HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

UC correlation with smoking cessation?

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 10/27/2011 7:22 PM (GMT 0)
There's no UC or Crohn's in my family. My first flare started roughly 6 months after I quit smoking cold turkey after smoking cigarettes at a rate of about a pack a day for 30 years. I am convinced that had I never smoked or had I not quit, I wouldn't have UC now.

If you are a former smoker, did you first flare after quitting?

I'm interested to know about this. I guess it doesn't change anything, but it seems like it's meaningful. It's clear that there is a correlation between smoking (nicotine) and remission, but I don't know whether anyone has made the inverse correlation.
Posted 10/27/2011 7:27 PM (GMT 0)
I don't think it's that you wouldn't have gotten it....I believe that the correlation is that it kept your symptoms somewhat in check, and quitting just allowed them to come forth.

I believe my mom had UC...she was a smoker, but still had some symptoms of urgency, bleeding, diarrhea....I don't think it was just her "piles".

I smoked as a teenager and early adult, but didn't get diagnosed until I was 34. Symptoms did start a few years earlier, just not the bleeding.

q
Posted 10/27/2011 7:29 PM (GMT 0)
You know, quincy, that's kind of what I told myself for the first year or so -- Lucky you, had you not smoked, this would have come on much sooner.

I don't really believe it now. I had no symptoms of any kind until a few months after I quit smoking at 48. 34 is still pretty late for a diagnosis -- it seems like every source material says that most people get diagnosed in their teens or early 20s.

No one has done a study on this, have they?
Posted 10/27/2011 8:16 PM (GMT 0)
I quit in 1977 got UC 1980. Started smoking again in 1982 went into remission, quit 1986 for 2 weeks went into flare, started smoking again, still in the same flare.

Old Mike

Posted 10/27/2011 8:17 PM (GMT 0)
I was 30 when I was diagnosed and have only ever smoked one cigarette in my life - was super drunk at a bar one night when I was in college and thought it would be a good idea.

I've actally read that there are peaks in the late teens through late 20s-early 30s then again later in life (around 60s, I want to say).

And after a quick google search, here's a link:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000250.htm


Since the next peak starts again at 50, you weren't too far off from that at 48.

But, I wouldn't be surprised if your quitting smoking triggered your first flare.  Who will ever know if you wouldn't have ever gotten it if you had never smoked or had never quit smoking.

Posted 10/27/2011 9:22 PM (GMT 0)
Exactly why I'm wondering whether anyone has done a study on the possibility of a correlation.
Posted 10/27/2011 11:16 PM (GMT 0)
Do you mean something like this?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21734782

I just skimmed the abstract, but you can get the full text of the article.

FWIW, I know that cessation of smoking is considered a "risk factor" for UC.
Posted 10/27/2011 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
Well I smoked for 35 years and quit in '07. I was diagnosed with severe pancolitis on 2/15/11. I guess you're damed if you do and damed if you don't.
Posted 10/28/2011 1:43 AM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed in 2004 at the age of 19 as a non smoker. I began smoking shortly after and I remained in remission, perfect health, no medication for 5 years. I had one tiny flare that cleared itself up within two weeks. In 2009, I got pregnant, quit smoking, and within 2 weeks I flared. I went through a hellofa pregnancy. The only remission I have seen post tobacco is with the help of Prednisone and Remicade. Last month I bought a pack of cigarettes, smoked them within 3 days I was doing 'better'.
Supposedly UC is genetic. I am the only diagnosed UCer in my family. My mother smokes two packs a day since she was a teenager. She constantly has diarrhea and gut issues. I have been on her for years to see a GI because I suspect she has UC also. She has her first Colonoscopy in December. I will let you know how that goes :)
My belief, from personal experience. Tobacco keeps UC at bay, but I choose to fight the UC.
Posted 10/28/2011 3:57 AM (GMT 0)
Janey, no, I had lots of physical/emotional distress with major lung surgery at age 21 and then asthma diagnosis at age 28...if it was to come, it would have been during that period of time I would think.

I highly doubt smoking kept it at bay from me not having it earlier than my teen years or postoned it from happening 10 - 13 years later.

q
Posted 10/28/2011 4:07 AM (GMT 0)
ya, I quit in 07 after 17 years. got UC symptoms in 09. kinda wish I'd kept smoking if it kept the UC away but too late now.
Posted 10/28/2011 4:12 AM (GMT 0)
I don't think it keeps the UC away...it may keep symptoms at bay that wouldn't lead you to seeking any care. I think that for many who smoke, it just keeps creeping silently with mild inflammation and relatively no symptoms.

Remember, however, inflammation happens in degrees, and some with varying degrees of inflammation don't have symptoms.

I'll personally take the UC over smoking, however. I can also live without my colon...not so good without lungs. The risks of smoking are far greater.

q
Posted 10/28/2011 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
Oh yeah, just to be clear, I am NOT planning to start smoking again. Not to say there aren't days that I'm tempted, but no, that's a nonstarter for me. Life is just so much better cigarette-free, especially when UC is in remission.

Thanks all.
Posted 10/28/2011 4:24 PM (GMT 0)

fruitgirl said...
Do you mean something like this?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21734782

I just skimmed the abstract, but you can get the full text of the article.

FWIW, I know that cessation of smoking is considered a "risk factor" for UC.

Wow! Good sleuthing! Thanks for this :-)
Posted 10/28/2011 6:26 PM (GMT 0)
There is defiantly a correlation between UC and nicotine use/smoking, and there have been several peer reviewed studies done exploring this relationship. The most famous were two done in the late 1990s at Mayo and in the UK.

It seems that there is a much greater incidence of onset of symptoms or diagnosis of UC in smokers who have recently (one to five years) stopped smoking. There is also a much greater success rate (about 50%) in attaining remission for people who supplement traditional treatment methods with nicotine replacement therapy. There is no evidence that continued nicotine replacement is effective in maintaining remission, but anecdotally, I have been in remission for more than two years using e-cigarettes and nicotine lozenges. Lack of evidence does not constitute evidence against.

Regarding the questing of whether stopping smoking causes UC or as Heather said just stopped keeping the symptoms in check; I don’t think that is answerable. The nature of the question eliminates the possibility of having a control group.
Posted 10/28/2011 6:44 PM (GMT 0)
I think until a definitive cause for UC is found, there are just too many variables. Just as different medications/treatments work for different people, different triggers/events "seem" to trigger a flare up.

I am a little bit of a cynic when it comes to Colitis. I always here the stories from those around me about the diet that this person uses, or the herbal remedy that another person uses. My feeling is that there is not enough evidence either way. If your daily dose of whatever concoction appears to keep you in remission, keep doing it!

For me, my disease has advanced to the point that only continued use of Prednisone keeps me generally in remission, or at least keeps the symptoms in check enough to live a semi-normal life. I just started on Remicade last week and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will do the trick.

When I was first diagnosed, Asacol did the trick, and I only rarely needed steroids. In 2005 or 2006, I started taking mercaptopurine. This worked for a while, until it caused my blood chemistry to collapse, resulting in a long hospitalization, quaranteen, and blood transfusions. Since 2007, I don't think I've been off steroids longer than 10 weeks.

To get back to the subject of smoking, I smoked for about 6 years, quit in September of 1998 and was diagnosed with UC in March of 1999. I don't regret having quit. My brother died of T-cell lymphoma in 2004 and my father died of lung cancer in 2007, both who were longtime smokers.
Posted 10/29/2011 3:31 AM (GMT 0)
I gave up smoking and the symptoms started ....smoking masked the symptoms...so I had UC for years without knowing ...lucky for a diagnosis 6 years ago....... otherwise the polyps I had removed when I was diagnosed ..and the 15 -20 they have recently found might be full blown cancer by now ....
Posted 10/29/2011 8:38 PM (GMT 0)
I think smoking caused my UC and kept it in remission for many years after diagnosis. I quit after about 18 years of smoking and was diagnosed in the early 90's. I went back to smoking because I did not medical insurance and the symptoms were so frightening. Every time I tried to quit I would flare horribly and would go back to smoking. I finally quit 3 1/2 years ago for good and had 2 really bad years of back and forth with different meds, a year of remission, and now a mild flare for a couple of months. I always felt that the smoking (over 30 years total) changed the balance in my body, poisoning me, and caused the UC, along with keeping it at bay when I smoke. I will never smoke again. No one in my family has UC. Of course this is a theory only. Who knows.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply