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smoking with u/c

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 3/30/2014 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
hi i know there are other posts out there on this topic, but i wanted some info from the expierenced u/c ers on SMOKING.   please no NEGATIVE POST as far as smoking is bad,  i know it is and know the effects of smoking.  i am looking for relief to get out of this flare. I HAVE BEEN IN IT SINCE NOV13. i just had my 3rd infusion of remicade lowest dose they start you off with 5mg on the 18 of this month. my progess is going slow but it is getting better. i see no more blood no matter how many times i use the bathroom or even if i cheat and eat fast food. i try to stay away from grease but being on a bland diet up until recently i needed to cheat.  i still have the urgency about 6-8 times a day and still not forming solid.   i start forming then it goes back to d, the next day.  my dr. gave me clearence to eat more normal except the usual no grease or steak  or hotdogs or spicy.  i mainly eat ground turkey and chicken with either potatoes,  sometimes salt free chips like veggie chips.  i am on imuran now 200mg daily, predisone 15mg tapering weekly from 40mg , and multi vitiman  daily , as well with a vit d capsule once a week. i was a smoker on and off for about 5 years. u know at the bars, fishing every other weekend and once a month out of the blue grab a pack. DOES SMOKING GET RID OF THE FLARE OR THE SYMPTOMS OR JusT THE PAIN. IM LOOKING TO GET RID OF THE URGENCY AND THE D.  i still have left sided pain but nothing i cant deal with i know people post it makes them feel better when they smoke. i wanna get back to my life to where i dont have to worry about having an accident, thats my remission.  i dont want to start smoking again but am willing to try to get back to work and live in remission.  i was holding the urge to go grab a pack and let the remicade kick in  which i feel its working i am alot better then where i was a month ago but jsut cant get rid of the urgency and the d no matter what i eat.  help please  thanks  
Posted 3/31/2014 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
I'm not a smoker but have read posts on here regularly for probably over two years now. Several have gone into basically a full remission by returning to smoking. Others have had success by using E-ciggs or nicotine patches. As disgusting as smoking is to me and all of the bad health issues which come with it, I think I would probably endorse a smoker returning to smoking more than I would endorse Remicade and Imuran. My only thought is your end result should be doing one or the other, not all of the above. If you are going to return to smoking I would only do it with the intent of dropping the Remicade and Imuran at some point. I wouldn't smoke and do them at the same time on a regular basis, only maybe a short time until you reach remission and then stop. In my opinion you are really asking for trouble if you do all of them at once, continually.
Posted 3/31/2014 12:35 AM (GMT 0)
you could try smoking in addition to your meds. i use nicotine in addition to simponi and imuran. i don't think it would be a good idea to stop your meds just to see if smoking helps. it's usually a combination of factors that get people into remission.

you don't have to smoke. you could use patches, e ciggs, gum or lozenges.
Posted 3/31/2014 12:52 AM (GMT 0)
thanks for the quick responses i should of made myself clear. i would only look to start smoking a few cigs a day to get into remission once in remission i would stop i hear all the success stories about remicade and i do see improvement and maybe my patience is starting to run out as alot of you know how it feels being in a bad flare for 5 months. i been on remi for a month and a half and it seems like its working but not to the point where i can do normal functions or even my job im on restricted duty due to the fact i need a bathroom. i read on this site cig helps people who started smoking again. my dr says not a good idea but i know they dont promote smoking in any form. so its hard to ask them. thats why i am reaching out to all of you
Posted 3/31/2014 12:57 AM (GMT 0)
OP: It sounds like your symptoms are improving which means you don't need to do anything different for now. From what I've seen on the forum, remicade takes a while to kick in fully.

That being said, I'm a nonsmoker and used patches to revert a flare this past year out of sheer desperation (and I've posted elsewhere about this). This suggests that nicotine can potentially help regress UC. I've read about other smoke components being of value (carbon monoxide etc), but so far I come up with a 'maybe/maybe not' on that in terms of risk benefit ratio.

Bottom line: You quit, and its best to keep it that way, however it is possible that nicotine patches could help you get off the other drugs if you think they are not working well enough AND if it does not trigger a regression to smoking.

Why patches? There is no evidence that anyone becomes addicted to patches, to my knowledge (though I am new to the nicotine world and others are welcome to contradict me with evidence). I suspect gum might trigger smoking like compulsions. Vapor you will need to puff all day long. I say this with no first hand experience with smoking, however, so take this with a grain of salt.
Posted 3/31/2014 12:58 AM (GMT 0)
I finally quit smoking 3 months ago with no real ill effects this time. I'm uncomfortable and get some serious cramping most days, but while I think the smoking helps, I myself am tired of the addiction and expense. I buy the nicoderm patches at Costco, cut them in half and use a half a patch every day. I just bought an e cigarette, a real one from my local e cig store, not the drug store. It stops the cramps. Although my Doc agrees that smoking supresses UC symptoms, he did tell me to take care of my health first and concentrate on quitting smoking later. I'd say get healthy first before trying to quit. Although, 5 years of only smoking at the bars doesn't seem like a lot of smoking. For me, I found that once I smoked less than 4 a day, they had no effect anymore.

Best wishes and I hope you are feeling well soon.
Posted 3/31/2014 1:16 AM (GMT 0)
Nicotine alone does nothing for my UC. I have been using an ecig with quite a lot of nic since the day I quit smoking in 2009. The thing that broke my worst flare ever, last year, was smoking a couple of cigs a day. I intended to continue as "maintenance", one in the morning and one in the evening. Then I cut back to one in the morning, then none.

Now I am in a flare, much milder than last year *knock on wood*, and am trying to smoke at least one a day. I think I need to up it to two. I find is so distasteful now, that I dread every second of it. BUT there's no denying that it helps me.
Posted 3/31/2014 6:51 AM (GMT 0)
My initial UC diagnosis was shortly after I quit smoking. I started smoking again and stayed in remission for a few years until I quit again. I flared horribly for about a year and a half. Tried everything but the biologics to achieve remission. I finally started smoking once again and was in a 90% remission within about three days, total remission after a few weeks. I've continued to smoke (about 12 per day) for the last 3 1/2 years with only one very slight flare that lasted about three weeks. As my signature says it's a very tough personal choice.
Posted 3/31/2014 10:39 AM (GMT 0)
If you quit smoking then i would say to try the nicotine patches start at 14 mg. and then try 21 mg.

See if that might help first.
Posted 3/31/2014 11:29 AM (GMT 0)
Smoking raises cortisol levels, for those with mild disease that responds well to Pred, I suspect that the little hits of cortisol throughout the day are helpful - along with the fact that the bowel is being relaxed with the nicotine etc - and also frankly that taking time out for a cigarette is a bit of focussed attention and focussed attention (such as happens in meditation) is also being proven to be highly curative (many studies being conducted now about what happens chemically in the body after meditation show restoration of good balance, growth in enzymes that are needed for the body to run well).

At some point though smoking becomes unhelpful - you know the mystery I expect that smoking appears to be one of the worst things that you can do if you have Crohns.

I can tell you that I too have thought often about picking up the cigarettes again. What I am working on now though instead is to find ways to naturally raise and regulate cortisol in my body without taking in all the chemical yuck that comes with smoking.

There are people helped by smoking, there are those that aren't. There are people helped by it who then go on to get a cancer. I decided not to take the risk of trying it again.

As for the urgency - how have you got on with rectal mesalazine enemas? - these help many of us tremendously with it
Posted 3/31/2014 5:28 PM (GMT 0)
My 2 cents...I don't believe nicotine patches, gum, e-cigs help in achieving remission for an ex smoker, I think only the real deal...cigarettes do that, for people that have never smoked, I think its a different ball game.

Because of the meds you are taking, I think at this stage it would be risky to start smoking again, can you not wait a while and see what happens with the drugs you are on? Just give it a bit longer, and if they are not working for you, I would stop that route and go down the smoking path...it sounds like you are miserable, but its best to carefully think through your plan of action.
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