NICOTINE - peoples thoughts?

stopped smoking two months ago in a bid to become all round a healthier person, just wanted to know what you guys think about the effects of nicotine and if maybe it helps a little.

ah that sucks!

its just such a double edged sword.

im currently in a small flare and am considering maybe having a couple roll ups a day to see if it makes any difference again

I quit smoking for good about two months AFter being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I think cigs do help some people but I guess so do the nicotine patches and e cigarette.

Be careful, if I had been told at any time during that first smoke free year that smoking might help my colitis I think my resolve would have crumbled and I would have used it as an excuse to take the habit back up and not just to smoke one or two as needed on rare occasions.

I'm not an anti-smoking nut. I dream about smoking all the time and still want to light up sometimes. Its just I like to support people who have quit because its such hard thing to do and succeeding gives one a great feeling of accomplishment.

While quitting smoking has a proven link to UC the actual reason has been kind of elusive. It's not guarnanteed that it is the nicotine that is responsible.

Nicotine alone appears to help never-smokers, somewhat.

Actual smoking seems to help former smokers.

There are many of us here who had our first flare within a few months of quitting smoking.

Omg Joanna that's awesome!

AZYooper said...
I think self assessing a disease that is so variable and unpredictable is impossible.

But if it's so variable (which it is), who is going to assess it? I don't trust my Dr. to discuss all the possible treatment scenarios (including smoking), if for no other reason than there are simply too many.

surely this whole disease is trial and error?

Because everyone reacts differently to differing treatments and supplements is it not best to try most things on the spectrum and take the best out of what you have tried.

in my case stopping smoking has not proved ideal, hence i will pick up a couple smokes a day again and see how i fair.

The only thing that gets me the most is i have started playing football at a high level again and the smoking coupled with the UC really sapps your stamina.

Probiotic said...
Nicotine, even from patches or ecigs, narrows the arteries and significantly spikes blood pressure and the strain on the heart having to keep pumping thru those temporarily narrowed tubes, greatly increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke and over the long term perhaps causing cumulative damage even without that. Just doesnt seem worth it. I tried it a few times for my UC and it didnt help, however I did recall my blood pressure and pulse shooting way up even at rest . . .

I wonder though how much you would have been willing to deal with the harmful effects if nicotine had in fact provided relief. I mean, knowing what you know about nicotine you WERE still willing to try it.

Had UC since 2007, diagnosed in 2009, never smoked, was normal till then. Had bad flares, cramps, urgency, fear of leaving the house, 8-10 BM's/day, etc. Tried natural supplements, Asacol, Humira (still on every 2-3 weeks), Prednisone(worst) and Lialda. Just started vaping with very low 6mg nicotine a few weeks ago 3 times a day. Still have loose stools but overall I feel more in control. I can now leave after eating and only go 2-3 times a day with little urgency. Not 100% sure if it's the vape but things are improving. Currently on Lialda, Align probiotic and vape only.

Post Edited (ookba) : 3/3/2014 12:40:47 AM (GMT-7)

Just started e cig the night before last, all medications have failed me ive been flaring for almost a year! Hoping it puts me in remission! :D

I wonder if people actually have UC while smoking and don't know it and then after quitting it shows itself.

warrior.princess (and others) here is info on my own experiment with nicotine (sorry for length):
I was never a smoker and have had UC for almost 18 years. Had been fairly well controlled for almost 10 years with Asacol (9 pills/day and 50mg Imuran) but then in Nov had a big, bad flare (BBF, not to be confused with BFF.) At that point I was on 6 Asacol HD/day as asacol was taken off the market in June 2013 plus 50 mg Imuran. Did a Medrol 4 pack which helped some but then was still very sick, lots of bleeding every day, all day; chronic pain, loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss. There were periods where I never left my house for several days in a row, though I was able to work b/c I work at home. Anyway, it was getting to the point where I had to act, and act fast. My GI wanted me on prednisone, and I have been on that before and just cannot stand it; additionally I ended up with osteoporosis in my spine in my 30’s, which I was able to reverse in about 3 years.
So, after doing some research and reading other people’s posts on nicotine use, I decided nicotine was the lesser evil over prednisone. Feb 12th I started slowly on 5 mg, then went to 10 for 7 days and am now on 14 mg. On day 3 when I went to 10 mg noticed IMMEDIATE relief. Bleeding , pain, diarrhea and urgency significantly reduced. At 14 mg now I have no pain, a little bleeding on occasion, am able to eat and gain weight (a good thing for me) and rarely have urgency. The only side effects I notice is it does give me some insomnia and the patches sometimes itch and the glue is a bit hard to remove; baby oil helps somewhat. I am still taking all my other drugs which were not helping with my BBF, though as I stated prior , in the past they were effective in keeping me in remission. I added generic mesalamine enemas over the summer and am still doing those 5-7 nights/week.
Right now I am using the 21 mg patch and cutting it up; there is conflicting info out there about whether this is a wise thing to do or not. 14 -21mg patches cost the same as 14-14mg patches at Mal-Wart (my preferred name)
I am not sure how long I am going to be on the patches. Yes, it does increase ones BP but my BP is so low that I often don’t even have my systolic over 100 so I am not too worried about that, and I have been very active most of my life and eat few animal products (one study said nicotine increases risk of atherosclerosis)so I feel like this is a low risk for me. I think I will stay on 14 mg for a few more weeks and then drop to 10 and see how it goes from there. Right now this is allowing my body to heal and allows me to lead a “normal” life. I haven’t “come clean” to my GI but will do so in a few weeks if I continue to benefit from this little experiment.
When I researched this on the internet, there were some articles that said the patches were safe for long term use, but all of the studies were done on former smokers. The thought was that for those who were/are addicted to smoking, the long-term use of the patches was MUCH better than going back to smoking (duh).
Some of the clinical trials comparing nicotine vs prednisone are a bit old- from the 90’s and early 00’s. One study stated that nicotine provided longer remission over prednisone once it was terminated. I find it interesting that there is little information about long-term use of nicotine in UC patients. Big Pharma has little to gain from the use of nicotine. Right now, if I had to pay full cost of all my meds, it would be over $3500 a month, compared to ~$70 month for nicotine patches. Nicotine patches might not work for everyone or be a good choice for everyone, but so far I have been very, very pleased with my results. Hands down nicotine is (at least for me) much better than prednisone.