Smoking & UC

You may consider nicotine patches or gum, as the nicotine is thought to be what is effecting your UC symptoms. After quitting the first time I got my first UC symptoms, and since then I've found that smoking does lesson my symptoms.

Anobody,
I think there are some on here who use the e-cig, which is basically just nicotine, so would be better than actually smoking. (search for e-cig in the top right box to see discussions) Just curious...were you a smoker before UC or did you start after you got it for symptom control?

I got my first symptoms six months after quitting, after having smoked a pack a day for 30 years. I am fairly confident that quitting smoking *caused* my UC. There is no history of it or anything like it in my family, and I don't think the timing is a coincidence. I figure if you smoke as much and as long as I did, you create a nicotine dependency that has greater effects than simple withdrawal symptoms.

My UC is categorized as "mild to moderate" and it does take monitoring and patience and it does create frustration and disappointment, however since I usually only get 1 to 2 flares a year, it doesn't interfere with my day to day life as much as smoking did.

I no longer have to spend the money to pay for cigarettes (which despite the cost of meds for UC, even in a flare, it's less expensive to have UC). I no longer have to interrupt work to go outside to smoke. I no longer have to leave a restaurant or the home of a friend or relative right after a meal to have a cigarette. I no longer have to worry about going on long flights because of nicotine withdrawal. I no longer have to worry about other people's comfort or the scorn they show me when I'm smoking outside. Food tastes better. By which I mean, "Food tastes." I don't smell bad to other people. My apartment walls and clothes no longer have brown stuff sticking to them. I recover from colds faster (despite the fact that I currently have pneumonia). The pool of men for me to date broadened markedly when I quit. My doctor wanted to hospitalize me in '99 and I refused to go to the hospital and it was because I knew I couldn't smoke in the hospital (I didn't tell my doctor the real reason). And that doesn't even begin to approach the question of cancer. I had breast cancer a couple of years ago and I am not exaggerating when I say I had the easiest possible time of it and have the world's best prognosis. However, cancer treatment -- even in my situation -- sucked big time. From my own very easy experience and from having been a hospice volunteer off and on since the mid-80s, I can guarantee you that having cancer sucks for everyone. Also, due to orthodontia when I was a teenager, the gums above four of my teeth have been receding for years and I had gum surgery to correct this in February. And the reason I put it off for so long is that it is well known that you might as well skip the surgery if you smoke, because the new gum tissue will die if you smoke because smoking constricts blood vessels, notably the little ones in places like your gums. So literally for decades, I couldn't smile naturally because the receding gums, particularly on one canine, were really unsightly.

Honestly, there isn't a day that I'm not thankful for no longer smoking. 3 1/2 years after quitting, I still sometimes miss it. And sometimes I miss it a lot. But every day, I think of something that would be more difficult or inconvenient for me if I were still smoking.

To me, the tradeoff isn't even a question. Not smoking has way more benefits to me than UC has drawbacks. Clearly, depending on how severe one's UC is, that may not be the calculation made by another person. Only you can decide which is the right decision for you.

(Also, this is neither here nor there, but you had a colonoSCOPY, not a colonOSTOMY. Ostomy (which may be a word or a suffix) refers to a surgically created opening connecting an internal organ to the surface of the body. In our case, it would be a colostomy. -Oscopy is a suffix meaning to view from the inside.)

Ano,

I think if you are going to smoke, you should try to smoke the minimum amount to keep your symptoms at bay.  UC sucks, but so does lung cancer and heart attacks.  I was in a similar situation to you (although I'm younger) and I decided to quit UC meds to go back to smoking because the smoking had less side effects.  I think over time though the smoking becomes less effective as I've had 2 flares in the past 6 months, even with my minimal amount of smoking.  Just recently restarted some meds, and hope to get things under control.  That's the tough thing with this condition, there are no great answers, just the "lesser of two evils" which is often a very personal decision.  My GI told me smoking was stupid and to control UC that way is a bad move.  Well he might be right but he wasn't the one suffering the side effects of the medications.

Good luck,

Z

When I was researching the nicotine/UC connection I recall verbiage in some of the studies that said words to the effect of "DX one to four years after stopping smoking". That being said, I have since seen anecdotal accounts (mostly here) of anywhere from a month or two to as much as five years.

In my own case, it's difficult to tell as I used nicotine replacement (lozenges) for a number of years after quitting, but I quit smoking in March of 2002 and was DXed if Feb of 2007.

In Sept of 2009 I began taking the lozenges again and kicked a stubborn flare within two days, I have been usning e-cigs and lozenges since then anf have been able to maintain complete remission since.

I read some where that the "magic number" is 14 mg (micro grams) daily of nicotine ... I use 1 filter every other day on an e-cig, apparently that is not enough-

Carlie

Carlie said...
I read some where that the "magic number" is 14 mg (micro grams) daily of nicotine ... I use 1 filter every other day on an e-cig, apparently that is not enough-

Carlie

I think it was the Mayo study (I may be mistaken) that resolved it to 15 mg/day (a little less than the equivelent of 1 pack of cigaretts/day) as the minimum dose. As always, everyone is different, and your results may vary.

I am with you Stoolie. I quit 3 1/2 years ago after smoking for 33 years (on and off, but mostly on). It was very hard to quit because I knew the UC would strike (as it did every other time I tried to quit). I will not use nicotine as a treatment; it would make it too tempting to just start smoking again. Yes, smoking puts my UC into remission but it is just not worth the damage it does to my body and life in other ways. I was also told I had the early stages of Emphysema.

Post Edited (beeswax) : 12/8/2011 5:47:29 PM (GMT-7)