunology, Microbiology and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Section of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). Dr. Hanauer is also a recipient of the AGA's Fiterman Award for Clinical Research and the AGA's Janssen Award for Clinical Excellence. Additionally, he has been named one of America's Top Doctors by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

Dr. Hanauer previously served as a member and chair of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee. He currently serves as chair of the International Organization for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, secretary-elect of the American College of Gastroenterology, and a member of the GI Specialty Board of Internal Medicine."

Here is an article that he wrote back in 1998 titled - No Butts about It: Put the Fire Out by Lighting Up! - It should be .pdf format. And he explains that he is not recommending that non-smokers with UC light up. If and only if you are an ex-smoker and med's are not working for you than you should consider low-dose smoking to get your symptoms under control. He argues that the side effects of low dose smoking may be less than that of the chemo agents they use to get peoples symptoms under control.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ibd.3780040413/pdf

I don't want to write a huge novel here but I have many more articles/papers/personal testimonies of people who have used smoking to stay in remission for years. This last link is a great summation of the link between Colitis/Chohns and Chrohns-Colitis. A bit long but very in depth.

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/13/6134.asp

For some people the patches are effective (somewhat). But they do not work nearly as well as smoking itself. Researchers dont' know exactly what component of cig's is responsible. It appears to be a combination of Carbon Monoxide, Nicotine and Cyanide.

Update: Nicotine is my friend. I was a non-smoker. Was diagnosed with UC in 2009. Stress definitely plays a huge role with symptoms for me. I have been vaping 12mg (3x a day) for 7 months now. I started when my doc jokingly told me to try smoking as UC is much less diagnosed in smokers than non-smokers (after we tried almost all other meds). Started seeing significant improvements after about the 2nd or 3rd month of vaping. My symptoms are 75% better than they were a year ago today. I was on Lialda (4x a day), Humira (2x month), Pred (40mg), Rowasa, etc. They barely helped. Urgency was the biggest problem. Now I just vape 3-4x a day, take Align probiotics, 4x Lialda and Multi Vitamins daily (plus some antacids on occasion). On a scale from 1-10 (10 being in remission), I am at around a 7-8 now (used to be 4-5). I usually go 2 times a day and sleep all night! Feels great to get some freedom back! Am I addicted yet? I won't lie, maybe slightly (mostly to the cool flavors they have available). But from what I've read, Nicotine doesn't hurt (other than addiction) as it's been used to treat other conditions as well. Hope this helps someone else! I'll check back in later this year!

Post Edited (ookba) : 7/8/2014 6:10:19 PM (GMT-6)